CHILDREN OF THE MAGIC PEN (AN AWIC PLAY)
Jenie Christbol Alex
CHILDREN OF THE MAGIC PEN (AN AWIC PLAY) by By Nilima Sinha, Devika Rangachari, Nita Berry and Girija Rani Asthana , 2014, 88 pp., 99.00
November 2016, volume 40, No 11

The play Children of the Magic Pen is an AWIC (Association of Writers and Illustrators for Children) production collectively written by the authors was completed under the guidance of Feisal Alkazi, the eminent theatre personality. This play was conceptualized and performed as part of a three day Conference on Children’s Libraries: Building a Book Culture. The play depicts the meaningful quest and the journey in itself as its major narrative for both the readers and the characters. When we read the play, we are not just introduced to myriad characters across time and space, but we also see them come alive and relive once again in our memories. The play thematically explores the importance of a library, the act of reading, and the challenges involved in reading. Some of the lines of the play leave an everlasting imprint on young readers and the audience. Interestingly, the ‘author’ plays an important character role who invites the reader’s thought and imagination going back and forth between the narrative and the meta narrative. The play invokes the timeless eternal characters from the classics and contemporary literature and reminds the readers of their genesis. 

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