Theatre group Koothu-P-Pattarai’s just lately-concluded Anju Punch, a youngsters’s play based mostly on the tales of Panchatantra, is a lesson in ethical values
For playwright and director KS Karuna Prasad and his group at Koothu-P-Pattrai (based by N Muthuswamy in 1977), a Chennai-based experimental theatre group, their newest manufacturing, Anju Panch (Five Punch) in Tamil, was a full shift from their regular performs. For the primary time, Koothu-P-Pattrai has give you a youngsters’s play based mostly on the tales of Panchatantra, and was staged for a week within the metropolis.
Prasad, who was skilled by N Muthuswamy, has directed over 25 performs. “With 36 years of expertise in theatre, I envisaged an unique manufacturing for youngsters within the age group of 5 to fifteen. I selected the theme from Panchatantra. Since it’s a fairy story, even vegetation and animals converse with people. As the target market have been youngsters, it is also the easiest way to convey ethical values,” he says.
Anju Punch is an adaptation of chosen tales from Panchatantra and offers with 5 completely different tales, over 80 minutes. The interactive play begins with the narrator introducing every phase and later conveys the ethical of the story.
“I approached this undertaking with a two-pronged concept,” says Prasad, including, “I made a decision to make use of masks for this manufacturing. Therefore, now the problem for actors was that, they may not present their facial expressions. However, they conveyed the essence via physique actions and by performing particular character traits of the animal they have been portraying. The actors needed to rework into the animal and likewise put on animated masks, which have been designed to permit jaw actions.”
Beneath the masks
- The expressive masks for Anju Punch have been designed by Aazhi E Venkatessin, visitor lecturer, division of drama, Tanjore Tamil University. “Karuna approached me final 12 months with this masks undertaking and I used to be fascinated by the various expressions that I might deliver out within the masks. I started to attend rehearsals with a view to perceive the traits of every animal that was being portrayed.”
- Koothu-P-Pattarai has a stylised method of performing and Venkatessin needed to preserve their model into consideration whereas making the masks. It needed to be mild, versatile and extra importantly, inside the price range. A mix of thermo and MM foam sheets have been used to make these masks. The largest problem, nonetheless, was designing masks with animation (jaw motion) with a view to make it entertaining for the viewers.
The director can be eager on taking theatre into instructional campuses. He feels that theatre in training, the place the artwork of drama might be used as an efficient instructional device, just isn’t but explored by our curriculum. ‘I needed to discover the function of drama in pedagogy although this play as an experiment for campus theatre,” says Karuna.
The play, which was purported to be staged in March final 12 months, was stalled because of the pandemic. It was lastly dropped at an viewers at The Spaces, Besant Nagar, final week. “I’m glad that the play obtained delayed. We have had the chance to cheer up the kids with a reside efficiency after being confined to properties for such a lengthy interval. The pandemic scare has affected the younger and the outdated. More importantly, it has affected youngsters who at the moment are uncovered to smartphones,” says Karuna, including, “The play just isn’t just for youngsters, however for the kid in each grownup.”
Koothu-P-Pattarai plans to stage the play in colleges throughout the town and steadily take it to different components of the State. “I imagine that such playful and animated efficiency will attraction to youngsters between the age group 5 and 15. Since it’s an interactive play, the kids would shed their inhibitions and are available ahead to take part. That is how studying takes place,” he provides.
