BASIL SYLVESTER PINTO
From performing on stage with his musical inclination to be drawn further in the performing arts as a child artiste, the young lad is certainly going places. Joshua is currently seen in Irineu Gonsalves’ new drama, ‘Goodbye Papa’ where he enacts a poignant central character role of an illegitimate child who craves for parental love. Playing the character of Jerry, the child touches the emotional chord of the audience as the climax unfolds.
Talking to this paper, on the best part he enacted in the drama he states, “Going back to England. This is because the two other children (Doreen and Tom) are fighting and which I do not like and thus chose to return home,” the young Pereira stated.
Son of Agnelo and Assucena Pereira, Joshua moved to Kuwait as a five-month toddler. He was put in a child-care centre at two years, as both of his parents were working. “At the centre, he first gave inclination towards music. The tiny tots were taught rhymes and he was quick to pick it up. He used to come home and sing, and that was when I thought he had a talent towards music and bought him a toy keyboard,” revealed his father.
Seeing him play on the small keyboard, an impressed senior Periera bought for his son a bigger keyboard. “I taught him some chords and he began playing the instrument while he sang,” reminicised Agnelo.
When he was put in school at 3 and-a-half-years at Indian International School, Kuwait, the teachers got to know of his talent and made him sing often at the assembly. He even sang the Kuwait national anthem. Joshua gradually began to sing in several contests in Kuwait.
But the turning point in Joshua’s career as an artiste came when one of his father’s friends aware of his precocious singing talent told his dad to get his son in the musical show of the well-known Kuwaiti-based Dominic Fernandes.
“When I called Dominic, asking him to give my son a chance in his show, he was unsure and put me across to his musician maestro, Soccoro,” revealed Agnelo. The musician not only saw his son sing, but chided the father not to spoil Joshua’s talent and introduce him into the music line at the earliest. And that was how an eight-year-old- Joshua in September 2016 was given a golden break in Dominic Fernandes’ musical show. In the said event, the child prodigy sang ‘Jivitachem Godnem’ which took everyone in awe. Thereon, Joshua was a part of a child trio that sang in the tiatrs, ‘Ami Koxal’ written by Braz de Parra and ‘Mojem Kalzant Tujem Ghor’ directed by Lawrente Pereira, both last year.
With Joshua coming to Goa this April to settle with his family, his nascent career onstage in dramas began to gain momentum. “Saby de Divar who knew our son when he came to stage shows in Kuwait, wanted our son to sing a song when he staged a show in Agacaim. And that is how Joshua came to sing a song I composed, ‘Ami Goenkar’ in ‘Goyem Konnachem?’, Agnelo divulged.
From thereon, Joshua had sung in two other shows staged in Agacaim as well. He performed ‘Mogan Kazar’ in Comedian Sally’s ‘Tumi Konnak Zai?’ and ‘Jivitachem Godnem’ once again in Francis de Tuem’s ‘Konnak Patieupachem?’ with aplomb.
It was not long after, that a better opportunity came a-calling when the director Joanna visited their residence in Agacaim in May. “She wanted Joshua in her tiatr, ‘Gorchim’ on a condition that he would do no other for a month which I agreed upon,” Agnelo disclosed.
In the said drama, Joshua got a minor role of a child receiving communion and returning home. He also performed a solo song which won him a lot of plaudits and adulation from the audience. The song talks about Joshua, who while in Kuwait, his talent for music was discovered and how his father taught him to play the keyboard, how he learnt to sing and in due course, picked up the violin too.
A quick learner, to prepare for his central role in Irineu Gonsalves’ ‘Goodbye Papa,’ it took Joshua less than three weeks. In his own words, Joshua says, “the story is nice. I was very sentimental because of the emotional story.” On the cast, he reveals that they all of them liked him very much, and more so, Dolly, as she had known him from his earlier drama, ‘Gorchim.’
On his future, his parents affirm that they will let it take its course as per God’s will. “We will not pressurize him. He is very interested in music and is good at the computer too. He even teaches other kids music. Let him grow up and chose his own career. Whatever is in God’s plan, let him follow it,” they concluded.
(Watch the child artiste in tiatr, ‘Goodbye Papa’ today at Gomant Vidya Niketan Hall, Margao, 3.30 pm)
