The Making Of Characters
Sashi Mendis and Creating, practice, performance
A production for the entire family Strange Tales takes on board five amazing plays on March 13 and 14, at the Punchi Theatre at 6.30 p.m. The plays are adaptations of children’s plays by Ted Hughes. Directed by Sashi Mendis, Strange Tales is presented by 40 students aged between 10 and 15, most of whom have attended drama classes with Sashi in the last five years.
It is bound to be an evening of theatrical entertainment. There is Sean, The Devil And The Cat, Where Sean ventures into the dark woods and encounters the devil and his cat. A play of suspense but laced with humour with characters such as Mr. Poppopocolis, the rich millionaire whose daughter thinks she is a cat. Then there is The Pig Organ where the King might just turn into a pig. The Meteor is all about the predictions of a mad scientist whose instructions are faithfully followed by his disciples, Mr. Vongongtop and Mr. Jitterwit. Beauty And The Beast is not at all the well known fairy story but the story of a mysterious and beautiful girl who runs away or is kidnapped by a bear. Orpheus based on the Greek myth is a poetic drama which will be presented with choreographed movement and music.
The students have been working towards these plays in the last six months while at the same time learning about various dimensions of performance. The original scripts have undergone much change in terms of edits, changes in story line, and its final presentation has been the result of discussion, improvisation and exploration of different ideas. In this sense the drama class has been a time of creating as well as practicing and working towards a performance, where characterisation, skills of voice, movement and expression have been perfected. Above all it has been a time of recreation and enjoyment for the students, in spite of hard work a performance requires.
This is the fourth production Sashi is staging with students who attend drama classes conducted by her. In August last year she directed the play Victims with the senior students of Gateway College. It was an original script, out of sessions of improvisation with senior students of the school. Also, last year she directed, Kids On Stage a production with students between ages of five and nine.
