When a child grows up in an environment where it is difficult to express his/her thoughts, it’s a problem bigger than we realise. These children struggle especially at school, resulting in a lack of enthusiasm to learn and loss of self-esteem, eventually leading to diffidence.
This is what drove Prasanth Nori, a Hyderabad Teach For India (TFI) fellow, to team up with his co-fellow, Soumya Kavi to start a theatre programme called Dramebaaz in 2015. Prasanth, who already has a theatre background from his college days, has been experimenting with drama into his classroom.
“Theatre is so much more than just a performance to me. It’s about the preparation, teamwork, crisis management, and an opportunity to express oneself,” he says. When he reached out to Soumya, who, like him, faced similar issues with students, it wasn’t long before Dramebaaz was born.
This programme introduces theatre as a four-month syllabus, covering a range of themes from ‘design thinking’ to ‘theatre of the oppressed’. “We ask children to discuss issues and script their own plays, so that they become solution-oriented as they grow up. Many of us think that children don’t understand their surroundings, but, in truth, they are remarkably astute,” notes Soumya with a smile.
Now a team of six TFI fellows handle the program in four cities — Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune and Bengaluru. Their annual theatre fest is set to happen on December 10-11 in Begumpet with plans of conducting them at other cities too.