This year the
only Shakespeare Festival in Goa was paired with the second Cosfest Goa on the 10th of September,
2018. And it was a riot! The Chowgule College campus was a riot of colours,
energy and spirit with over 300 students participating in both events.
Organized annually by the dept. of English students, The Bard by the
Mandovi2018– The Shakespeare Festival Goa, in its ninth year, saw 13 School and
Higher Secondary institutes participate with over 200 students participating in
the nine events over the day.
From loquacious
speakers in ‘Friends, Romans, Countrymen’ to the dramatic monologue in
‘Shakespearean Soliloquy’; From ‘Steal-A-Scene’ enacting scenes from
Shakespeare’s plays to creating original Shakespearean superheroes in
‘Mozaic!’, students excelled in the events. They created dioramas in ‘Diorama
Drama’, wrote original poems on the spot AND painted them too in
‘Synaesthesia’, performed poems to music in the ‘The Bard’, and created
children’s books in ‘Bedtime Shakespeare’. The art work, creative genius on
display was truly ‘super’ in this year’s themed festival – ‘Super Shakespeare’
indeed!
The event began with
a bang with first year students Amanda and Liza performing a rap battle as
Titania and Juliet! It blew the crowd away. The welcome was also super-duper as
the dignitaries and accompanying school teachers were welcomed with golden
capes. Head of Department of English, Dr. Sonia da Costa, welcomed everyone
while reminding all about the spirit of the event. Guest of Honour, Vice
Principal Dr.ShailaGhanti in her address requested the participants to compete
in a healthy manner.
The crossover event
was ‘The Mascot’ – one participant from each team had to participate in Cosfest
Goa 2018. It was going to be a game changer as depending on their rankings in
Cosfest Goa – winners would get double the points for their teams. Thus, giving
them the edge and winning the overall trophy was team Jack Sparrow – VidyaVikas
Academy, Margao. Overall Second place winners were Team Batgirl – Our Lady of
the Rosary High School, Dona Paula, and third place overall winners were Team
Macbeth – The King’s School, Margao.
Cosfest Goa saw over
50 participants in the competitive, non-competitive and casual categories. With
cosplayers costuming up in various avatars, they truly put the ‘pop’ in pop
culture! Being judged by Internet fashion blogger ShrutiHaldankar (the
urbanista), Animation programme Director (Chowgule College), and comic
afficianado Joy Prasad Murmu, and Actor, Director SarojUsgaonkar – cosplayers
showed off costumes which varied from Black Panther, Wonder Woman to PUBG, Daya
(Tarak Mehta…) to Maleficent, and even Pacman! There was even a cute little
Batman who wished to vanquish criminals. Asst. Prof. Andrew Barreto said of the
event, “It is heartening to see that the event is slowly getting popular. This
year the response has been tremendous! The costumes are on point, with almost
all the costumes being handmade from the ground up. The energy that was on
display was infectious. I only hope that in the coming editions I see parents
also joining in.”
In
the group category the winners were CosplayersHussainDessai, SahanaBellad,
Farhaan Dandekar, Sweta Kaisukar, Yusuf Khan, Saif Khan from Goa Engineering
College and Padre Conceicao College of Engineering, came together cosplaying
various characters –PubG, Khilji, the musician Marshmello, Gamora from
Guardians Of The Galaxy, Valak (from The Nun) and Barbie Girl. The group is
donating their prize money to the father of a friend who is suffering from
cancer. Hussain Desai said that they came up with the idea to donate the money
after they saw the person going to work despite being advised bedrest for 6 months
after an operation. “My friends also supported this idea, so we decided to give
the money if we won.” A noble cause indeed. In the individual category
Consolation prize went to Cleopatra cosplayed by Ann Andrade, third place to
Jack Sparrow by Anish Silva, second place to Wonder Woman by SimmoneeBarretto
and top honours to Black Panther cosplayed by Clive Rodrigues.
