|
Yours truly theatre truly belives in taking theatre to people
who do not have access theatre becuase of physical or financial
reasons.Also doing theatre with such a purpose has always
been extremely satisfying for us. The smiles and dreams
of chidlren ANANYA and The SOS Childrens Village, the moment
of happines of patients and the giggles of nurses at Karunshraya
or the excitment of labourers at The Onsite workers Labor
Camp, we treasure all these precious moments.
We are in future planning to take this forward and do more
relevant programs and address issues and difficulties they
may be facing in their own communities. It will be our constant
endevaour to provide high quality entertaintment to these
shows.
Given
below is an article of one of our show at "the onsite
workers labor camp"
Creating
a personal bond with playback theatre
Staff Reporter, The
Hindu, Feb 28th 2007
BANGALORE: Last
Sunday, about 75 adults and 100 children at a labour
camp here had a brush with drama. They were witness to a
form of
theatre, Playback Theatre, brought alive by a city-based
group, "Yours
Truly Theatre". For the record, "Yours Truly"
is one of the new
members of the IPTN (International Playback Theatre Network).
A tree was decked up with brilliantly coloured
saris to serve as the
backdrop. The actors dressed in colourful costumes, painted
faces and
sporting big red noses were ready to dive in. The show began
as
planned with a mime performance.
For the uninitiated, in a playback theatre
performance, the audience
react and share stories with the actors, who in-turn enact
these on
stage. It can be extremely demanding for the actors, but
highly
satisfying for the audience.
QUESTIONS: The
first question for the audience was, "What was that
they liked
about the place? The children had various answers such as
"I like the
shop which sells sweets, I love the trees, and I like the
people
here."
The first story was about Lalbi Begum, about
how she and her husband
along with their four children lived in a village in north
Karnataka.
The land had no rain and no irrigation facility. The village
was
filled with poverty, and the husband met his friend who
suggested to
them that they go to Bangalore and make money. They landed
in
Bangalore in due course.
The actors used storytelling as a technique
with Kannada songs and
patterns to act out the story. Lalbi was delighted to watch
her story
being performed back to her by the actors. The effect was
personal and
the bond created by playback theatre was apparent.
The second story was by "Sunny Verma"
who landed from U.P., after he
realised that he would no longer earn any money and with
a fear that
his family would soon perish. He knew that time was short
and his wife
was waiting for him back home. His 12 friends who accompanied
him to
Bangalore were already missing U.P. They wanted to get back
home. But
Sunny was trying to dissuade them from returning.
In the middle of the performance, the children
clapped and laughed as
the jokers entertained them. There was one girl aged around
four, who
simply got up with joy and started clapping.
ELATED: Elated
by the response, the people behind "Yours Truly",
Ranji and
Nandini, wanted to return for a show with full lights, sounds,
costumes, special effects and much more. "We want to
reach out to the
other labour camps and bring a smile on the children's face,
who are
going through so much of suffering in life. Ours is a small
effort,"
summed up Nandini.
Now, a glimpse of the labour camp: over seven
years ago, a situation
arose in Bangalore city that demanded immediate action by
committed
people with vision.
Thousands of migrants from drought-prone areas
of Karnataka, Tamil
Nadu and Andhra Pradesh flocked to the city in an attempt
to make a
sustainable living. Unfortunately, handicapped by lack of
education or any other skills, they were forced to work
as labourers.To tackle this problem, the Outreach Onsite
programme was launched in 1993 for the children of migrant
construction workers.Day Care centres were established at
the construction sites, with trained teachers to provide
primary education for the children. The children were given
breakfast and lunch.Health workers and doctors paid regular
visits to the centres.
|