Project
First formed in July 2004, Jana Karaliya is a travelling theatre troupe that uses a portable theatre in a large tent that they assemble when they arrive somewhere. This is the first of its kind in Sri Lanka and the company describe themselves as a "forefront theatre voyage for a new trend of drama art" (Jana Karaliya information booklet). The group is composed of 25 young Tamil and Sinhala youth from all around Sri Lanka who have been trained by the two directors and founders of the group; a well-known television actor and a director. Many of the actors had no experience of being involved in drama or theatre prior to joining the group.
Jana Karaliya in Sinhala, and Makkal Kalari in Tamil, means 'theatre of the people' and encompasses their cultural mission to create a performance space for people living in rural areas of the island. The group believes they also convey positive and useful example of peaceful coexistence as a group of ethnically mixed youth who work and live together. They have developed a diverse repertoire of six plays that they can perform in both the Tamil and Sinhalese languages ranging from the Russian play The Dragon by Yevgeny Schwartz, the Indian play Charandas Chor by Habib Tanvir and two self devised plays called Seethambarapata / Mayapattadia and Andaramal / Erukakalam Poo . Once they arrive in a district, they assemble their theatre tent in a public area, such as a school playground, and have daily performances open to the local communities. Their theatre can accommodate several hundred audience members and the stage is in the style of 'in the round' in order to create an interactive feeling between the actors and audience.
Jana Karaliya's plan was to tour with their theatre for two years in all the districts of Sri Lanka and conduct applied theatre workshops for teachers and school children in each district. To date, they have visited various districts such as the northern district of Jaffna, the north central districts of Anuradhapura and Pollonaruwa and the southern district of Galle.
