School Of Drama

Updated on: Wednesday, September 21, 2011

The British Council and the Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London recently organised a national level drama festival in association with the Prabha Khaitan Foundation at Kala Kunj. Commemorating the one hundred and fiftieth birth anniversary of the great poet Rabindranath Tagore, the plays performed drew their inspiration from either the works of Tagore or from his ideologies. Around forty-five schools participated in the event, out of which eighteen were from outside West Bengal.

Though the event has been organised for about three decades, for the first time, the festival was conducted on a national level. The purpose of the project was to train and enable students to write, direct and perform their own plays with an instinctive sense of originality. The winners of the competition will be offered a chance to go to the Central School of Speech and Drama and learn about the various aspects of theatre.

Bruce Wooding, head of professional and community development at the Central School said, “I find the focus on Tagore most exciting and I really can’t wait for the finals. Much of my life has been dedicated to developing drama with young people and I am delighted that we are doing this globally.”

Amongst the many schools participating, only seven were chosen to compete in the finals that are scheduled to be held at Delhi, on December 10. These schools were Vasant Vihari School, Delhi, S.N Kansagra School, Gujarat, Calcutta International School, Srimati Sulochana Devi Singhania School, Mahadevi Birla Girls High School, Birla High School and DAV international School, Amritsar. Actress Arpita Pal was present on the occasion to declare the finalists.

The plays performed covered issues ranging from the fragility of relationships to contemporary Indian politics, with reference to the works of Tagore. There was also a performance based on Tagore’s story ‘The Hungry Stone’ and his dance dramas like ‘Shyama’, ‘Lipika’, ‘Chitrangada’ and ‘Chandalika’. Sujata Sen, director, British Council, East India said, “We are delighted that schools from all over India will get an opportunity to study, interpret and perform Tagore in the school drama festival this year.”

School Of Drama

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