Stars in the making

All the world's a stage, William Shakespeare famously said. And a bunch of kids decided to get on to that stage and prove him right 400 years after the Bard left the world. How delighted he would have been to know that a group of child actors overcame insurmountable and myriad personal hurdles to perform one of the most popular of his plays – The Tempest – as a tribute to him.

As Hyderabad went about its usual business last week, a stirring saga unfolded in a training workshop meant to impart acting, writing and performance skills to children. Children who are underprivileged in terms of what society gave them but more than gifted in terms of creativity and talent.

The 15-day, intensive Acting and Play Production workshop for children from Social Welfare Residential Schools in Telangana saw 154 boys and girls discover the nuances of acting, mould themselves to a role, express themselves in words and finally storm a stage, captivating audiences with an adapted version of The Tempest, with some local folk characters in Telugu superimposed over the main characters in the play.

Usha Turaga-Revelli gives a closer look of the theatre workshop, which was a transformative experience for the kids as well as the trainers. The budding stars in the workshop have mastered the complex dialogues of Shakespeare’s play ‘The Tempest’ and delivered them with élan

The workshop, titled SWAERO Stars – 2016, is the brainchild of Dr Praveen Kumar, IPS, Secretary of Telangana Social Welfare Residential Education Institutions, and, in its latest edition, imparted training to 154 children handpicked from 140 Social Welfare Residential schools across the State for their acting skills.

How did he envisage a programme that addresses a facet of the children usually ignored by most institutions? “Tremendous energy and big dreams of our kids keep me thinking about their overall development every moment. Telangana is a national model already in terms of quality education for the marginalised kids. And this is one aspect we chose to focus on and improve. All those kids who excelled in the cultural programs at school level were shortlisted for this programme,” Dr Praveen Kumar says.

“What is unique was that we were dealing with children who hail from most backward communities such as SCs and tribal communities. Often, they are first generation learners. The children appear to have complex personalities as they are deprived of so many things children their age otherwise take for granted. When we designed and executed the programme, we kept their background in mind,” explains Biju Sreedharan of Imagine – Theatre for Progress, which conceptualised and implemented this session.

Choosing Shakespeare for the show at the end of the training programme was the trainers’ way of celebrating the legend but wasn’t it a difficult subject, considering that they were dealing with a huge cultural gap? “Shakespeare is full of possibilities. I think he is often misunderstood and under-interpreted,” says Sreedharan.

The first attempt at writing soliloquies and monologues from Shakespeare for the children was a daunting task as the archaic English was a tough thing for them to chew on. “But we were sure the kids could do it so we modified and shortened the scripts.” And, sure enough, the kids just took off and came out with flying colours as they delivered a total of 24 monologues, each one even better than the other.

The workshop was designed to be a comprehensive training module with intensive sessions in body, voice and mind training and with a participative, folk, classical and contemporary methodologies. A team of resource persons, each eminent in their professional sphere, led the training with teaching as well as practicals. Acting, script writing and direction, design, including set and costume design as well as make-up were some of the subjects that were comprehensively taught by the resource persons.

“We adopted emotional memory exercises. And discussed family issues, in consonance with Shakespearian themes and description of family relationships. We found that as the script evolved, the kids bloomed and their own pent-up emotions exploded in a brilliant enactment of the script,” Sreedharan explains.

So the people who imparted training see an outcome beyond this training?
“The idea is not to make professional actors or stars of these kids. At least, that is not the only aim. There are so many things we taught them that is useful for their future too. Body language, eye contact, expression, confidence while facing strangers. More than anything else, it was a purging experience for them, to get rid of pent-up negative emotion born out of various things,” Sreedharan explains.

“This is just a glimpse of what is in the offing. These SWAERO Stars have to train their younger colleagues in the schools while honing their own skills. We have a clear on-campus and off-campus follow-up programme,” says Dr Praveen.What do the kids feel? “I remember my own transformation from day one to the day we performed. I was nervous, tongue-tied, lost.

Our counsellors were so patient. And when I performed I was not afraid to stand there and speak my lines,” Ankita Egurapu of Kagaznagar in Adilabad Dist and at Bellampally school, chirps. A 10th std student, Ankita now is in a dilemma, whether to become a film star. Or follow in the footsteps of her father and become a politician. “My training will help me in doing either,” she twinkles.

Kalavathi Mallepogu from Paipaadu in Gadwal in Mahbubnagar district says she was astounded that she could actually sing. “I barely hummed before the workshop. And, now I am a singer. I was in the chorus. And my family now tells me to quiet down as I cannot stop singing,” the 15-yr-old says.

Given the socio-economic profile of the students, even with great family support, how far are they expected to go if they choose the field of performing arts?

Dr Praveen admits it’s not easy. “It is not going to be easy for many of these kids, given the ecosystem from which they come. But the only hope is our Swaeroes (alumni) Network that is working hard to help many such talented kids realise their dreams. I am confident we will succeed one day.” Meanwhile, it is important to keep their spirits and aspirations alive.

“We plan to give them more opportunities in theatre arts and short films. We plan to train them in different departments of the entertainment industry. Our dream is to establish a Swaerowood. Performing arts will be part of our pedagogy,” he asserts. The counsellors observed many behaviour patterns among some kids – depression, delinquency, refusal to cooperate or work with a team. But all resistance melted away as the workshop progressed.

“My reasons for joining the project were purely my love and respect for the idea of India and experiencing its diversity. I was exposed to many diverse things at a young age and I thought these kids should have a similar experience. I am hoping my contribution would help them set foot on the path to the fulfilment of their dreams and aspirations,” says Srikanth Puppala, film director, who handled Filmmaking orientation segment of the workshop.

The workshop was a platform for underprivileged kids to learn new skills. An opportunity for them to explore and cull out their own talent. A showcase to show the world the height and breadth of what they are capable of, given the tiniest of chances. It was an occasion for them to reach beyond the edges of education and dabble in a new stream of learning.

But it was also many things beyond mere training. It was a bridge to a new world, a microcosm in which each child underwent a metamorphosis. It was a purging of their emotional pain, faced perhaps in a disadvantaged home situation. It was a life-changing experience for many kids, bringing out the fine details of their persona to the surface and refining it to make them definitive characteristics for a lifetime. A fortnight at the end of which the SWAERO kids - and their trainers - have emerged as stars, of the real kind.