TV Times

TV Times

Somalatha Subasinghe's ‘Play House’ celebrates 25 years
By Susitha R. Fernando
Veteran playwright and theatre director Somalatha Subasinghe celebrates the silver jubilee of her career in establishing Lanka Children's and Youth Theatre Organisation (LCYTO) or popularly known as Play House-Kotte a children's and youth theatre in Sri Lanka this year.

Play House-Kotte has organised a series of programmes workshops, drama festivals and felicitation ceremonies to honour the occasion. The brainchild of Mrs. Subasinghe who is famous for her roles in both theatre and the silver screen, LCYTO filled the much needed vacuum of the necessity of a drama institution in Sri Lanka. Focusing its attention to create a children's and youth theatre, the Play House has become the only one of its kind to produce a large number of fully fledged artistes for the Sri Lankan theatre.

"The Play House recruits young men and women with talent solely on the strength of their commitment to theatre. Some of them are basic degree holders too. The training programme in drama and theatre conducted by the Play House is offered free of charge to youth who are committed to study Drama and Theatre especially for children," explained Mrs. Subasinghe. At present there are many students who possess adequate academic qualification and even degrees. They have opted to study drama with commitment.

Emerging as one of the leading training centres for performing artistes Play House productions has opened avenues for the professional theatre group to perform and participate in many international Children's and Youth Theatre Festivals and conferences including in Bangladesh-Dacca, India-Thrivendram, New Delhi and Chennai, Australia-Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra, France-Vallenciannes, The Netherlands-The Hague, South Korea-Seoul." Play House productions have been exceptionally well received by audiences in these cities," says Somalatha proudly speaking on the production.

"The LCYTO advocates the mission of educating children through the medium of theatre with the vision to nurture a benevolent society. All our theatre productions and activities have been carefully crafted to promote this vision" she added at leangth.

"The production promotes a style of theatre presenting is enriched by the importance of family and cultural values presenting indigenous art forms such as folk dances and music and colourful traditional costumes,".

The Silver Jubilee celebrations of Play House will commence with two-day Theatre Festival on April. The festival opens with Kaushalya Fernando's Sanda Langa Maranaya (the Sinhala version of Garcia Lorca's Blood Wedding), a play which won eight national awards including the Best Play of the Year at the State Drama Festival 2005.

This will be followed with four different theatre productions for children and youth. Directed by Somalatha Subasinghe, Kaushalya Fernando and Dr. Chandana Aluthge these dramas scheduled to be staged August 2006 at the Lionel Wendt Theatre. The felicitation ceremony of Somalatha Subasinghe, the founder of LCYTO will be the concluding event of the anniversary celebration. It is scheduled to be held in December 2006.

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