An interesting feature about the plays for young theatre connoisseurs premiering this week is that two acclaimed companies — known for their productions for grown-ups — are venturing into children's plays for the first time. One of them is Dinesh Thakur's Ank. The 42-year-old company will be presenting Akal ki Pudiya today and tomorrow.

Preeta Mathur Thakur, who plays one of the main characters and has helmed the production and management of the play, shares a memory of her late husband and well-known theatre director after whom the company is named. "My first memory of Dinesh ji is of him telling stories to children at the Prithvi Café during summer," she recalls. For the play, she collaborated with Nivedita Baunthiyal, vice president of the Indian People's Theatre Association, who chose an Indian folk tale, and adapted it for the stage.