Children are energetic and innocent and bring their own vibrancy to any art form.
Theatre is one medium where they can let out their emotions through their
respective roles. Goa has no shortage of performing arts; with various forms of
theatre like the tiatr, natak, khel tiatr and sangeet natak, there is a huge
potential and great scope to encourage children to pursue theatre.
Many children are now acting and singing in professional
commercial tiatrs as well. This stage gives them the confidence for better
performances in the future. In Goa, one is treated to different forms of drama
like tiatr and natak, both equally entertaining and musical. Recently, a 15-day
intensive theatre workshop with special emphasis on tiatr was conducted by
Sunaparanta – Goa Centre for the Arts in collaboration with Abhivyaktee. The
workshop concluded with a presentation of ‘Humorous Presentation of Skits’ in
Konkani, orchestrated by the participants aged between 10 to 16 years. The
resource persons for the workshop were Anagha Deshpande and Saish Deshpande
backed by Sandip Deshpande, President of Abhivyaktee, tiatrist Carmin Joseph e
Vas and director/actor Fermino Goes. Akanksha Parab had a special session on
‘theatre for personality development’.
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Saish Deshpande of Abhivyaktee, a Goan theatre group, explains
why tiatr was selected as a theatre form. “The reason behind the tiatr workshop
was to uplift children. Many kids living in Goa do not know the importance of
tiatr, and even if they have heard about it, they are unaware of the form and
structure. Tiatr is a popular Konkani theatre edition and we had a plan in mind
to involve kids during the summer vacation. The entire workshop was organised
by Sunaparanta and we took care of the rest.”
He adds, “During the workshop, the children were very
enthusiastic and happy. They brainstormed for themes and even directed few
parts. We got a new tiatr written by Antara Bhida and it was based on problems
seen in children and problems of children. If possible we would like to produce
the tiatr with the same kids.”
Fermino Goes, a noted actor, was a guest lecturer for the
workshop and taught the children about comedy in tiatr. According to him,
giving a reaction to dialogues is very important. He taught the kids how to
react at the right time and have the perfect body language for a comedy scene.
“It is not just the dialogues, here even the actions count. They were taught
how to react with various expressions for a comedy scene. However, I could only
teach them the basics as it was just one and half hours for both sessions.
Teaching something like this requires time, patience and practise,” he says.
Anagha Deshpande, Professor for Performing Art at Nirmala
Institute of Education, Altinho-Panjim taught the basics of acting. “The
skills required are same for all kinds of drama. Performing arts need a lot of
courage; it’s all about expressing in front of a crowd hence it is good to get
into it at a young age. They automatically build confidence and use it in other
parts of life as well. I taught them the importance of good communication
skills, facial expression, body posture and gesture, walk and movement,
modulation of voice and texture of voice. The children enjoyed the session
because it was more of activities than a lecture,” says Anagha.
Last year, for the first time in the history of tiatr, a total
of 25 children of leading tiatrists in Goa took the stage, many making their
debut, with Mario Menezes’s tiatr ‘100% (Hundred Percent)’. Coming from
tiatrist families, these children have grown up watching their parents take on
new roles for every tiatr. Their high level of energy while rehearsing as well
as performing on stage won the hearts of the audience.
With the acting gene in the hands of the next generation, the
children and youngsters, aged 8 to 23 years, are now taking the stage again in
‘College Life’, directed by Mario Menezes. “For ‘College Life’, we have 23
children from the previous tiatr, with some more children of tiatrists joining
in this time. We have Peter-Roshan’s son Benzer, Comedian Joanna’s son Edgar,
Jaju’s son Beckham, Salvador Afonso’s younger son Sanio and Alita and Melanie
in this tiatr,” says Mario.
His last tiatr had 48 shows and though the new tiatr will have
its second performance today, May 19, 2019 at Mapusa at 10:30am, he hopes to
wind up the tiatr by August before the mid terms of the academic year.
“Children have been interested in tiatr but many didn’t know about performing
on stage. Some children are child artistes like Benzer, Rioma and Bladwin and
have performed in Goa as well as internationally. There is a lot of scope for
children and youngsters in tiatr and those who are really interested know how
to balance their studies and their performances. I don’t want the studies of
the children getting affected so I will complete the performance at least a
month before their exams,” says Mario.
So if anyone is interested in the performing arts, don’t
hesitate, go ahead and act. The stage is set and awaiting your arrival.
With
inputs by Nicole Remedios
