Germany’s well known theatre for children, Grips is back with full zest to present some of the best children’s plays during the Grips Theatre Festival that started from May 7th’22 in Pune.
The Rainbow Umbrella Foundation and the School of Media Activity Research & Technology (SMART) of the Maharshee Karve Stree Shikshan Sanstha (MKSSS) bring to the city, the theatre fest and along with workshops planned for teenagers and kids.
“This fest is being held between May 7th and 22nd 2022, and it is ongoing at the MKSSS Campus at Karve Nagar,” said Radhika Ingle, Director of SMART.
Shrirang Godbole of Rainbow Umbrella Foundation said, “The Grips Theatre in Berlin, Germany is known as the emancipator children’s and youth theatre. It is the first theatre worldwide to deal socio-critically with lives and living conditions of children and youngsters and to incorporate this in original humorous and musical plays. Grips plays have been re-staged over 1500 times in about 40 languages around the world.”
The Grips Theater was brought to India in 1986 by Dr. Mohan Agashe and subsequently nurtured by artists like Shrirang Godbole, Vibhavari and Hrishikesh Deshpande, Radhika Ingle to name a few. Their efforts of introducing and continuing the Grips Theatre tradition in some other language outside Germany were acknowledged and applauded during the special event that was organized to mark 50 years of Grips Theatre in Germany.
“Four famous Marathi plays developed in the Grips format shall be staged during this festival and each play would be showcased 4 times during the festival so that more children can enjoy it”,” added Vibhavari Deshpande, Actress, Writer, who has been associated with Grips since she was a little girl.
Deshpande, who started her journey with Grips as an audience and then completed it by not only acting in the plays but also by writing and directing some plays under the Grips format, said that two of her plays are a part of this festival.
Commenting on the activities that are planned during the festival Radhika Ingle said, “All the plays would be staged everyday from 7:00pm to 8:30pm at Rama Purushottam Sankul located at the MKSSS campus, Karve Nagar. Apart from the plays many other activities are also planned for the children in the age group of 6 to 14 years.”
“Important ones are the workshops on acting, dance, puppetry and filmmaking which take place between 3:00pm to 5:30pm followed by the fun and entertainment activities from 5:30pm to 7:00pm. Heritage Walks to some less visited yet interesting places in the city is one of the important highlights of the festival. These heritage walks would be based on the book ‘Punyachi Apurvai’ authored by Dr. Anil Awchat. So, overall it would be an engaging and enriching experience for the children this summer”, she added.
“We have been working in the field of creating content for children through various mediums like print, television, theatre and feature films with an intention of imparting value education through an entertaining way. Now with an aim to start a well designed and structured effort in this regard Rainbow Umbrella Foundation has been started. This not for profit (Section 8 company) organization will work towards creating content and designing online and offline activities, which will help in developing certain qualities among children like being responsible towards environment, understanding the value and importance of being in Independent India, maintaining social harmony and love for animals”, said Shrirang Godbole while explaining the objectives of Rainbow Umbrella Foundation.
The plays ‘Chhan Chote Waitta Mothe’ which was co authored and directed by Shrirang Godbole in 1986 along with a German writer and director, ‘Nakore Baba’, ‘Project Aditi’ and ‘Ekda Kay Zala’ are part of the theatre fest.
