www.and YOUR college.com

By Harendra Alwis

Most of these web sites are remarkably well designed and attractively presented with a healthy combination of efficiency and creativity. Ananda College's site is worthy of mentioning for its graphics. Great care should be taken to make it less graphic intensive as they take a long time to download at the low transmission speeds we have here, but more importantly too many lights blinking here and flags fluttering there made some web sites look more like vesak pandols and failed to serve their purpose as web sites. The Anandians had given all these enough thought and theirs is an example to follow.

St. Bridget's Convent and Visakha Vidyalaya sites on the other hand are captivating in their simplicity and elegance. Bishop's College too is worthy of mention in this aspect. Simplicity is a very important aspect of web design. It was a noticeable fact that most boy schools have opted for higher graphic content, while the girls have kept it simple and nice.

The Trinity College site reflected a sense of purpose. It was remarkably simple to navigate through. Content wise it was probably the best with well written reports. And the versatile use of language was truly commendable.

St. Thomas' College Mount Lavinia has a site that anybody could be proud of. It was complete and up-to-date, a remarkable combination of creativity and elegance complimenting one another. Jaffna Hindu College was another example of a motivating web site.

Most of these web sites have been created by professionals with exceptions like the Trinity College site that has been done by the students them-selves. It is not very easy for schools to find students who are knowledgeable enough to design and build a web site, but it is unfortunate that the school curriculum itself hardly allows any time for students to engage in activities such as web design. One of the students pointed out that probably the hardest part of the whole process was to get the relevant information from the official sources on time, and these set-backs make it impossible to manage time and meet deadlines. So alternatively, schools have hired professionals to manage their web sites, but this has proved to be even worse in some cases where the web sites are hopelessly out of date due to the lack of communication and commitment on both parts.

A school's web site should serve a certain purpose. When designing them one should think about who it is for. For example, should they cater to prospective students or present students? One of their main objectives will be to give their past pupils an opportunity to get in touch with their old school. It is important that everyone who visits the web site gains something out of it, and thus the task of designing a good web site is made all the more difficult.

Leading internet service providers in Sri Lanka have offered to build web sites for schools upon request and host them in their servers for free. "About 19 schools have made use of this opportunity and five more are under construction" said Harsha Arambewela of Lanka Internet. "We are willing to help schools to have their own web sites, all they have to do is contact us and let us know" he added.

So the next time you 'log-on' maybe you should check out whether your school web site is on the web. If you don't find it there, maybe you could be the one to build one for your school. Among the founders of the school and all its legendary figures, you may be the one who made its first official web site!

Check out their sites

Alethea International School - www.lanka.net/alethea 
Ananda College Colombo - www.anandanet.org
Bishops College Colombo - xasia.lk/bishops
Carey College Colombo - www.lanka.net/carey 
Colombo International School- www.cis.lk
D. S. Senanayake Vidyalaya Colombo - www.lanka.net/dss
Devibalika Vidyalaya Colombo - www.lanka.net/dbv 
Dharmaraja College Kandy - www.drc.sch.lk 
Elizabeth Moir School - www.lanka.net/moir 
Gateway International School - www.lanka.net/gateway
Hartley College Jaffna - www.hartleycollege.com 
Interact Club of Isipathana College Colombo - uk.geocities.com/isipathana_interact
Jaffna Hindu College - www.jhc.lk
Ladies College Colombo - www.lanka.net/lccentenary
Lumbini Vidyalaya Colombo - www.lanka.net/lumbini
Lyceum International School - www.lyceum.slt.lk
Maris Stella College Negombo - www.lanka.net/marisstella 
Musaeus College Colombo - www.lanka.net/musaeus
Muslim Ladies College Colombo - www.lanka.net/mlc
Nalanda College Colombo - www.infolanka.com/nalanda
Overseas School of Colombo - www.osc.lk
Royal College Colombo - www.lanka.net/royal
St. Bridget's Convent Colombo - www.stbridgets.lk
St. John's Jaffna - www.lanka.net/stjohns
St. Sebastian's College Moratuwa - www.lanka.net/sebs
S. Thomas' College Mount Lavinia - www.lanka.net/stc
S.Thomas' Prepetory School - www.prepschool.org
Thurstan College Colombo - welcome.to/thurstan-college
Trinity College Kandy - www.trinitycollege.lk
Visakha Vidyalaya Colombo - www.visakhav.org 
Wesley College Colombo - www.lanka.net/wesley
Zahira College Colombo - www.lanka.net/zahira

Madness and mayhem at Ubu Rex

By Ruhanie Perera

Based on the playwright, Alfred Jarry's maths master, Ubu's story which goes on the boards at the British Council in April, is very much like that of Macbeth. Pa Ubu persuaded by his wife Ma Ubu decides to kill the King who has just conferred additional honours upon him. Before long the King is slaughtered and Pa Ubu takes over the throne, however the King's wife Queen Rosamund, together with their son Prince Boggerlas escapes. Pa Ubu, just like Macbeth, settles into a tyrannical rule, which is what eventually prompts Prince Boggerlas to return. 

On returning with his armies the Prince naturally takes over the throne while the defeated Pa Ubu escapes. "It's very much a spoof of Macbeth," says director Tracy Holsinger, "and it's almost 'cartoonish' in its presentation." 

Written in Italian pantomime style, the play has three loose acts around which the actors do quite a bit of improvising. According to Tracy, "the script is a unique one, with its roots firmly ingrained in the technique 'commedia del'arte' which involves physical theatre. The comedy is very physical and we have incorporated basics of puppet theatre, principles of martial arts and combat training and use masks and mime as well."

The cast, with the unique feature that sees many of the actors playing multiple roles, comprises Prasad Pereira, Shanaka Amerasinghe, Ishraq Wahab, Mario de Soyza, Thushara Hettihamu, Jehan Bastians, Gihan de Chickera, Amal de Chickera, Yohan Caius Kumaraperuma, Arjuna Koralagama, Michael de Soyza, Wachindra Bandara, Ryan Holsinger, Chinthu Viswakula, Suren Gnanaraj and finally the sole female in the cast Tracy Holsinger. 

The play, according to the members of the cast, is not difficult, merely challenging. Ubu, which involves puppet theatre techniques, calls for perfect co-ordination between the 'voices' supplied by part of the cast and the 'action' created by yet another group who play the puppets in the play.

In order to guarantee that there is absolutely no confusion the play opens with the 'voices' putting the puppets into place. Says Yohan, "the action takes place at the speed of sound, and so the voices have to keep up with it". "It must be understood that the voices aren't disembodied beings," stresses Tracy, "they, in fact, control the play, the puppets merely respond to their command. " All the guys agreed on one thing, that this had proved to be a learning experience. So what did they learn? "All about the concept of Pata Physics," comes the prompt reply almost in unison. "Seriously though, this has been an insightful experience," says Shanaka who plays Ubu, "we've encountered some rather diverse problems which we've managed to deal with somehow." 

The concept of Pata Physics, which is very simply, about using imaginary solutions to problems that come up, was pretty much Tracy's baby. 

"So many things just manifest themselves; secret stairways, de-braining machines, even whole armies. You've really got to see it to believe it," says Tracy. 

The play is also, as Prasad puts it, "intensely physical". But they seem to have done all it takes to train for the action that takes place in the play. "We've been through Kandyan dancing, martial arts and combat training," says Prasad who goes on to say that although the Kandyan dancing stint was rather short lived, the martial arts and combat training (which involve a lot of choreographed movements and focus) have helped, especially where the battle scenes are concerned. 

One thing that worries them is their projection out on the lawn at the British Council. However having anticipated this to be a challenge they've worked hard to overcome any difficulties where projection is concerned. 

This includes practising outdoors, an exercise which seems to have been rather entertaining for the actors. 

"All these exercises are a part of the training to focus," says Ishraq who

has found this experience to be a real test of ability. "We're doing things we've never done before; the concept of pata physics, puppet theatre, the combat training and martial arts, they're all a kind of preparation. 

Yes, it's a new approach, a little unnerving at times, but all the same exciting." With each new rehearsal the cast keeps finding solutions for problems that crop up along the way. 

The performance in itself will be something that has evolved over a period of time, has been played around with and finally perfected. Even at this point they admit that they can't quite put into words what the play will 'look' like. 

"It's so different. There's a distinct conflict of emotions; you have the real and the unreal, the comic with the intense. That's why it becomes so hard to define."

Now if you're the type of person who walks out after a play wishing that you could've been part of the action, this play is tailor made for you. A very 'audience friendly' type of play, Ubu Rex is destined to thrive with the support of a friendly audience. You'd be a part of, in the cast's own words, a "cool", "fun", "surreal" experience. 

Ubu Rex opens on April 5 and goes on till April 10 at the British Council at 7.30 p.m. The tickets are priced at Rs. 250/=. Only 140 people can be accommodated for a night, so get your tickets fast for this promises to be a theatre experience like no other!

The sponsors for the production are The Sunday Times, TNL Radio and Lite 89.2. 

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