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| Sunday, 30 June 2002 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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For Children Friendship is peace There is an ideal to way to bring about world peace, without the complex maneuvres or intricate brainwork many governments go through, to force the fractious parties to the negotiation table for rounds of futile discussions.
"Its the adult world which for its own benefit mislead nations into believing vain falsehoods about themselves. Children have the sincerity to accept one's own people as they are and say, we will build up from this point with what we have," Subasinghe articulates and one gets a strong feeling that her words are the natural after-runner to a very solid conviction. A conviction she formulated after taking across a children's theatre group to participate in an International Children's Get-Together and a Dance Festival in France, early last year. "A rare children's meet in which all the countries in the world should come together," emphasises Subasinghe. The story of how it all began in itself is an amazing revelation of how the child nature works. Upali Gunasekera, Principal, Isipatana College, had felt disturbed by the feeling that the college students were not initiated enough in finer tastes of arts and theatre. "I asked Mrs. Subasinghe to come and stage one of her dramas in school to improve the students' aesthetic feelings. After one was staged, her other dramas naturally followed in sequence." The success led to Subsinghe offering to train a batch of fifty students from the school in creative recreation of drama. "I asked the Principal to give me students who were the most reluctant to come for their classes and made the biggest din." So began an evening exercise which started with stimulating one's senses and went on to build body poise, body flexibility, health, confidence, leadership and creativity, ending with students producing five plays. "In three months, students who were getting only zeros or below 10 marks in their normal school curriculum, had shot up beyond 50 marks. They were also more communicative and co-operative with their parents," says Gunasekera as Subasinghe makes her point, "Don't call this disciplining. We gave these students an opportunity to prove themselves and discover their abilities and they appreciated it. We never said any thing was wrong. The best way to take the stress out of unruly children is to give them attention, recognition and guidance." This was the period when Jeune Theatre International in Valenciennes invited Subasinghe to bring in a child theatre group, aged 8-12 years, for a Children's Theatre Festival bringing together the five countries Sri Lanka, Italy, South Africa, Papua New Guinea and Romania. From the group she trained, she picked eight whom she felt was capable enough of functioning independently. "The eight naughtiest children in the world!" Subasinghe laughs. "We should be rewarded for whisking them back home in one piece. When they performed on stage, they did it with the greatest care and responsibility. But once back in their own clothes, you would have taken them for monkeys in children's clothing!" "I don't restrain that naughtiness. That's the precise raw material I use creatively on stage!" Words which no doubt must be an eye-opener to many parents and teachers of unattentive and rebelious children. For nearly six months before the selected troupe finally left for France, they build bridges of pen-friendship communicating with students of four schools and families in France who were to host each child during the 10-day visit. The team of child invitees from the five countries comprised 32. "When the team visited French schools, they were welcomed like long-lost relatives," Subasinghe reminisces. "There wasn't a single black and brown student among the French but they took to our children as ducks to water. They didn't know a word of English, our kids didn't know a word of French, but within 5-6 minutes of meeting, I was stunned to see a bustling dialogue going on between them, and the exchange of photos and addresses." "For us, the whole world is one - we don't need a language to make friends," butts in Sanjeev (12). "With miming, we can exchange thoughts." When the Lankan children presented Subsinghe's well-known children's play, "Hat Seller" in Valenciennes, there was an uproar of a standing ovation. "The first time any troupe - adult or children - received such an ovation there, they told us." The play was unique for its variety of pantomime, action and acrobatics, with very little language, making it easily understood. The children continued the credits with no less than six performances. Subasinghe had told the children to lapse to Sinhala, if they forgot the English lines in the English version of the play. "Adults would have been baffled. But children are natural and sincere that they did just that. Whatever word that came to their minds, they said and the audience understood." Children from different parts of the world taught one another folk songs and dance rhythms and learnt how each one lived. "At the home I stayed, children washed themselves in the morning, singing "thoppi, thoppi" (hats)," Sanjeev laughs. "We learnt from them to be orderly and clean," says Lahiru (12). "Even a toffee cover, they carefully throw into a dust bin and have thorough wash before bed." Prasanna (12) said, "When the whole team was travelling in the bus, they were always saying "pap, pap" because we taught them the song "Soora Pappa." Lankan children showed how to play "Chag-gudu" to their foreign friends and even had the distinction of winning the "Best Losers' Trophy" at a Foot-Ball Training School. When the visit finally ended, all the children and the foster-families which hosted them were in tears. "The families hugged the children tight and cried as if demented," Subasinghe says. "When the international team of children were at the point of parting, they huddled together like a rugger pack and howled. It was extremely difficult for us to part them and when we dragged them apart, they darted back like crabs to be together." Following France, Subasinghe took the Lankan troupe to her own abode in Netherlands for a brief spell of sight-seeing and a two more performances in Hague at the British School for 5-year-olds and the International School of Social Studies. "They were the best ambassadors for Sri Lanka as I had never seen such a close unity among children," marvels Subasinghe. "It was all due to the far-seeing vision of the dance festival. If we are to work any attitude-change in the world, it has to come through children. Our trip proves it." Sri lankan peace ambassadors Isipatana College, Colombo 7: Mehilan Kasun Jaywardena, 12 |
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| Editorial | Security Produced by Lake House |
"Give the world over to children. They have no sense of
boundaries, racial prejudices or language bariers. What a strong bond of
togetherness they can inspire in us adults !" The sentiments come
from Somalatha Subasinghe, renowned children's playwright and Director of
the Children and Youth Theatre Organisation, Kotte.
