Pressure or pleasure?

By Ruhanie Perera and Laila Nasry

Extra curricular activities are introduced to a child to enhance his/her personality and to add diversity to life. But too many such activities can cause unnecessary pressure and complicate a student's academic career. At the same time too little of it can make 'Jack a dull boy'.

School, homework, sports, drama, dancing, debating, art, singing classes.........the list is endless for a student. How do they do all of it? Teachers and parents say 'studies come first', but your heart says 'go for it'. How do you choose? How do you cope?

Extra-curricular activities...do they make you or break you? We asked the teens ...

Pubudu Jayawardene, (19):

There is so much of relaxation and satisfaction you get out of extra-curricular activities. There is so much to learn like team spirit, leadership, tolerance and even organisational skills. I am very involved with Interact Club activities, drama and debating, I study speech and drama. These have taught me to be more confident.

I also do a lot of sports with my friends (tennis, tap rugger, squash, swimming). My parents are very encouraging, though they give me a bit of a jolt once in a while when they feel I am neglecting my school work.

Jehan Mubarak,(19):

Extra-curricular activities are important. They build character and teach you team spirit, things that you will never learn if you only concentrate on the academic angle. For me, sport has been my life. Other than that I also act.

The most important lesson I have learnt is to focus. To do so many different things for a day, yet concentrate completely on what I am doing at the time. This has helped me in my studies and I know it will help me in life.

Cricket has taught me determination, so when I do a maths problem I'm determined to finish it. There are times I never get the right answer, but I never give up.

Sarala Kodagoda, (17):

I can't imagine a life without extra-curricular activities. They are so much fun and really help you broaden your perspective. I take part in drama and I also study speech and drama. Then I'm also involved in the Choir, the Interact Club, and the Girl Guide movement. I play tennis and swim - not only as a recreation but also at a competitive level. So many things together can make life a bit 'rushed' but I can cope. You learn to do everything together after some time.

Hishantha de Mel, (18):

Extra-curricular activities are all about personality building and giving you a chance to prove yourself. I have learnt to make decisions in difficult situations and to take up defeat through doing sports. I am in the Interact Club and the Scrabble Club. I also debate and act. My parents have always been supportive of what I do, but they insist that studies come first. So I try to control how much of time I devote for other activities.

Indika Mananwatte, (19):

Every person needs both mental and physical balance. Extra-curricular activities provide a student with this balance which in turn completes the individual. I act and debate, but I also play squash and badminton. What I have gained where debating and acting is concerned is self-confidence.

I have learned team spirit through sports, especially when I played cricket. It's an absolutely great feeling working together towards one common goal. Yet, although extra curricular activities play a major part in a student's life, I feel studies always come first. My parents and teachers also stress this point.

They have never discouraged me from taking part in other activities, but they are not too enthusiastic about them if they feel my studies will suffer. I feel the same way too so I try to curtail my activities when exams come up.

New theatre group steps out with 'Slag'

Women on the dark side

By Delon Weerasinghe

As I sit watching three women pose for photographs on a BMW motorcycle, I struggle with the concept of the play they will be performing in a week. Not because an all woman cast dealing with the dynamics of inter-personal relationships is a totally alien concept, but because it seeks to explore the dark side to these relationships. "We all know that women bitch, but in this play they are downright cruel to each other. It gets to a point that it even turns to physical violence - something we don't usually associate with women and their relationships." In a nutshell this newly started theatre group calling themselves Mind Adventures sees their debut production as being, "101 things you wish you never found out about women."

I first talked a little to Michelle Perera, Tracy Holsinger and Karen Balthazaar about their new company. They tell me that they "met during rehearsals for 'Widows' last year, and after 'Virgo Intacta' this year, (they) found the thought of continuing to work together not altogether scary, and that's how 'Mind Adventures' happened." On first hearing it, the name seems rather abstract - especially for a theatre company. "Why 'Mind Adventures'? Well, we hope the name speaks for itself, but it's to remind us that there should be no limits to our imagination or vision."

New theatre companies that spawn for the purpose of a single production seem to be a trend in local English theatre at the moment, and I asked them whether it really was necessary that they be a company. Although they admit there is nothing entirely 'new' about their aims, they believe that being a company with a definite mission statement will help them in the kind of theatre they want to do. "We see ourselves as adding something different to the already diverse arena of English Theatre in Sri-Lanka. Theatre audiences have a lot more choice today, and by taking our productions into alternative spaces (unconventional venues) and experimenting with different forms of dramatic thought, we hope to give our audience an alternative."

Slag is Mind Adventures' first production. Written by the sometimes-controversial British playwright David Hair in 1970, this play is set against the repressive backdrop of an all girls' school in England. It revolves around the lives of three schoolteachers over the period of one academic year. In this fast and often funny satire, the plot often takes second place to the idiosyncrasies of characters, who have lost their grip on reality as a result of being trapped in a repetitious existence.

"The characters are caricatured to an extent where they might seem stereotyped, but we wanted that look. Because we want people to think they know the characters to start with, but as the play progresses they will find out that these women aren't really as one dimensional as they thought." "These women are all the stereotypes - We have the militant feminist, the alcoholic, the repressed woman...the slut. These women are thrown together by necessity - not choice. What makes the story is how they interact and react to each other in this situation." What makes it even more interesting is that these relationships happen through the many personal hang-ups these women have. "You could call it a love-hate triangle."

"Yes, it is a play with sex and violence - but not as a gimmick. The play has very strong sexual undertones to it. The starkness of this play is characteristic of Fringe Theatre. We are also like to stage our plays in unconventional settings which is why we are staging Slag in a nightclub." They claim that their unusual decision to stage a play set in an English girls school at Legends, also took into account the fact that the nightclub offered them the intimate kind of atmosphere they were looking for. "The audience needs to concentrate if they are to follow this play. You have to try and make sense out of something that seems to make no sense."

So for those who like theatre to be more than a passive experience, 'Slag' will be performed at 'Legends' nightclub from September 23 - 26. Tickets are available from the at the Wendy Whatmore Academy. This play contains explicit language; therefore tickets will not be sold to those under the age of 17 without parental supervision. Lanka Orix Leasing Company, TNL Radio and TNL Lite are the official sponsors of this production.

Students into agriculture

By Udena.R. Attygalle

School students providing hotels with vegetables ?

The agriculture students and the teachers at Isipathana MV, Colombo who have successfully completed work on an agricultural Polytunnel , a structure like a greenhouse hope to do exactly that.

The project is now handled by the Green Lanka Company (a group of O/L students numbering 35) with the help of agriculture teacher Yvonne Van Cuylenberg and the principal Mr. Upali Gunesekara. According to Mrs. Van Cuylenberg, "the project has now generated a lot of interest among the students." The students work on the project during their agriculture periods and after school hours.

The polytunnel concept had been introduced to her at the Bidunuwewa Research Centre , at a workshop for agriculture teachers.

A plot of overgrown land on the school premises had been cleared and the project started in May, 1996 . At present the first crop of capsicum , cabbage and various herbs are ready for harvesting. 20 per cent of the profits acquired will go to the student company and the rest to the school.

The polytunnel is a tunnel like structure with an insectproof mesh covering and UV treated polythene roof. The idea is to provide an artificial environment with ideal conditions for the plants. Most of the plants inside this polytunnel are grown on water ( Hydroponics ).

The hydophonic plants are grown in a sterilized coir mixture provided with water and liquid fertilizer using a system of pipes. .The iron pH and the fertilizer level have to be monitored regularly. The project had cost around Rs 1,50,000 ,but Mr Gunesekara believes a basic polytunnel could be constructed for much less.

A few modifications had been made because of the hot climate in Colombo. One was the use of small exhaust fans to pump out the hot air inside the tunnel. It had been introduced after the temperature had risen to 38C. Now it is stabilized at around 33C.

According to the president of the club Sahan Kulathunge, "The company comprises both agriculture and commerce students." While the agri students maintain the project, the commerce students handle the marketing and financial aspects.

The small space required and the non-use of soil in this technique could very well be ideal for urban areas like Colombo.

According to the principal, "the idea of the project is to promote agriculture among the students." They also hope to construct another Polytunnel learning from the errors made in the construction of the first. The first tunnel had been made in such a way, so that the whole structure could be removed and relocated.

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