Theatre for a Cause - An experience!

“Bye Akka, see you in December”, shouted the kids as we dropped them off on the last day of the theatre workshop.

 We had grown so fond of these kids in just one week’s time. It was easier said than done to not meet these kids again in December when they come back to learn to stage their play.

Theatre for a cause is an initiative of Akshaya Patra Foundation on the occasion of their 11 anniversary, to give an opportunity to underprivileged children from different government schools to learn theatre and be a part of it.

20 children were hand-picked from six schools in South Bangalore. These children were a part of a week-long theatre workshop. Renowned theatre personality Ms. Padmavathi Rao conducted the work shop for these children.

We had the mammoth responsibility of picking up, dropping and taking care of the mischievous brood of 20. It was a life time experience. They were filled with energy forever. There was an important lesson we learnt from them, punctuality. Many of them waited at their schools an hour before they were scheduled to be picked up, and none of them was late, ever.

On the first day, neither the kids nor we had a clue of what the workshop would be like. We all were a curious lot; wanting to learn and know all that we could with the opportunity we had been given.

It took them hardly any time to get familiar and bond with each other though they were from six different schools. The theatre games only made things better for them.

When given an option to choose the language they wanted to stage their play, English was a unanimous take. Though they were not comfortable at all with the language, they were eager to learn and inculcate the habit of talking in English. This was one of the pleasant surprises these kids gave us.

“Ellarigu chance sigatte, obobre heli”, was often heard at the workshop. All the 20 hands would go up whenever they had to express their views. Each child was proactive in the workshop in his or her own way.

They worked together as if they knew each other for ever. Though they had differences of opinions on group tasks assigned to them, they helped each other appreciate the task and work as a team.

Every day was a learning process. The more we got to know these kids, the more we learnt. Each bright eye had a story to tell, each brave mind had a battle to fight, and each tender heart had a goal to reach. Their enthusiasm was infectious!