11 schools vie for theatre honours

The Bangalore One Act Theatre festival opens on Saturday and features super-excited children putting in long hours for their rehearsals.

Tini Sara Anien, DHNS, Bengaluru,

Oct 24 2018, 18:50 ist
updated: Oct 24 2018, 18:58 ist

Students of Deccan International School will be staging ‘Struggling Roots’, the adaptation of a Kannada play, on Sunday at the theatre festival.

Eleven schools are competing for top honours at the Bangalore One Act Theatre Festival 2018 (BOAT) this year. The second edition, based on the theme of ‘home,’ will be a fun-packed experience for theatre lovers this weekend, its organisers say.

The lineup includes acts by DPS East, Asia Pacific, Euro School, Deccan International School, Presidency School, Christel House, ACTS Secondary, Nirmala Vidyalaya, My School, Royale Concorde and Carmel Academy. The festival aims to uncover new talent from schools across the city. The festival is curated by Tortilla Entertainment and is being held in collaboration with Bangalore Little Theatre and Storywallahs.

Anitha Mithra, founder of Tortilla, says, “We have been trying to build innovative platforms for unconventional entertainment. This festival aims to encourage provide space for schools which have theatre programmes and also encourage schools which want to create a space for art but don’t know how to go about it.”

Schools with arts in their academic schedule perform better, she reckons. “Students there have better attendance and fare better at exams too. The processes used to teach and practise theatre have many benefits; like encouraging communicating skills, personality building and teamwork,” she says.

‘Starfish’, the play by DPS East (IGCSE), which will be showcased on Friday, will talk about what happens before and after a storm and how the phenomenon affects sea life. Sarita Farswal, French teacher at the school, says, “Our students are super excited about the festival. They have been preparing to be on stage. We held auditions and 12 of them were chosen to be part of the festival.”

Anupa Gnanakan, director of education, ACTS Secondary School, Electronics City, says the school’s play, ‘Peggy The Pint Size Pirate’, is about ocean pollution. It will be staged on Saturday and will see nine students on stage.

“They have been practising regularly for the past month and even came for practise sessions on holidays, which explains their interest,” explains Anupa, who is coordinating the act.

The ‘Struggling Roots’ by Deccan International School, will be staged on Sunday. Co-written by Bharath Sa Jagannath and Archana Shyam in Kannada, it was translated into English and directed by Archana.

Rita Sreekantamurthy, school coordinator, says the 15-minute-long play features 13 students between 11 and 14. “Our performance talks about human beings forcing animals out of their natural habitats,” says Rita.

The festival is at Alliance Francaise from October 26 to 28.