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maltatoday | SUNDAY • 28 MARCH 2021 4 THEATRE THE 4th edition of Trikki Trak- ki youth theatre Festival took place last week and came to an official close last Sunday after overcoming a series of unprece- dented obstacles. Normally Trikki Trakki is a school-centred festival, but this was the pandem-onium edition where it was up to Tea- tru Malta and Festival Director Antonella Axisa to reinvent the wheel and open up the call for auditions to individual children instead of schools. Each child was assigned a monologue, in- structed to research the style of the piece, explore their charac- ters and bring their own ideas to the table (or zoom call) un- til eventually performing their monologues to their families. Monologues allowed organ- isers to carry on with Trikki Trakki's usual workshops and rehearsals while the children tuned in and rehearsed from the safety of their own homes. Online workshops took place with makeup artist Jackie Gri- ma and Teatru Malta's ward- robe supervisor Sarah Grech, where they learnt how to apply stage makeup, embellish their own costumes and make props. "This year's Trikki Trakki was one of the hardest things I had to do in my life. I was deter- mined to keep the Festival alive as I believe that we cannot give up on the arts. However, to do this, we had to go back to the drawing board to design a new format that would keep every- one safe. That's how I came up with the idea of presenting a series of monologues that are tied together by a theme or a story to a limited audience," said festival director Antonella Axisa. During production week the children were able to move in- to Blue Box theatre at MSpace and work in a safe and proper socially-distanced environ- ment. Prior to the quasi-lock- down announcement, the children got to rehearse their monologues safely with di- rectors Lee-N Abela, Josette Ciappara, Chris Gatt and Ian Moore in person. Even after the sudden clo- sure of theatres, the festival was quick to re-group and shift from having families come to MSpace to having the partic- ipants perform their mono- logues to their families from the safety of their own homes. Each performance happened under the online eyes of their directors and was recorded on a mobile device for posterity. A total of 25 boys and girls were divided into 4 teams each working on scripts written by Malcolm Galea, Clive Piscopo, Simone Spiteri and Marta Vel- la. All scripts touched upon the theme of the pandemic in one way or another. MCAST stu- dent interns were also roped in to assist in the logistical man- agement of the festival, further supporting the educational ethos of the festival. Trikki Trakki Festival's Pan- dem-Onium edition was pro- duced by Teatru Malta with the support of the Ministry for Ed- ucation. For more information on Trikki Trakki please visit www.teatrumalta.org.mt Trikki Trakki youth theatre festival takes place despite unprecedented obstacles