Sunday June 24, 2012

Empowering pupils through theatre and plays

THEATRE is an important aspect of human development and team building.

Besides being a form of entertainment, it is also a good medium to showcase any form of social issues or messages in an informal manner.

The inaugural National Level Tamil School Theatre Competition in Bahasa Malaysia was held in the year 2007 and has since become an annual event.

This year, the competition was organised by the Information, Communications and Culture and the Education Ministries in collaboration with the India Stage Art Association Kuala Lumpur (Fenomena Seni Pentas).

Heroes assemble: It was a gathering of superheroes at the recent theatre competition that saw beloved comic heroes such as Batman, Spiderman and Superman sharing centrestage.

The competition encourages Tamil school pupils to become theatre enthusiasts besides improving their skills and proficiency in the national language.

This year, 45 schools from nine states: Kedah, Penang, Perak, Pahang, Negri Sembilan, Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Malacca and Johor, took part with a total of 675 participants.

At the prize-giving ceremony, association chairman Tanabalan Sinniah said that there was a marked increase of good quality performances from not only schools in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor, but also schools from other states.

He made a special request for the best 13 performances from this year’s competition to be aired in RTM or Astro to further motivate the participants and give them a bigger platform to showcase their talents.

The champion of this year’s competition was SJK(T) Masai, Johor.

The school was given the honour of performing their winning theatre presentation during the ceremony.

The runner-up was SJK(T) Jalan Yahya Awal, Johor while third place went to SJK(T) Mentakab, Pahang.

The awards were presented by the National Culture and Arts Department director-general Datuk Norliza Rofli who was happy with the progress of the competition.

She pledged her continuous support for the event in the coming years.

Norliza also presented the Best Actor award to Mathanaruban Ragunathan of SJK(T) Yahya Awal and Best Actress award to Sharen Albert Mosses of SJK(T) Jalan Meru, Klang.