A peep into the world of cinema and theatre

KOCHI:When schools close for summer vacation, one sees summer camps for children cropping up everywhere. From reiki, karate, music and painting to arts and craft, they offer a variety of choices often leaving kids confused. Now here is a camp with a difference. Rangaprabhath Bal Bhavan's Bal Vikas Mela aims at the holistic development of children.

Apart from conventional elements like classes in classical dance, tabla and guitar, the camp will also comprise a series of three-day workshops conducted by the Kerala Chalachithra Academy, Kerala Lalitha Kala Academy and the Kerala Folklore Academy. There will also be a screening of movies for children.

The mela was inaugurated by T R Sadashivan Nair, director of the cultural department. So far, around 300 students have joined the camp. The workshops are open to children between 4 and 16 years of age. From acting, theatre accessories, theatre games, creative dramatics and story-telling to poems, the correct pronunciation of Malayalam words, songs and dance, everything is taught in the month-long workshops.

The Chalachitra Academy workshop was inaugurated by Vijaykrishnan, director of the academy, who took the first class and taught the students movie direction and introduced them to the world of cinema. Another workshop was led by famous director Santhosh Souparnika where Charlie Chaplin's movies were screened.

For the past ten years, Rangaprabhath has been conducting summer camps. “Every year

we get many students who come to learn theatre. Children above 7 years can be engaged in serious theatre training classes. Our programmes are aimed at the students' overall development in holistic skills,” said K S Geetha, director of Rangaprabhath. In the days to come, children will be exposed to more cultural things where experts will give them training.