ms-word format of the article in hitavada about natyashala competition..

wednesday . february 24 .2010 . nagpur . TheHitavada

Mentally challenged kids bag state-level award In acting
Staff Reporter
IN AN era when ending lives for petty reasons has becoming a usual run, story of these kids can be an eye-opener. Born mentally chal­lenged, these children are ambitious enough to vie with the 'normal' chil­dren. With the fire within, city's very own special children have bagged a top award in the category in a state-level drama contest.
Children of May Flower, a city-based school for slow learners, par­ticipated in a state-level inter-school drama contest organised by Mumbai-based Natyashala, and brought lau­rels to the city as they walked back after sweeping a series of trophies for their play titled Bas Ek Minute.
Sharing the success story exclu­sively with The Hitavada, Principal of the school, Rekha Abhyankar informed that the five children ~ Ankur Purandare, 'Dhanshree Tambe, Akshay Zodape, Nishidha Damai and Kshitij Nitnavare proved their acting skills during the contest and bagged the leading six trophies including those for best play, .best actor, best Direction and others.
But it was not a cake walk for the students as well as the team of spe­cial teachers led by Jyotsna Likhite, who groomed the children for the act. Script had to be written and rewritten to suit the ability of the kids. Dialogues had to be taken from what they spoke in their day to day life. Some scenes and actions had to be discarded while others had to be re­written right from a scratch before the final script was passed by the organisers in Mumbai. "With the chil­dren's IQ level much low than the normal children, we had to ensure that there are no dialogues or even words that are tough enough for the kids to memorise. We did not even changed their names for the charac­ters they played," said Likhite who wrote the script for the play. "We encourage them, but never use force. As their insecurities melt, they begin to socialise more, -open up slowly. Their involvement gets stronger. We wanted such chil­dren to prove to themselves and to others that they were not inferior to their peers and in some ways they were actually ahead," Abhyankar said.
The kids too spared no efforts to prove their skills. "It never affect­ed their learning skills when we made alterations in the story, dia­logues or even who plays what char­acters. They were quick to unlearn the old dialogues and actions and learned the new ones with equal
zeal. "Working for the special chil­dren for the past 20 years has made me realised that these children have a passion for perfection. Whatever they do, they want it perfect - be it small thing like combing their hairs or expressing difficult expres­sions or even fluctuating their voice during the dialogue delivery. Moreover, they never get tired and continue with their works for hours together without wasting a minute. In fact, they have better abilities in certain areas," said Abhyankar.
"The compelling power of the performing arts helps heal the mind and body. We expatiate on their therapeutic application for treating physical and men­tal disabilities. We believe that the arts make fascinat­ing, flexible tools to help disabled children increase their cognitive and com­municative skills, motor coordination, develop speech and expression, orig­inality and creativity. Learning these skills will also enable them to socialise better and become confident that they are in no way infe­rior to the so-called 'nor­mal' children," said Likhite. The students are being trained by a team of seven special teachers. In the school locat­ed at Bajaj Nagar, they get voca­tional training to make decorative articles, daily use items, embroidery, phenol making, envelop making, block printing, amber charkho train­ing, stitching on sewing machines, etc apart from learning maths and sciences. The school has some 42 special children. "We do not take Government grants for obvious rea­sons. Our school is a small family, poised for a big leap. When we see passouts from our school rubbing shoulders with others in the socie­ty, we feel our end being realised," added Abhyankar.