“Experiences with book reading can be phenomenal. The words woven by the author take you on a journey from the unfathomable depths of the ocean to the unmeasurable reaches of the outer space”
Vijay Viswanathan
Theatre Practitioner & Educationalist
About
Read On is a festival curated to celebrate the literary works of authors, poets and playwrights. The festival is curated and hosted by Alchemy Arts & Education Foundation. The main objective of Read On is to encourage, motivate and help students explore the world of literature through fun & experiential learning.
Read On festival will be an annual feature at Alchemy Kids & Youth Theatre and will be held in the month of August. The festival also encourages non Alchemy students to participate and is open to all. It aims at encouraging students to explore, appreciate & perform the different styles of texts from literature.
The Read-On festival will focus on a selected set of poets, authors & playwrights every year. The list of poets, authors & playwrights for 2024 has been mentioned with the respective events for performance.
The festival will also feature special events such as Book / Play reading, Face2Face with authors/poets/playwrights, Appreciation workshops, Panel discussion, Read On Quiz and many other interesting events.
Who can participate:
Batch of Alchemy 2024 – 25:
- Students / Parents from the current 2024 – 25 batch of Alchemy Kids Theatre, Youth Theatre & AAPACOE will be able to participate by enrolling themselves into the Junior / Senior / Parent category
Non – Alchemy Participants:
- This is open to all categories. Children / Youth can apply to perform in this category
- This is a free to participate category and no registration fee will be charged for the same
- The participants of this category will have to submit their performance video for the prelims. The videos submitted for the prelims will be screened by the Read On committee.
- List of shortlisted performers for the Read On Festival will be published on the website
- Short listed candidates will perform during the Read On festival as per schedule curated by the organising committee.
- A free workshop from Alchemy will be conducted for the shortlisted candidates
- Candidates performing for the festival will have the option of choosing to perform either virtually or onsite at the festival venue. Candidates are requested to choose this option when they submit their prelims video
Participate as an Audience:
You can participate as an audience for selected events free of cost. For crowd management both onsite and virtual, audiences are requested to block their seats in advance. Direct walk in will be allowed only on the basis of availability of seats for the event
EVENTS
Juniors (Age: 4 to 7 years)
A participant will be allowed to perform from any one of the following: Poetry / Storytelling / Act It Out
- The participants have to choose their poems written by any of the following poets:
- Roald Dahl
- Ruskin Bond
- Robert Louis Stevenson
Rudyard Kipling
- Regional Poetry
- The duration for the poetry rendition is 2 mins, which can be extended to a maximum of 3 mins
- If the participant exceeds the time limit of 3 mins, the participant will be requested to stop
- The students will have to focus on the following rubrics for their Poetry Rendition:
- Voice - Volume, Pace of delivery & Modulation
- Expressions
- Body Language
- Eye Contact
- Presentation
- The students should be appropriately dressed for the performance
- The participants have to choose their story from any of the following:
- Chacha Chaudry
- Dashavatar
- Butterfingers
- List of Oz books
- Stories of E.B white
- Calvin and Hobbes
- Spiderwick chronicles
- Regional Stories
- The duration for the story rendition is 3 mins, which can be extended to a maximum of 4 mins
- If the participant exceeds the time limit of 4 mins, the participant will be requested to stop
- The students will have to focus on the following rubrics for their Story Rendition:
- Voice - Volume, Pace of delivery & Modulation
- Expressions
- Body Language
- Eye Contact
- Presentation
The participants should be appropriately dressed for the performance
- The participants have to choose a character from stories and perform like the character by delivering monologue / dialogues spoken by the character in the story. They can also combine a few portions of the character’s talk in the story to present the same like a monologue. The collection of stories from which they have to choose are:
- Chacha Chaudry
- Dashavatar
- Butterfingers
- List of Oz books
- Stories of E.B white
- Calvin and Hobbes
- Regional Stories
- Spiderwick chronicles
- The duration for Act It Out is 3 mins. The performance should not exceed beyond 4 mins
- If the participant exceeds the time limit of 4 mins, he/she will be requested to stop
- The participants can use props and costumes
- The participants will have to focus on the following rubrics for Act It Out:
- Voice - Volume, Pace of delivery & Modulation
- Expressions
- Body Language
- Characterisation
- Costume, Props & Creativity
Seniors (Age: 8 to 14 years)
A participant will be allowed to perform from any one of the following: Poetry / Storytelling or Prose / Monologues
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- The participants have to choose their poems written by any of the following poets:
- Jane Taylor
- Jaqueline Woodson
- Hans Christian Anderson
- Regional Poetry
- The duration for the Poetry Rendition is 3 mins, which can be extended to a maximum of 4 mins
- If the participant exceeds the time limit of 4 mins, he/she will be requested to stop
- The participants will have to focus on the following rubrics for the Poetry Rendition:
- Voice - Volume, Pace of delivery & Modulation
- Expressions
- Body Language
- Eye Contact
- Connect with the content rendered
- The students should be appropriately dressed for the performance
- The participants have to choose their stories/extracts from:
- Stories of Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer
- The Nancy drew series
- The Hardy boys series
- Stories of Lemony Snicket
- Novels of Soman Chainani
- Regional Prose
- The duration for the Storytelling / Prose Rendition is 4 mins, which can be extended to a maximum of 5 mins
- If the participant exceeds the time limit of 5 mins, he/she will be requested to stop their performance
- The participants will have to focus on the following rubrics for the Storytelling/Prose Rendition:
- Voice - Volume, Pace of delivery & Modulation
- Expressions
- Body Language
- Eye Contact
- Pausing & Phrasing
- Sequencing & Characterization
- The participant should be appropriately dressed for the performance
- The participants have to choose their monologues from the following options:
- Monologues from Mahesh Elkunchwar's plays
- Monologues from the stories and poems of Edgar Allen Poe
- Monologues from the Importance of Being Earnest
- Monologues from The Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen
- Regional Monologues
- The duration for the monologue rendition is 3 mins, which can be extended to a maximum of 4 mins
- If the participant exceeds the time limit of 4 mins, he/she will be requested to stop
- The participants can use props and costumes.
- The participants will have to focus on the following rubrics for the Monologue Presentation:
- Voice - Volume, Pace of delivery & Modulation
- Expressions
- Body Language
- Eye Contact
- Characterisation
Youth (Age: 15 to 20 years)
A participant will be allowed to perform from any one of the following: Poetry / Storytelling or Prose / Monologues
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- The participants have to choose their poems written by any of the following poets:
- Jane Taylor
- Maya Angelou
- Jaqueline Woodson
- Hans Christian Anderson
- Arun Kolatkar
- Agha Shahid Ali
- Regional Poetry
- The duration for the Poetry Rendition is 3 mins, which can be extended to a maximum of 4 mins
- If the participant exceeds the time limit of 4 mins, he/she will be requested to stop
- The participants will have to focus on the following rubrics for the Poetry Rendition:
- Voice - Volume, Pace of delivery & Modulation
- Expressions
- Body Language
- Eye Contact
- Connect with the content rendered
- The students should be appropriately dressed for the performance
- The participants have to choose their stories/extracts from:
- Stories of Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer
- The Nancy drew series
- The Hardy boys series
- Stories of Lemony Snicket
- Stories by Louisa Alcott
- Novels of Soman Chainani
- Novels and Stories of Salman Rushdie
- Novels of Mary Shelley
- Regional Prose
- The duration for the Storytelling / Prose Rendition is 4 mins, which can be extended to a maximum of 5 mins
- If the participant exceeds the time limit of 5 mins, he/she will be requested to stop their performance
- The participants will have to focus on the following rubrics for the Storytelling/Prose Rendition:
- Voice - Volume, Pace of delivery & Modulation
- Expressions
- Body Language
- Eye Contact
- Pausing & Phrasing
- Sequencing & Characterization
- The participant should be appropriately dressed for the performance
- The participants have to choose their monologues from the following options:
- Monologues from Hamlet by Shakespeare
- Monologues from Romeo and Juliet
- Monologues from Mahesh Elkunchwar's plays
- Monologues from the stories and poems of Edgar Allen Poe
- Monologues from the Importance of Being Earnest
- Monologues from Anton Chekov's "The Seagull"
- Monologues from The Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen
- Regional Monologues
- The duration for the monologue rendition is 3 mins, which can be extended to a maximum of 4 mins
- If the participant exceeds the time limit of 4 mins, he/she will be requested to stop
- The participants can use props and costumes
- The participants will have to focus on the following rubrics for the Monologue Presentation:
- Voice - Volume, Pace of delivery & Modulation
- Expressions
- Body Language
- Eye Contact
- Characterisation
Parents
- Parents can perform any poem, story, monologue of their choice
- The language of performance is open to English, Hindi, Tamil or any other Indian regional language
- The duration for the presentation is 4 mins, which can be extended to a maximum of 5 mins
- If the parent exceeds the time limit of 5 mins, he/she will be requested to stop their performance
- The participant should be appropriately dressed for the performance
