TURN INTERN - a summer internship for young people

After staging plays for children for five years, we decided it was time to get them over to the other side. So we announced a summer internship programme called Turn Intern and offered it to young people who had either been a part of one of our workshops or drama clubs over the past five years.

Two young men joined us at the end of April. Pratik and Samar, both who had been a part of Gillo's Saturday Drama Club.

Group photo from our play GULABO AUR PARIZAAD.

At top left is Pratik and at bottom right is Samar.

Here are excerpts from their reflections.

Samar Jaswal, student in Std.9

"Even after attending two children workshops with Gillo, my heart was still pounding with fear the first time that I arrived at Akshara High School. The ride from my house to the school was filled with anxiety, I was worried thinking what kind of people will there be, how they would treat me. 

Will they be friendly, abusive or authoritative to a new comer? 

As I walked into this huge hall called 'activity room', everyone who was practicing turned towards me and smiled. All the thoughts that I had previously, vanished. A formal introduction made by our director-shaili ma’am eased me a lot and made me feel like I was at home. 

I have since then grown a lot as a person. I learnt how to manage time, how to get the best in a limited amount of money, how to work in a team and how not to waste food. I have had a lot of fun moments and some bad ones too… I really became good friends with nearly everyone and only I know how much we used to crack jokes backstage and in the green room, and Pratik giving me tips and advice on how to do work...

The journey from activity room to the stage of Prithvi theatre was amazing, great  learning, a first positive step towards my goal under able guidance. I wish to continue. Thank you Gillo."

Pratik Shah, student in Std. 11

"When the final bell rings, all the faces are lit up with a bright smile as the recurring thoughts on the land of dreams is finally allowed into the real world. That is how the last day of school before the highly awaited summer break ends. The students minds are all engulfed with plans to make the coming summer most exciting as ever. When most people were considering swimming or tennis as the ultimate "life-sorted" choice, my mind was obstinate enough to allow me do only one thing- Theatre.

So that is how I ended up getting Gillo Summer Internship. Well I was quite skeptical when I first entered . The reason? I had done a documentary the year before and that experience while shooting and dubbing had helped me develop a strong prejudice for people in this industry.

But when the truth unveiled itself, my thoughts were proved wrong as I realized that Gillo lay unaffected by the negative touch of reality. I was given an amazing warm welcome on the first day itself and the next one month seemed full of optimism.

As the days passed, I learnt amazing things and quite fully understood the process of play preparation. I realised that the script of a play has many improvisation sessions before it is finally     ready and our director, Shaili, was kind enough to allow the actors and production members try out their improvisation in various scenes. Another thing that I learned was time management -The sum total of all experiences while planning rehearsals and scheduling transport of props made me realize the true meaning of the proverb "Time is Money".

There were many obstacles in our play, for instance once the tempo was too small to load the props or at times the actors had not learnt their lines, but facing all the technical and other problems without letting pessimism hindering the objective was another thing that I learnt.

Another amazing thing that I learnt was the smart usage of actors to satisfy the script of the play.(Spoiler Alert!) For example in "Taoos Chaman Ki Myna ", Hetal Varia plays the role of the protagonists mother as well the wife of a British Officer (Double Role!!) without even the audience realizing it !!

So in this one month I learnt time management, money saving, account management, play formation process and many other amazing things which can never be taught in school or through books. It only comes through experience.

So in short - It was a summer well spent."

A big thank you to Samar and Pratik for joining us this summer!