Madurai-based ‘Drama‘ Selvam uses theatre to drive change

Selvam uses theatre to provide value-based education to children in Government schools, fostering positive behavioral changes through storytelling and art.

“Let’s go!” says A Selvam, running up a dirt road in front of a Government school for tribal children at a mountain village in Erode district. A gaggle of children follow him, and he soon finds a space for them to sit in a circle.

Then, he sings: “Nethu mazhai vandhuchu…” (It rained yesterday) and the children sing along, their laughter renting the air. This is a typical day in Selvam’s life. The Madurai-based 45-year-old, who runs an initiative called Dharma Through Drama, travels to Government schools across the State, using theatre as a tool to offer value-based education to children.

“Theatre can bring about positive behavioural changes in children,” feels Selvam, who has travelled to over 750 Government-run schools in Tamil Nadu over the past 15 years, interacting with over 25,000 students. Selvam enters a classroom with an open mind, without any structured method of working.

“I take note of the windows there, how light enters the class, the trees around it, the squirrels that peep inside…and use these in our plays,” he says. “This is because long after I’m gone, children will continue observing and interacting with these objects around them.”

Selvam interacts with students to come up with stories, and encourages them to enact these stories. He talks about how a little girl once told him that on her way to school, she accidentally sent mud flying into a guava-seller’s fruits on the roadside as she ran past the old woman. “She felt guilty that she didn’t apologise to the woman, and we decided to put up a play based on this incident,” he says, adding, “I usually extract stories from family, the classroom, or societal interactions.”

The idea is to engage every child and celebrate each one’s uniqueness. “Even if a child stands up to say her name in front of the whole class, it is a success,” he says. “Some children might not be into song and dance, and in such cases, I use art as a medium to get them to express themselves.”

His sessions also consist of doing craft with waste collected from around the classroom, puppetry, and drawing. “I ask each child to draw something on a piece of paper, and towards the end of the day, staple all of their works together, and release it as a book in front of them,” he says.