Street Drama Team

IRSD have brought the popular and innovative medium of street drama to Sri Lanka, communicating a message of inter-ethnic understanding and tolerance in a light-hearted but thought-provoking manner.

Description

This one year old initiative works with a team of 20 participants from the Anuradhapura district. The team consists of people of all religions from the Sinhala, Tamil, and Muslim communities, and children from orphanages. The team uses the popular and successful medium of street drama to convey messages of peace to children, youths and adults throughout Anuradhapura.

In the beginning, funding was provided to train the participants in street theatre, but now the initiative continues through the voluntary contributions of its members.

Aims / Objectives

The group aims to use the powerful medium of drama to point out the misconceptions in society in a humorous yet thought-provoking manner. The objective of this is to bring the message of peace and social harmony to people. It also aims to promote awareness of the challenges to development posed by ethnic and religious separations.

The drama team uses both Tamil and Sinhala languages, depending on the most widely used language in the area. As such it becomes accessible to all.

The multi-ethnic nature of the drama team is intended to model the creativity and productivity of people when they get together, surpassing boundaries that keep people apart.

How it is Articulated

An initial five-day residential program on theatre and performance was conducted by an eminent drama trainer in the country (H.A. Prera) for 50 participants from the children’s clubs associated with IRSD, to train them in street theatre.

After the program, the best 20 participants were selected representing all the divisions of the districts, different ethnicities and religions, and disabled and orphaned children, to form the street theatre group.

They perform as a group promoting peace and harmony in the area, in villages, public places and important functions. They are often invited to travel with IRSD programs. They write, direct and produce their own plays under these themes.

Achievements / Learning Points

The formation and continuation of the group itself is an important achievement, given its multi-ethnic, multi-religious nature and the discovered talents of all the members. Since the languages used by Sinhalese and Tamils/Muslims are different, normally they do not work together due to the language difficulties. Furthermore, since cultural activities and the identity that goes along with them are different for each ethnicity, it is difficult for people belonging to different ethnicities and religions to find a meeting point that includes all their cultural expressions while giving voice to other identities as well. They have been performing in different areas of the district and public interest in the initiative and public responses, have always been deep-rooted and encouraging. The team models the unity and commitment possible in the world, through children from different ethnicities. They model peace and inter-ethnic cooperation within themselves, thus inspiring others and setting an example for the adult world on what is possible if we move beyond petty boundaries towards a wider humane perspective.

Through this initiative IRSD learnt the high level of achievements children can make, and how easily the difficulties that arise in working together with people from a number of different cultural backgrounds can be overcome if the people genuinely care for each other and want to cooperate.

It would be good, however, if the group could receive more training in theatre and performance, since they have not had training from a professional since the initial introductory stage. Further training would enable them to be even more effective and powerful in conveying their message.

Geographical Area of Operation

Trincomalee and Anuradhapura.

Funding Resources

The initial workshop on theatre and performance was funded by Save the Children. However, the initiative has been subsequently sustained though contributions from its participants in time, money, and services.

Supported by

H. A. Perera