Katie Bagli's children's story about marine treasures comes to life in a play

Kids rehearse the play with cheerleading poms poms

Come Friday and one of author Katie Bagli's stories will be brought to life on stage, in the form of a play. Her popular book Ishaan's Treasures (The Mangrove Foundation) has been adapted into a play and will be performed by a group of 20 children from Chembur-based Club Elves. "For over a month now, the children have been practising tirelessly, and with a lot of enthusiasm," says educationist Anju Narula, who is also the founder of this children's club, where activities and workshops are conducted.

The play, with the same name, is being performed at the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), and revolves around the lead character Ishaan. The young boy, who moves to the city with his family, gets overwhelmed by the seashore, but ends up befriending Nature Uncle, who, upon seeing Ishaan's enthusiasm for the marine world, shares his knowledge about the fascinating marine creatures. This shapes the young boy's future, and he ends up becoming a marine biologist.

The idea of adapting the book into a play was suggested by Sachin Kulkarni, assistant director (administration), BNHS. "All these years, we have been doing a lot of book readings, narrations and launches for the children to promote conservation. This time, I suggested to Bagli that we should try performative art to impart the same knowledge." Interestingly, this is the first time a play (of any kind) is being performed at BNHS.

The script for the adaptation, also written by Bagli, with inputs from Narula, stays true to the original text with a few minor changes. "As this is a huge group of children between the ages of five to 11, we added more people, but not new characters. For example, in the book, there is one Koli woman, and three people in the crowd, but in the play, we are showing two Koli women and six people as a crowd," explains Narula, who has also directed the play. The hour-long play will start with a fun dance. "We have also incorporated a narrator [a young actor], as we felt it would be nice to walk the audience through the story," she adds.

Children rehearsing their lines

Narula explains that the kids are thrilled for the play as they have read several other books by Bagli; and because her stories are practical, they usually teach children how they can be part of the onservation efforts without being too preachy. "I am extremely excited to see the kids perform on the stage, as I haven't watched any of their practice sessions. Performance art can be a great way to impart knowledge in young minds; and so hopefully, after this play, more people will become aware and sensitive towards the city's marine life," shared Katie Bagli.

Katie Bagli, Anju Narula and Sachin Kulkarni

The exhilarated bunch is looking forward to the play, for which, they have designed the costumes with the help of the parents. "It's all DIY, including the headgears of hermit crabs and even the dolphin suit," shares Narula, who adds that after this play, people will appreciate the marine treasures in the city and protect these species and their fragile marine homeland.

On: October 13; 6 pm
At: BNHS, Hornbill House, SBS Road, Fort
Call: 9321532705