JOIN USOsage, a theatre, music and publishing organisation, based in Sanjaynagar, is showcasing its new production titled ‘The ‘Adventures of Luna and Nagesh’ on May 23, 24, 30 and 31 at Metro Rangasthala.
This play is the latest production from the ‘Osage Courtyard Theatre’ group, which is exclusively a children’s initiative.
The kids were encouraged to learn the art of theatre during the summer vacation and the Osage group encouraged the amateur theatre enthusiasts to participate in a eight-week theatre programme that taught the kids scriptwriting, directing, acting and stage creating.
The kids were also taught to script and design a play of their own from scratch. The play, ‘The Adventures of Luna and Nagesh’, is borrowed from Douglas Admas’ ‘The Hitchmaker’s Guide to the Galaxy’, but goes on to explore and reflect on thoughtless urbanisation and ecological chaos as interpreted by 12-14 year olds. The events portrayed in the play take place in space with extra-terrestrial characters and interplanetary travel across the Milky Way.
There will also be an audience participatory theatre initiative called the ‘Social Immersion Project’ scheduled to start performance in July. It takes the context of Shakespeare’s ‘King Lear’ that will encourage the audience to explore the ideas concerning ethics and governance.
Osage also conducts voice culture and speech training for actors at the National School Drama. It even engages corporates in theatre based training programmes to relive stress and promote lateral thinking.
The founder of the theatre group, MK Shankar, who is also a theatre and voice coach says, “Theatre is an effective medium for building empathy in teenagers because that is an age that neurophysiologists recognise as being critical to the formation of the pre-frontal cortex, the region of the brain believed to be involved in skills required in planning, empathy, and decision making.” He adds that theatre has a clear social and psychological aim.