Life is a stage

An old Chinese proverb says- “Tell me and I will forget. Show me and I will remember. Involve me and I will understand.” 

Involvement is vital in the process of learning, beginning at home and then in the school. 

For complete learning, theatre activists today suggest use of theatre as a tool so that the children want to get involved in the process with enthusiasm and curiosity.

Sunil Kumar, 21, of Muzaffarpur. had a low voice and was extremely shy. Lacking in confidence, his body language reflected it till he met Saurav Kaushik, a theatre specialist from the same town. “I am reborn,” Kumar says today and adds, “The miracle that changed my life is a tool named theatre. The activities like psycho physical drama and memory game helped me build up confidence and today I work as a specialist, teaching others about personality development through theatre activity.”

Currently running a theatre group in his home town (THE WAY®) and working on a government project for changing the education system through ‘Theatre in Education’, thespian Kaushik has held theatre workshops with children for better learning in several schools and colleges of India. He feels that theatre components are “authentic ways to teach as they help in overall personality development of children, including concentration, physical movement, improvisation and confidence building.”  It also teaches them how to react in special situations, how to dress, how to speak, etc.

Theatre - a five thousand year old art form, has been modified over and over again with changing times. Since the age of Aristotle in Greece and Bharatmuni’s Natya Shastra  in India, theatre has been one of the most productive ways of communication. 

The variety and difference of culture, language, race, habit and education can be easily transcended with the help of theatre. 

According to the theatre specialists the elements of theatre consist of basic understanding of the human nature which is why theatre has greater capacity to contribute to our society especially in education, which presently, the specialists feel, is in a pretty bad shape as the scope of imagination and creativity are limited.

Bindushree,17, was a drop-out from school and stayed in a children’s home supervised by an NGO called  Timbaktu Collective, at Chennekothapalli of Anantapur district in Andhra Pradesh.  Her parents were against sending her to school and she was extremely timid. Last year ,the NGO organised a theatre workshop where some specialists held activities with the children. 

“The workshop, like a touchstone, changed me for good and today I am a completely different person who knows what to do in life,” enthuses the teenager who passed the Class X Board exam with 62 per cent marks and wants to become a teacher. 

It has been seen that after reading a book for one hour if a student is asked to recall it, only 20 to 30 per cent remember it well, whereas if a lesson is presented in a dramatic way, 90 to 95 pr cent of the content  is retained. The students can explain or speak on the topic in their own words too.  

Dharmendra Kumar from UP has been associated with theatre for last 15 years. He observes, “The result is often magical. The students who are known as shy and introvert open up and share various experiences and ideas. Even those known for being indisciplined start behaving politely.” 

Chandrasekhar, from Chandigarh, has applied theatre as a tool of  education since 1998. According to him children are naturally creative and it is “sad” that the school system does not consist opportunities which can help a child to find out his/her true potential. Instead, the system discourages the major portion of students from pursuing their dream in their very own way. “What Rabindranath Tagore said decades ago, that- ‘the student is made to abhor thinking’ seems painfully true even today” he laments.

However, on the positive side, the concept of theatre activity in education is gaining ground in many places. In Delhi, support from TIE (Theatre in Education) and NSD (National School of Drama) has come in this effort. Azim Premji Foundation is also doing good work together with TIE at Rajasthan. However, though the private schools are gradually showing interest in including theatre in the education programme, the government schools need to be more proactive the  practitioners feel.

In Modern High School for Girls, Kolkata, drama and role play are used in several ways. Special drama classes are also organised regularly which are conducted by theatre professionals. The students occasionally adapt canonical dramatic works to contemporary surroundings or dramatise prose works and these exercises help them hone their creativity. 

Says Kaveri Dutt, principal of the school,  “It’s heartening to see that more and more schools are realising the importance of drama as a teaching-learning tool and are integrating it into the school curriculum. Not only is it a useful method for building skills and attitude, it’s also therapeutic. We recognize that it’s a powerful means of communication. ” She observes that through the use of drama, students imbibe problem-solving skills, which they can later apply in their own lives. “Besides, young children love to imitate and it enhances their involvement,” Dutt  adds.

Swastika Dhar of Nandikaar, Bengal’s prestigious theatre unit, has interacted regularly with large groups of children, youngsters and teenagers as a teacher, trainer and researcher since 2003. 

For the last seven years she has also been pursuing a research project on ‘The Magical World of Theatre-an off the Beaten Track to Serve Children’ and has been the chief organiser of the One Day Bishnupur Children Theatre Festival, 2010. 

With experience of working with almost 350 students in the age group of five to eighteen years,  Dhar feels, “Education should be the means to understand, control and finally bring some positive change to the ‘given situations’, some of which always seem to be beyond our control. In the educational system we have today , the theory based narrow syllabus is not quite encouraging for different types of students.”

As Tagore said, “In children, the whole body is expressible. By repressing all activity of the body so many school lessons remain absolutely dead and ineffective.” 

Theatre activists today are trying to change that state of mind and make learning more enjoyable and effective.