A two-day 'Theatre Festival for the Young Audiences' will go on boards organized by Play House-Kotte on December 5 and 6 at Lionel Wendt at 3.30 p.m. and 6.30 p.m.

The festival will include the latest creation 'Walas Pawula' (The Bears and Goldilocks) Punchi Apata Den Therei (We Know It Now) and "Toppi Welenda" (The Hat Seller) will be showcased at the event.
"Walas Pawula" is an adaptation of popular fairy tale (Three Bears and Goldilocks) while 'Punchi Apata den Therei' and 'Toppi Welenda' are based on well-known international folk stories. All plays are produced as musicals and in the adaptations, new characters and situations have been incorporated particularly to communicate with the Sri Lankan child. The production style of the plays has been developed so as to give the young audiences as well as the whole family an aesthetic journey of entertainment.

Choreography, lighting, costumes, stage props, and music of the dramas have been carefully crafted to convey to the children a sense of basic art forms and meaningful entertainment.

Both plays are written by Somalatha Subasinghe. 'Walas Pawula' is directed and choreographed by Dr. Chandana Aluthge and 'Punchi Apata Den Therei' and 'Toppi Welenda' are directed by Somalatha Subasinghe. Music for 'Walas Pawula' is by Tharupathi Munasinghe and based on our traditional melodies which are modified and adopted into the present context. M. R. Chulasinghe composed music for the two plays.

The cast of the musicals comprises Wickrama Seneviratne. Rohitha Karunaratne, Wishvajith Gunasekera, Sarijaya Hettiarachchi, Shamaine Gunarathne, Suresh Fernando, Pujitha de Mel, Dilum Buddhika, Dinuki de Silva, Pramudi Karunarathne, Mayura Kanchana, Namal Jayasinghe, Geetha Alahakoon, Ishara Wickramasena and a number of newcomers trained at Play House-Kotte.

For the third consecutive year the festival is sponsored by the HNB Assurance PLC and this is in a bid to promote Children's Theatre in Sri Lanka and thereby contribute to the well-being of the country's future generation.

"In a socio-cultural situation where there is no adequate amount of patronage for good theatre for children and youth, the support extended by HNB Assurance PLC to hold a two-day theatre festival for children is commendable," Chandana Aluthge, Festival Coordinator said expressing his gratitude.

Play House - Kotte which is also known as Lanka Children's and Youth Theatre Foundation-LCYTF was founded by veteran playwright and actress Ms. Somalatha Subasinghe in 1981 in order to further the cause of children and youth theatre in Sri Lanka.