Mandala Theatre-Nepal organized a convocation ceremony to provide certificates and to give the final farewell to the 16 participants of Mandala’s Drama School- 1st batch on Thursday, 16th December 2021. The event was the culmination of one and half year long residential theatre training program conducted by Mandala Theatre Nepal.
With the support of Civil Peace Service of GIZ, Mandala Theatre-Nepal had conceptualized a drama school in Nepal and implemented the first batch of it. In 2020-2021. With the slogan “Theatre for Social Change, Conflict Transformation and Peacebuilding”, Mandala Theatre-Nepal successfully completed 1.5 years long Residential Theatre Training Program from August 2020- December 2021. The program was a synthesized theatre course held by experienced national and international artists, peace workers, and teachers from Mandala Theatre-Nepal. A mixture of aesthetical contents together with tools to work on social issues, the curriculum had created an opportunity for experienced and novice theatre learners to sustain their acting skills, talents and capacity by shaping it in structured methodology which will also allow them to intervene in fields of peace-building and conflict transformation. Mandala Drama School had invited 16 interested theatre enthusiasts and social activists (8 female, 8 male) from all over the Nepal to join the first batch. All the participants had successfully completed their course and also accomplished their first project back in their local areas.
Mandala distributed certificates, letter of appreciation and token of love to participating students, teachers, and staffs of the program during the convocation ceremony. The ceremony’s chief guest Kedar Bhakta Mathema, education activist and former vice chancellor of Tribhuvan University shared his opinions on importance of education and relevance of theatre education for social transformation in Nepal after the certificate distribution. Two students representatives Susmita Pokhrel and Sanjay Bishwakarma shared their experiences during the program. Similarly, two representative teachers Sarita Giri and Anup Baral expressed their best wishes to the passed-out students.
Before the certificate distribution, Som Nath Khanal and Michael Thonhauser, mentors and curriculum developer of Mandala’s Drama School- 1st batch welcomed invitees and shared the overview of drama school curriculum and content. Michael Thonahuser further shared his experiences while organizing such program and the uniqueness about the program.
The ceremony was chaired by Mandala’s chairperson Sirjana Subba who also concluded the event with her vote of thanks.
Some photos of the events are as follows:
