Remembering the child

According to a German proverb, "He who teaches children learns more than they do." And last week I met up with one dynamic young teacher who I know would surely second that! Being filled in on the process, details and the many fascinating challenges faced by her students and herself while preparing for a unique event, I got a glimpse into this interesting initiative taken by children, for children.

"Children's issues will be the theme underlying Gateway College's, 10th year anniversary celebrations," says Sashi Mendis de Costa, teacher of drama. "One of the main events being a charity walk, titled "Walk for the Child. And there will also be an exhibition held by the Primary School, titled "A Child's World."

"Today we have children affected by conflict, children on the streets, children who face a great deal of stress in the present-day highly competitive world," says Dr. Harsha Alles, Director, Gateway College. 'There is untold suffering that they face whether in the city or in a conflict zone and we wish to dedicate the closing of our 10th anniversary celebrations, to focusing on these burning issues so that people will be concerned about doing something to resolve them," he added.

While the walk will be held on July 28, and will commence at 8 am from near D.S. Senanayake College, Colombo 07, and end at Gateway College, Kotte, around 5000 participants are expected to be a part of it. Students, staff, parents and alumni will be a part of the walk, and school bands will add colour to the event. The proceeds of the entire event will be donated for the betterment of the "child." While part of the proceeds will be going for the "Children's heart project," which is a project handled by Q & A Advertising, the rest of the proceeds will be donated to the Maithree Nivasa Orphanage.

An interesting feature of the celebrations will be that the walk will be tied up with a few novel street theatre performances, which, once again would deal with issues affecting the child. The first drama will be held on July 21 at 7.30pm, at Excel World, while theatre lovers can experience the production once again on July 22 at 6pm, at The Ananda Samarakoon Open-Air theatre, Nugegoda, and finally on July 28, following the walk, at the Gateway College premises. There will be three shows on this day, at 11am, 1pm and 2.30pm. Though not being the stereotypical street theatre performance where the performance is done on the street per se, this will be a slight improvisation of the basic concept. In order to reach the maximum number of people, the plays will be bilingual, with some lines being performed in Sinhala, and others in English.

According to Sashi, who is directing the plays, the street theatre concept was the brainchild of Mr. Somabandu Kodikara, head master, and all of the participants are members of the school's Drama Club. "We have about 40 kids participating, and they are all between the ages of 12-15. Speaking about the plays, I would describe them as devised plays, since we basically came up with the final script through improvisation." She went onto explain that they familiarised the kids with concept and various tools of street theatre, by holding workshops, which were sometimes full day sessions facilitated by various renowned theatre personalities.

"In street theatre, unlike any other type of theatre, you have to focus on visual images, where symbolic representations of an idea take precedence, and also on sound effects and verbal and non-verbal representation using modes such as maybe drums, hammers or feet. In a street theatre performance, it's generally an ad hoc situation, so the visual images need to capture the audience's attention," she said.

The process of coming up with the script was long and methodical, where the kids were put into groups and asked to have brainstorming sessions, ensuring that they were well familiarised with the subject matter.

Issues such as child and war, child and troubled homes, street kids, kids with mental difficulties were discussed and the kids were then asked to take on these various roles and imagine what life would be for a child who is facing such a problem.

"They came up with stories, and then they were divided into groups and asked to perform their plays. And while the plays were being performed, I recorded the noteworthy plots, then we prepared the script, which was still a draft script at that stage. The script and lines have been going through changes right throughout. The creative process had been very interesting and a novel experience for all of us. But the most important factor is that all of these ideas came from children, and the child's mind has so much potential that we need to tap into."

The three plays are namely The Journey, The Clock and The Bully. The first play revolves around a journey taken by a group of children, where their goal is to make a change.

While they are journeying, we hear different stories from the kids and even the songs in the play are composed by them, of course to existing tunes. The next play deals with how competition and the rat race of life affects the average modern day child. While the first play is serious, the second two have a comic element, but deal with serious issues," says Sashi.

Speaking to the kids themselves, it seems that the entire process has made them realise exactly how lucky they are, as opposed to most children their own age. "Other productions we've been a part of, have always been from a script, but these are all our own creations," said Naadira Jumat (14). "There were no auditions as such, and everyone was given a chance, and there are very few main roles," added Vijini Dahanayake (14). They both explained that team work, co-operating and getting to know more people than in a usual production, were the plus points of this theatre experience, but the most important factor was the self realisation as to exactly how fortunate they were, compared to most of these other kids.

According to Nipuna Siribaddana (15), Sandun Goonaratne (14), Sajin Alles (14) and Dmitra Abeysekara (14), the arts always come to us at a price. "But with this production we will be reaching out to a larger audience, for absolutely no cost, and for a very good cause," said Dmitra. "We have dealt with war, bullying, parental stress, competition, peer pressure, and at the end we have realised just how lucky we are, and we are so thankful for what we have now." For Noreyana Fernando (14), the narrator of the production, the performance gives an important message that the rights of the child should be adhered to.