'Take a child to the theatre today'

By Anuradha Kodagoda

Every year the World Day of Theatre for Children and Young People has been celebrated all over the world by the international community of theatre professionals.

The main purpose of the World Day of Theatre for Children and Young People is to attract the attention of a wider audience to the art of theatre for children and young people and it is facilitated by ASSITEJ (Association International du Theatre pour l´Enfance et la Jeunesse) - International Association of Theatre for Children and Young People.

"ASSITEJ recognises the right of all children and young people to enrichment through the arts and their own cultural traditions, especially theatre culture. Theatre respects its young audiences by presenting their hopes, dreams, and fears; develops and deepens experience, intelligence, emotion, and imagination; inspires ethical choices; increases awareness of social relationships; encourages self-esteem, tolerance, confidence, and the free expression of opinions," said the President Kim Sook Hee, ASSITEJ Korea.

Kim Sook Hee participated as chief guest at the recently concluded Colombo Theatre Festival For Young Audiences organised by the Lanka Children's and Youth Theatre Foundation (LCYTF) which is the official national ASSITEJ centre in Sri Lanka.

'Take a child to the theatre today' is the next three years' campaign slogan of ASSITEJ. It is a clear and simple message which encourages parents, grandparents and guardians to take the children in their care to the theatre. It is a known fact that with the many technological achievements today, children have many options to spend their leisure and unfortunately theatre is no more an option in their leisure activities. Therefore, it is crucial to persuade, especially parents and guardians to take their children to the theatre even occasionally. However, compared to the situation in Korea, the enthusiasm for theatre in Sri Lanka is much higher than in Korea among the children and adults," she said.

Article 31

The ASSITEJ endorses Article 31 of the 1989 United Nations´ Convention of the Rights of the Child that affirms the right of children to leisure time and the enjoyment of arts and cultural activities. It shares common values with UNESCO's Cultural Policy, calling for the rights of children and young people for cultural participation and activity. It holds with the belief of the 2005 UNESCO Convention about Cultural Diversity, that children and young people must be allowed a cultural identity and be visible everywhere in society.

ASSITEJ is an advocate for the promotion of theatre for young audiences in principle and practice. It calls on all national and international organisations that recognise the potential of children and young people and their capacity to contribute to the development of society to recognise and support this constitution. This year's Colombo Theatre Festival for Young Audiences featured popular original plays such as Vikurthi and HimaKumariya musical children's plays and Sinhala translations of popular international plays Sanda Langa Maranaya (Blood Wedding) and BernadageSipirigeya (The House of Bernada Alba) and Kalumaali.

"After fourteen years again I got the opportunity to enjoy Sri Lankan theatre and compared with my last experience I must say there's a huge development that I see in Sri Lankan theatre.

Compared with the Korean theatre, the Sri Lankan theatre is a combination of traditional and modern aspects which I understand is a progressive character. In Korea, this combination is hardly seen.

Today, the most challenging aspect in theatre is the negligence of traditional characteristics of theatre by the younger generation. I see this problem in Korean theatre the most. Though the older generation could bring the characteristics of traditional theatre pretty much sincerely, the younger generations are not keen about bringing them any further," she stressed.

"I had many opportunities to experience the Western theatre productions for young audiences. Most of their productions for young audiences have not followed the text but followed the creativity.

However, at the same time they too have not been given enough chance to learn the traditions and culture which is important to portray in young audiences performances.

Therefore, I'm grateful for the effort made by Somalatha Subasinghe through the Play House Kotte (LCYTF) to share her knowledge in theatre with the young people of the country. I'm willingly holding hands with LCYTF Sri Lanka in future programs as well," she said.