Worth mentioning my experience with being a director to 7 little kids, including my own 6 year old daughter and of-course all her friends. Working with children is always the most rewarding experience. The best part of it is, they do not come with expectations and they will accept what is being offered with open minds and hearts.
Children simply soaked in all that I taught them, as their impromptu director to a story that most of them remember by-heart now. We never wrote a script, as no script is needed for children who can barely read. What we had was a story and that is all.
Ekki Dokki is a Marathi folk tale. The story of how more and less are so comparative and how we are caught in the judgment of it, rather than just living life as it is. And there was a moral: Appearances do not matter, it is the heart that counts!
I had a 3 year old as the icing on the cake, who would make sure that he delivers his dialogues no matter what.
And if anyone is wondering whether kids can understand what delivering dialogue is... hold your breath, they certainly can, even the 3 year old.
And what about teaching them expression? Very simple! just tell them a few stories with appropriate emotion, they will catch the skill in no time.
What puts them apart is that, they have no stage fear at all. The performance on the stage is just another practice session for them. But one where they make sure that it is a perfect practice!
Now tell me why someone would want to cut down on all this thrill to pre-record the play and just allow the kids to Lip-sync on stage? This is the new practice that is fast catching up and I do not subscribe to it. Quite a few children's plays are being pre-recorded now-a-days. Isn't this a case of opening up the pupa for the butterfly to come out? And does it really add any value to our children? I will leave that question for some time, as this is a very serious problem. One that should be addressed separately.
And because I do not subscribe to providing any crutches to our dynamic children, they performed the play live and with the confidence that defines these early years.
Special mention also to the 13 year old on the keyboard, whom I roped in only later. Since I am not a musical person, he independently rolled out music for different moods of the play. And he also performed live during the play.
I was not sure that my troupe would do exactly what they were taught, but I was very sure that they would learn from the experience, no matter what. That is what parenting is all about... isnt it? We give our children the right values and let them be the judge. We cannot prerecord our own career path and fit them into their lives and expect them to be successful men and women of the future.
And so, to make this experience a memorable one, we (all moms) packed all the kids and went to the ice-cream parlour, to celebrate success. But for the 7 little stars, this was just another visit to the ice-cream parlour. Why do you need a reason to eat ice cream? After-all, aren't they the superstars every living moment?
