'Playing' to grow

Theatre workshops are viewed by parents as tools for their children's empowerment.Parents don't want their children to excel in academics alone; they want them to be confident young individuals. So, anything that can make them stand on their feet is finding favour with the parents. And the newest in this line is kids' theatre.
Says Sandhya Jaswa, who conducts acting and drama workshops for kids along with her daughter Sonali Jaswa, a stage actor and an arts student, "My daughter and I work hard on reading the kid's mind and making him interested in the course.Many parents force their kids to go the workshop to learn acting and elocution. Therefore, it's important to prepare the child before making him perform. We have skits, then we teach them to perform monologues, followed by oneact plays. We will also be working on plays based on folk tales and Panchatantra stories very soon." The course includes elocution, diction, vocabulary, speech, dialogues, poetry etc.
But, why are parents going out of their way to send their kids to unconventional courses like acting and stage? "No, it is not the Bollywood chaska, but the thrill of being on stage. It helps in boosting the kids' academics," remarks Shilpa Barmeda, a homemaker and mother of two. Shilpa's son has weak memory, which was a cause of concern for her. "He was not performing well in his studies. His retention power was also less. But, now, with the acting and speech workshops, Ayushman (7) is able to recite his poems and answers the questions in the class without any hesitation," says Shilpa.
Meena Karamchandani's daughter, Smriti, 8, was an introvert, till she joined Sandhya's workshop. Not anymore. "The change is tremendous. She has opened up a lot. I don't want her to become an actor or something. But, yes, theatre helps in gaining confidence, and improves the kids' communication skills a lot. Her English diction has improved to a great extent," explains a beaming Meena.
Also, parents want their kids to do something different, something unusual. "Theatre does not only mean acting and confidence, it also means thinking on your feet. It gives you creative thinking and enhances the power of imagination. Parents want their kids to be creative, and that could be one of the reasons for them to coax their kids to learn acting," says Mahrukh Bharucha, director of a theatre institute in the city.
Claiming that her institute views children as young people with opinions, and preferences, she says, "We use theatre to provide the audience with a glimpse of how and why children think." But, Jaswa has a different take on kids' theatre. "We hold acting workshops especially for kids because, we believe, adult theatre is given more preference and importance than kids' dramas, which is wrong. Children's theatre should be given some space of its own, at least in some corner," she says matter-offactly.