Cargills group invests in local theatre to create productions of international caliber

Cargills (Ceylon) PLC is continuing its legacy as a sponsor of local art and culture through its long standing association with the Centre Stage team and the Workshop Players.
 Earlier this year Cargills together with Magic Sri Lanka’s leading ice cream brand supported the  Workshop Players in presenting ‘Shakespeare in the Park’, a popular concept that makes Shakespeare’s performances accessible to theatre lovers from all walks of life. 
Staged at the Viharamahadevi Park amphitheater the pioneering endeavor took Shakespeare to the public to reach every single theatre lover through an open house appreciation of the bard.
 In September 2016, Cargills together with Magic and Cargills Bank supported ‘Bengal Bungalow’ written and directed by Jehan Aloysius. The hilarious comedy was performed to a full house at the Lionel Wendt Theatre reiterating the potential of Sri Lankan talent.
Next in the lineup from the Cargills Group is the ‘View from the Bridge’ directed by Jerome de Silva presented by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service Inc. New York to be performed 7-9 October 2016 at the Lionel Wendt. 
 Commenting on the association, Maljini Jayasekera, Group Manager - Marketing for Cargills said, “As a corporate that has consistently supported the empowerment of young people, we are committed to investing in the talent and potential of local artists. We have always believed that productions of this caliber enhance our talent and position our theatre at international standards. We are confident that our consistent support to them and many such theatre groups has helped enhance local artistic potential” 
“My association with Ceylon Theatres and eventually Cargills dates back 37 years when Ceylon Theatres and Anthony Page supported me during my directorial debut in 1979 by sponsoring the painting of the backdrop for ‘Oliver!’. Since then they have been supporting me in almost all my theatrical endeavours with my theatre group The Workshop Players. They came on board as sponsors for ‘West Side Story’ in 1997 and since then have been principal sponsors for Broadway masterpieces such as ‘The Phantom of the Opera’, ‘Evita’ and ‘Les Miserables’. 
Most recently Cargills supported our production of Shakespeare in the Park, which allowed the work of the Bard to be made accessible to all Shakespeare lovers as it was a free event. Cargills will continue its support of WSP and Sri Lankan theatre once more this year when they come on board as principal sponsor for our production of Arthur Miller’s ‘A View from the Bridge’. I am truly grateful to Ceylon Theatres and Cargills for all the support they have given me and the Workshop Players over the past three decades.” - Jerome L. de Silva
 Meanwhile Jehan Aloysius noted, “My theatre troupe Centre Stage Productions and I are grateful to the continued support of Cargills over the last 15 years. As Sri Lanka’s only ‘inclusive’ theatre troupe that promotes and produces original Sri Lankan theatre projects even with the disabled, we have grown to gain international recognition and produced theatre and workshops in Poland, Norway, Qatar, India and the UK. We have also been featured repeatedly on the BBC and CNN for our disabled theatre project ‘An Inspired Swan Lake’ and ‘Rag - The Musical’, both of which were supported by Cargills. Earlier this year Cargills also supported part of our flight costs to represent Sri Lanka with our ‘Pyramus & Thisby’ at Asia’s largest theatre festival, the Bharat Rang Mahotsav in Delhi and Ahmedabad. It is humbling that our theatre projects are studied in universities as texts and literary material as well as also contributed to literature canon of Sri Lanka.”