Play After Play

Thanks to the Calendar Fundraiser this year, Ana's school was able to bring an awesome theater event for the kids: Play After Play!

Melanya and Marc, the duo who make up Play After Play, have incredible bios. And from what I have gathered, they held the group of 60 kids spellbound with their unique style of storytelling that incorporates music and movement and interaction. And the folktale they shared was from Patagonia. Reminded me of Eth-Noh-Tec performance Ana and I enjoyed a while back.

In the play session after the Play, kids are invited to tumble and roll and "play like animals", but with safety and kindness, led by the duo with poise and grace.

For parents like me (and D), this is extremely fortuitous: with today's demands on life, such experiences for the kids take a back-seat while we go about meeting the Food-Clothing-Shelter needs.

As for Ana, she couldn't stop talking about it on our drive back from school - not so much the exact details, but, when every other word in her sentences turned out to be some synonym of "fun", I knew it must've been a good experience and has made a lasting impression.

Eth-Noh-Tec: Kinetic Storytelling

When I was little, I remember going to a few Katha Kalakshebams - storytelling performance of interweaving music and narration from Hindu mythology.

I used to sit there in rapt attention, jaws hitting the floor when fearsome asuras were quelled by virtuous beings right in front of my eyes - well, mind's eyes at least - while the narrator/performer (Kripananda Variyar, the only one I can recall) unfolded these images in my head through their words and music...

Life took its course and I wasn't a kid anymore and going to katha kalakshebams and other discourses took a backseat.

But today, thanks to her vivacity and talent, Vishaka Hari has brought back the magic for me! I adore her musical interludes - being a trained classical musician her rendition is powerful and evocative; at the same time, her sense of humor and her effort to bring the magic to today's high-tech generation makes her presentation more accessible and enjoyable across generations. Well, seems so to me - at least from the DVDs I have, as I haven't had the opportunity to see her in person.

Enough reminiscing... on to sharing a beautiful experience...

Ana and I were front-and-center at a fabulous story-telling performance by Eth-Noh-Tec, a duo from San Francisco - viz., Nancy Wang and Robert Kikuchi-Yngojo - who are absolutely incredible!

Just as a teaser, to give an idea of their style of interlacing music and movement, drawing the audience into telling the story, and their crisscrossing narration complementing each other, here's a short snippet.

We heard three stories from China and Korea. The young and the not-so-young in the audience in the small library were laughing, bouncing, interacting, and most of all, thinking! We learnt a few words and a song in Korean (which I promptly forgot) thanks to Eth-Noh-Tec's power of engagement.

A special Q&A session at the end was great - for, one of the pre-teens asked, "So, are these stories true?" to which they replied, in an ever so elegant way saying, "You see, it was so long ago that it is hard to tell... However, there is some truth to all the stories we hear..." and they went on to distill the essence of the stories which we all took away with us.

Ana and I absolutely enjoyed Eth-Noh-Tec's storytelling! And, we wouldn't miss the opportunity to see them up close again! Their work is inspiring!
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p.s: Since the show, Ana has asked me to retell two of the three stories over and over (even on the drive to and from school) and sure enough I incorporated what I could take away of Eth-Noh-Tec's style of narration and it has been an educational and entertaining experience for me as well as for Ana.

Here's a short intro to their first story: