Youth Performing Arts Festival opens

Friday, October 17, 2008
Lahore

Defying the serious law and order situation in the country, thousands of people participated in the inaugural ceremony of the 7th eight-day-long Rafi Peer Theatre’s Youth Performing Arts Festival at the Alhamra Cultural Centre, Qaddafi Stadium, on Thursday evening.

The festival showcasing over three dozen different kinds of performing arts activities by the vibrant youth of the country including mime, short plays, multimedia plays, theatrical performances , film screenings, and musical events proved to be a blessing in disguise for the live-hearted people of the city.

The first night was unexpectedly a very encouraging sign for the otherwise disheartened organizers of the mega show who have been putting up with all sorts of problems in the last nine years in holding such a big event in the city but never been so scared and unsure of the fate of their festivals like the way they were about this one.

Aleena Peerzada, the young chief organizer of the grand event for children and young men and women openly confessed that they were scared and never expected such a great response from the general public. She said she was surprised to see the significant number of people who had come to see the event, adding it showed how much the people of the country loved peace and positive activities.

The show kicked off at the Hall no.-I with the theatrical performance of the Mir Theatre’s stage play. The thin number of audience was attributed by the organizers to the lack of publicity and the prevailing law& order conditions in the country. However, there were at least six dozen young theatre enthusiasts who had graced the occasion.

The second and the most crowded event proved to be the two performances by the brilliant boys and girls of the NCA who had brought in a multimedia theatrical performance under the banner of ÔAlif Adaab’ in the Camp no.2 on the lush green lawns of the Alhamra Cultural Centre.

The performance was an amalgamation of modern multi-media facility and century’s old technique of light & shadows. It was surely a crowd puller and the NCA’s youth won the evening by presenting an interesting light musical comedy which was a satirical piece in the backdrop of the American Cowboys style. The other 20 minutes piece by the NCA students in the same camp was prepared and presented by their ÔPuppeteers Society’ which was highly amusing for the children and the youth.

At Camp-I the drama performance by the group ÔMass Foundation’ entertained their young audience for 60 minutes.

Besides, the theatrical performances at the two camps and Hall-I, a children’s movie was also scheduled in the Haqll-2.

The over all ambience of the Festival, the colours spread by the shinning lights all around the venue and fluttering coloured banners created an atmosphere of glee and joy .

The kids and the young boys and girls running around in the corridors of the circular cultural facility momentarily forced the organizers and the watchful security agencies personnel to put off the worries about the prevailing law& order situation. It was certainly an enriching experience on the inaugural night and quite encouraging one too.