Hailing from an ordinary family in Hokandara, in the suburbs of Colombo, Deshan Nimesh now a 20 year youth, never thought of playing a character in a stage drama when he got admission to Malabe Boys’ School to follow the Advanced Level in the Maths stream subjects a few years ago. But, it was not a place to keep their talents in-vain as it was a school that gave pride and place for the students to groom their talents.
The short span of time he spent at Malabe Boys’ school had given time and space for Deshan to become one of the best performing actors in the stage drama field, as he won the best actor award at the State Children’s Drama Festival 2016, for the teacher’s role he played in the Tikerty Tale Teller drama presented by Red Apple Theatre Gathering representing the English drama open category.
Speaking to the Sunday Observer about his best actor award, this budding actor said, that it was Kalyani Vidanage, the drama teacher of Malabe Boys’ School, who first traced his talents and invited to play a role in the dramas produced at school level and participate in drama workshops. That gave him the opportunity to be a fan of stage dramas and also a student of Sachitra Rahubadda.
“The drama Tharu Keta Sihinaya produced by Malabe Boys’ School was selected as the best drama at the stage drama competition organised by the Tower Hall Foundation and I won the best actor award in that competition too representing our school in the open category”, Deshan added.
It was after that award, Sachitra Rahubadda invited him to play a character in the drama Tikerty Tale Teller, a drama describing the value of storytelling by using a set of children living in an orphanage at a time nobody in the world is aware of Stories.
Sachithra Rahubadda is an active Director of Children’s and Youth Dramas in Sri Lanka and is also interested in finding new dimensions about Drama and Theater and doing research on the field to prove that drama can be used in education and social collaboration. His idea is that drama is a tool which could be used directly to change the attitudes of the children and youth.
The drama Tikerty Tale Teller also revolved around changing the attitude of the children towards stories and educating the children to understand the difference between the real world and the stories.
The drama won all the awards in the English drama open category including the best actor (Deshan), best actress, best supporting actor and best supporting actress awards. All the children played in the drama received merit awards for their performances in the drama.
“It was the best chance I have gained in my life to perform in a drama such as and playing a role in an English drama did not become a challenge to me as I was fully committed to play my drama by learning the dialogues properly”, Deshan added.
“We had the full freedom to construct the drama on our own as our director Sachitra Rahubadda wanted us to do the drama without being confined to a script. He guided us to rectify our mistakes and come out with a best drama. That was the secret behind the awards we won”, he added.
The opportunity he gained by winning the best actor award at the State Children’s Drama Festival, has directed the life of Deshan more towards stage dramas and a student who wanted to become an aeronautical engineer is now pondering further studies in Drama and Theatre.
“Now I am more interested in acting as it gave me a window of opportunity to experience the world and visit countries. So I would like to continue as an actor with whatever opportunities I gained in this field without neglecting my education. I very much admire the school principal, my teachers and my family for bringing me to this position”, he added.
Kalyani Vidanage his drama teacher at Malabe Boys’ School said talented students like Deshan could go the distance in this field due to his commitment, and his ability to work in a team, taking responsibilities.
Sisira Gunarathna, the principal of the school said, students like Deshan are an asset to his school and added that they should go further ahead in the field without forgetting their basic education. “If done so, without being confined to narrow thinking they can reach top positions in society in the future.
Deshan is one such student and we are proud to produce students like him”, the principal added.
- Ranil
Pic: Rukmal Gamage