DEBATES AND DRAMATICS

The Debates and Dramatics Society of St. Bede’s College is an integral part of the college curriculum. It stimulates the students to think critically and sharpens their literary and debating skills. The Society works towards developing and enhancing the speaking, writing and communicative abilities of the students. From full length and one-act plays in Hindi and English, mono acting and declamation contests, dance dramas and inter-ship debates, the society is an active one. The Society has staged challenging dramas like the Bhakti/Sufi epic of Nala Damyanti, Kalidasa’s Shankuntala, Sophocles’ Antigone, Ayn Rand’s The Night of January Sixteenth, Arthur Miller’s All My Sons and Mahesh Dattani’s Final Solutions. During the Centenary celebrations of the College in October 2003, the students put up a grand outdoor dramatic choreography of the life of the Congregation’s Foundress, St. Claudine Thevenet. The drama recaptured beautifully, the tumultuous times of the French Revolution. The Debates and Dramatics Society also organized a satirical and humorous Mock Parliament in the College in which nearly 80 students from every stream and class participated. Alongside the dramas, debates and declamations are an intrinsic part of the society’s activities. The Society auditions and trains students to participate in inter-college elocution and acting competitions, youth festivals, mock parliaments and Model United Nations in Shimla and outside. Members have recently taken part in MUNs at JP University and St. Stephen’s College. From its very inception, the Society is one of the key extra-curricular student bodies of the college and plays an important part in encouraging oratory and dramatic talent among the students of St. Bede’s College.