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Potter steals the show
NIMI KURIAN
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From Mary Poppins and Alice in Wonderland to Harry Potter... many a classic character came alive on stage at Funtasia, the one-day drama competition for school children.
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IT WAS stiff competition... between Alice, Mary Poppins, Peter Pan, Pied Piper, Edmund, Peter, Susan and Lucy who wander into Narnia and Harry Potter. Who would emerge the winner? Undoubtedly, Harry Potter with his bag of studied magic, spells and witchcraft.
Funtasia, a one-day inter-school drama competition based on the dramatisation of classic British children's fiction, was held this past week at the British Council, Chennai. The Madras English Association together with the British Council envisaged the festival intending to bring children closer to books.
Twelve schools were sent a list of British classics like Charles Kingsley's "Water Babies", Lewis Carrol's "Alice in Wonderland", Beatrix Potter's "Peter Rabbit", J.K.Rowling's "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone", Eoin Colfer's "Artemis Fowl" and many more. Despite the wide range to select from, five schools (Lady Andal, A.M.M. Matriculation, Vanavani, K.R. Meena Muthiah and SBOA) picked "Alice in Wonderland". As one of the participants from Vanavani said, "We chose Alice because we thought there was a lot of scope for imagination and innovation." Obviously so did the others. The different presentations were enlightening and entertaining.
All except Vanavani stuck to the original story. Vanavani modernised the story providing a refreshing change. They decided that they would pun on the word March and portrayed the March Hare as a homicidal maniac marching up and down the stage with gun in hand. They had a crystal ball gazer narrating the story and did away with sets, which was a good idea considering the size of the stage and the time allotted for the performance.
D.A.V. Senior Secondary School, who performed Mary Poppins, took the opportunity to throw in some advice to parents in the words of Mary Poppins. "Time spent with children cannot be qualified or quantified." "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" by C.S.Lewis was dramatised by Bala Vidya Mandir. Entering Narnia through the wardrobe, Edmund finds himself in a magical world. The performance left one wondering whether the children had read the series or even the book.
Padma Seshadri, Nungambakkam, chose Pied Piper. Making effective use of space and lighting, Peter Pan and the Darling children put up a convincing performance. Padma Seshadri, K.K.Nagar, came up with Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.
They created the magical world of Hogwarts with witches and wizards. The students scripted the dialogue in verse and the delivery was fluid and easy.
The finale was the Pied Piper of Hamilyn by Vidyodaya. A lot of effort and time had gone into all these performances. Condensing a book into a 15-minute presentation must have been an arduous task but like the participants said, "We had a wonderful time".
While Padma Seshadri, K.K.Nagar, walked away with the prize for the Best Production, Padma Seshadri, Nungambakkam, was voted second. The Best Actors were Varun of Padma Seshadri, K.K.Nagar for his convincing performance as Professor Quirrle. His poise and dialogue delivery won hands down. Rohit of A.M.M. School as Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland and Nisha of Lady Andal as Alice also won the prize.
The judges were Michael Muthu, Ayesha Rau and Mithran Devanesan. Announcing the winners, Devanesan said he had a wonderfully entertaining day. Muthu said he was surprised that there was so much of talent in Chennai. But despite the talent he felt that the children needed direction.
But Ayesha Rau was most effusive in her reaction, "Hats off to the Madras English Association and the British Council for putting together such a show providing children with an opportunity to perform."
NIMI KURIAN
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