Drama - Child Labour

The drama on the subject of Child Labour presented by Middle School went through many stages: first, we had started by discussing the problems faced by the children of many countries such as Bangladesh, India, UK, Congo and Nigeria. The research and discussions did not take as much time as writing the script, for we wanted the drama to have an impact on the audience. As soon as the script was finalized, we had begun practicing. While practicing we had learned a lot; not only about child labour but also on how to feel a character and how other countries communicate.

·       What the drama was meant to convey?

Awareness of children suffering around the world because they have to work instead of receiving an education.

·       How did the drama begin?

The drama began with a song sung by the character.

During the drama, the child laborers were represented as puppets to show their suffering. This made the drama more creative and innovative.

·       Scene 1

Scene 1 displayed the plight of the young mothers in Bangladesh who were forced to get married at very young ages.

·       Scene2

Scene 2 described the situation of the young boy soldiers in Congo, who were forced to fight in dangerous wars at the tender age of 12. In this scene, the soldiers suffer in war or have to face death.

·       Scene 3

Scene 3 talks about child miners in India, who were forced to mine in gold mines and at times had died on their jobs. This scene is very tragic, as one of the miners die due to internal collapsing in the mines. In this scene, the children come out of work with aches and pains and sometimes suffer by losing one of their legs or eyes or sometimes even both.

·       Scene 4

Scene 4 talks about the children who have to sell wares at red lights and roadsides to earn a living, but unfortunately, no one is ready to buy the chocolates sold by them.

·       Scene 5

This scene explains about how a girl becomes an orphan and is forced to work for a farmer without being paid. She has a friend who has gone through the same life story as her. They are asked to pick berries. They share their plight with each other but there is no respite.

·       Scene 6

This scene tells us that towards the end of their sufferings, they die. To help make the scene have a bigger impact on the audience, the characters sang the song they started with in the beginning of the play but instead change the music to show the pain and trauma of these children, as they experienced it through their individual life situations.

·       Conclusion

The moderator for the interactive session was the drama director, Ms. Amy.

During the interactive session, the audience posed questions as well as shared their opinions regarding the skit or the issue that it dealt with. The audience offered several solutions and had many misconceptions further clarified as an outcome of the session.

This skit did not only teach and convey important messages to the audience but also a learning process for the characters.

After the characters presented the skit, the characters had a discussion regarding what we learned through all the stages of research, discussion, making, practicing and executing. This last session let the actors reflect on their own experience of displaying this subject on the stage.