When I was fresh out of school all I wanted to do was to be an actor, work on stage and hear the applause. So bright-eyed I looked at my options of university to study further, and was deeply disappointed. There were virtually no options for a young, keen, enthusiasts who wanted to tread the boards in Bombay. The courses abroad offered rigorous training and beautiful amenities but also required very deep pockets.
The iconic National School of Drama (NSD) in Delhi was more a finishing school. Pre-requisites were to have had a certain number of regional language productions under your belt. And it only took 30 people a year from all over the country. Disheartened I enrolled in St. Xavier’s to do a regular Bachelor’s Degree.
There I met Rehaan Engineer whose method of working was typical of serious theatre directors in Bombay — train your cast on each production.
We worked on voice, physicality, stamina and rehearsals. I emerged a better actor (not good, just better than I was).
That was 15 years ago. Since then I have given up my acting boots (many think quite wisely) and concentrate now on the “off stage” side of theatre. From this vantage point, I have come to realise just how invaluable formal training can be. The skills and tools it provides an actor are worth years of rehearsal. The instruments (body and voice) of an actor get stronger, and rehearsal processes don’t need to be dedicated to bringing an actor up to scratch. The time can be better spent making the production better. While there are plenty of “acting schools” for aspirants for film and television, there is no substitute for theatre training. These acting schools are usually shallow training programmes, focusing more on camera angles and glycerine aids. In today’s incredibly competitive and time restrictive shooting world, a properly trained actor can save producers millions by being able to think on his/her feet, come up with in depth characters and be spontaneous. That is probably why large numbers of advertising film makers are favouring theatre actors to just “models”.
When Waman Kendre initiated the Masters of Theatre Arts programme at the Mumbai University a few years ago, he remarked that it was a shame that the entertainment capital of India didn’t possess a single formal acting programme. It was an idea whose time had come.
As an extension to that idea, came Theatre Professionals Pvt Ltd, whose aim it appears is to create professional theatre actors. Their Training for Actors Programme was aimed to provide training to mid-career actors.
That developed into the Intensive Drama Programme — an ideal intensive training course for a city like Mumbai where people could take off from their shooting schedules and ad shoots to dedicate three weeks to becoming better actors.
Their latest project, starting in June 2013, is by far their most ambitious — aptly titled The Drama School Mumbai (DSM). It offers a one year full-time intensive course with internationally-trained instructors. There are three things that stand this programme apart from others:
1. The diligence and the focus that has gone into creating a course specifically designed for actors in India.
2. The faculty is made up of some of the most exciting practitioners in Mumbai today.
3. Six months of the course is dedicated to working and touring with a production, putting into practice things that have been learned and also gaining vital experience of the workings of theatre.
It is an exciting time to be in the arts in India. Job opportunities for actors and administrators are at an all-time high, and training programmes like DSM are the perfect way to lift the overall standard of performance. More details are on www.thedramaschoolmumbai.in.
Oh to be 20 again!