The Children's tiatr competition will host its sixth edition this December. The fifth edition saw history being created with the cast and crew of one of the participating tiatr (including the playwright, director and the 17 year old girl who wrote the songs) all being under 18. The normal scene is for children to act and sing while the direction and scripting comes from the elders. With no complaints here, a vision of these brave hearts is that someday all the participants of the children's tiatr festival will be underage children, including the ones penning the text and the cantaram.
"The correct format of traditional Goan tiatr is only followed in tiatr competitions and not so much in commercial tiatr," points out Maria Alfonso, currently the youngest tiatr song writer. Maybe those in the business can ignore things like the above once in a while, but the youngsters have surely noticed certain shortcomings in commercial tiatr, thanks to the rules of competition tiatr. Nonetheless, the younger generation prefers the more authentic version which is a great trend.
Also responsible for writing the majority of the cantaram in Soglle Ek at the fifth Children's tiatr competition, Maria took it to the next level by performing a lead role in A M Araujos Ghar Vapsi in the recently concluded Kala Academy organized Tiatr Competition for Group A. So from being the writer, she went ahead and faced everyone on stage. After all, it is only the one who faces the crowd that gets all the glamour vis a vis the writers from behind the scenes who are often left unacknowledged. The remaining prodigies did not lag behind either. The playwright of Soglle Ek, Edmer Barretto is also all set for the showing of his next tiatr in Kala Academy's Group B competition this January. Barretto is also the youngest playwright in tiatr currently. After the existence of such genuine efforts, wonder how the little wonders felt when professionals bagged prizes at the Tiatr Competition. If professionals and adults have opportunities for prize grabbing as playwrights, directors and lyricists at children's competitions, it is simply because there are indeed very few children who come forward for the same. Then again, if we are expecting the children to come forward, the onus is only on us grown-ups to make this happen.
"We got a bit disheartened about not getting even a consolation prize for our efforts, after being such a fantastic young team," lamented one of the group members of Soglle Ek from last year. "At least participation certificates should have been given to all," suggests Maria after getting hers at the World Cup of Konkani Tiatrs, which is what the annual Tiatr Competition is popularly called.
Edmers tiatr Soglle Ek brought out how human beings are equal even though some are born with physical or psychological defects. However according to official sources in the TAG, Soglle Ek lost since their topic was too heavy to have been written and viewed by children.
