'Theatre for Children' - In India this commonly means theatre 'by' children. No doubt that a bulk of theatre for children is still performed by children, but over the past two decades a lot of work has been put into building a community of adult performers for children. Most of this effort has been in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata, with some recent initiatives in Bangalore and Chennai. Theatre for young audiences in India works on a different dynamic as compared to the European modules. More often performers are a part of amateur or semi-professional groups as opposed to professional theatre companies. Also there are very few professional repertories or state funded projects. Individuals and private groups sustain themselves with institutional grants and private sponsorships.

Across India there are a number of theatre festivals for children. Some are hosted by state-run cultural bodies, some by public trusts and others by educational institutions. Many of these are for school theatre groups and youth groups. The three premiere festivals featured in this article are the ones hosted at Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. The other important festivals are held at Kolkata and Chennai.

Jashnebachpan (Celebration of Childhood) and Bal Sangam (Confluence of Children) festivals at New Delhi are hosted by the state-run theatre institution, the National School of Drama (NSD). Summertime with Prithvi is hosted by Prithvi Theatre in Mumbai and Aha! is hosted by Rangashankara in Bangalore. Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA) features prominently in the work of these institutions and apart from festivals, they organise continuous theatre activity for children through the year.

These three festivals have very different approaches and we shall discuss the similarities and differences between them and also what makes each one unique.

Jashnebachpan and Bal Sangam, New Delhi

The National School of Drama is one of the foremost theatre training institutions in India. In 1989 the School formed a Theatre in Education Company called Sanskar Rang Toli, popularly known as TIE. The TIE Repertory consists of a group of actor-teachers who work with and perform for children. They conduct summer theatre workshops, run weekend drama clubs, conduct workshops for teachers and also host theatre festivals for children.

The TIE hosts Jashnebachpan, a National Theatre Festival for Children that has performances by and for children from different parts of India. This festival began in 1998 and is a biennale feature. From 2000 onwards the TIE has also been hosting Bal Sangam, a festival of Indian folk and traditional performing arts presented by children.

These are the only National Festivals for children that have showcased plays in more than 14 different languages. On an average over 100 theatre groups send in their entries and about 15 to 25 are selected for each festival. These groups are given an honorarium for the performance, and all expenses are paid for by the festival.

The primary aim is to present the best theatre practices from different parts of India and at many levels it is very officious in nature. There is a grandness that reflects in the pitch of the event and this also adds a lot of prestige to the TIE festivals!

Prithvi Summertime, Mumbai

'Prithvi Theatre is an intimate theatre auditorium, built in 1978, and dedicated to being a catalyst for theatre'. Managed by a non-government trust it is one of the few curated theatre spaces in India, with 6 days-a-week programming all round the year. Known for hosting innovative annual festivals, it has brought together theatre companies and artistes from all over India and the world.

The 20 year-old Prithvi Summertime programme aims to be 'A one of a kind contribution towards establishing theatre for children in India'. For the first 15 years it mainly featured creative workshops for children, with a few morning performances of plays, staged by Prithvi Players and some other groups.

In 2006 an entire season was turned over to plays for 'children only' and this has now become an annual feature from mid-April to mid-June. The programme aims to introduce children to plays specifically made for them and to provide a low-risk platform that encourages professional theatre groups to also create theatre for children.

It is noteworthy that most of the leading theatre groups of Mumbai (who otherwise regularly perform for adults) have been a part of this season of plays. Prithvi provides no grants or funding to these groups and instead, the groups have to themselves finance and produce their plays. But Prithvi does provide an umbrella to the season of plays which is packaged like a festival, but hosted in collaboration with the theatre groups.

Aha!, Bangalore

Rangashankara is a fairly new theatre facility in Bangalore, established in 2005. Managed by a public trust, it showcases theatrical performances from India and abroad. 'Play-a-day' has been one of its biggest contributions to the city of Bangalore.

Their theatre programme for children is called Aha! As Arundhati Nag, Creative Director of Rangashankara says, 'Aha! is our commitment to children'. The primary aim has been to develop high standards in content and performance for children and to also develop a theatre-going habit in children.

In 2009 they hosted an International Theatre Festival for children and plan to host this as a biennale. The Indian performances were by traditional artistes from Karnataka and Tamil Nadu and some by Rangashankara's own repertory. International performers came from Germany, Australia and Argentina. An interesting part of this festival was the focus on theatre for the very young, with plays like THE GREAT LALULA and THE GARBAGE MOUSE, performed by Schnawwl Theatre (Mannheim). Very recently again, Rangashankara and Schnawwl Theatre co-produced BOY WITH A SUITCASE- a play about children who are displaced. This festival not only has a range of plays but also ancillary events that provide an opportunity for discussion and sharing between practitioners, children, educators and parents.

But the Aha! programme goes beyond the festival. Through their school outreach programme they have performed for about 60 thousand children over the past 3 years with performances by their repertory. They have an on-going collaboration with Schnawwl Theatre and through this they are strengthening their repertory as well as their audience building initiatives.

Content

The content of the plays has been ranging from adaptations of well known stories to contemporary themes. Very few plays have been based on fairy tales or classical themes. Primarily we have seen three categories of content - the first that is based on a well known published work for children, the second is stories about animals and environmental issues, the third about children in a contemporary context.

There have been plays based on stories by non-Indian writers such as THE DAY I MET THE PRINCE, PI , THE LITTLE PRINCE, WIZARD OF OZ (performed as SHEHENSHAH OF AZEEMO), TINTIN, MYSTERY OF THE PANTOMIME CAT and so on. The plays based on work by Indian writers have at the forefront- A SPECIAL BOND (Part 1 & 2) based on Ruskin Bond's stories, BARSORAAM DHADAAKE SE (Kalpana Swaminathan), and others. There was also an adaptation of Shakespeare's ALMOST TWELFTH NIGHT performed with puppets by Kat Katha from New Delhi.

The plays about animals have been well received, though most have been very moralistic and speak about how children should behave with animals. ONCE UPON A TIGER (Director Jaimini Pathak), JUNGLENAMA (Aasakta Group), JUNGLE DHOOM.COM (Ekjute Group), LITTLE BLUE PLANET (Director Anurupa Roy) are some that have made an impression. Yet there is a visible reflection of the extreme attitudes that we as a society have towards animals. So even though there are many contemporary concerns for the environment that are enmeshed in the script, the portrayal of animal characters is still classical in some sense, relying on stereotypes in behaviour and symbolism from mythological or traditional Indian tales.

Plays based in the contemporary context feature child characters as the protagonists and many of these productions are rooted in the 'Grips' style from Germany. So we have some plays that are adaptations of MAX AND MILLI and others like PAR HAMEIN KHELNA HAI (Director Shrirang Godbole), DHONI DHO DAALTA HAI, named after the Indian cricketer MS Dhoni , Aasakta Kalamanch's BED KE NEECHE REHNEWAALI. These delve into children's day-to-day experiences and issues, expression of their feelings and emotions and the relationships between children and adults. The influence of 'Grips' has been quite instrumental in giving the tone and style to many works since the mid 1980s. And this is visible in plays at the TIE Festival and at Prithvi Summertime as well. There have also been popular plays like GOTYA (Director Dhanendra Kawde), MEDHA AND ZOOMBISH - parts 1 and 2 (Director Ramu Ramanathan), MUMMY PLEASE (Director Om Katare).

Prithvi theatre encourages performers to not talk down to children. But often there are performances with an undesired pitch and tone. It reflects how the creators of the play treat or look at children. This is one big area that needs a lot of work and direction - training and building attitudes of the performers towards children.

Many plays have been 'bright' in their content. Delving into dark areas is not seen as safe. As Sameera Iyengar, Project Director at Prithvi says, '...all the old fairy tales have a dark side to them. So why have we suddenly decided that children need Walt Disney. Lines have to be clean and there should be no shadow... And somewhere our theatre (for children) is missing that kind of depth.'

Arundhati Nag, Director of Rangashankara says, 'We want to see not fairy tales, not Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and Cinderella and Pinnochio, but plays that come out of the Indian context, life experiences, giving children the theatre that they want, with their concerns, their hopes and ambitions.'

All three festivals have regularly showcased German plays in the International section with plays by Schnawwl Theatre Mannheim, Theatre Handgemge, Junges Ensemble Stuttgart and others.

Coming to language, theatre for children is being performed in over 16 Indian languages. In Mumbai the plays are mostly in Hindi, English and Marathi. In Bangalore they are in Kannada, English and German. The bulk of plays at the Delhi festival have been in Hindi and Bengali and in recent years there has been a rise in number of plays from the north-eastern states of India, performed in Manipuri and Assamese.

Performing Groups

Till about 20 years ago, there were hardly any theatre performances specifically designed and created for children and young people in India. Theatregoing has traditionally been a family activity, where children would just tag along. But over the years this changed to performances by children and by far this is still the most popular understanding of children's theatre. Only in select urban centres do we see theatre for children, performed by adults. This too is mostly not professional, but amateur to semi-professional, just as most theatre in India is. This is not a flaw, but a condition that defines the type of work people are creating, with limited time and resources. In a way most performances are just delving into the individual styles of the directors, but not really working on the form per se.

Jashnebachpan and Bal Sangam feature many performances that include child artistes. There are also performances by adults. As this festival is representative of what is happening across the country, it features the leading groups from different areas. As many groups work with children and adults, the festival invariably features many such performances. Whereas, in Mumbai and in Bangalore there is a thrust on professionally performed plays for children by adults only.

At Prithvi theatre, the performing groups have been mostly from Mumbai, while some are from other cities in India and there have been some visiting international troupes as well. Even though professional vigour is not a given practice and some performances have been under rehearsed, the practice of performing for children has been created. As Sameera adds '...what happens now is by August, groups have already started thinking about the play they want to produce for children'. This is a big change in approach. In Mumbai we see at least six to seven theatre companies professionally producing plays for children every year.

In Bangalore most of the performances have been by Rangashankara's own repertory company. They have produced plays in Kannada and English - ZAPPERDOCKEL AND THE WOCK, GUMMA BANDA GUMMA, THE FIRST LEAF, ROBINSON AND CRUSOE and THE BOY WITH A SUITCASE. Performances by other groups have been very few and are not included in the Aha! programme. They are stand alone performances hosted by the groups on their own. Currently there are few groups in Bangalore who are doing amateur level performances for children, while many are working with children and conduct drama workshops and run clubs. The festival has seen performances by groups like Spandana Bangalore, Saligrama Makkala Mela from Kota and Kattaikuttu Gurukulam from Kanchipuram. Arundhati points out that 'it is an uphill task to do regular theatre for children. There has to be a financial module and a training module'. Moreover in Bangalore it has been felt that groups are not able to produce a new play every year. So the organisers are planning a festival once in two years. This lack in output is very starkly evident in Bangalore.

Yet with all this annual activity and so many plays being performed, there is still not enough opportunity to share ideas and discuss the variety of work being done by artistes. These festivals provide the meeting ground but not much space for discussion or critique of each other's work.

Audience

Targeting plays for specific age brackets, most of the plays say that they are for 'all' above 6 years. Just doing a play for children is the general approach where the target is ALL children from 4 to 16 years and the family as a collective audience. A focus on particular age brackets is absent and so often the forms tend to be more general. Fallout of a general target audience in terms of age has been that most plays for children are considered 'for' and watched 'by' children between 6 yrs and 12 years. Even if the play is suitable for teenagers, they don't want to bracket themselves with 'kids', so they stay away from all this 'childish' theatre.

In Bangalore it was interesting that the festival had a range of plays targeted at different age brackets, and children and parents got the opportunity to engage keeping this aspect in view. The German plays were specific to toddlers and children under 6 years, whereas the plays from Australia and Argentina were for adolescents and teenagers. Especially Zeal Theatre's play, THE STONES targeted at 13+ age group was very gripping in content and form, something Bangalore audiences had not seen before. And the performance was followed by a long discussion between the young audience and the performers on the subject of juvenile crime and punishment.

Arundhati laments that, 'In India teachers and parents are not able to understand the concept of plays for specific age brackets'. But this actually extends to the performers as well. People are only now experimenting with doing specific plays and mentioning age brackets in their publicity materials.

The festival at Delhi caters to the entire city and country. Being a National Festival its audience also includes many theatre practitioners, educators and people working on child development. There is a certain academic aspect to this festival, and yet the festival does not include ancillary events that can bring practitioners together to discuss their work. One has seen more adults than children in the audience.

In Mumbai we now have hundreds of children looking forward to watching plays each summer. Prithvi Theatre also gives a membership card to every child enrolled in a workshop. So there are about 800 to 1000 children who can watch plays for free. That is a sizeable audience pool for the plays. And then you have children who watch the same play 5 to 6 times, just the way they would read and re-read a book. There are many who watch the shows just with their friends; their parents leave them at the door and go off shopping or read a book in the cafe. Parents are also respecting the space being given to children and letting them be an independent audience. Very often we see children coming on their own to watch a show. Prithvi Theatre has been creating an audience that will grow and stay with them. There is a sense of belonging to a local community and this venue can be defined as a neighbourhood theatre.

Rangashankara has successfully developed a school connect module and through this they have been able to expose thousands of Bangalore children to theatre. So their work is targeted to the entire city rather than a local community. Arundhati says, 'I think going to the schools way is the best way'.

Children have thoroughly enjoyed the collective experience of watching a play with their schoolmates and then that conversation goes into the classroom. Rangashankara is working towards making theatre-going, an academic experience for all schools in Bangalore, so that every child sees a play at least once a year. Here the percentage of children coming with parents is very less. Arundhati says, 'We have not been able to build that constituency of parents who will come out with their children and watch a play as a family experience'.

Conclusion

So we can say that in Delhi we have a National Festival, in Mumbai we have a neighbourhood theatre festival and in Bangalore it is more oriented towards connecting with schools.

The TIE has and continues to play the role of a central body engaged in Theatre for Children. Though their year round activities are more Delhi based, their festivals are a meeting point for performers from across the country. It has provided a wide umbrella to include traditional, amateur and professional artistes and also for theatre in the many languages spoken in India. It is truly a National Festival and gives a unique opportunity to children in Delhi as well as to theatre practitioners and educators to watch national and international theatre.

The Prithvi approach to theatre for young audiences has been very organic. There is a vision that is growing by the year, with a sharing and coming together of energies of different people and different institutions. There is a strong sense of commitment and sensitivity towards children that gives direction to their work. Prithvi Summertime has been a catalyst for the growth of TYA in Mumbai and they have grown from building an audience to also encouraging and building a theatre community that performs for children.

Rangashankara's Aha! festival is at a nascent stage, but their Aha! programme has made huge strides in reaching out to thousands of children. Their contribution in connecting schools to theatre is of utmost significance, the most crucial aspect being that they have made this a sustained activity.

Theatre for young audiences is still finding its feet in India. In such a scenario the work of these institutions is playing an important role in nurturing the performers, the audience and also giving space for development of content.

Useful links:

www.nsd.gov.in

www.prithvitheatre.org

www.rangashankara.org

*Shaili Sathyu is the founder-director of GILLO and primarily works in education and the arts. She has conducted workshops for children and teachers with themes ranging from the literary and the visual to the performing arts. She has directed plays for children such as GILLO's SUAR CHALA SPACE KO and IPTA's BARSORAM DHADAKE SE. She has overseen the management as well as designed sets and costumes for various productions of IPTA as well as for other groups such as Ekjute, Theatre Unit, Bangalore Little Theatre and Sanket. She is also working with Akshara High school in Mumbai. GILLO is an independent children's media group. Find out more about it at http://www.gillogilehri.blogspot.com/

This article was first published in "More than Child's play. Theater for Young Audiences in India". Published by Theater der Zeit, Berlin / Germany, 2011 in co-operation with ASSITEJ Germany and ASSITEJ India and Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Bangalore.