When fledglings take flight on stage

If trajectory of a young bird can be determined as soon as it embarks upon its first flight, then these seven children have arrived. With their theatrical performance in the ‘Showcase of Making It!’, a three-week long theatre workshop by Yellowcat, performed at Instituto Cervantes, they made their parents and mentors proud while having a rollicking time on the stage.

Introducing the young talents, Sukhesh Arora, the founder of Yellowcat, said in his address, “Over the last three weeks the kids created these plays. This workshop is in a way an introduction to theatre where we, through our facilitators, let them create acts through their own ideas.”

Thus ensued the evening with the reading of Daily Escapades, Trip to Shimla, and The Lion’s Adventure, three plays that had been written by the children during the workshop.

To top it all, came the final surprise, 3rd Person, a short performance created out of third person narratives where all the children performed together.

The idea of first time actors, that too children, may make one expect a volley of errors, hitches, and hiccups during the show. Yes, there were hitches, but the natural ones!

Children seemed to be having an enjoyable time on stage, performing something that they owned.

As Rishabh, one of the child performers introduced the final act, he elucidated, “It was the third day of our workshop sessions when we sat down to discuss our plays. What we planned that day, turned out to be the middle of our play. And our mentor told us to work upon the beginning and the end from then on.”

As the tightly packed auditorium reverberated with laughter, specially with Ishiraj’s and Dhairya’s grandfather-son act, the evening came to a close on a happy note!

Wrapping up the evening, Sukhesh told the audience, “It was during an exercise where we asked the children to share some personal incidents. Some parents may just have related to something or the other,” he noted giving way to another round of laughter, “We interwove those personal narratives to come up with these plays.”