October 1994. Editor: Anjum Katyal
Is children's theatre a significant enough area of theatre in our country today to warrant an entire issue devoted to it? This question is bound to strike many readers as they notice the focus of this third issue, especially since theatre for young audiences is widely dismissed as 'entertainment' featuring simplistic fantasy along the lines of witches, fairies, and princes who marry princesses to live happily ever after.
Even if one regards theatre for young audiences as 'just' entertainment, what is the quality of that entertainment? What are the semiotics of that entertainment? What are our children absorbing by way of messages, ideas, values as they watch it, and what expectations or attitudes are they forming about theatre in general? Will they then continue to identify the theatre-going experience with light entertainment, escapism and easy fantasy, resisting, as adults, the more challenging, demanding interaction with theatre that makes a good audience? These questions seem important in the light of a growing unease, amongst those who value serious theatre, over the dwindling audience it commands.
CONTENTS The Theatre Academy Grips Project: A Report Dr Mohan Agashe A 'Gripping' Experience Dr. Mandar Paranjpe 'For us the Kids were a Suppressed Class and we Fought for that Class' Volker Ludwig From the Outside, Looking In Vinay Sharma The Importance of theory Ramanathan A Director at work Prasad Gadkari From curiosity to commitment Shrirang Godbole Why Grips? Oisika Chakrabarti, Biren Das Sharma Of Funny Giants and Talking Sparrows: Children's Theatre in Marathi Dr. Shubhade Shelke No Compromises Pratibha and Ratnakar Matkari Lucky Dhaku: A Play in One Act Ratnakar Matkari '....And then the Prince called a taxi and left the palace with the princess...' Jhuma Basak, Biren Das Sharma Theatre for and by Children in Karnataka Children's Theatre in the Bangalore Area Chandra Jain Children's Theatre In Marathi Pratibha and Ratnakar Matkari Children's Theatre and Ninasam K.V. Akshara Letter from America Lou Furman Theatre Log Pinocchio: An Ensemble Production Vasanthi Sankaranarayanan Sixteenth Interschool Drama Competition, Calcutta Neena Guha Notebook Letters Download the complete issue here