| | I have long wanted to run some workshops for and with Sreejith Ramamn who is an assistant professor at the School of Drama in Calicut University, at their Thrissur campus in Kerala. I first met him when I was teaching at TTRP where he was one of the students in 2007. Sreejith has been teaching at University of Calicut at their School of Drama which is based in Thrissur, considered to be the cultural capital of Kerala. When Anne was invited to give a paper in Cochin Kerala, forty- five minutes away from Thrissur, I saw the opportunity to offer a workshop The workshop was organised by Sreejith’s friend and colleague Manu Jose, an energetic and enthusiastic freelance as an actor teacher director and story-teller in Kerala. Kerala has a strong film and theatre industry,all produced in the local language Malayalam. He has created SODA, a small organisation called to promote workshops and classes for practicing performing artists. We decided to run the workshop in neutral mask and clowning running for 4 days from 10am to 4pm. He opened the workshop of up to actors, students and any one interested in theatre. and we got 15 participants form all over Kerala and beyond. All with varying degrees of experience from established stage and scene actors to students. There was a young actor who had come all the way from New Delhi where he was studying at the National School of Drama . English was the common language with Manu translating in Malayalam when required The sessions were held in a large drab building known as the auditorium. It had a concrete floor and poor lighting. This did not dampen the enthusiasm of everyone involved. They eagerly grappled with the concepts of the neutral mask, making interesting observations on the way. Some made the very shrewd observation compared it to the techniques of Michael Chekhov. I have rarely heard such interesting observations in a workshop situation. They understood the idea that the neutral mask was not about hiding behind a mask , but revealing oneself through the mask As we had only four days the mask was a stepping stone to the red nose, {the smallest mask in the world of Lecoq I spent the earlier past of this workshops, again, stopping people trying to be funny. It is the same in every workshop. Participants trying to hard. After a while most of the students understood the concept, even id they were unable to practice it yet. The older actors were probably the better at it. They had long given up trying to impress and were willing to look silly in front of others. The best moment came from the least experienced in the class.She made an improvisational offer that was so innocent in its silliness, the entire class fell about laughing. I wuld like to thank Sreejith for persisting with the idea that I should come and to Manu Jose for organising it all . |
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