Tag: theater arts

Categories
specialsaathi Story

Muskaan the Drama queen

A blog on Muskaan’s first drama performance in school on annual day.

मन – day की बात SpecialSaathi के साथ

Dear Shilpi ma’am,

It’s a pleasure to be a part of SpecialSaathi group. This kind of platform is giving immense opportunity to our kids to showcase their talent whether it’s dance, art or drama or writing a blog.

Muskaan is a happy and a cheerful girl. Very caring, emotional but a little introvert by nature. She is 16 years now. She is very intelligent and observant. She is strong but little stubborn too. Can face any problem with a smile. That’s her biggest strength.

She speaks through her eyes and always has smile on her face as her name suggests… 😊. She was born with delayed milestones, so in the initial years of growing up she was diagnosed as a hyper active child and speech was very less in one word conversation or two or three phrases. But with various Speech & OT therapies she started improving. But later we got to know that she has “Selective Mutism “. And she would interact or socialise only in her comfort zone etc.
But as time grew she started learning with various techniques of social stories, play dates and exposure to new & known places.
Convincing her to take part in various activities was a challenge though but I kept on encouraging her to take part in dance show, sports events for three years and she won medals, & trophy 🏆 as well. Which motivated her to keep learning and performing.

With online classes and during pandemic as she didn’t have a choice she started speaking through a “Mike” first & then after a month or so she started to converse with her teachers and peer group verbally. This is how a Selective Mutism child can speak with her own will & confidence, that’s what I understood that day.



So every year participation in school annual day was also delightful to see her performing in dance etc. But this time it was Middle school participation in Dec’22.

So I am happy and proud to share that as Muskaan first time took part in drama performance at her school Annual day function. The drama named ” Safarnama” where she played a role of a guard to a king who was very possessive for his silver treasure. And the part which everyone ( her teachers & spectators) appreciated was that the dialogues were in bhojpuri .

The way muskaan learned them, understanding the co-ordination sequence with other kids ( main stream kids who she didn’t know) to go up & down the stage left & right on stage. Saying the dialogues as the drame performance. Imitation, synchronisation.


Patience level to cope up with anxiety to perform, as to who all will come, what will people & teachers say. How will the costume be. Apprehension towards wearing sun glasses as everything seemed to be blurred. Intelligence of putting them on nose to see the audience.



Initially I was not comfortable with the idea of her taking part in drama I thought dance is what she liked more but her teacher made me understand that this kind of exposure will be good for her.

And she was right, so many things she learned in last couple of weeks. And one of the areas which can be explored in future for her social interaction building and overcoming her fear of performing on the stage infront of the audience.

Muskaan was lucky to get this kind of role and she performed so well.

With applaud from their seniors , principal , teachers, family and friends made her very happy and excited.



Staying in a school for 10 hrs was not easy in last week at a stretch of 3 days. But I am glad she did it.

The hard work always pays and clear “Victory over fear”.


Stupendous performance. I wish she gets many such opportunities in future too.

Sharing few pics & video of her performance in this blog.

Hope you ll enjoy watching the same.

Regards Divya Surie

Author Divya Surie

I am a house wife and I run my own garments work from home. I love drawing and painting as it’s is my passion. I learned various forms of painting glass, canvas, water and oil colour etc…at the age of 40yrs. And few of my beautiful creations are now my house decoratives.😀So age is just a number.
I also help my daughter in designing of tote bags, wedding envelopes, pouches and gift tags. Basically she is now a part of “Sitaara Crafts” a platform where all kids with special needs can showcase and sell their talent. With making of beautiful and amazing products from best out of waste. We sell through Instagram too 😀.

ToteBag designed by Muskaan Surie
Categories
parentsaathi Resources

“All the world’s a stage…”

and we all are merely role-playing, we all have our parts sometimes defined sometimes not. We all have stories to tell.

With stories, we can understand perspectives, we can understand the environment, how characters understand and react with the environment. In a nutshell, Storytelling is “Experience taking”.

With our kids, we can achieve so much with it. We can do

  • Art and Craft like puppets
  • Drama
  • movement
  • Retelling same story in your words
  • Role playing of characters; dressing up as favourite characters
  • teach Sequencing
  • teach academics

We made puppets of the story “The little Red Hen”. We coloured the characters, cut them and pasted on wooden spoon to make puppets, which we are going to use in Role-playing of the characters.

Each one of us have taken a puppet and role-played those characters. Each character made its sound and actions like meow/quack-quack. The story I chose has very few words keeping in mind not to overwhelm anyone.

Adding movement to stories is a great way to move and learn. Today, we were reading a story and a character tiptoed around the room as the other one was sleeping. We immediately got up and enacted the part. We started tiptoeing around the house, sometimes talking loudly and sometimes quietly as if someone is sleeping or my husband working so tiptoeing in his room so that he doesn’t get disturbed. It was so much fun.

Drama is one of the oldest ways of Storytelling. What’s will be life without some stories and certainly, not a better way to connect with each other. Each new day brings new ways to play our roles, have our exchanges. So, lets choose a story and let the drama begin.

Categories
parentsaathi

Parenting as Theater

Today, I want to start the discussion of parenting as theater. This week, I will present a webinar introducing the tools of theater. The Theater Arts for Holistic Development (TAHD) approach views theater in terms of the following components:

  1. Dance
  2. Drama
  3. Music
  4. Arts and crafts
  5. Storytelling

I invite parents to consider how these five tools can be used by parents to support their child’s development.

Join us for the webinar on 9th November to explore this topic!

The TAHD is the latest step in my use of theater arts tools. It has given me a framework to think about the use of theaters arts as a parenting tool. However, I have experimented with many elements of theater through various therapeutic and educational approaches. During this session, I will discuss the use of theater arts tools in relation to these approaches. I have listed the website for each approach and included a brief overview from the website. Listen to the webinar and check out the resources that interest you!

  1. Relationship Development Intervention (RDI)

RDI®  programs teach parents how to guide their child to seek out and succeed in truly reciprocal relationships, while addressing key core issues such as motivation, communication, emotional regulation, episodic memory, rapid attention-shifting, self-awareness, appraisal, executive functioning, flexible thinking and creative problem solving. 

https://www.rdiconnect.com/about-rdi/

2. Waldorf Education

Waldorf schools offer a developmentally appropriate, experiential, and academically rigorous approach to education. They integrate the arts in all academic disciplines for children from preschool through twelfth grade to enhance and enrich learning. Waldorf education aims to inspire life-long learning in all students and to enable them to fully develop their unique capacities.

https://www.waldorfeducation.org/waldorf-education

3. Enki Education

Enki Education offers a unique and innovative way to approach living and learning, parenting and educating. At all grade levels, whether in classroom or homeschooling programs, all academics are taught using a three fold process. This process begins with the arts and, through a series of steps, opens to full mastery of skills and concepts. In this way, we nurture the whole child, weaving together a coherent program including academics, arts, story, activities, movement, and exploration, to bring about deep learning and growth. 

www.enkieducation.org

4. Bharatanatyam and Natyashastra

The Natya Shastra is considered the sacred text for all performing art forms. One of the major aspects of Natya Shastra, the Abhinaya (ways in which an actor communicates or expresses) has been mentioned in great detail in this text. Other aspects such as the graceful body movements and postures, the mudras (hand gestures) and rasas (aesthetic experience) used in dance, drama and other performing arts have also been documented extensively.

https://indianculture.gov.in/stories/sadir-attam-bharatanatyam

5. Theater Arts for Holistic Development

RASA – Ramana Sunritya Aalaya was founded in 1989 by Dr. Ambika Kameshwar with the vision to empower one and all, through the Theatre Arts experience. Today, RASA stands as a 32 year old organisation with a multi-pronged approach to inclusion and transformation. 

https://rasaindia.org/