From "Sajani Ganapathy Murugan" <sajanigm@gmail.com>
Nov 22, 2009Hi Chandni,
This story is set in Chennai. Between 2005 Oct and March 2006, a series of poetry theatre workshops were implemented in a local Chennai school. The school prides itself on its reputation for fair-mindedness and honesty to their cause, to educate and enable young girls to grow into balanced, committed and successful women, happy to do whatever they choose to do, to their best of their ability. Rightly so, as their motto says, Age Quo D'Agis, do well all that you do. About 35 students from standards 3, 4 and 5 chose to attend the workshops and as we explored the world of poetry and verse, an honest interaction began to transpire, between all present. As the children learnt about poetry and how it often helps in creative expression, they began to see how sometimes poetry can help to say things differently. The poetry theatre workshop was planned to have a beginning, middle and an end. So having begun with the poetry it was time to take it forward. All communication is a combination of Reading, Writing, Listening and Speaking and therefore if the Poetry Theatre Workshop had a focus, it was to enable effective communication and present the possibilities of creative expression. Having done some listening and writing, it was time to start reading. The selected reading material was a book called The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupery, written in 1944 and published, I think, later that year. The book, written originally in French is a classic and most children love it, while some adults have been known to claim that the book is a bad attempt at fantasy or that it's too abstract. The children each got a copy of their own at a ridiculously discounted rate, thanks to a sensitive Indian edition publisher in New Delhi. While bookstores like Landmark had to be hounded for information on how the publisher could be contacted. The book was read together as a group with each child doing independent reading at home, at their own pace and fuelled by their own interest. The opportunities for communication were endless, the children brought their own perspective to the story that was much closer to the truth than many adults would like to acknowledge. It was altogether an enriching experience for everyone involved. This story has now reached its' middle, just like the Poetry Theatre Workshops had. It was now time for an effective ending, one that reflected all the work that is a Poetry Theatre Workshop. A script was written by the writer conducting the workshop and needless to say the script was inspired by the children, their reactions to the story, their perspective, some changes that they suggested to characters to make it more relevant to their context and quite naturally, the script was a play in verse. Poetry Theatre. The plan was to rehearse the script and present a performance to the rest of the school and their parents. But academics has a a way of taking over almost everything else, including sport, at a school level in a city. It's all about the tests and the marks and the study hours and keeping the children busy. So no more time could be made available for rehearsals and the project was scrapped without much further ado and no warning whatsoever. It is four years now and the children have grown, some of them will be teenagers soon and they still remember the script they began to rehearse. Since then the writer has tried many ruses to get the school to revive the project, but no such luck. Driven by the need to follow through on a commitment made to 35 children, the writer is adamant about having these 35 children be part of the first performance of the script they inspired. A script that would never have been, had they not been a part of it. The beginning of the story had the children that contributed to the script and the middle was the script itself. The end of the Poetry Theatre Workshop was when it would include the entire school, giving all students the choice to be a part of an aspect of theatre that they have an aptitude of interest in. To make it possible for these 35 children to be involved, the rehearsals and performance have to be in Chennai. Besides, the school may not provide their space, time or initiative and so there is a need to find a space for a Theatre Lab. Not to mention a sponsor. This summer an attempt was made to garner corporate sponsorship and found not many cared enough to commit. We did find a corporate player (to date we have not named names) in the education segment, who promised us the earth, moon and stars, made a note of our budget and promised to call us in two days. The President, Corporate Communication of a brand that's targetting children and young people was interested and committed to us. But in two days he was avoiding phone calls, mails, and text messages. So with that went the brand's chance to brand the lab as a project that can be implemented anywhere, would document the work in terms of a video cd and a published manual with instructions and tips to teachers and adults anywhere, to replicate the process. Besides the chance of turning the idea into an annual event for Children's Theatre in Chennai.
The plan is once again in motion for the summer of 2010...
Through the summer, children between 8 and 16 will work with musicians, dancers and artists, while young people between 17 and 21 will have the choice of working with sound and lighting experts, production professionals and the director to create a production that will be a community effort. The theme of the story is conservation, friendship, separation anxiety and emotional growth. The sets will be made entirely from recycled material. Is there any chance you may be able to help this project by finding it a sponsor who sees the opportunity in a project like this. It will certainly provide mileage, spread brand awareness, convert purchasers of the future and have an open into the homes of their target audience. But above all it needs to be a sponsor that does care enough about children to see that somewhere along the line, as a society and a community, we have sent sent out a message to 35 children that it's okay to quit and give up when things get complicated. This project needs all the help it can get and will be happy to say thank you with a stellar performance that will make the community proud. Love and Peace, Always, Sajani PS. People who'd like to know more about the project, feel free to mail me with your queries and feedback. Thanks again! Sajani
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