A frequent visitor
to India, Erica Vicenzi was overawed by the land of myriad cultures. Yet if
there was one discordant note, it was the numerous children on the streets,
living an aimless existence. “I wanted to make my visits more meaningful by
doing something for these children through art and theatre and share the joys
that these performing arts bring to us,” avers this actress who is involved
with enacting and teaching theatre in Italy. As co-founder of the global
Italian project Teatro per Caso (TPC), Erica found a perfect platform to integrate
these children into society through the arts.
“TPC produces and
performs theatrical acts with a special focus on children’s theatre and street
performances. Various professionals in the performing arts pitch in their
talents and time to help this cause,” she says, explaining the precepts of the
company founded in 1996. Over the years, TPC has performed across Europe,
Brazil, the Balkans, Georgia, Armenia, Dubai and Japan.
Teaming up with
El-Shaadai-Street Child Rescue in 2006, the ‘Laboratory of Smiles’ was Erica’s
first move in this direction in India. “The annual project runs for a month,
with a variety of arts-based workshops for children and concludes with a
performance by them. In 2006, we worked with 200 children in Assagao in the age
group of 8-14 years and by 2007, we did a theatre ‘Fantasia’ with 25 of these
children in Mumbai, Pune and parts of Goa,” she says elated at the fact that
these children showed a tremendous response, dedication and resilience to the
extremely challenging skills in the fields of theatre, puppetry, dramatics,
dance, stilt walking, juggling, aerial work and ground acrobatics. Over the
years, Laboratory of Smiles has also planted its seeds in countries like
Palestine, the Balkans, Georgia and Armenia.
“This year our topic
was ‘Journeys’ and we decided to explore the many meanings a child derives from
this,” explains Erica. “We worked with around 100 children who trained for
around three weeks,” says Erica of the project which was assisted by six
Italian and one Indian facilitator. A soul-stirring public performance of
‘Journeys’ at the end of the workshop was not only another fruition of Erica’s
dream, but a journey for the children to understanding their deeper purpose.
“These are
institutionalised children, who were once on the street and now living in a
residential centre. Their need is to be integrated back into society from the
street life, which requires them to understand this new world around them and
for that they must understand themselves better. This is exactly what the arts
do for them. It helps them understand who they are, what their limitations are,
how much they can push themselves and more importantly how to work together as
a team,” summarises Timira Gupta, a Mumbai-based educator who assisted the group.
Harvesting a
laboratory of smiles with their projects, Teatro per Caso continues to explore
many exciting journeys with the children of El Shaddai in India and other
organisations around the world.
