Mirror Magazine

Mirror Magazine

Soothe your soul
By Tharangani Perera
The encyclopedia of our times describes a ballad as “a short narrative poem usually relating a single, dramatic event.” Many ballads, fitting this description will be performed on the night of October 1, 2005 at the “Festival of Dramatised Ballads”, brought to you by the Interact Club of Wesley College to promote the appreciation of arts among the youngsters of Sri Lanka.

Organised for the first time in 1980 by the Interact Club of Wesley College, the festival was the brainchild of Mr. Haig Karunaratne, who was seeking a channel for the students to bring out their hidden skills as actors. Since its debut, the club achieved great heights in the aspect of international understanding, as the festival increasingly gained more popularity through the years.

On its twentieth anniversary, the Wesley College Ballads Festival will be a joint effort of the college’s Interact Club and English Literary Union. The show will be open to the public and there will be no sale of tickets. “We want everyone to come and enjoy this event and learn to appreciate the finer arts, so we didn’t want money to be an issue,” said Community Service Director Yeheshan de Silva.

Six schools are to take part in the festival to perform different ballads. “The Three Ravens” will be performed by Visakha Vidyalaya; “Where The Bee Sucks”, “When Daisies Pied” and “Under The Green Wood Tree” by Bishop’s College; “Butterfly Kisses” by Holy Family Convent; “Princes, Friends and Lovers” by St. Joseph’s College, and “Scarborough Fair” by Girls’ High School, Kandy. Lyceum International School will also participate in this event, but their ballad will not be named here, so as to surprise the audience.

“While at an ordinary ballads concert the music for the ballads are provided by pre-recorded tapes or CDs, at the Festival of Ballads, the participant schools will perform their own music,” said Yeheshan, adding that in several of the productions the choirs of the respective schools will be providing the music.
“No one understands the concept behind ballads or their culture,” said P. Saran Raj, who chairs the project with Hayeshan Perera. “This year’s Festival of Ballads will be very classical and completely dedicated to promoting the culture of ballads. We hope to introduce the concept of classical ballads to the minds of the interactors, who are to meet the world in the future,” he added.

The central aspiration of the event, aside from encouraging amity among interactors, is the promotion of the arts among students, and inspiring them to appreciate the art of drama, song, dance and most importantly, ballads.
Mr. M. A. P. Fernando, the Principal of Wesley College, Colombo plays a key role in organising the ballads festival. “Mr. Fernando motivated us to make the festival a classy and traditional affair to educate the youngsters as well as the public, and he’s been very helpful with contacting the other schools,” Saran said.

“They are providing an opportunity for the other schools to experience the culture of classical ballads,” said Ms. Ranjula Weerasinghe, the staff advisor of the Interact Club, adding that the organising committee of the festival is facilitating the participating schools to the best of their ability. “I appreciate the way that they are working as a team with the other schools,” she added.
“I would like to thank Ms. Juanita Beling, who has been helping us throughout the organising of this event,” said Saran, adding that the last workshop for the preparation of the event was taken over by Ms. Beling, who guided them in performing the ballads.

With many classical ballads to take its audience centuries back as far as the fifteenth century, the Festival of Dramatised Ballads promises to be an enlightening, as well as inspiring event for the youngsters of Sri Lanka.

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