KOCHI: For Abhilash Chandran, a teacher at the Government VHSE, Kallara, the recent prize bagged by the school has been nothing short of a major milestone. A group of class IX students from the school had recently bagged the third place at the National Role Play and Folk Dance Competition held at New Delhi. The students will now be taking centre stage at Rangaprabhath Children’s Theatre village, performing their prize-winning role play as part of the Amateur Theatre Festival, organised by Professor G Sankara Pillai Memorial Centre of Performing Arts,which is being held in the capital.
While the school could make it only till the sub-district levels earlier, the team bagged first place consecutively in the sub-district, district and state-level. Abhilash is more than thrilled with the achievement and he says, “It feels great at a time when Government school coaching is undergoing a tremendous awakening. Also, While the other winning teams, Assam and Maharashtra performed the play in Hindi, a language they are more familiar with, we chose English as our medium. To be able to deliver a play in a language which the children were not exactly fluent in, is a big accomplishment in itself.”
It was a bunch of five girls-Aamy R Kumar, Nandana Selkumar, Anjana S and Afsana S R, who had bagged the third prize for the eight-minute-long role play on ‘Charms and Challenges of Adolescence’. Coming up with the roleplay was challenging, says Abhilash. Adding that the students have not had any kind of theatrical training, he also speaks about the challenges which makes it different from theatre.
Stating that the team was given a duration of six to eight minutes, the teacher said, “Performing a role play is more challenging as no props are allowed. While a play is developed with a concrete and clear cut script right from the beginning, the script for a role play is further elaborated from a particular situation.”
The event was held from December 5 to December 8 at New Delhi. The students received cash prize along with a certificate of merit.
With around 33 schools having participated in the National-level competition, the school had chosen the subject from a variety of themes. Abhilash, who has been one among seven school teachers who had trained the team of girls for the event, is thrilled that the school could make it in the competition which is held annually by NCERT as part of its National Population Education Project.