Rats, Rescues, Revenge & Revelry
A Recipe for an Unforgettable Night of Theatre
10 August, 2010
On 28th July, IHS Students, Staff and Ashram residents came together for a fun-filled night of theatre. The junior students performed a rendition of the Pied Piper of Hamelin, the middle school students performed a Tamil drama entitled Kandaen Seethaiyai, and the senior students performed an adaptation of Shakespeare’s play As You Like It. The performances were a culmination of a 5-Day workshop with eminent children’s theatre artist Dr Velu Saravanan.
Velu anna, as he is known to the children, is the director of Aazhi Children’s Theatre in Pondicherry. He has worked for the past 17 years as a full time children’s theatre artist & playwright, during which time he has directed over 3000 children’s plays across Tamil Nadu, India and Europe. He has also produced and directed a children's teleserial called “Velu Mama” which is being telecasted in Makkal TV and has received a great response from viewers of all ages.
After the children’s performances, Velu himself performed to the absolute delight of everyone present. Velu's unique interactive style had him jumping and climbing all over the audience, improvising joke after joke as he created the show from everyone and everything around him. At the end of the drama he was joined by a visiting artist from the U. S., Daniel A. Kellin, II.
Mr Kellin is the Director of Drama Education for the Honolulu Theatre for Youth and is on the Teaching Artist roster of the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington, DC. He has worked on and off with Velu for the past 5 years and was invited by Velu as a consultant for the IHS workshop. He added a unique and invaluable perspective.
“This is my second opportunity working with Velu and it was just as incredible this time as it was the last. His intensity is unmatched. He just creates everything right then and there, like magic. Dialogue, music, acting, staging...it's amazing,” said Anandhi Srinivasan, Isha Home School drama teacher.
The children worked with him for two hours a day for the five days, which culminated into three twenty minute performances, complete with costumes, props and musical accompaniment.
“He worked with the Junior School, Middle School and the Senior School, but he was never tired, and this had a great impact on me,” shared Navani Payyadi, Class XI. “We loved being in Velu anna's drama. It was fun to be a rat,” exclaimed Sri Ram, one of the 5-yr-old students who performed in the Pied Piper drama.
“He has an incredible way with the children, he manages them so well, and gets so much out of them,” shared Sajini Weigert, another IHS teacher who was working behind the scenes for the drama. “He is so distinctly intuitive in his approach. At one moment you may find him speaking in his big professional stage voice to keep the children's attention, but the next minute he may call one of them close and whisper in their ear.”
The plays were as diverse as the students who participated in them. Be it personifying rats, saving Seetha from the clutches of Ravana, banishing Orlando from the kingdom or engaging the audience in light-hearted improvisation, the talent of all the artists was displayed in full form.
