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Children’s theatre festival from Nov. 1

NEW DELHI: The National School of Drama on Saturday announced that its fortnight-long National Theatre Festival for Children, “Jashnebachpan”, featuring 22 plays will open here in the Capital on November 1.

To be inaugurated by veteran film-maker and theatre personality Sai Paranjpye at the Shri Ram Centre auditorium, the festival will commemorate 20 years of Sanskaar Rang Toli or Theatre-in-Education (TIE) Company of the NSD. The inaugural ceremony will be followed by a performance, “Simple Dreams”, directed by Dadi D. Pudumjee.

Addressing a press conference here, former NSD Director Kirti Jain said the TIE Company consists of a group of actors and teachers who perform for children. “The major thrust of plays is to create an atmosphere that encourages children to raise questions, make questions and choices. We want to creatively intervene in the educational system. Initially Barry John, who started theatre-in-education in the United Kingdom, worked a lot with us. Through the TIE Company we want marginalised children and even differently-abled ones to integrate with other theatre artistes,” added Prof. Jain.

NSD has not given directors any theme for their plays as they want them to dwell on local issues and problems plaguing children. Plays in various languages including Hindi, English, Bengali and Gujarati -- directed in such a way as to reach out to kids -- will be staged at the Shriram Centre, Little Theatre Group, Abhimanch and Sammukh auditorium in NSD.

TIE Company chief associate Abdul Latif Khatana said his company received 108 entries for the festival. “Theatre in Hindi is increasingly becoming popular across the country. We’ve selected 21 plays as they will be able to connect with children. For the first time we have received entries from Jammu and Kashmir, Andhra Pradesh, Manipur and Jharkhand. Government schools from Karnataka and Kerala have also applied for their plays to be staged. ”

NGO Koshish from the Capital’s trans-Yamuna area will stage a play in which physically challenged children will perform.

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