MY FIRST EXPERIENCE IN EDUCATIONAL PUPPETRY
By Sampa Ghosh

I started learning puppetry under Suresh Dutta, Director, Calcutta Puppet Theatre (CPT), in 1980. CPT is a large, semi-professional group. Most of the group members have their own vocation, but as far as shows are concerned, they are totally professional. CPT’s Aladin started in 1971 and is an all-time favourite. Still rehearsals are held prior to the day of any show of Aladin, till today. For any new production, rehearsals are done on three days in a week and for 12 hours on any holiday, except two 15-minute breaks for tea and half an hour break for lunch. I am mentioning this to explain the professional attitude of the group.

In 1983, CPT received a grant from Central Government for training new students. We selected ten students on a monthly stipend. Sureshda wanted to start some educational puppet show with this group and selected two playlets, besides a short skit. As CPT has a big rehearsal room, it was decided that we would use it for performance and only children below 10 years without their parents would be allowed entry in the show. The shows were scheduled on weekend afternoons. I was working with the group as a trainer, so I assisted Sureshda in this project. This was my first encounter with educational puppetry; naturally I was much excited. The trainee made puppets and costumes, and designed sets and lights. We used only gloves and rod puppets. Sureshda wrote the scripts and composed music. Shows were live and very interactive.

The first item was a skit: Don’t Quarrel with Each Other. It is about two monkeys, who fight with each other first, but later they realise their mistake and become friends again. Then there was a 15-minute play: Don’t Waste Paper. The story is about a small girl who wastes papers by writing letters and painting scenes, sitting in a park. Seeing the wastage, the trees in the park come together and tell her not to waste papers like this. They also narrate to her how paper came to us and why paper is so useful in our life. The girl is convinced and takes oath that she would never waste paper again. Finally, there was a 20-minute story about a small lamb Mamna, whose mother had gone to his uncle’s house for a day, leaving Mamna alone. When Mamna goes to fetch water, he meets the bad wolf. The wolf says that he would come at night and kill him. Being afraid, Mamna starts crying and, on his way back, he meets Cat, Dog, Horse and Elephant. All of them assure Mamna that they would help him. When at night the bad wolf sneaks in, they attack him and succeed to drive him away.

For the first-day show, we delivered handbills in the neighbourhood and asked CPT’s members to bring their children and their friends. The show would start with two narrators (a girl and a boy). I manipulated the girl puppet. Before the show, we spoke to some children, asking their names, hobbies, school names and grades. We spoke to some parents as well. The narrators started the show with a patriotic song, known almost to all children. Then the narrators talked to the children by calling their names and requested them to come forward for singing a song or reciting a poem. Although this was totally unexpected, the response was tremendous. Since their parents were not present, they interacted freely and all of them wanted to participate. When the time ran out, we began our show. A 3-year old boy went out of the room every time when the wolf appeared and would peep through the curtain from outside to check whether the wolf had gone!

The show was a huge success. Sureshda designed the show in such a fashion that all characters would interact with the children. Whenever a character wanted some opinion from the audience, children would advise seriously and spontaneously! At end of the show, children trooped in to see the puppets and were keen to beat the bad wolf. We had to hide the wolf in a box to prevent damage to the puppet and announced that the wolf had gone out of the city! Every weekend saw a big rush for the performance and we decided to go to different schools, social organisations and even birthday parties.

Our main goal was to create awareness among the children and we succeeded very well. For non-Bengali audience, we translated the plays in Hindi. Vijay Tendulkar, the great playwright, watched the show once and invited Sureshda for a workshop with the corporation schoolteachers of Mumbai and with Chandrashala, the children’s wing of the theatre-group Avishkar. I assisted Sureshda in this 1 ½-month workshop and the plays were translated into Marathi. The puppeteers, M Rajyalakshmi and her husband M Srinivasa Rao from Hyderabad, came to Sureshda in 1987 for getting trained under him. They translated the plays in Telugu and performed them when they returned and opened Hyderabad Puppet Theatre. All this proves how popular the plays were and it is heartening to know that shows are still on and in much demand.

Every time, we went for the show, we collected information about the audience first. For the school-show, we tried to collect names of the students who were not so good in study. We specially called out their names and asked the shy ones to come forward and share a joke. Surprisingly, they communicated very well with the puppets. Through puppets, we gave them advice, which they said they would obey. Many a time, we told them to draw pictures of the puppets, write comments on the show and submit to their teachers. We requested the principal to send these drawings and comments to us. We got an overwhelming response from the students in every school. The principal and teachers always requested us to come back again, which was not really possible. We completed some 100 shows before the year was out.

I was with CPT up to 1986. After the success of the first educational show, we prepared another show from a Russian story, which was also hugely successful. After coming over to Delhi, I also directed some children’s plays and did a number of workshops in India and abroad with children. I am still working with children, but what I had learnt from my first experience at CPT remains a beacon-light to guide me in the right path.