Real lives touched by art

HEARD OF Little Theatre? Bet you have. It might be a cliche, but there is the proverbial other side of the coin even in this story. Listen on. It promises to be as interesting as their regular annual performance.

Every year, after the lead pair fades into the `happily ever after' mode and all's well that end well, curtains would come down on the pantomime. Then Aysha Rau would take the stage and thank the audience for their patronage, telling them that the money would go towards supporting the education of Corporation School children. Ever wondered what happened next? Here is what.

Little Theatre funds the education of four children, two boys and two girls, from the Corporation Middle School, Chetpet for seven years. Since they started six years ago, Little Theatre's project has supported 24 children and 16 of them still continue. The project's proudest achievement till date is the accomplishment of Rajesh M.

Rajesh, whose father was a coolie, is now in the first year of the Engineering course at Anna University and has come fourth in class. The next year, he assures, he will be first in class. He was among the two boys selected after a test and admitted to the MCC School, Tambaram. Little Theatre sponsored him, took care of the admission process, paid for the books, tuition and arranged for two sets of uniform.

Recently, R. Lakshmi, another student sponsored by Little Theatre has crossed a significant milestone. She has recently been admitted into the B.A.Economics course at Ethiraj College. She admits that she has come further with LT's help than she would have if her parents continued to support her education. Considering her father is a coolie and mother a daily wage labourer, she doubts if she could have gone beyond the tenth standard. Her dream of getting through the IAS, she believes, is `achievable'.

Three other students coming from lower economic backgrounds scored above 80 per cent in the tenth standard examinations this year. S.Sasikala, A.Kalpana and S.Hemavathi have all taken the computer science group in Madras Seva Sadan HSS, where they were admitted by LT after the eighth standard. The most grateful among the three is probably Hemavathi, whose parents threatened to pull her out of school after the eighth. ``If not for this scholarship, I would probably be married, or working to supplement the family income,'' she says.

``We choose students whose parents are really badly off economically. After the test, we even get the parents to sign an agreement that they will not pull their wards out of school midway,'' says Aysha Rau.

``These kids are intelligent and talented. We need to give them a chance, after that it is upto them,'' she adds. The Little Theatre also conducts street theatre workshops and spoken English classes for the Corporation School students.

Incidentally, it is time to pass the hat around once again. Little Theatre is conducting auditions for its next pantomime `Elves and the shoemaker' on 3rd, 4th and 5th September beginning 6 p.m. at the British Council auditorium. College students with a yen for this kind of fun can drop in for the auditions and of course, add their mite to the general cause.

By Ramya Kannan

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