Source: Hueiyen News Service / Agency
New Delhi, October 24 2009:
A two-week-long theatre festival, which will showcase plays for children from across the country, will begin here from November 1 .
The "Jash-e-Bachpan", organised by the National School of Drama, will feature 22 plays in eight languages from nine states of the country.
"This year we received a total of 108 entries for participation in the festival and we shortlisted 21 plays out of them.
We have tried to give representation to all regions of the country," Kirti Jain of NSD said.
Veteran theatre personality and filmmaker Sai Paranjpye would inaugurate the ninth edition of the festival which will open with a special performance, "Simple Dreams", directed by Dadi D Pudumjee.
During the festival, theatre groups from different backgrounds would participate in daily interactive sessions with play directors, group leaders and group members.
"Apart from theatre groups, we have been been receiving proposals from institutions and even schools.
Of the two schools from Kerala and Karnataka which had sent their plays we have chosen one from Karnataka," said Abdul Latif Khatana, Chief of Theatre in Education (TiE), NSD.
Five plays from Assam, two each from Karnataka and West Bengal and one each from Kerala and Gujarat will be staged.
"Directors from four states -- Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh and Manipur -- whose plays were not selected this time, have been invited to come and view the plays," said Khatana.