Mangalore: Learning street plays for ‘communal harmony’

DHNS

Mangalore, 20 May 2012: A team of 21 students from the district have been rehearsing street plays to spread the message of harmony at Sandesha Foundation for Culture and Education for the last nine days.

 

They have assembled at Sandesha with an aim to bring awareness in the society about various issues in the form of street plays.

 

The street play for youth, a nine day camp which is jointly organised by the Young Christian Students’ (YCS) and Young Students’ Movement (YSM) in association with Canara Communication Centre is back in Mangalore after a gap of three years, where the enthusiastic students are trained for street play performances for a week and are allowed to perform the plays in public places for two days.

 

The residential camp which was started on May 13 and will conclude on May 21, consists of the participants ranging from a 10th standard student to the college students.

 

The 21 students are trained under four experienced trainers namely, Ivan D’Silva, Vidhu Uchchil, M B Kumar from Rangayana and Swami Mysore.

 

Speaking to one of the trainers Ivan D’Silva from Sahamata Film Society who was helping the students in their final rehearsal said that in the wake of communal disharmony in the district, ‘Communal harmony’ has been chosen as the theme of the street play. The play has drawn inspiration from the stories of Bret Harte and Sadat Hassan Manto, but has been modified to suit the local environment.

 

The story of this 20 minutes Kannada play titled ‘Sahabalve’ revolves around the two families belonging to different communities and the problems faced by them in the wake of communal riots. “We have not mentioned the name of any community in the play, instead we have referred the communities as ‘Aa matha - Ee matha’ as those with communal hatredness have neither a name or an identity. The blend of a few poems by Kuvempu in the background adds more weightage to the play,” he said.

 

Apart from the main play, the students have also practised four capsule plays based on the short stories by B M Bashir that have been published in his book ‘Angeyalle Akasha’.

 

The four stories namely ‘Meshtru,’ ‘Langoti,’ ‘Mavina Hannu’ and ‘Nanu Pasu’ have been beautifully brought to the street play mode by the students.

 

One of the participants, Jeevan Lobo who is pursuing II BSW at Roshni Nilaya sharing his experience in the camp said that it was for the first time he was into acting and the experience was amazing. “I not only learnt the basic skills of acting here, but also it helped me to think and analyse the issues from various perspectives. We underwent a rigorous training process like changing the voice, facial expressions, attitude etc. Though I came to the camp with little interest, I am very much in love with the street play now,” he said.

 

For Lavita D’Souza, taking part in the camp was like a dream come true as she always wanted to be part of the camp during her involvement in YCS and she had to wait for four years to realise her dream. “It is a very tough task to practise and perform street plays, neverthless it is worth it,” she says.

 

The plays will be performed at some of the church premises in the city on Sunday and at the central places of the city like State Bank, Kankanady bus stand and Kadri on May 21.