World
Theatre Day observed on March 27th since 1962, celebrates the importance of
theatre arts as it continues to entertain, teach and change us.
Theatre
isn't as polished as film, it's not as solitarily immersive as literature and
it's not as convenient as television, but the fact that it’s live seems
inescapably to be part of its value.
As
a Chinese proverb says "Tell me and I will forget. Show me and I will
remember. Involve me and I will understand." Theatre inculcates empathy,
discipline, cooperation, spirit of team work and communication skills in
students.
Masks
being an important theatrical element, impersonates a number of characters. Highly
decorated, beautifully painted and interesting designs of masks help to depict
a more realistic scenario of a place, whether cultural, social, political,
religious or historical.
The theme of this assembly, A Theatrical Showcase: ‘Culture of Masks around the World: Diverse, Dynamic and Dazzling’ focuses to bring to light, the importance of masks in theatre and knowing about different types of masks around the world such as Native American masks, Venetian Carnival masks and many more, through a theatrical showcase,would be an enriching experience for the students.
This
plan can be used by schools of any country. The schools can conduct it for a
grade or few grades from Class 1 to 10.
The
plan has a main manual illustrating the flow of the event along with the
description of the scripts/ performances/ activities in detail and also
includes all the necessary resources for the assembly. All the mask cut outs
are provided with the plan and simple costumes for participants are
recommended, which can be easily arranged for.
Activities
involving videos, PPTs are not taken for this assembly as a projector facility
may not be available in many school grounds.