Begun with the aim of supplementing school education, Children’s Little Theatre (CLT) has covered 57 years. Founded by late Samar Chatterjee (among other things, a writer for children) it trained the likes of Ray favourite Sharmila Tagore.

Its training and display centre, Aban Mahal (picture left) in Dhakuria, has been patronised by Bidhan Chandra Roy, Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Ravi Shankar.

Over the years, CLT has been overshadowed by others, but it has continued to add to its repertory with productions like Aban Patua, Mowgli, Sat Bhai Champa, Ramayan, Aladdin, Jijo and Chakmaki. CLT also has a bilingual journal, Rhythms and Rhymes, to which children contribute.

The annual festival, organised in December, is the high point in the CLT calendar.

This year’s festival, from December 24 to 28, will include plays like Dushtu Indur (The Naughty Mouse), Buro Angla and dramatisations of excerpts from Abanindranath Tagore’s Rajkahini.

But the new production CLT is excited about is Ashoka, which takes a fresh look at the personal life of the Mauryan emperor. “His childhood and later skirmishes with siblings over the throne, his conquest of Kalinga and his subsequent repentance form the subject. Ashoka was the first to issue environment-friendly edicts. He also established the first veterinary hospitals,” said lighting designer Kanishka Sen, associated with CLT since its inception.