Oh
to dream and play!
By Nalini Weerasinghe
When I was young I could identify with Shakespeare's
idea that all the world was a stage! A wonderful stage and all of
us placed to play our part with honour and integrity. In fact my
daydreams took me around the world as a ballerina or playwright!
I dreamed dreams of life full and beautiful and fulfilling, and
I have lived to see some of them come true!
But
what has today's world got to offer our growing children? What dreams
can they dream? For one thing - they have no time to dream! It's
an endless routine of school, tuition and a programmed life with
snatches of elocution, dancing, drama, art and sport. The wheels
turn mercilessly, and the young mind is driven to toe the line in
a harsh and competitive world.
So
the world seems to produce second class citizens. A child born to
delve into scientific research becomes a half-hearted doctor; one
whose second nature is to care for the sick is moulded to be an
engineer, a business mind is schooled to be a teacher! Parents generally
decide which mould to set their child in!
We
need to set our children free. Free to think, to choose, to express
their innermost urges and enjoy themselves, setting the stage for
a fulfilling, dynamic life ahead.
Basically,
the simplest way of helping children grow up with confidence is
to give them opportunity to use their creative urge in free creative
activity. Now art education is all about this, as against fostering
talent. Creative art education gives a child the chance to use his/her
own ideas and thoughts, develop his/her hand control, further his/her
technical "know how" and make aesthetically pleasing or
psychologically satisfying works or art.
And
it does not stop there. Creative activity can lead to expression
in poetry and prose, the composition of a piece of music or an expressive
dance form.
Ravindranath
Tagore gives us a revealing and delightful anecdote from his childhood
which tells a story parents should note. Tagore says he had to take
tuition and the tuition master came home. Sometimes he was in no
mood for lessons so he would tell his mother of the "bad stomach
ache" he had. His mother would send the tuition master away
having understood that her son's "stomach" needed healing
with a good day's break. And so the boy spent a whole afternoon
gleefully playing in the back garden where a dilapidated old palanquin
became a "king's palace", a "robber's hide out",
or "a stage" where he would make an oration to an imaginary
audience. And so it was that the freedom given to him to think and
to dream made Tagore what he became.
Doesn't
this say something to us in modern Sri Lanka? Should we as parents
and even grandparents learn this secret which is the key to our
children's success in life, even in this daunting and difficult
world? So let us set our children free. Let's give them the opportunity
to think and make decisions for themselves, to choose to do what
their inner selves know is right for them.
This
may sound alarming to the traditional parent, but guess what? When
you give your girl or boy the freedom of choice and put the onus
on them to consider the results of the choice - they will choose
the good, the fine and the beautiful. That has indeed been my experience.
(The
writer is principal of the Cora Abraham art classes)
The
leading man comes back with new cast
By Natasha Fernandopulle
Indu Dharmasena's ‘'The Leading Man', written
in 1995 and first staged in the same year is back. The new production
will go on the boards at the Lionel Wendt on March 18, 19 and 20,
at 7.15 p.m.
Set
in the glitzy glamorous film world, we meet Premkumar, an egoistic
film star who is a widower with two daughters who have come to live
with him after a lapse of six years. Premkumar, however, is not
keen on revealing his relationship to these two girls to his girlfriend
Geethani.
Geethani
also has an agenda of her own. She sees Premkumar as her ticket
to the film industry. Premkumar is approached by two directors,
Stephen Senaratne and Sanjaya, the former considered the local Spielberg.
The
script he presents to Premkumar is from Iceland and too intellectual
for Premkumar, who prefers commercial films. However, Sanjaya's
script suits Premkumar or so his daughters think.
He
is too lazy to read the scripts so the task of analysing them is
given to his daughters. To get financial assistance for the film,
Stephen finds a successful businesswoman who is a big fan of Premkumar's.
But
he has not told her that Premkumar is not in the least bit interested
in his movie. He even tries to bribe Ruwanthi and Nuwanthi (the
two daughters) to try and get their father to act in his movie.
Michelle,
Premkumar's secretary has always been the one to bail him out of
a sticky situation. And their relationship seems to be heating up,
as well. Indu Dharmasena plays Premkumar but there are many new
faces in the cast, this time around. Secretary Michelle is played
by Sanjana Selvarajah and Geethani by Michelle Herft. Sanjula Amarasekera
and Seshandi de Silva are the two daughters Ruwanthi and Nuwanthi.
Rajitha
Mendis takes the role of Stephen Senaratne and Sanjaya is played
by Gehan Cooray. Sanwada Abeysirigunawardena is the rich producer,
Chrystal.
Semage:
Voluptuous shapes and vibrant colours
By Edwin Ariyadasa
Artist Kalasuri Jayasiri Semage has discovered a
whole new world to conquer with brush and palette. In his current
exhibition he unveils a fresh landscape where startling shapes and
colours, create an enticing visual dance.
Semage's
linear images of yesteryear have begun to give way to voluptuous
curves indicating a developed creative soul discarding ornate arabesques,
in a marked preference for mature simplicity. The new shapes are
erotically evocative as they seem to have emerged from a sensuous
experience of the world.
The
current exhibition is unerringly one of those brand new chapters
in his creative works. His palette has undergone a perceptible change,
with a marked prominence accorded to purple. The exhibition ends
today at the Lionel Wendt gallery. |