HSEA presents BETTER THAN THE REAL

Head Start Educational Academy presents
BETTER THAN THE REAL
By the students of Grade Eleven
(A play in English based on Slawomir Mrozek’s short story 'The Elephant')
Direction: Samta Shikhar & Ashwini Kumar Chakre

24th & 25th November 2017
24th November, 8 PM
25th November, 6 PM and 8 PM
Venue
Head Start Montessori House of Children, Koramangala

Suitable for an audience above the age of seven

Synopsis
This play encapsulates the nature of human existence and is set in a zoo, where animals are caged for display. Inspired by the story “THE ELEPHANT” by Slawomir Mrozek, it seeks for us to collectively reflect on the structures of existence that we as human beings occupy.

Using the trope of a zoo both comically and metaphorically, the play comments on the very nature of human evolution from animals to humans. We may have evolved from primitive animals to the thinking mind, but as thinking minds are we constantly carrying the burden of our own existence? Have we evolved as animals with bent backs rather than human beings capable of owning our decisions? Keeping this question as its central thrust, the play is entirely devised by our 11th graders, in conversation with the story “The Elephant”.

Production Pictures

Rehearsal Pictures

‘DAYictionary’ a play presented by HSEA

Head Start Educational Academy presents
DAYictionary

3rd & 4th December 2016
3:30 pm & 6:00pm, Duration: 60min, Venue: Lshva

This play is a devised piece of theatre on the concept of the everyday, put together by the children of Grades 4 to 9.

DAYictionary
Our play is about what makes the everyday. Is it the mundane? Is it a routine? Is it the special? Or does the day contain all of this?

Live Production Pictures

Rehearsal & Production Pictures

Directed by : Samta Shikhar & Ashwini Kumar Chakre
Movement Artist: Anitha Santhanam
Sounds: Karen D'Mello
Lights: Ashwini Kumar Chakre & Karen D'Mello
Photography and Videography: Virginia Rodrigues

Art Installation & Performance

Arts & Education – Process versus Outcome

Parents’ comments on Oral History and BMTC plays 2015

Dear Samta and the Head Start team,

Thank you so much for the wonderful performance put up yesterday. The entire experience of the presentations was fabulous, right from the approach, conceptualisation, script, performances, production values and the execution.

We as parents were extremely happy to see the calibre of theatre; it truly was professional. Also we would really like to let you know that seeing our child perform and his entire approach to theatre from when he initially started out, the resistance and reluctance metamorphosing to the sheer enjoyment and a sense of ownership that we witnessed last evening, has really given us a lot of joy.

We thank you all for not giving up on him and bringing out a talent that we never knew existed in our child.

For us, Head Start has always been all about nurturing and discovering one's hidden potential and when we see presentations like these it truly validates what the school stands for.

With much gratitude,
Appreciative Parents

Hi Samta and Team,

We attended the theatre performances yesterday and I just want to say that it exceeded all expectations.

What a lovely time we had. Kids laughed and loved it.

The BMTC bus was a masterpiece. Such a brilliant idea and perfectly executed.

It was a shame that more people did not attend. Theatre night should be made mandatory especially when so much hard work goes into it 😉 I think we were one of the few people who attended for the experience and not because our kids were participating.

I suggest going public with the BMTC production. More people need to see this brilliant work. Also it serves a higher social purpose that more people in Bangalore can benefit from.

Anyway, that's my two cents.

Good luck.
Kathleen de Saran

The God Play

The BMTC

Oral History

Thoughts….Why Theatre for children

Thoughts….Why Theatre for children
by the Theatre Team

Theatre for young people or children need not be about entertaining. There is no dearth of entertainment in the lives of young people or adults and theatre therefore need not be seen as complimenting the world of television, cinema or educational awareness and growth. Theatre enables all this and much more and hence we need to think of theatre for children as a medium worth its name which works at multiple levels for a child as it does for adults. Theatre for children needs to be seen as something which communicates ideas provoking questions and enabling children to formulate an opinion and understanding of their own position in the world and of those around them. All of us who profess and practice the making of theatre, whether specifically for children or adults must realise that at the end of the day, theatre can only work if we make our audiences question and think through all we produce for them. If we think of children as beings who need things to be ‘explained’ to them instead of being equal partners in a conversation, then theatre for young people does not work. We might as well be honest; we can make good theatre for children only if we believe in it ourselves. So the importance of theatre for young people and especially in a place like India, is to break the shackles of doing fairy tales and stories of kings and queens just as fantasy because doing something like that in the name of simplifying is actually patronising a child and patronage has no place in pedagogy.

An opportunity for self exploration

An opportunity for self exploration
By Samta Shikhar
Director of Theatre at Head Start

Theatre at Head Start is a form of art introduced to children as an opportunity for self exploration and discovery.

To be able to think, question and thus be aware. The medium of theatre at Head Start is not to learn the skill of performance but to be able to use it as creative expression of one’s own thoughts and ideas. Create from what we know, search the unknown, see what we can’t see, reflect on what exists and then create with it.

Some children would like to explore this journey through acting, some through words, some through making something tangible (like a piece of art or an installation); all this makes theatre.

The facilitator at Head Start doing theatre simply triggers the session with a question or a concept or text and then channelizes the immense energies that the children bring up in response; either making it a play or writing an original script or doing an exhibition or simply leaving the session open ended to become aware, reflect upon and internalise.

The theatre programme is divided into two parts; one is actually doing theatre and the other is receiving it. Receiving it means our children are taken to watch plays, visit art galleries, speak to artists about the process of their creation, walk down a street, take a bus drive, go to a junkyard and let theatre happen in the mundane and the ordinary as well.

The relationship of a facilitator and the children in the session is one of collaboration between the two. In turn the experience becomes very satisfying and inspiring for both; the facilitator as an artist evolves and the children do more and more, and we can never have enough!