With today’s children hooked more to the Internet than to storybooks, games or extra-curricular activities, the East Zone Cultural Centre (EZCC) organised a summer camp on theatre workshop at its Salt Lake premises from 7-11 June.

The camp was conducted by Sharnya Dey, a CCRT scholar, actor, director and playwright.

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What was encouraging for the organisers was the fact that the workshop attracted schoolchildren of all ages. For a few young parents, the workshop was a good opportunity for their wards to learn something new and also be engaged in something productive.

Sharnya Dey, who conducted the workshop, said that it is not possible to teach young students everything in such a short time. “What we did here was give the young boys and girls a direction in the field with some basic training. We teach them the procedure, which is very important for them to know from a young age. If they can get the grammar right, they will not be making mistakes later. For any art to be mastered, we need to know the basics, right? I taught them what is the right way and scientific way,” said the director, who has a theatre group called ‘10th Planet’.

DPS Mega City student Samyak Roychoudhury, who was one of the attendees, has been learning theatre at a theatre school for the last few years.

“I’m enjoying the workshop. I want to learn from here the finer points, and it is also a good experience that I can interact with other students from other schools,” said eight-year-old Samyak.

“My son had been accompanying me at many cultural programmes and always showed interest in being part of the stage. Initially, we had to persuade him to attend classes, but now he is eager to attend classes on his own,” said Samyak’s mother, Suranjana Dutta Roy.

Attending theatre classes has improved Samyak’s Bengali skills and given him a better grip on the language, said his mother.

Parents of the attending children acknowledged that this workshop has been engaging students in constructive work. It is very important that the students feel that there is also a world outside school, books and mobile phones, they felt.

Parents felt that if their children wanted to pursue art as they grew up and the pressure of studies caught up, they would be happy to support them.

Another attendee, Abhinav Barua, who has played roles in films like Hatyapuri as Dungru and Nayan in Nayan Rahasya by Sandip Ray, has been honing his skills as an actor, learning drama, acting, dance, gymnastics, swimming, taekwondo and swimming. He wants to be an actor.

His father, Anup Kumar Barua, who took early retirement from central government service to look after his 11-year-old son, says the workshop is useful as he is picking up the finer nuances of acting, which will help him in his acting.

Asis Giri, director of EZCC, who inaugurated the workshop and has also written many plays himself, narrated his experience while writing plays for All India Radio. He said one has to think differently while writing for the radio, as the audience can only hear and visualise the play, so the sound factor plays a bigger role in such plays.

“A country is strong not only when its economy is robust but also when it has a strong culture. As Indians, we have to claim our cultural superiority. The central government has set the target of making India the cultural hub of the world. India has to develop its other art forms too, and the theatre workshop at EZCC is a step in that direction. We will also be hosting a production workshop after this, where the students will create something of their own,” said Mr Giri.

Theatre encompasses all other streams of culture, such as acting, singing, miming, mono-acting and facial expressions. It is a complete work of art.

Talking about learning, the director cited the case of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore, who was an exception; he sang, painted and wrote poetry without learning about the art. “We have to learn the grammar of this communication art well. The set design and light play a vital role in creating the environment for the story,” he said.

In the words of the famous mystic Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa, who said that theatre has the power to teach people, it can act as a tool to create a civil society.

The workshop discussed how the art form has undergone an evolution since the Covid pandemic. The director, EZCC, said that it is natural, as theatre is like a free-flowing stream that accepts influences from around as it flows along.

The result is the advent of various forms like roof-top theatre, cafe theatre, street theatre, intimate theatre, etc., said Mr Giri.