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Oldies come to life in aid of veteran cinema artistes

A festival of old hits of the local silver screen will be held next week to raise funds for the Welfare Fund established for the benefit of those engaged in the industry.

Five hit oldies - Handapana, Sundara Birinda, Hataradenama Soorayo, Thushara and Vasana - will thus be screened at the Elphinstone Theatre from November 22 to 26. "Those films were selected by a committee comprising directors, actors and actresses - out of 10 old films whose prints are still available," said National Film Corporation's Assistant General Manager Ivan Weerakkody. He said the proceeds of the shows would go to the Fund set up to ensure the welfare of film artistes and technicians now in the twilight of their lives.

A medical and insurance scheme are implemented for cinema artistes under this Welfare Fund.Artists who contributed to each film will grace the opening ceremony on each day.

The schedule:

Nov. 22: Handapana (1965)

Directed by Kingsley Rajapakse stars Herbert M. Seneviratne, Vijitha Mallika, Piyadasa Gunasekera, Ruby de Mel, Cyril Wickramage. Music - Sisira Senaratne

Nov. 23: Sundara Birinda (1960)

Directed by D. Yoganand, stars Ravindra Rupasena, Leena de Silva, Ananda Jayaratne, Claris de Silva, Reeta Rathnayake, Christie Leonard Perera, Asoka Ponnamperuma and Lilian Edirisinghe.

Nov. 24: Hataradenama Soorayo (1971)

Directed by Neil Rupasinghe. Cast comprises Gamini Fonseka, Sriyani Amarasena, Malani Fonseka, Vijaya Kumaratunga, Anthony C Perera, Senadeera Rupasinghe, Lionel Deraniyagala, Alexander Fernando, Agra Sanjeewani. Music - P.L.A. Somapala.

Nov. 25: Thushara (1973)

Directed by Yasapalitha Nanayakkara. Cast: Vijaya Kumaratunga, Malani Fonseka, Joe Abeywickreme, Soniya Dissa, Baptice Fernando, Mark Samaranayake, Liliyan Edirisinghe, B.S.Perera, Shanthi Lekha, Alexander Fernando, Piyadasa Wijekoon. Music -P.L.A. Somapala.

Nov. 26: Vasana (1976)

Directed by K.A.W. Perera. Cast: Vijaya Kumaratunga, Malani Fonseka, Joe Abeywickreme, Geetha Kumarasinghe, Neeta Fernando, Domi Jayawardene, Rukmani Devi, Freddy Silva, B.S.Perera. Music - Premasiri Khemadasa.

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A view from Mary Ann David's 'a place for us'

One of the ways in which music education can be most fruitful to student as well as teacher is to get the students to give public performances periodically. This is one of the achievements of teachers like Mary Ann David. In the absence of orchestras to support these performances, the use of the keyboard with a skilled accompanist can be reasonably satisfactory. The tendency of advertisers to creep more and more into musical programs should be resisted as far as possible.

The major part of the content of 'A Place of us', an evening of superlative music by the Mini Music Makers of the Merry-An Singers" at the Wendt Theatre on 8 November (2002) consisted of extracts from musicals.

I am not a lover of musicals and so I can hardly talk about the content but I may be permitted to write down some passing thoughts arising out of the concert. Mrs. David makes it a policy that all her pupils are trained with an eye to performing in public during their student-period and, if possible, later.

This puts the pupils as well as the teacher on the alert for careful practice. In the present concert a large cohort of Mrs. David's junior students performed. These were young children aged 6-14 years - "Mini Music Makers' - 42 in Junior A, 22 in Junior B1, 43 in Junior B2 and 23 in Junior C, a total of 130! An additional advantage with such large numbers of performing children is that the hall gets fully booked day after day by their adoring parents and relatives.

The main lesson for us is that every teacher should teach so that her/his student is taught so well that it is obligatory to give periodical performances in public, or at least to a group of peers. Mary Ann David is a shining light in this respect.

There are other music teachers too who get their students to perform, such as the other leading vocal teachers in and around Colombo area, and instrumental teachers such as Mrs. Yvonne Keerthisinghe, Mrs. Shirani Weerakkody, the Institute of Western Music and Speech (IWMS), and the Kandy Music Society. The practice of holding public performances for top-level performers in foreign examinations (the Guildhall group, Royal, Trinity) and the concerts of the national Youth Orchestra, are also a stimulus to train students to perform publicly.

Music Clubs in schools and in the community are other places where students and adults are encouraged to perform in front of others. The Music Club at Visakha Vidyalaya has an unusual program where the students of the school as well as parents give joint performances in front of their peers.

The most impressive thing about Mrs. David's concerts is the thoughtful planning that goes into it. In the present concert, each group item was presented by performers who had been trained to do exactly what fitted their role - to sing correctly from memory, to make appropriate bodily movements, and clothed in specially-made costumes to match the item.

The passage from one item to the next was slick, with no delays and clumsy emptiness, in spite of the necessary changes in costume. How does Mary Ann David, the Director, manage to achieve all this? To get such a result there must be commitment and efficient management with a team of voluntary supporting staff; this had included a parents' group. Mrs. David herself stayed tranquilly at the piano throughout the concert, even during the interval. She did not have to rush hither and thither between piano pit and dressing rooms, no not once. There was not a dull moment in the entire concert.

Ideally, group musical performances call for orchestral accompaniment. This is hard to get. The usual substitute is a keyboard accompaniment by competent players. At Mrs. David's concert the accompaniment was provided by her and Duleep Fernando (piano), Nirajjan de Silva (electronic keyboard), and Christopher Prins (drums). Each of these persons was not merely competent but perfect. Indeed there were moments when they seemed to be superior to the artistes on stage, as for example in Schubert's Ave Maria.

We are fortunate to have these and several other accompanists of this calibre in Sri Lanka. Public performances, with costs of hiring halls, paying taxes, and so on, seem doomed to be dependent upon advertisers, they are called sponsors. "Doomed" because advertisers seldom if ever remain polished, discreet, not to mention silence. There is the occasional "Well Wisher" who remains completely unnamed, and there were actually as many as two out of twenty pages of advertisements in the program booklet by such anonymous well-wishers. But where does one draw the line between dignity and vulgarity in an advertisement?

In the present concert there was an upside down event where prominence was given to the beneficiary, not the advertisers. It was an astonishing spot where a do-gooder video was shown by the beneficiary of the concert, SUROL (Society for Upliftment and Rehabilitation of Leprosy patients) and this was a society which, as they say, has "always maintained a low profile; we try not to let our left hand know what the right hand does". Perhaps such spots may be allowed in a side hall before the concert, just as the Symphony Orchestra has an introductory lecture in a side hall before the concert begins.

- VB Colombo 4.

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Snipes paints Art of War at Liberty

"Art of War" an international thriller set against the high stakes corridors of the United Nations in the backdrop of mysterious and explosive events, will be screened at Liberty Cinema from November 22.

The film features acclaimed actor Wesley Snipes as Neil Shaw, who works with an elite team of covert agents so deeply classified they don't officially exist.

Snipes who has starred in such recent action hits such as "Blade" and "US Marshals" sees Shaw as a secret operative with physical prowess and mental acuity in equal measure.

Directed by Christian Duguay, the film also stars Anne Archer, Donald Sutherland, Michael Biehn, Maury Chaykin and Marie Matiko.

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