The walls of Yellow Train School rebound with laughter and music. “Channa sir and the children are rehearsing,” one of the teachers explains. The Bangalore-based theatre professional is in the city to direct a musical . Inside, Channakeshava and the kids are seated on the staircase, practising a song. As they sing, a few kids climb on to Channakeshava’s lap and pull his moustache. He rolls his eyes as if to scare them off and on popular request twirls his moustache. “It’s been just 10 days but I have bonded with these children so much. When I am training them I am serious. But otherwise, we fool around,” says the visiting professor of Ninasam theatre institute.
Channakeshava has been working with children for 15 years. He visits schools, tribal communities and villages to conduct theatre workshops. It is a different ball game working with kids, he says. “You have to lie and be imaginative and clever. For instance, in this workshop, there was one boy, who was supposed to pat a girl on her cheek, but he was so shy that he would not do it. I took the two into a room and lied to them that the play will be called off if they did not do the scene and that we would print that in the paper. That did the trick,” he smiles.
Back in Bangalore, Channakeshava is a familiar name in the cultural circles. Last year, he and his friends formed a group called Lokacharitha, a platform to discuss literature, cinema and art. “It was an idea that was born in my mind while I was travelling with my friends— to have a space where all forms of culture meet. ”
Recalling the early days, Channakeshava says, “I left my village and came to the city in search of a job. I dropped studies after the tenth because my family could not send me to school.” He worked in Bangalore in watch repairing shops, printing press and book shops. He loved the book shop job as he could read books all the time. “That’s how I read the great works in Kannada literature. I would devour them, night and day.”
“When I was young I used to listen to greats in the field of music and literature. I had a habit of drawing their portraits. A writer was so impressed that he advised me to join Karnataka Chithrakala Parishath, the school of fine arts. That’s when I knew that a school for painting existed in the first place!” Channakeshava’s friends chipped in to pay his fees, he says.
Three years at Chithrakala Parishath moulded his style as an artist. “But, even then I used to take part in plays and had a theatre troupe. My flair for visuals translated into the way I designed the theatre sets.” After college, Channakeshava joined Ninasam, the theatre institute in Heggodu. “I wanted to be rooted in my own culture and traditions. If I had gone, I would have missed my land. Many of my friends are internationally renowned now. But I am happy this way, I have no regrets,” he says.
Big cities do not lure him, he says. In fact, his connection to regional culture seeps into his theatre too. It could be a play of Shakespeare or Brecht…it will be filled with Kannada songs, local setting and Indian rituals. Puppets are also a big presence in his work. “I have worked for some time in Bread and Puppet theatre at Vermont. I am influenced by the puppet techniques I learnt there. I also try to make use of our own rituals and puppet traditions.”
Channakeshava regrets that the children these days know little about native traditions. “We are grooming a youth which is suited for the metros. We do not teach them their mother tongue. They do not have any connect to local traditions. We are standardising society.” That is where theatre can change things, he says. Theatre can help the young generation reclaim their cultural traditions. “It lets the children interact with the world. It is the only space where people can communicate their feelings. For instance, in this workshop, the children have learnt a lot about fantasy, rituals, myths, and relationship between man and Nature. It is an experience they will never forget.” What was Ganesha doing in a play about Ali Baba? G. Channakeshava and his team of children began with a small pooja for the elephant headed god. And, since Ganesha is a laddoo thief himself, he was forced to join Hasan’s evil group of thieves!
Helping Ail Bana
What has Ganesha got to do in an Ali Baba play? The musical by G. Channakeshava and his team of children began with a small pooja for the elephant headed god. And, since the poor Ganesha is a laddoo thief himself, he was forced to join Hasan’s evil group of thieves!
The adapted play version of the story, by Jnanpith Awardee, Chandrashekara Kambara, was full of such priceless moments.
What made the production special, apart from the presence of Channakeshava and the kids was the fact that the parents of the students worked equally hard to make it a success. Parents had pitched in to direct, design costumes, write songs and put up the sets. They were so involved in the production that they knew the dialogues by the end of all the activity. Menaka Manickaraj, a parent said “It was also a learning experience for us. We learnt how to simplify and be minimalist while designing sets. All the props were made out of recycled materials.”
