New Delhi, Nov 12 (UNI) As Jashnebachpan, an internal theatre festival for children, is all set to begin its 14th edition this week, National School of Drama (NSD) on Monday announced that they are working hard to spread the children’s theatre from the four walls of their campus to the various regions of the country.

Addressing the mediapersons, Chief of NSD’s Theatre-in-Education Company, Abdul Latif Khatana, has opined that Sanskar Rang Toli (T.I.E. Co.) in these 29 years have filled the gap between theatre and education.

“When T.I.E started, it was more like a repertoire group and its main aim was to spread theatre in primary schools. But in these 29 years, it developed more as an institution than as a company. To take out theatre from the four walls of an auditorium, it started many new initiatives and projects like Summer Workshop, Sunday Club and multiple other activities. We have also developed a theatre syllabus for National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT),” Mr Khatana said.

Talking about Jashnebachpan, Mr Khatana said this time the selection committee of the festival has given opportunity to 11 new directors and a two-day seminar, which will talk about the history and future of drama and children.

“It is sad that today only a handful of children playwrights are left as compared to the writers for adult’s plays. Through Jashnebachpan, we are trying to make children theatre popular and inviting all the new directors to share and understand viewpoints of ourselves and them,” he said.

“In our seminar too, we will discuss various topics for children theatre including dramatic representation of theatre and children and missing children. We will try to find out whether we understand the psyche of the children before writing a play for them,” he added.

Suresh Sharma, Director NSD also feels children theatre should reach out to every nook and corner of the country as it’s one of the easiest modes of expression.

“This time we have got 221 entries and out of which our committee has selected only 24 plays. And this figure already shows that children theatre is expanding. But we have to go a long way. No doubt government is helping us. But we should also do our own bits too expand this beautiful art form,” Mr Sharma said, who also remembered NSD’s eighth director and professor Ram Gopal Baja’s initiative of establishing a theatre festival in a large scale.

UNI PY SY 1942