Main Page «
Front Page «
Metro «
Business «
International «
Sports «
National «
Editorial «
Op-Ed «
Home «
Letters «

Archive «
Launch Supplement «
Special Supplements «

A fifteen-day children theatre festival organised by the People’s Theatre Association ended on Friday honouring children theatre activists and artistes.
   The award giving ceremony was held at the Shaukat Osman Auditorium of the Central Public Library.
   Professor Zillur Rahman Siddiquee handed over the prizes among the winners and participants as chief guest while theatre personalities including Ataur Rahman, Asaduzzaman Noor, Jhuna Chowdhury and Shahjahan Shah were present as special guests.
   The event was chaired by Liaquat Ali Lucky.
   The organiser awarded Abdul Hye Durbar, Toufiq Hassan Moyna, Mamtaz Hossein, Sheikh Mehedi Hassan, Saju, Sheikh Zahid and Sirajul Azam with the Shishunatya Padak 2007. Besides, the organisation also honoured 100 child artistes with the Manchakuri Padak.
   On the concluding day of the festival, Amader Khelaghar Amader Pathshala by Nishchitapur Theatre of Thakurgaon was staged. Rangpur Shishu Natya Kendra of Rangpur performed classical music while People’s Reparatory Theatre of Dhaka staged Rastar Chhele.
   ‘A total of 72 plays were staged during the festival’, the organiser told New Age.

We need more scripts relating to the lives of children. We need scripts which will reflect children’s problems and possibilities. We also need plays which will be suitable for performance by them.
   The speakers stated this at a seminar on the problems and possibilities of children’s theatre in Bangladesh, held at the seminar room of the Central Public Library at Shahbagh on Friday.
   People’s Theatre Association organised the seminar as part of its 15-day 8th national children theatre festival.
   Participants included theatre personalities SM Mohsin, Shahjahan Shah, official of Bangladesh Shishu Academy Rehana Sultana, Dr Hamidul Haque and Dr Sabira Monir.
   The speakers said that the children’s theatre was developing gradually in the country. But we need support from the government in this sector. The Bangladesh Shishu Academy should take more steps regarding the children’s cultural activities, they added.
   The speakers pleaded with the guardians that they should not impose their ideas on their children and should give importance to children’s likes and dislikes.
   Appreciating the association’s activities for nourishing children’s talent in the area of theatre, they further said that the organisation should look forward for quality productions by the children.
   The playwrights should study more on child psychology and the association should arrange more workshops with the playwrights and play directors, they further said. They also put importance on more seminars relating to the children theatre.
   Talking about the possibilities of children theatre in Bangladesh, speakers said that the plays were not only helping the children who were involved in theatre groups in fostering their talent but also exercising a wholesome influence upon the children who came to see the plays.
   The plays are upholding the rights of children and also creating a social awareness. Through the plays, the children are acquiring knowledge about the history and culture of the country, they added.
   The speakers also emphasised the arranging of a regular international festival of children’s theatre in Bangladesh so that the children can enjoy plays of other nations and can compare those performances with their own.

The German Defense Ministry is scrambling to qualify its stance on the Tom Cruise World War Two thriller ‘Valkyrie,’ saying Thursday that, despite reports to the contrary, it has no opposition to the film shooting in Germany.
   News reports earlier this week had started officials would ban ‘Valkyrie’ from shooting at German military sites because of star Cruise’s belief in Scientology.
   The ministry now says that, while it hasn’t received an official request from ‘Valkyrie’ producers United Artists to shoot in the country, it would ‘look agreeably’ upon any such application.
   The film, slated for a 2008 release, tells the true story of Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg (Cruise), the leader of a failed German military plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler in 1944. The film’s title comes from Operation Valkyrie, the plot’s code name.
   The producers have expressed interest in shooting at the Bendlerblock memorial in Berlin. It is the actual location where Stauffenberg and his fellow conspirators hatched the plot to assassinate Hitler with a bomb hidden in a briefcase.

The Darjeeling Limited, the latest work from The Royal Tenenbaums director Wes Anderson, has been chosen to open the 2007 New York Film Festival.
   The film, a comedy about three brothers travelling through India, will kick off this year’s event on 28 September.
   The Coen brothers’ thriller No Country for Old Men and Romanian film 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes, will also be screened.
   The festival, which does not give out awards, runs until 14 October.
   The annual event, first held in 1962, usually takes place at New York’s Lincoln Center.
   Due to renovation work, this year’s festival will be held at the Frederick P Rose Hall in the Time Warner Center on nearby Columbus Circle.
   Anderson’s film stars Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody and Jason Schwartzman as siblings whose Indian vacation goes awry after they are thrown off a train.
   The 2007 line-up will also include Secret Sunshine, the latest film from Korean director Lee Chang-dong.
   The closing night film has yet to be announced. Last year’s event opened with royal drama The Queen.