Day 2 Mashi Theatre with Live music at Robert Mellors Primary School

Today was full of music, stories and puppets. As it should be! Arun met the group for the first time today and the children responded to the first few improvised tunes on the clarinet with great enthusiasm. It wasn’t long before Arun had them playing their own music, using voices, drums, xylophones, keyboard etc as he orchestrated them through different moods and themes, including the Jungle at night.

We found out even more about the Birbal stories, through some brief history and old comic strip books in which the children thought Birbal looked ‘evil’ because he had a moustache! They listened to more stories then created their own. They invented a Twin for Birbal, a thief, disguising himself as family and a Brahman out in icy waters, staying hopeful by watching the light from the palace.

The final section of the afternoon was the puppet parade as the bowed to an emperor, a clever puppet manipulated by Sue that captured and owned the space to make it a real royal occasion. and moved to some music created by Arun.

We concluded the day with a song full of questions that Akbar could have asked Birbal and had a very catchy chorus!

Akbar and Birbal…