Engaging Workshops To Improve Theatrical Skills – Children’s Theatre Festival Shimla
Inter School Hindi Drama Competition;
19 writers; 19 stories adapted into 19 one-act plays and 19 city schools!
Soon Shimla City will witness a theatrical bonanza by its very own city school children. But this event is not just about drama enactments and performances, rather the emphasis is on skill building and providing a bigger platform to children by holding such workshops. These workshops are being held by a core team, namely, Sriniwas Joshi, Dr Kamal Sharma, Amala Rai, Vivek Mohan and Kedar Thakur.
Over a period of two days, 14-15 October 2023, 19 plays will be performed at Gaiety’s Gothic Hall. For the first time, short stories have been selected by our core team, that have been written by Himachal’s writers, the eldest writer being about eighty plus and the youngest being about 12 years. These stories have been penned by senior and noted writers of Himachal, as well as a few, have been selected written by young writers who were winners of previously held Keekli’s Short Story Competitions and thereafter were published in anthologies as an award.
For effective performances and to add substance to the competition, school teachers from all the nineteen participating schools were invited for a full-day workshop, at the Conference Hall, Gaiety Theatre, which was divided into two sessions, morning and afternoon. The participating teams are from the following schools: Saraswati Paradise School, Bhattakuffar; Chapslee Junior School; Swaran Public School, Tutikandi; Monal Public School, Nishpriya Cottage, Sanjauli; Bishop Cottons School; GSSS Kadaur, Kandaghat; St Thomas School; Monal Public School, Oak Over, Sanjauli; Blue Bells Public School, Dhalli; GSSS Kaina, Ghanati; Arya Samaj School; Lalpani Boys School; JCB Khalini; Lakshay Convent School, Manjyat, Arki; Himalayan Public School, Kaithu; RPS Baldeya; RPS Gaini; GSSS Chail and GSSS Chotta Shimla.
The first two-hour session was held on the adaptation of the stories. Each school has been given a different story, which they have to adapt into a play by engaging the participating students. This session was conducted by Shriniwas Joshi and Vivek Mohan on script writing. They noted the key elements that should go while adapting the play. Joshi added that the theme of the story should not be changed, however, the beginning or the end can be changed.
The second two-hour session was taken by Dr Kamal Sharma and Amala Rai who engaged the teachers in various energetic exercises on enactment and performances.
A fresh beginning has been made by engaging the teachers in a very novel concept of skill building, next step is to take sessions with young budding school artists, who will be part of our next workshops. The teachers will have access to the writers to work in tandem with them as well and have easy access to share their queries with the Core Team.
We are also thankful to our media partner, HimachalTonite, for promoting our event.
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