“The novel is more of a whisper, whereas the stage is a shout”- Robert Holaman.A team of 7 students -
Achal Roop Kaur, Vaniya Solanki, Bhakti Babani, Avani Goyal, Vimla, Anika Chaturvedi, Ishika Gumasta along with their teacher incharge ma’am Awanesh Sharma participated in the
4th edition of Online Thought Huddle hosted by Sunbeam School Varuna, Varanasi from
27th to 29th December 2023. Overall 20 schools participated including the Host School, Sunbeam Varuna, Jaishree Periwal Global School Jaipur, Maa Anandmayi Memorial School, Haridwar, The Indian School, New Delhi, B.K Birla Public School , Kalyan, Singapore International School, Mumbai, Rajmata Krishna Kumari Girls Public School, Jodhpur and many more .
Day one began with the Manager’s Meet which was followed by Scriptorium in which theatre writing along with Theatre Monologue was to be presented as a thematic framework. The theme of the event was a monologue of Shakespeare’s character. A team of two members participated which included Ishika Gomastha and Anika Chaturvedi. The time limit for the video submission was 2 hours beginning from 2 p.m. At the same time we witnessed the Hindi experimental short radio play enactment in which a team of 3 members were required to convert a Shakespeare monologue into a duologue. Though we did not participate in this event, but there was a lot to learn.
Day 2 was launched with the registration followed by the Opening Ceremony which began with the introductory speech. Soon after that we watched the enthralling virtual dance performance by the host school .After the opening ceremony we had two events packed for the day.
The first was the Sensorium - a non-verbal exploratory enactment with a sutradhar/narrator of material and tactile senses continued by the extempore Imaginarium which was theatre scenography installed as art in which students made models using their creativity with the given list of materials specified with relation to Shakespeare. Even though we did not participate, there was a lot to gain.
Day 3 started with the Quintet finals which consisted of 7 selected teams of which
RKKGPS was a part of. Quintet is basically a group of 5 members and the theme of the play was ‘Assasination and aftermath in Shakespeare’s plays. Our team performed on one of the most popular and enchanting of Shakespeare's plays ‘The Tragedy of Othello- The Moor of Venice’. The team consisted of Achal Roop Kaur as Othello, Vaniya Solanki as Desdemona, Bhakti Babani as Emilia (Silent character), Sejal Ostwal as the Narrator cum Musician and the Video Editor, Avani Goel.
Subsequently the Closing Ceremony began with the melodious musical performance and a rhythmic dance by the host school. Soon the prize distribution was commenced by the one and only theatrical prodigy, Mr. Pranab Mukharjee.
It was a moment of immense joy and pleasure, that RKKGPS Quintet Team was the 1st Runner Up in the Quintet finale and was announced as the 3rd Best Joint Delegation for the Scriptorium event. Rajmata Krishna Kumari Girls’ Public School was also declared as the overall 2nd Runners Up Delegation amongst the 20 participating schools. The Closing Ceremony ended with a motivating speech by Mr Pranab Mukherjee. Some of our takeaways from it are that, “It is important for us to design our silence on stage”, “Theatre isn’t about stage, it is about space. Acting is only a small part of it, in real sense theatre allows you to be the communicator”. At last the curtains were closed with the given line, “Have a creative New Year, happy or not”.
