Napa to showcase children from underprivileged areas in a storytelling festival

A relentless mission to educate

National Academy of Performing Arts (Napa) is set to hold a storytelling festival on November 5 and 6. The two-day festival will include dramatic reading performances by underprivileged children from neglected areas of Karachi.

At the press conference where the festival was announced, renowned music composer and Napa’s programmes director Arshad Mehmood shared with the media that they have focused on three areas of Karachi in the first Storytelling Festival. “The process, which started from March, covered three areas Baldia, Mauripur and Ibrahim Hyderi. We went to these areas and introduced the art of storytelling to the youth,” he said. “And through this journey, they became so good that we want to showcase them through this festival. Storytelling is important for the betterment of society and through this festival, we will know how much hidden talent we have in this country.”





Theatre director Zain Ahmed, who headed the project, said this was the first time they were attempting anything of this sort and he hoped it would become an annual festival. “We are hoping it would become part of the several annual festivals we hold, like the international theatre festival and others. We are also planning to start a comedy theatre festival,” said Ahmed. “For the storytelling festival, we held 45 community performances and 60 student performances, and now we want to showcase their progress to the mainstream audience.”



He shared that around 90 boys and girls participated from these areas, and 20-25 will present at the festival. There was no pre-requisite of education, theatre background or age group and everyone was welcome. They shared stories of how some kids who didn’t even know how to read or write were trained to speak and narrate stories in front of an audience. “We noticed that there is so much desire but no opportunities for these people who live in the outskirts and can’t even imagine travelling to art schools or anywhere to develop their skills. So, we wanted to provide an opportunity. This is an ambitious project and we will see how it works out,” said Ahmed.



Murtaza Abbasi, also involved with project, shared how challenging it was to train kids. “Some of these kids have also been involved in negative activities in their communities, because they had nothing else to do. But now they are turning to be more interested in developing their skills and being good citizens,” he said. “The idea is that we don’t know how much potential they have unless someone gives them an opportunity and they have the right to equal opportunities too. Who knows, any one of them might hopefully turn into the next Wahid Murad or Talat Hussain.”



Three mentors Nazarul Hasan, Zarqa Naz and Meesam Naqvi went to these three areas and scouted and nurtured talent. Hasan said people in those areas have little access, so he was glad Napa initiated this project and he got to be a part of it. He said they obviously faced challenges, but it was all worth it.

In fact, six children are also given Napa scholarships to further develop their talent so that they can pursue a career. Naqvi pointed out how he faced a challenge as there were kids of all backgrounds and languages he had to train. “So, we made them do it in their language, if they couldn’t speak in Urdu, and then translate it in Urdu,” he said. “I remember there was this Baloch girl who asked to perform in Balochi language and I felt it had more power than if we did it in Urdu. Of course, you couldn’t understand the dialogue, but you could feel where the story was going because of the expressive delivery.”



Naz was glad that “Napa first taught me and then sent me out to teach others.” She said a lot of kids are married off at an early age in these areas and don’t get to explore their potential at all. “But with the help of this project, we assisted some to do so, and now they are turning to telling stories.” In fact, most of the girls came to participate from Ibrahim Hyderi, where Naz trained them.

Besides children, Mehmood shared that 15 school teachers were also trained. Ahmed said apart from teaching how to tell stories, it was pertinent that we also explore the local writing talent. “There is no dearth of performers when it comes scouting talent but what we lack in is writers and playwrights. So, in a way, we also motivated these kids to tell their own stories. Hopefully, some of them may become playwrights in the future.” Adding onto that, Naqvi shared how one of his students wanted to narrate something he wrote during the training. As he read out a part of that student’s prose in the press conference, he said, “I was surprised and asked him if he stole it from somewhere. I gave 15 minutes to write a poem and he came up with such great hilarious content that it left me shocked and mesmerised.”



Concluding the event, eight to ten children from Baldia, Ibrahim Hyderi and Mauripur introduced themselves, thanked their mentors and shared their hopes for a better future. Mehmood remarked how artists were the biggest treasures of the country. “We have to push them to the fore. And here we’re talking about our very own Pakistani people who will carry the future. And it even costs less than army or police’s expenses, so I hope we can invest more in them,” he said, adding that in the next storytelling festival, they aim to cover more ground and train people from seven different areas.