Lucknow: Life is a stage, say kids after month-long theatre workshop

LUCKNOW: For children who took to stage for the first time ever, the past month was the curtain-up for the theatre of life.
Organised by PS3 group and Favour Foundation, the month-long workshop was meant for schoolchildren who spent four hours daily learning nuances of theatre.
Started on May 22, the workshop climaxed at Valmiki Rangshala on Thursday amid massive applause.
Directed by Sandeep Yadav, the play ‘Julius Caesar’ was staged by kids in the 14-16 years age group. It was an edited version of Shakespeare’s. Hari Shankar Parsai’s classic political satire ‘Bhed aur Bhediye’ was adapted to a play titled ‘Aisi Kaisi Democracy’ by 22 kids aged 4-15 years under Preeti Chauhan’s direction.
For all the participants, it was their first encounter with the stage where they learnt several lessons of life.
For Apratim Gupta (11), who played the main role in ‘Aisi Kaisi Democracy’, it was a real challenge to creep into the character’s skin.
Aanav Yadav (5) and Tanvi Jaiswal (6) joined the workshop on their mothers’ instance. The workshop provided sisters Sayeda (7) and Fatima (11) an opportunity to spend time together.
Interactions in the workshop helped Thakur Rajmani Srivastava (9) and Aayan Khan (8) overcome the introvert in them and make friends. Chehak Singh (9) and Aarna Sinha (11) came to the workshop after watching their friends on stage and ended up acquiring a new hobby. Varanya Mehrotra (9) and Ojasvi Mishra (11) experienced positive change in their personalities.