Play to explore parent-child relationship

CHANDIGARH: A 30-day intensive theatre workshop organized by Chandigarh Sangeet Natak Akademi will culminate in the performance of a musical play ‘Mil Gayi Chutti’ at Tagore Theatre on Friday.
The workshop was conducted by VK Sharma, a graduate from the prestigious National School of Drama. He is one of India’s leading Children’s Theatre Experts and Founder Director of Khilona Theatre for Children & the Young.Thirty children belonging to different schools of the Tricity participated in the workshop.
Apart from developing communication skills amongst the participants, the workshop focussed on team work, original thinking and creativity. Another highlight of the workshop was that the participants evolved the play through improvisations. Hence, they created their own scenes and dialogues to create this play which is based on a Russian story.
All families across the world experience tremendous rift between children and parents, who are often at loggerheads with each other due to difference of approach towards life. And this rift continues to widen between the so-called ‘old-fashioned’ parents and the ‘Gen-next’ kids. It’s an age old, universal phenomena as both, the parents and children are bound to have an entirely different point of view about life.
This play gives children an opportunity and the freedom to discuss and explore this relationship through ‘fun’ and ‘play’ and find ways and means of softening this age-old rift.
For this, a story was chosen that gives children the freedom to explore. Participants in such a production-oriented workshop benefited in many more ways like positive outlet for physical, mental and emotional energies; clarity of speech; development of communication skills, etc. Thirty six children aged 8 to 17 years participated in the workshop.