Napa’s 10th birthday: A modest affair

Karachi
The National Academy of Performing Arts (Napa) celebrated the 10th anniversary of its founding on Thursday.
Contrary to expectations, it was a very simple and brief affair. The proceedings that began with clockwork punctuality – as they always do at Napa – were wrapped up almost as soon as they began.
They began with the cake-cutting by the president of the academy, world-renowned film and theatre personality Zia Mohyeddin.
This was accompanied by sparklers and firecrackers. While the sparklers lent the air some festivity, the sound of the firecrackers scared some of the guests – perhaps because of the perpetual fear that has gripped the city for the past many years because of all the news about bomb blasts and whatnot.
However, normality soon returned. People savoured the cake and refreshments, and mingled in the most informal and warm of manners.
Prominent among the guests were Institute of Business Administration Dean Dr Ishrat Husain and the outgoing chairman of Napa Board of Directors. There were no speeches, no tributes. Just hugs and kisses.
Convalescing after a spell of indisposition, Mohyeddin, who was even though a wee bit reticent when approached by The News, said: “I am a really happy man today seeing my efforts come to fruition. I never thought I’d live to see this happy day. It is really a momentous occasion for me. I am thrilled. It is heart warming.”
Over the past decade, Napa has been offering academic courses not available in other schools or universities in Pakistan. The academy’s curriculum is designed to provide every student with a strong and broad foundation in the performing arts.
Both music and theatre arts departments consist of teacher-performers as well as academic instructors. Napa’s object is to enrich permanently the lives of its students by helping to cultivate and foster in them a love for the beautiful and ennobling arts of music, dance and drama.
The academy empowers its graduates to go forth with zeal to establish and promote a positive regard for higher accomplishment in the performing arts.
Napa’s mission is to give Pakistan’s rich cultural texture its rightful place not just within the country but in the world.
The curriculum at the academy combines the academic rigours of a university course with the more free-flowing approach of independent projects that is essential for the development of artistic confidence and understanding.