To mould young minds to convey messages of peace in society, the TIE Co of the National School Drama has made laudable efforts via its Summer Theatre Workshops. Keeping in mind the relevant theme of terrorism, a play titled Path Herua Pathik was staged at LTG Auditorium in New Delhi recently by a group of school children from Assam. With renowned theatre director Hafeez Khan as the group leader, the stage play was organised jointly by TIE Co. National School of Drama, New Delhi and Srimanta Sankaradeva Kalakshetra, Society, Guwahati, Assam.

The organisers of this event – TIE Co. of National School of Drama, is dedicated to the cause of creating a penchant for theatre among children. Summer Theatre Workshop focuses on social integration among children from different backgrounds. As a part of an extension of this Summer Theatre Workshop, Sunday Club Part-I deals with the process of devising a performance through improvisations like characterisation, situation building, scene making and finally, devising an hour long performance. Part-II is a step further in developing among the children an understanding of theatre as an art.

TIE Co. of National School of Drama, in collaboration with Srimanta Sankaradeva Kalakshetra Society, had organised Summer Theatre Workshops among school children in Guwahati in June 2007 and 2008 by the name of Summer Theatre Club. Children from the summer workshops (2007-2008) further participated in the Summer Theatre Club, working in four age groups for one month to create and perform four original plays. Path Herua Pathik is one among those four plays, all of which were also staged in Delhi.

The story of the play Path Herua Pathik revolves around an encounter between a group of theatre artistes and three terrorists. The theatre artistes are taken hostage by the terrorists in the middle of their rehearsal for a play. Thereafter, the terrorists place their demands in front of the government. Meanwhile, the police who are chasing the terrorists, come to the scene. One of the girls among the theatre artistes recognises a terrorist as her friend. Thereafter, a long discussion follows between the artistes and the terrorists on the theme of violence and non-violence. The media also reaches the spot and a tension filled discussion on media market, politics, terrorism and non-violence begins. Towards the end of the play, the girl succumbs to a police bullet and the terrorists also helplessly give up in the face of the logic of the artistes.

The play was a well performed one. The acting was superb. The cast included Himakshi Bhardwaj, Karpan Moran, Neelutpol Kalita, Maharshi Kashyap, Shyamalima Das, Jumi Saikia, Seemant Talukdar, Udipan Dutta, Ananya Parashar, Nurul Hussain, Bhaswati Kalita, Harshita Nath, Alok Chakravarty, Devraj Bara, Vipllavi Maran, Supriya Bara, Raktotpal Bharadwaj, Pragjyoti Kasari and Krishnow Jyotinath.

The off-stage work was also praiseworthy. Among them were Antara G G Choudhury as costume designer, Digant Sharma as music organiser, Raja/Deep Rajvanshi as music assistant, Abdul Hakim as stage designer, Taqmeer, Shakeel as assistants. Manimala Das as light designer and Kailash Das as stage manager lent an artistic touch to the play. The group leader of the play was Hafeez Khan and Kailash Chauhan was his assistant.

The group leader, Hafeez Khan, is a well-known personality in the field of drama. An alumnus of MP Natya Lok Kala Academy and National School of Drama, New Delhi, Khan is a specialist in theatre, children’s theatre and educational theatre. Apart from writing and directing plays in major Indian languages, Khan has also acted in a number of plays, telefilms and serials. Khan has directed and participated in many national theatre festivals of the Culture Department, Government of India, Sangeet Natak Akademi, NSD, MP Kala Parishad and Kalidas Academy, Ujjain. He is also the founder director of Ankur Manch.

Summer workshops serve as a platform, where children question and understand basic issues like the self, family, education, society, relationships and needs. As individuals, children are made to realise their role in the movement towards social development. Children come up with different pertinent themes of the society and they are guided in the process of transforming their thoughts into a play, says Hafeez Khan. According to Khan, “We always take special care that, as directors, we do not impose any story, style or thought on them. Instead, our role should be that of an older friend and children should freely bond in a creative process, with very little help from us.” In the play Path Herua Pathik, the children have chosen the topic of terrorism as their subject, and have tried to analyse its roots from their own point of view.

The enactment of the play Path Herua Pathik by a group of small children, speaks volume. Set against the backdrop of terrorism, the play dramatically symbolises the little voices urging the end of terrorism. A beautiful play, woven by young minds out of their realisation and imagination about the society, Path Herua Pathik is a novel attempt to rid the society of the scourge of terrorism. Let’s hope the play succeeds in spreading the message it tries to convey.

Sangeeta Saikia