STUDY OF BASIC ELEMENTS IN THEATRE

DISSERTATION SUMBITTED TO DEPARTMENT OF THEATRE

AND FOLK PERFORMING ARTS SCHOOL OF
NITYANAND AND HIMALAYAN RESEARCH AND STUDY CENTRE
DOON UNIVERSITY DEHRADUN
IN PARTIAL FULLFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE
AWARD OF THE DEGREE OF

MASTERS
IN
THEATRE
BY
SHIVAM YADAV

THEATRE AND FOLK PERFORMING ARTS

SCHOOL OF NITYANAND HIMALAYAN RESEARCH AND
STUDY CENTRE
DOON UNIVERSITY DEHRADUN
YEAR- 2023-2025
 Declaration

I declare that the work presented in the Dissertation entitled “BASICS

OF THEATRE” being submitted to the Department of THEATRE AND
PERFORMING ARTS School of “NITYANAND HIMALAYAN RESEARCH
STUDY CENTRE” Doon University Dehradun for the award of Master in
‘THEATRE’ is my original research work.
The Dissertation embodies the results of investigations, observation and
experiments carried out by me. I have neither plagiarized any part of the
dissertation nor have submitted the same work for the award of any
other degree/diploma anywhere.

____________________
___
(Signature)
SHIVAM YADAV

23MIT18

Date :
 Certificate

This is to certify that the Dissertation entitled “ STUDY OF BASIC ELEMENTS IN

THEATRE” submitted by SHIVAM YADAV has been done under the supervision of
Mr. Kailash Kandwal. It is also certified that the work in this Dissertation
embodies original research and hard work of the candidates. The assistance and
support received during the course of investigation and all the sources of
literature have been fully acknowledged.

(Name and signature) (Name and signature)

Supervisor/Guide Co-Supervisor/Guide

(Name and signature)

Head of the department
 CONTENTS

S.No. Chapter/Topic Page No.

1. Preface 5–7
2. Elements in Theatre
i Voice 8 - 12
ii Speech 13 - 17
iii Blocking 18 - 22
iv Gesture 23 - 27
v Showing Ones’s Back 28 - 29

3. Training Method

i Need for Training 30 - 33

ii Theatre Games 34 - 35

iii Gibberish Game 36 - 39

iv Defect-foisting Games 40 - 44

4. Conclusion 45 - 49

Reference 50 - 51
 Preface

Indian writing on acting has been shaped by literatures and manuals that have
defined and delineated acting protocols by classifying great detail gestures,
posture, stance and mudra, and their affects.
An Indian actor practising today will, in all probability, have heard of the
conventions that emerged in Europe in the early twentieth century through the
notes and work of Stanislavsky, who sought to discipline an actor’s creativity,
inspiration and talent through the introduction of fine-tuned exercises. He wrote
these up after a process of self-reflection in order to formulate what he, as a
practising actor, needed to do sustain energy concentration, and to transmit
emotion, affect and theatrical meaning to an audience.
An Indian actor has the fortune of having access to and being familiar, one way or
another, with western acting protocols, as part of her/his historical condition.
She/He is also aware of Indian acting etiquettes and bodily disciplines, both
classical, as in the Natyashastra, and the popular, which may or may not trace a
lineage back to the Natyashastra. The Fact, therefore, is that the Indian actor
today has to be aware of the large sweep of acting grammars before her/him. This
makes a book such as this all the more significant, because it brings into focus
words and concepts that are a part of the current day, electric vocabulary of the
actor- whether these be drawn from the Natyashastra or Chekhov or Brecht or
Chhau or Koodiattam.
A book on acting makes the word recipe refunction in two ways. An acting recipe
suggests processes and instructions whereby emotions are channelized and
visibilized to convey the world of the performance to an audience. On a very
material body palpable actions are executed and meanings made; this is done by
producing emotions that do not have any materiality but which, when enacted,
effect the body of the actor, and when transmitted, affect the receiver in very
material, tangible ways- inducing tears or laughter or disgust as the case may be.
For the actor these may brought often by mechanical means- posture and gesture,
stance and breath; a parallel emotion is experienced in the viewer and is not
stimulated by mechanical means. Indeed emotions may sometimes be produced
through complex inner processes such as memory, experience and imagination,
which, even as they are a personal reservoir, may be alchemized, as in a
laboratory, by training for the actor; and by being mindful and open to ideas and
stimuli in the viewer. This transmission of emotion can connect actor and
audience, and produce in the viewer a feeling of being with the actor in an
imaginary elsewhere but simultaneously in the here-and-now – in an eternal,
present, affective now. At the heart of the craft of acting is a strange and exciting
paradox- the actor must train to be spontaneous, learn to be charismatic and
attain presence by doing drills.
India has a great classical tradition in theatre. But there has been a break with that
tradition, and I feel we have not sufficiently explored the link between the past
and the present. This has resulted in several misconceptions. Many modern
theatre practitioners consider the past and the present to be separate entities,
and consequently, our urban acting style tends to look borrowed. The fact of the
matter, however, is that the two are separate and yet not separate.
Theatre is visceral and alive: ethereal and thrilling. You’ll soon discover it’s also
quite different from working on a film set. We’ve put together this handy guide to
cover everything you’ll need to know about treading the boards for the first time.
Likewise, the back row needs to be able to read your body, face, and physical
expression as clearly as your voice. So your performance might need to be a little,
dare we say, bigger than what you might produce on camera. Listen to your
director here; they are the audience’s ‘eye’ and will help you manage how big your
performance should be. Generally, you’ll need to be engaging your entire body
even in your smallest actions and committing physically to every choice you make.
You may also want to do some research on the world of the play and the world of
the playwright. What was happening in the world when this play was written?
What are the social, political, and economic contexts of the play? For example, if a
play was written in or is set in the 1940s, you may want to brush up on your
knowledge of World War II. Research is an open-ended task; you only really need
to do as much as is useful to you.
The answer is yes. And no. Everyone has different views on this. One school of

thought suggests that if you learn your lines before getting into the room then

you’ll be locked into the ‘choices’ you made while you were practising them,

making it difficult for you to break out of those choices and utilise your actorly

creativity. Another says that in order to really be present and listening in a scene

you need to know your lines back to front. Ultimately, this is one of those things

you figure out over time, and the process is different for each actor. It’s likely your

director will expect a high level of familiarity with your lines, but will want you to

be able to take direction and be flexible with your choices. Feel free to speak to

your director prior to rehearsals and ask them what their preferred way of

working is. Rehearsals will normally run for several weeks. You’ll learn how your

director likes to work, so be prepared for anything. You’ll discover loads about the

play, you’ll make offers, you’ll throw stuff away. This is your time to play.

Rehearsals can be gruelling, but they can also be very, very fun. Enjoy them
 Elements in Theatre

1. Voice

Training in breathing should lead to voice training. And voice training in turn
should lead to speech training. In speech, of course, there are further
categories.When I say that one leads to the other, I mean theoretically. In practice,
however, you need not rigidly follow this sequence.
For example, a voice exercise can also work as a breathing exercise, and vice versa.
The best way to train one’s voice is, of course, through music training. But we shall
come to that a little later.
Let us start with voice defects instead.

Organs of voice production

Now we have reached the upper chamber, so to say. In the production of the
human voice, it is the lips, the teeth, the tongue, the throat and the nose that
matter. It is interesting to note that all these five organs also do other activities
apart from producing voice. In fact these other activities are their primary
function, so to say: the teeth are used to chew, the nose for breathing, etc. Nature
is a brilliant engineer, for it never constructs an organ for just one purpose or for
one activity alone.
Take, for example, the nose. Its primary purpose is to be the duct for inhaling and
exhaling breath. But it also has a role to play in voice production. Try and block
your nose while talking, You will realize how different the voice sounds. It is the
same with the other four voice-producing organs.
On the musical scale
It is important that each actor knows where his/her natural voice is, on the
musical scale. This, the music teacher should be able to identify for you.
Remember! Most actors of the professional stage were singers as well. And quite
a few of the masters of classical singing, like Mallikarjun Mansoor, Bala
Gandharava and Savai Gandharva, performed on the stage as well.
It is better for actors to practise in a group. The teacher could take classes in a
group but give individual attention wherever necessary. In a music class, when the
chorus of voices becomes harmonious, when many voices merge to become a
single stream, it is a wonderful experience to hear that. You will feel inspired.
Especially for those who are shy, group training helps enormously.

Voice projection
The next aspect of voice training is projection. What is projection? In day-to-day
conversation we whisper at times, speak loudly at times, use a cooing voice, a
highpitched voice, etc. When we whisper in real life, we are at a close range from
our listeners. The speaker and the listener may even be known to each other. In
fact, in such situations, the other person is invariably familiar with all your voice
inflrctions and hence is able to understand what you say. But this is not true on
stage. On stage, you are at a substantial distance from your audience. Further,
your audience is made up of a group of strangers, many of them may have come
for the first time. So you will have to project your voice a little higher than you
normally do. Similarly, when the character you play is required to be shouting
hoarse, you will be straining your voice and you will take care not to damage it.
Voice projection, thus, means simply this: even if your character is whispering or
cooing, you will take care to be heard in the last row of the audience. Similarly,
when your character is shouting hoarse, you will take care to not damage your
voice. To be precise, an actor processes his/her voice before sending it out to the
audience.
Do not shout
How do we achieve projection then? By shouting? No. Shouting destroys the
quality of the voice. Projection is not achieved by merely talking loudly on stage.
There are many aspects to voice projection. Let us examine these various aspects
one by one.
Firstly, you should not talk too fast. We have already discussed this problem
earlier. I shall only restate it here. The actor should maintain a moderate speed of
rendering lines, so that the audience can follow them without difficult.
Secondly, you should provide a uniform projection to all the words in a sentence,
as far as possible. What does this mean? In real life each person develops a
particular pattern of speech. The pattern varies from speaker to speaker. In this
pattern, not every part of a sentence gets equal importance. Normally, the middle
part of the sentence rises, leaving the beginning and the end at a lower level.

Intimate and casual speech

This is partly because recording gadgets have taken over all the activities
surrounding voice production. Speech-making has thus become an intimate and
casual process. What used to be a well-articulated and grand performances has
given way to a casual, intimate style. Mark Antony’s speech in Julius Caesar has
become a thing of the past. Instead, half-sentences, inarticulate grunts and smiles
have become fashionable in oratory. What I called behaviourism in acting applies
to speech-making as well. The quality of intimacy in speech is not a bad thing in
itself. It has brought a whole new dimension to public expression. However, the
problem is that achieving that quality is entirely reliant on machines. If good
speech can only be produced through machines, it is sad. In this scene, the loss of
theatrical speech is truly a loss for actors.
False voice
Then there is the problem of false voice. Many actors think that imitating another
person’s voice is a good thing. Even as they speak normally and naturally
otherwise, they suddenly change their voice on stage. These actors are obviously
trying to develop a style. But false voice remains false with or without a style.
The speech ‘style’ of such actors varies with their character preference. If they
think they are a tragic type, they adopt a particular style. If they think they are a
comic type, or a mother type, or a patriarch type, their speech style changes
accordingly. This is wrong.

Imitation of style
This problem exists among singers as well. I am reminded here of the story of the
popular playback singer Mukesh. Mukesh came into singing at a very young and
impressionable age. K.L. Saigal was the rage in popular Hindi Cinema then.
Mukesh started imitating the Saigal ‘style’ to begin with. But he soon realized that
he needed to develop an individual style of his own if he had to grow as a singer.
He put in the effort and managed to develop his own, original voice. Today,
Mukesh’s voice is fondly remembered for its original quality.
Actors should trust their original voice. They should work on it with complete
confidence. The peculiarity or ugliness of their voice, as is sometimes wrongly
perceived by them, can be made to become a special quality, or timbre as it is
called, through training. Actors will have a better chance of success this way.
Seeing speech
Speech should be seen and not just heard. What does this mean? It means that
the gesture, the facial expression and lip movements accompanying speech
should be clean and should be clearly seen by the audience. We shall discuss this
aspect in more detail later.
Lastly, you should improve your capacity to throw your voice with the help of a
strong breath. I call this the last aspect because, if the earlier considerations are
not met, this last effort can go waste.
 2. Speech

At this stage in training a new variable gets added to the training process, namely
language. Speech is inexorably linked with language. Speech training is linked to
an understanding of how language works. And through language another, even
more difficult variable gets added. That is meaning. Yes, speech is not just a sound
pattern; it is also a meaning pattern.
With language a host of other variables come into play in speech training diction,
dailect, pronunciation, enunciation, etc.
However I do not intend to make this chapter into a specialized manual for speech
training. I am not entirely qualified to do that. Instead, in these pages. I shall focus
on discussing some basic notions of language and speech training. I shall then try
and connect them to theatre speech.

Recycling of words
The most important aspect of theatre speech is that it recycles words. The
playwright selects words from the people and put them down in writing. The
written words are then handed over to theatre. Theatre cleans up these words,
makes them shine and puts them back into circulation once again as spoken
words. Thus words go through a continuous cyclical process of orality, formality
and orality.
Theatre makes no distinction between words when picking them up from the
society. Good words, bad words, old words, new words, mere noises mere
exclamationseverything is brought in. Words used by the upper class, words from
the Buddha, the Paramahansa...all sorts of words. Theatre selects abusive words
as lovingly as it pick up loving words; it chooses common proverbs as carefully as
it does couplets in Sanskrit verse. All words are equal as far as theatre is
concerned. The process of word selection in theatre is somewhat like rag-picking.
All the words that are picked are used words, they are second-hand. They are
found strewn around at odd places; shouted out, bandied against, used, misused
and overused. Such words are brought back into circulation through theatre with
dignity.

Poetry and speech

In contemporary drama though, this quality seems to have receded a bit. Speech
in contemporary theatre often becomes mere conversation. Hence it is all the
more necessary that a contemporary actor understands the importance of shabda
guna. Actors should work with poetic texts as an exercise in speech. Regular
poetryreading and recitation are a great help in speech training.
Working with poetry has the same impact in speech training as working with
music in voice training. Poetry uses language very differently from prose. It tries
bring out all the aspects pf a language, and not merely the meaning aspect.

Rhyming patterns
Every language has its own distinctive rhyming pattern. Traditional poets
understood this and went along with that pattern. Each poet then developed his
or her own rhyming pattern distinct from the larger language pattern. We often
disregard this basic pattern and become insenstive to the natural rhythm of
language.
So, remember. You should not only ‘see’ the meaning in a word, but also ‘hear’ the
sound of the word.
Tinkering with words
Next comes the wonderful task of tinkering with words. Poets often do this: they
join words, break them, stretch the sound, use the elasticity of the sound etc.
They do all this to get the rhyming right. This technique is important for actors as
well. Actors cannot change words, but they can tinker with a given word in order
to make it fit well on their tongue. Tinkering becomes necessary even in a well-
written play. This is because spoken words have to be far more elastic than the
written word.

Half a syllable here, half a syllable there

Yes, It is half a syllable here and half a syllable there that you need in order to fit
words well on your tongue. Do this job during the initial reading. You can combine
two words, or break a word into two and do such other things, without affecting
the essential meaning of the word.
Take, for example, the word, Kamalaakara. It means the creator. In this word, you
can’t do much with the syllables ‘ka’ or ‘ma’ or ‘kara’. But you can play with ‘laa’.
Ask musicians and they will tell you the significance of an elongated syllable such
as ‘laa’, ‘saa’, ‘paa’, etc. Kamalaakara, for example, can also be spelt as
Kamalaaaaakara without altering the meaning of the word. Take the word. Take
the word ‘too much’. They can be ultered as ‘tooo much’, or even ‘ toooo much’,
can’t they?
Poets do other tricks as well. They use similar sounding words with differing
meanings and different sounding words with the same meaning. It is fascinating.
Poetry is like a crossword puzzle where sounds are matched with meaning. You
can enjoy such word play in the spoken form so much better.
Seeing and hearing
To act and to say: actors tend to treat these two activities as seperate. They even
think that the first activitity orginates in the heart and the second in the brain.
That is not correct. As we have already discussed, you should place the spoken
word on top of the gesture. The two should eventually merge, one into the other.
They should merge so well that the audience should feel that they are ‘hearing’
the expression and ‘seeing’ the speech. That is the principle.

Grammar and dialogue

Let us move a little further and talk about the role of grammar in speech. In any
dialogue, grammar operates in a limited sense. One hardly speaks a full sentence
while talking. Quite often we use half-sentences and get on with communication.
‘Rumble thy bellyful! Spitfire! Spout, rain!’ is hardly a grammatically correct
sentence. But it makes perfect sense when spoken. Dramatic speech includes all
the paraphernalia of gesture, action, etc., which fills the gaps.
Take the phrase, ‘Rumble thy bellyful!’ If you have paid attention to the sound of
thunder, you will recall that it sounds as if it is rumbling from deep inside the belly
of the earth. ‘Sapitfire!’, again, is a phrase that resembles lighting as much in its
sound as in its meaning. The same holds true for the combination word, ‘Spout,
rain!’.
Unfortunately, we often read a play like we read a novel or, still worse, like we
read the newspaper! If our problem is with understanding English, as is the case
with a lot of us Indians, then we should read good passages from our own
language. We will then understand the relationship between sound and meaning
better.
Nothing extraneous
In this sense, dramatic action is an effort to pull the hidden emotion out of the
written word. Hence nothing extraneous should happen on stage; no car chase, no
helicopter ride and no undue physicality. If you have a fight scene, use words to
fight with. If you have a love scene, make love with words. That is the disctum.
Even materials used on stage are used only to materialize words. Theatre, unlike
cinema, is ‘word, words’, as Shakespeare so aptly put.
Getting back to practising speech with poetry, keep the following in mind.
1. Keep the meaning aside. You do not need to understand the poem immediately.
Understanding poetry is a very different experience from understanding prose.
2. Catch the rhythm first. Through the rhyme you will be able to enter the poem.
3. Do not read silently. Read aloud.

4. Re-read. Thus and only thus will the meaning come to the fore.
5. Do not be in a hurry to read too many poems. Live with a poem. Let it grow on
you. Make the poem sit on your tongue.
6. Do not forget that poetry poses a challenge to meaning. Be challenged.
I have discussed just two aspects of speech training, namely, the way to read a
text and the way to read poetry. Speech is a vast subject, but I am confidence that
you will be able to access all those other aspects if you hold on to these two basic
concerns.
 3. Blocking

In a theatre performance the core action keeps moving- from character to

character, from situation to situation. The focus is constantly shifting. The
performance is like a moving spotlight: it fallson someone, make that person shine
for a while, and then moves away to pick up someone else. It is this movement of
the core action that the director keeps in mind while blocking a play.

Actors as building blocks

What is blocking? It us a clever way of readjusting focus. How does one do it? By
using the performing actors as building blocks, you could say. There are as many
ways of blocking a play as there are directors. Yet the essential idea is the same,
namely: the core action or core actor is like iron particles in the vicinity of that
magnet. Through their eyes, their posture, their gesture, the non-performing
actors indicate where the action is. It’s as simple as that.

The common grid

To put it slightly differently, the core action is like a common grid. All the
nonperforming actors send their responses towards the audience, not individually
but collectively, through the collective grid, i.e. the actor holding the dramatic
action. The non-performing actor could be angry or sad or happy, but each of
them can transmit his/her emotion only through the performing actor. It is in this
sense that the performing actor is like a grid that transmits all the collective
responses towards the audience.When you look at the process of blocking this
way, it becomes a fascinating exercise. Everybody becomes a leader and
everybody becomes a follower at one point or the other in the production. That is
why in stage grouping the non-performing actor is seen to be either directly or
indirectly facing the performing actor. Hence the chaos of reality as depicted on
stage is more often than not a mere pretence.
Actors get adjusted
And then there is the movement. Like pawns on a chessboard, actors get
constantly readjusted and re-formed to create movement. Yes, it is this process of
readjustment that create movements. And like in chess, where a mere soldier can
capture and nullify the king, in theatre blocking too, at times, a minor character
can occupy the pride of place on stage and perform a miracle.

The advantages of blocking

Tight blocking has several advantages. For an actor, there are two specific
advantages.
1. Tight blocking helps actors to bind the dramatic action with the dialogue,
thereby enhancing the meaning of their performance.
2. It helps actors to remember their lines.
I only want to restate that dramatic action on stage is constituted by dramatic
words with suitable ‘symbolic’ action, like moving, sitting, standing, gripping,
handling property, handling other actors, etc.

Dogs memory
Let me give you a funny example of how these memory knots work. Dogs for
example have a tremendous sense of territory. Every dogs defines a certain are as
its own. It will not tolerate another dog straying into its territory. Now, how do
dogs define their territory? They pee at various points on the boundary of their
territory! While they are doing this, they also sniff the air to find out if any other
dog has peed there. These pee positions act like memory knots for the dog. The
blocking of a play basically does the same thing: it creates a series of sensual
memory knots.
To rehearse sitting , to direct sitting
Many amateur theatre groups, on the other hand, merely sit and rehearse. To be
fair to them, they usually do not have proper rehearsal spaces. I’ve seen any
number of groups rehearsing on the lawns of public garden, causing amusement
among spectators. Whatever be the reason to rehearse sitting is not a good habit.
In this method directors sit down with the actors and make them read their lines.
They then correct them. Thus most actors end up imitating the speech style of the
director. They end up with false voice.

How does one block a play?

To block a play, you need to have the set design and the ground plan of the stage
on which the play is going to be mounted. Of course, you cannot possibly have the
sets ready on the day of the blocking. You may not even have the stage space
available to you. So you will need to approximate both these things.
You will use, what we call, dummy sets. You will mark the set positions on the
rehearsal space by suitable reducing the proportions, if necessary, to fit the space.
The director will then show the actors a model of the set, if it is available, and
explain it. The director will also explain the marking on the floor of the rehearsal
hall for entry and exit points, etc. Roughly, I would say, this is the first step.
The director should encourage actors to ask questions and clarify physical bearings
as much as possible. You then begin the blocking, keeping in mind that at this
stage the actors do not know their lines, they do not even know the play fully. Is
this a disadvantage while blocking? It is a nuisance, yes, but not a disadvantage. It
is best that all that happens through blocking: getting to know the lines and
movements...everything.
Start blocking before learning the lines
It is but natural that actors find the blocking process irritating. Holding the script in
one hand, looking at the order actor with one eye, listening to the director with
one ear, saying the lines, integrating all these senses and their coordinates- it can
be truly torturous. But it is good for them, eventually. Actors should give
themselves up completely to the process of blocking. They should not resist, nor
should they force themselves to remember the lines. Let the process take hold of
them and guide them through.
In the sense, blocking is like creating a web. A good director should be like a good
weaver, never forcing a thread to comply and ever-careful not to break it. Like a
good weaver who eventually produces a piece of cloth that has far greater
strength than the combined strength of all the threads, a good director eventually
produces a play that is far greater in quality than the combined artistry of all the
actors involved.

The run-through
Once the blocking is over, the run-through begins. Run-throughs are very
important for the inner growth of actors. It is during the run-through that actors
start feeling real. They come to understand what works and what does not work.
Their instincts and senses open up. What has so far been a mechanical process
now starts to become a real process – even an enjoyable process.
I had earlier said that the director is an outsider. However, directors tend to forget
that. The intense involvement with which they work on the actors makes them
lose their balance. They do not allow the actor to become free. The run-through is
the stage when they need to start distancing themselves gradually. They should
start distancing themselves, step by step.
Run through is the stage when actors start responding to their co-actors as
characters, An angry outburst, for example, from the other actor will actually look
angry and feel angry. You will feel like responding to it. And you will.

Feel free of the director

You should feel free of the director. This is important. Even if you are only that
which the director has shaped, you need to do it like you would do it and not like
the director doing. Directors should allow this to happen; they should even
encourage it. Actors should be allowed to commit mistakes and to let the mistakes
show. A director's at this stage is to sit back and make notes on the mistakes
he/she sees from a distance at this stage directors should resist the temptation to
intervene then and there, when they see a mistake happen. Instead, they should
systematically discuss these points with the actors at the end of the rehearsal.
 4. Gesture

Angika, or gesture, is the most important weapon in an actor's armoury: Gesture

is something an actor can rightfully claim to be his/her own. It cannot be provided
by the playwright.
But, unfortunately, many actors use gestures without fully understanding their
potential. They think that moving their hands about indiscriminately, out of habit,
is aangika. First, ( need to be understood that ang is not merely movement of the
hands. Secondly, an actor's gesture cannot be habitual. It has to be consciously
produced.
What is aangika? Classical dancers will call it the mudra (classical hand gesture).
Yes, muss are also gestures, but they are symbolic, codified gestures that have
limited use in contemporary theatre. Theatre gestures are less formal, less
codified and more natural.
Angika, in a broad sense, means externalization of internal emotion and thought.
And such externalization is achieved by an actor using the entire body and not
merely the hands. Hands are important and are used extensively in human
communication, but hand gestures alone do not constitute angika. This is
important for an actor to understand.

Handy hands
Why are hands so important in acting? Well, for one thing, because they are
there! They are big enough, flexible enough and expressive enough to gesticulate.
They can be used in all kinds of situations. In a crowd, for example, you can wave
your hand above your head, to catch someone's attention; while the other person
may not be able to catch your eye, he will certainly be able to catch the
movement of your hand.
Then there is sign language, in which hands play a crucial role. Those who are deaf
and dumb, for example, talk by using their hands. But I should still maintain that
hands are a nuisance in acting. This is because gesticulating with hands is easy,
and we start using hand gestures for everything and everywhere. We become
complacent. We often misuse, overuse, or inaccurately and mindlessly use hand
gestures. Throwing our hands around becomes a habit. This is the problem!
I often feel, while watching such actors perform, that it would be better if their
hands were tied to their sides. I probably sound intolerant. But hands can be very
'talkative'. When they talk too much, they become ineffective.
Hence, during the early phase of rehearsals it is good practice to not use your
hands as far as possible. You can then introduce hand gestures sparingly, and as
part of a design, at a later stage. Remember! Excesses in gesture are largely hand-
based.

Let the entire body express

So, what you should do is to force your body to come up with more difficult and
more complex forms of expression. Showing, asking, praying, begging, stealing -
all these you should try to achieve without the aid of the helping hand. Believe
me, the body can do these better. You can bring in the hand when it becomes
absolutely necessary. The full body is far more natural and convincing in its
expression than the mere hand.
As an actor you should let your body the entire body feel the internal compulsions
of the character. If the character has to feel ashamed, let your entire body feel so;
if the character has to feel pain, let your entire body feel it.... Let your body bend,
shrivel, shake, contort or bloat according to its own internal needs.
What I am suggesting is basically this: you should form a gesture not to show but
to feel, not so much to externalize but to internalize. The gesture should reflect
the internal condition of the character. If you let your hands do all the performing
for the character, internal compulsions will often get overlooked.
Easy expression is general expression. It states the obvious. An actor does not
need to express what is obvious or generalized, for this has already been indicated
by the playwright. An actor's job is to explore hidden meanings.

Unseen emotion
We have seen that gestures are an expression of emotion. What about
unexpressed emotion, emotion that an actor feels but cannot express?
Well, unexpressed emotion has no meaning or relevance in acting! This is what
Indian dramaturgy clearly states. Every actor is awash with emotions, even sincere
emotions, emotions that come alive because of the character. And yet, on stage,
unseen emotion is of no use either to the actor or to the play. This is an important
point that actors need to understand.
In fact, an actor who gets excessively or unnecessarily emotional on stage is not a
good actor. An actor's true achievement lies in giving effective shape to an
emotion and not merely indulging in. it. What is this 'effective shape? What shape
should an emotion or a thought take? How does one understand the shapes of
emotions? I would say, look around.
The ability to read a gesture
The ability to read a gesture is a natural shility in us. It is there in every human
being What we do in theatre in umply to convert this natural ability into a
language system. We give this ability a certain precision and we may even codify it
later.
Let me tell you of a personal experience I often go to pobs and bars, the crowded
lower-class ones. I do this not so much to have a drink but to watch people. It is a
pleasure to watch people in these places their groupings, their gestures, their
expressions, it is a pleasure to get a sense of the atmosphere. People there 'block'
themselves in the most amaring manner possible: cosily sitting in a group here,
with their backs turned somewhere else, chatting, holding a berdi between the
lips, a glass in one hand and holding forth with the other... they sit almost
touching each other yet not touching. but communicating.

Drama in real life

The beedi will be bobbing up and down. The ash may sometimes fall on the shirt
front, but never the beedi. The chap is too absorbed in his conversation to notice
the fallen ash, but careful enough to hold the beedi burning between his lips. He
holds his glass which is filled to the brim. He is laughing uproariously but without
opening his mouth, for the beedi is held between his lips. His stomach is shaking
as if it is having a fit. He pats the person next to him on the shoulder in
appreciation. Not a drop of liquor spills all this while. Not even a twitch of the
muscle is wasted. Every gesture is woven into the fabric of the conversation. I
watch on, shamelessly.

A goldmine of gestures
And the variations - my god, what variations! Direct communication, indirect
communication, eye contact, body contact, sign language, sadness, tipsiness,
bawdy jokes, grace, fatness, stiff neck, yawn, wheeze, burp, slurp, fart, smoke...
everything can be found there. In the midst of all this seeming confusion, there is
perfect order, acute concentration and total communication! The narrative moves
so smoothly that you may wonder who scripted it. Such scenes can only be
choreographed, scripted and directed by god almighty himself! I have described
above how real life is blocked by real people, using real gestures. But 1 know what
actors will say when they read this: 'Big deal! Don't I know this? Even 1, when I am
not acting, when I am not conscious of myself, can achieve a perfect gesture.... But
what about now, when I am on stage? Can you help me here please?'
They are right. An actor's problem begins on stage. So let us get back to the stage.
But before we do so, let me remind you once again to observe life. It will do you a
lot of good. It is a better teacher than me and all other teachers like me put
together..
 5. Showing One’s Back

There is an unwritten convention in theatre which says that actors should not
show their backs to the audience. Actors from older theatre companies and folk
actors strictly follows Han convention. Contemporary actors, on the other hand,
do not care much for this rule. Yet they avoid showing their backs. We do make
compositions in contemporary theatre at times where actors are made to sit or
stand showing their backs to the audience. But these actors who are turned away
from the audience are spoken to rather than speaking themselves. Why is this so?

To see the speech

There is a reason behind this convention. And interestingly, it has nothing to do
with the back. In fact, it has a lot to do with the front, i.e. the face. The audience
wants to see the face while it is speaking, i.e. they want to see the speech. Since
that is not possible when an actor is turned away, the speech sounds unseen and
hence unheard.

Lip-reading
This problem is related to what we normally call lip-reading a technique that is
used by those who are deaf or have hearing disabilities. A veteran film actor in
Kannada, Mr. Balakrishna, was deaf. But he used to take cues by merely lip-
reading. What he could not hear, he saw, and was able to respond. For the deaf it
is inevitable. But even those for whom it is not inevitable do lip-reading. By
turning away from the audience, you deprive them of the chance to lip-read.
Hence, they feel that they are not able to hear the actor. It is a strange feeling.
This feeling will not go even if the lines are projected through a microphone. This
feeling, therefore, not entirely a problem of audibility but also one of visibility.
In traditional theatre, showing the back is tantamount to showing disrespect to
the god of performance. Sunce the audience is our god we can agree with the
convention, I suppose

Masks and lip-reading

Take masks, for example - why is it that most face masks are half-masks? A half-
mask covers only the upper part of the face and exposes the lower part. Thus the
lip jaw can be seen through a half-mask. On the contrary, when a full mask is used,
the
Expression is frozen, not only on the face, but also on the spoken lines. That is why
Greek Characters have only one expression, one emotion and a linear
characterization. In a sense, every Greek character is frozen in a single state of
mind.
In a larger philosophical sense, of course, the entire exercise of theatre is an effort
to make the dialogue be seen. It is in this sense that we tell the actor to show only
that which is to be shown and not any and every extraneous expression. A precise
activity enables the speech to be seen clearly and thereby heard clearly.
 Training Method
1. Need for Training

Training is not a new phenomenon, nor is it a modern phenomenon. We have

been training ourselves since time immemorial. We train ourselves to sculpt, to till
the land, to turn a wheel. By grasping implements, we develop skills such as
carpentry, leatherwork, weaving, painting, writing, etc. There are two aspects to

any skill training, there is the tool and there is the operator of the tool.

The operator and the operated

The operator and the operated are separate entities in most skills. A painter, for
example, operates a paint brush to produce a picture, a sculptor operates a chisel
to shape a sculpture, so on and so forth. But this is not so in theatre. In theatre,
the operator and the operated are the same. Actors operate their own selves to
perform. This is important for an actor to understand.

Operating the self

There is an entire family within the arts called the performing arts which share this
trait where the operator and the operated are the same. Vocal music, magic,
dance and theatre belong to this category. This factor, of the operator and the
operated being the same, has a profound impact on the training methodology to
be adopted in the performing arts.
There is a constant merging of the two entities here: the actor's self merges with
the character, the craft merges with the art, idea merges with action, sense
merges with intellect. This is what makes theatre training difficult. The need to
perform live
The operator and the operated being the same also necessitates that the art is
performed live. Therefore these art forms cannot be preserved. Theatre cannot be
preserved like a painting or a sculpture or a book. The experience of theatre is
ephemeral. This is another important factor to be noted while training in theatre.

Growth inhibits
How strange it is that our shynes, our feelings of inferiority, inhibitions, fears and
complexes are all things we pick up ourselves, and that too as a reaction to the
society around us! This means that we can also correct them if we want to,
through awareness. This is the principle on which theatre training is based. Of
course, during the construction of a character we use some of these limitations as
character traits. But that is induced from outside. As actors we need to
deconstruct ourselves first. Please don't misunderstand me. I am not suggesting
here that an actor's personality is a non-personality: What I am saying is that an
actor's personality is a state of selfawareness. Actors should be neither too honed
nor too vague.

Social bonds, social pressures

We do not seem to sufficiently understand the social pressures that shape us.
Look at the way womenfolk are brought up in our society, for example. As
children, girls are constantly told to not talk loudly, to not run, to walk with
refinement, to ensure their clothes are properly in place, to not show off, etc.
These are pressures that later shape the
personality of a woman and hence even an actress. Interestingly, it is also true
that these are often considered as the style or cultural characteristics of a woman.
Take the example of girls in ancient Chinese society. Their feet used to be bound
because small feet were believed to be a sign of beauty in a girl. Thus the feet of
girl-children used to be painfully and tightly bound for several years. But such
physical restrictions are not the only examples of the restrictions imposed on
growing children. There are psychological pressures as well.

Expanding the self

This is the second stage of training. Be it training in theatre or sports or crafts,
growth always comes after realization. For example, athletes who can jump two
feet should firg be aware that they can span that distance. They should feel
confident about the two-feet jump. They can then, through practice, touch two
feet two inches and then two feet four inches, etc. The same principle applies in
theatre.
The question then arises, in which direction should this growth be? In high jump,
for example, the growth is in terms of height; in long jump, it is in terms of length.
But in theatre it is far more complex. It has to be all-round growth. The principle is
this: do not increase your existing capabilities, but decrease the extent of your
existing inabilities. This is very important for actors to understand.

The direction of growth

I shall illustrate this point through an example in music training. Let us say, a
student is able to touch a high note easily. Now, what does the music teacher do?
The teacher does not train the student to sing an even higher note. Instead, the
teacher makes the student realize that he/she has a natural high pitch, and then
guides the student to handle a lower pitch. Similarly, in theatre too, the high is
trained to go low and the low is trained to go high. That is our method.
Development of the overall talent of an acting student requires that his/her range
be increased in every sense. Actors have their own strengths and weaknesses.
They often try to show off their strengths and cover up their weaknesses. They
should gently be made to realize their folly and be turned in the right direction.
Unfortunately, many teachers do not do this. They build a false notion of
confidence in the student by playing up to their insecurities.

Ability becoming weakness

For example, actors who are able to use their bodies effectively start leaning
towards situations and characters that show off physical abilities. There are other
actors who are intelligent, who are able to talk and analyse. This ability often
becomes a weakness because they hesitate to work with their body. They are, of
course, able to explain their hesitation through nicely put arguments.
 2. Theatre Games

Games are an integral part of an actor training programme. So, let us now try to
understand the role of such games. In Yakshagana, for example, there is an
interesting practice before the start of the main event. It is called Bala Gopala
vesha, literally translated Child Krishna entries. During Bala Gopala vesha, young
actors are allowed to enter the stage and dance while the audience is still
assembling. It is a sort of practice game and a mode of entry on to the stage. To
learn while playing games is what children like the best. I think that is what even
adults prefer, though they are often unwilling to admit it.
A theatre game has many uses. First, it helps to get rid of the hesitation and
awkwardness that invariably affect young actors. Second, it brings to the fore
many things that other, more formal methods cannot: things that are hidden in
the inner recesses of an actor's personality: For example, the comic side of an
actor who had thus far been considered a serious actor could suddenly express
itself during a game. Or, a shy and introverted actress could suddenly start to sing
and dance with abandon. Or, an experienced actor could suddenly become
inarticulate, leading to serious introspection within him or her.
Games are usually less structured and more fun than scene work. I shall introduce
a few theatre games here. But before 1 do that, let me first point to what the
attitude of a trainer should be while handling theatre games. A lot of what is
discussed here is in the nature of instructions to trainers.
Mirroring game
Mirroring is a game of imitation. Acting begins with imitating, In a seme, life itself
begins wath imitating. Every species imitates its own self. A mango tree will only
reproduce a mango tree. Or, a child will imitate her mother while learning to
speak, etc.
Many of you may have already played this game. It is one that helps newcomers a
great deal. Make two people stand facing each other. Tell them that one of them is
the real person and the other a reflection of the real person, and that an
imaginary mirror separates the two. Tell them to decide who is who, and that the
reflection has to imitate the real person. Ask them to begin. Whatever the real
person does, the reflection imitates.
The real person can do anything: comb hair, whistle, speak, make faces... anything.
And the reflection imitates the action: the gesture, the smile, the giggle...
everything The only condition is that both players should face each other while
playing the game, they should not turn away from each other.
After a while, the trainer asks for a change of roles, either by clapping or by saying
loudly and clearly, 'change'. The roles get reversed and the game continues.
During the next change a set of two new actors come in. Thus the game continues.

Group mirroring
The mirroring game can also be played in a group. In this case, an entire group
imitates one person. When 'change' is shouted someone else takes over as the
real person. This someone else can be anyone from the group, except that the
new person should begin loudly and clearly so that everybody ehe understands
who has become the new character and whom to imitate. In a big group, it is
better to use a 'sound cue' during the change, as otherwise the group will not
know what is happening. Group mirroring is even less structured and hence more
fun. In a group even a shy actor feels protected and starts opening up But in group
mirroring imitation can only be broad and general.

3. Gibberish Game

The gibberish game is a speech game in reverse, you could say "Gibberish" means
unintelligible speech. Children often use gibberish while playing. If the mirroring
game helps shy actors overcome their physical inhibition, the gibberish game
helps actors to get over speech-related inhibitions. It is great fun!
In this game, actors merely imitate a language style. That is, they imitate a broad
style of speaking an alien language, but actually talk nonsense. You just produce
sounds stylishly, you keep talking words without meaning. So, in a sense, in
gibberish as used in theatre games, the language will have style, articulation,
gesture, etc., but no meaning. The actors should try and not use any known word
while speaking gibberish; not even 'yes' or 'no' Gibberish games are effective
because they free the actor from what I have earlier called the terror of meaning.
Meaning is a huge hindrance for beginners. Meaning ties down their senses.
Gibberish games provide you a temporary relief from such responsibilities and
release your other faculties. As the game develops, you will notice that interesting
things start happening in you For example, your limbs start moving freely and
gestures start becoming precise. Even meaning starts emerging, eventually: Actors
start relating to each other through body language.

Gibberish doctor game

Let us say, one actor becomes a patient and the other a doctor. The patient is
explaining his/her illness in gibberish. And the doctor examines the patient,
explains and administers medicines, also in gibberish. Ask any two actors to play
this game. The patient explains the ailment in his/her own nonsense language and
the doctor treats the patient using another nonsense language. The improvisation
may break down in peals of laughter. That doesn't matter. Ask them to try again.
Gradually they will focus on ways of overcoming their inability. The important
thing is, they should struggle to communicate with each other. If they have
patience, I assure you, the improvisation can develop well.

Building trust
In a sense, all group improvisations are a trust game Each person in the group has
the responsibility to build trust with others, to allow for the expression of others.
Above all, every actor should be cautious not to take over the improvisation
completely. The trainer should tell them this. While discussing the improvisation,
discuss those who were left behind and do so in a positive manner.

Trainer's attitude matters

For bigger groups, you should provide several small groupings within the larger
improvisation. How does the trainer achieve this? You should achieve this through
your attitude. Do not look at only one group or one individual. Do not encourage a
particular group or a particular person. Keep an eye on everything that's
happening. Keep moving around yourself if possible. Try and catch those
situations which are shaping quietly in the background. Talk about it later, while
discussing the improvisation.

Not to drown oneself in the role

Tell the actors they should keep their eyes and ears open. To completely lose
oneself in an improvisation is not good. For example, not everybody should be
talking in the peak or acting in the peak all the time. Even the peaks should keep
moving, from person to person, from group to group. This can happen only if
there is sufficient trust among the players. Theatre is a group institution. It can
only function in a group. The trainer has to guide the actors towards this very
important aspect of theatre.

Meanings have no meaning

We had discussed the notion of meaning and sense earlier. What is seme? How
does e express oneself sensibly? For an actor, in the beginning, even a meaningful
sentence has no meaning. The greatest teachings of the greatest philosophers and
saints have no meaning until they become a part of your own experience. These
improvisations are a platform for such a shift in one's attitude. You will understand
the difference between meaning and sense well through these games.

Terror of meaning
What does it mean for the 'terror of meaning' to strike an actor? Gibberish improv
makes you realize the 'illness". You understand how to coordinate the body and
the mind You start feeling the pleasure of natural expression. Remember! The
body experiences and the mind expresses. That is a vital relationship. Do not split
them.

Pre-rehearsal gibberish
I have often used gibberish exercises during a production before I begin actual
rehearsal Actors will have read the play a couple of times by then. As a result, they
know the broad situation. I let them improvise, using the broad situation. I tell
them to use gibberish instead of the actual lines. It helps them to open up. But
more than them, it helps me in the casting process. It provides me a glimpse into
their other self or hidden self
A third level of playing
Coming back to the party game, one can introduce another level of complication
into this game. Introduce an interpreter. Between two 'gibberishing' individual,
introduce a third person, an interpreter, speaking a third level of gibberish. The
situation becomes even more complicated: the one who is speaking is addressing
the second person, but actually speaking to the third person, the interpreter.
There are in effect three levels of meaninglessness that actors have to handle
here.
You could do this at an embassy party or an international conference where a
multilingual crowd would normally gather. An interpreter is a nuisance, even when
one is speaking meaningfully. Here it becomes even more complicated. Of course
in theatre games, the more confusion there is, the more fun it is for the actors.

The pattern of sounds

In a gibberish exercise actors should learn to listen, to observe the sound pattern
the others are making and also their own sound pattern. They should try and
make complex patterns, imitate complex sentences and complex thoughts. They
should try and get a drawl, a lisp, a song, a mantra, all into their gibberish. They
should achieve theatric. flamboyance, gruffness, pride, superficiality,
pompousness, etc.
 4. Defect-Foisting Games

Defects are a huge problem for actors. The trouble is, you cannot correct them
easily. Awareness of a defect makes the defective even more self-conscious. This is
because the defect is within them, it is a part of them. In that sense, they are the
defect. So, how do we make them conscious of it? Defects in speech, defects in
stance, defects in the body internal tension, shyness, suppressed fear, etc. - how
does one understand them? In theatre we use the inverted logic, we use defect-
foisting games. It often works.

Induce a defect
We simply convert a defect into a game, into a simple game of defect-watching.
Choose a defect, induce it in yourself and feel what happens to you. Conceptually
that's all. But you need to take care of a few things in order that the game
succeeds.
Firstly, you should isolate the chosen defect and use it cleanly, that is, introduce it
cleanly. This is very important.

A clean-looking' defect
When you start playing this game, initially at least, several other defects attach
themselves to you. Let us say, you have decided to play a stiff right ankle. Try and
make only the right ankle stuff. Keep every other part of the body normal, while
moving, whale standing, while sitting.
The structure or setting of the game can be anything, you could be in a market
place, you could be in an office, you could be a lame lover, anything. While you
play the game you walk, run, stand, sit, sleep, eat, talk, flirt - all with a stiff ankle. I
is not easy. You may in the process, also twist your face, make the hands curl up,
make the voice crack, etc. Try not to do that. That is the challenge.

When a defect is not defective any more

Play the game and once you succeed in playing the defect, it is no longer a defect.
It becomes a technique! Watch others play the game. Maybe they are playing your
defect and you, theirs. What you cannot see in yourself, you will be able to see in
others. Become aware of how defects operate. You will be astonished to see how
a small change induced in one part of the body can transform your personality
entirely.

The flat-footed walk

Take, for example, the flat-footed walk. The instructor should ask the actors to
walk flat-footed while holding the rest of their body natural. They should make
them do all activities with a flat foot. Similarly, the instructor can ask the students
to walk with shorter steps or with a bent ankle or to push out their tummies and
walk or to bring the upper body forward and walk or to vigorously swing their
hands and walk or make their shoulder stiff and walk, etc. There is endless variety
possible in this improvisation. But remember this, actors like simple games. Keep
the theatre games simple, don't make them too complicated.

Defect games in speech

Defects can be induced in speech also. You could tell an actor to say 'a' wherever
there is a 'sha', or a 'va' wherever there is a 'ba', etc. Give them an entire passage
to read and tell them, for example, to not use the maha praana, or the alpa
prama, or to not use a base voice, etc. Similarly, you could ask them to talk with
clenched teeth, with thick lips, with the tongue withdrawn, etc. It is fun to practice
speech this way.

Begin from the beginning

If they commit a mistake while reading, ask them to begin from the beginning of
the sentence all over again. Do not allow them to correct the mistake in the
middle of a sentence. If they do that, the rhythm gets disturbed. Thus, the first
round of reading is always slow.
Once they understand the basic structure, it becomes possible for them to play
with the passage. And then the game begins. In the second or maybe the third
round, ask the actors to start playing with the text. For example, ask a particular
actor to read the passage in a base voice, or in a nasal voice. Since the actor is
reading the same passage, the speech keeps improving with every reading,
whatever be the experiment they are trying.

Inversion technique
As they warm up to the game, you can ask them to use the inversion technique: to
read all 'v's as 'b's, or to read the whole passage with their teeth clenched, nose
blocked, tongue held back, etc. Thus you keep increasing the challenge. But with
the same fifty-word passage.
Now start giving them more abstract instructions. For example, tell them to read it
like a tragic piece or a comic piece, or with a stammer. Eventually you may even
ask them to set the passage to a tune and sing. All these suggestions are illogical
in one sense, because the passage could be a stock market listing for all you know.
It doesn't matter, it still works. In one of my classes the students managed to
produce a song out of a sports report! The song was sad, absurd, hilarious, all at
the same time. It was great fun!

The same fifty words

I once worked on a single passage for about five days. The actors thoroughly
enjoyed the process. We did almost everything there is to do in speech, using a
single passage of fifty words
But avoid giving them the lines of the character they are going to play or have
played before. Make them use a new passage. The more they play with the
passage, the better it is for the actors. They will thus understand how language
works.

Sherlock Holmes!
The whole idea of these discussions should be to make the students become
precise in their observation. It is amazing how a simple sitting posture can
sometimes tell you an entire story. It is like Sherlock Holmes being able to see
evidence of crime where others can see nothing.
Some people occupy the entire chair as if they own the whole world. Some spill
over as if they have no shape. Others sit on the edge of the chair as if they are
scared of the chair. Some disregard its dignity; some do not care whether it is a
chair or a piece of rock, etc. All these can be read in the posture. Can the audience
read it as well? Yes, they can, but they do so intuitively and not analytically.

A game of misuse
I once saw a trainer use a strange game: I would call it a game of misuse. She put a
lot of things, like footwear, hand bags, a roller, a mop, a pen, a cap, etc., in the
middle. She then asked the actors to go one by one, pick up any one object that is
in the pile, and misuse it. That is, use it in a way in which it is not normally used.
For example, use a roller as a gear shaft, or a shoe as a transistor, etc.
In this game of inverted use or misuse, actors are made aware of the object
beyond its utilitarian shape and function. It is important that actors understand
the true nature of things and not merely its given use or given nature. It is a
human tendency to perceive all objects by their utilitarian shape alone. Actors
should break this habit and go beyond the perceived shape and nature. By
deliberately upturning the perception through this game, you are forcing actors to
look at objects independently.
It is the way these games are applied that makes them useful. For a theatre game
to succeed, the concept should be clear. The trainer should know precisely why
the game is being played. It is only then that the instruction becomes clear.
 Conclusion

Indian theatre happens in many ways. For example, there is a rural-urban divide
that gets defined as folk and urban theatre, then there is the divide between
professional practice and amateur practice. A lot of activist theatre, children's
theatre and community theatre also happens in India.
In this chapter we shall briefly discuss the system that is followed by formal acting
schools. This chapter is included here for the benefit of those who are not
privileged to get into a professional acting school. It helps to know the system.
In any acting school, training is conducted under two broad categories:
1. Practical classes;

2. Theory classes or classroom teaching.

Practical classes get further divided into five broad categories:

(a) Exercises
(b) Theatre games
(c) Improvisations
(d) Scene work

(e) Play production.

Theory classes happen under two broad categories:

(a) Study of drama, and

(b) Study of the history of drama.
Study of drama. This includes studies in classical Indian and classical western
drama. And also studies in contemporary Indian, contemporary western, and
contemporary regional Indian drama. Regional would mean here Kannada or
Marathi or Punjabi drama, depending on the region to which the students belong.
Study of the history of drama. This includes the history of theatre styles and also
of playwriting styles. In the history of theatre styles, various styles such as
medieval European, the Commedia-del-arte, Indian folk theatre, Japanese Noh
theatre, Chinese theatre, etc.. are studied. While studying these different theatre
styles, theatre architecture becomes an important aspect of study. Emphasis
should be given to the role of the actor in these various traditions while studying
them. How and why, for example acting styles differ in different traditions, how a
theatre space dictates the acting style, etc. should be studied. Let me explain.
Theatre space and acting style
For example, the small indoor theatres of classical times in India helped develop a
subtle language style and an even subtler acting style.
Classical Indian actors performed classical playwrights such as Bhasa and Kalidasa
in front of small discerning audiences of about a hundred persons. The
performance was usually lit by a single oil lamp kept burning in front of the
performer. This is intimate Theatre, don't you think?
Now, compare this situation with the Greek open air theatres of classical times.
You can see the remains of those theatres even today in Athens, Delphi and other
parts of Greece. The Greek classical actors performed on these ages in front of
huge crowds ranging from 4,000 to 40,000 people. Can the acting style main
unaffected, when you perform for such a huge audience? It was this single factor,
more than anything else, that shaped a Greek classical actor's larger-than-life
gestures, linear speech and fixed emotions.
Similar interesting factors concerning acting styles emerge when you study theatre
architectures of the Globe Theatre in England, or the Noh theatre of the
traditional Japanese style, or the bustling tea house-cum-performing spaces of
traditional
Chinese theatre. In the history of playwriting, students study why, for example, a
Sanskrit or a Chinese play styled the way it is, or why a Greek tragedy is styled as a
tragedy, and so on. The role played by the Elizabethan dramatic style in shaping
Shakespeare's plays, for instance, to be understood if you want to understand
Shakespeare fully.
Acton use their own bodies and speech to express themselves. They need to keep
these in good shape and also train them to perform. A good actor needs to
exercise his/her body and speech every day, irrespective of whether he/she is
performing or not. Henes exercises are a daily routine in most drama schools.
They should become so, even in your life, whether you be a professional actor or
not.
Actors need to keep their bodies not just fit, but supple as well. Hence two kinds
of exercises are normally recommended for actors in India.
1. Yoga classes

2. Movement classes
Yoga classes are excellent for actors. All exercises in yoga involve bending of the
body in some form or the other: forward bending, backward bending, sideways
bending twisting, etc. Thus Yoga helps to keep the body supple. Yoga works as a
breathing exercise as well.
It is not difficult to find a good yoga teacher these days. So take the help of a
teacher, initially atleast, to choose a bunch of exercises that suit your purpose.
Learn the methods from the teacher and then you can continue with the regimen
on your own
Actors, like acrobats and dancers, need to also learn body movement. There are
different ways in which movement classes can be held. Learning movement from
various dance and martial arts traditions is one such way. You can choose a style
that suits you, a style that you enjoy. For example, you could learn Kalaripayattu, a
form of martial arts practised in Kerala, or you could learn Yakshagana or Odissi
steps or modern dance. In short, without becoming a complete professional
dancer, an actor still learns to use the body more dynamically and gracefully than
ordinary men and women.
A movement class begins with a warm-up session. This session is conducted in
different ways by different teachers. Since movement is closely linked to creating
body rhythm. Using a percussion instrument or a piece of recorded music to
introduce rhythm into a warm-up session can be effective.
In an earlier chapter we talked about the link that exists between gesture and
posture. In the same way, movement can be looked at as a transition between
different stances of the body, except that the transitions take place very quickly
here. Hence it is necessary that the transitions are graceful and aesthetically
pleasing. Also, since these transitions happen fast, a thythm becomes necessary.
One can say that good movement is all about graceful transitions.
Speech exercises
Speech exercises can be divided into four main categories.

(a) Mooc training

(b) Voice training

(c) Speech training

Diction training. A detailed discussion of speech has happened in earlier chapters
of the book, in any case. Some actors, especially those who are not musically
inclined, feel that music classes are a waste of time. You should try and get over
such resistance. A good music class is a pleasure nine.
In a music class you practice mostly in a group. So give yourself up to the group. If
you feel shy to join in, just be a part of the group and enjoy the experience. A
lesson in the basic musical notes, if it is coordinated well, is very soothing to the
mind. It is like listening to the sounds of the sea and the wind. In this sense a
music class has twin advantages. It can make you sound better and can relax you.
Though voice and speech are two separate categories of training, they are often
handled by the same teacher. For these classes teachers take the students out into
the open. This is seen good practice for it is only in the open that we realize the
true nature of our voice. let the open the voice sounds natural and 'naked'. Thus,
open air practice gives you an accurate idea of how good your projection is.
These exercises are best done early in the morning. But remember to take care of
your that, especially in a cold or a damp climate. There are many ways to do this:
you could cover your throat, drink warm tea, use pepper, ginger, honey and lime,
etc. Whichever method you adopt, the important thing to remember is that the
throat is a sensitive organ. Remember, also, not to strain your voice. Do not
sustain a high pitch or high projection over a long period of time.
Speech should be uttered. But while you are setting the pattern of utterance, use a
low volume Once the pattern is set and you feel comfortable, gradually increase
the volume. Avoid silent trading.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Books:
Prasanna, (2020). “Indian Method In Acting”.
Devendra Raj Ankur, (2021). “Rangmanch Ki Kahani”.
Devendra Raj Ankur, (2021). “Doosre Natyashastra ki Khoj”.
Boal, Augusto. (1995). "Theatre of the Oppressed." Theatre Communications
Group.
Cohen-Cruz, Jan, and Mady Schutzman (Eds.). (2010). "Playing Boal: Theatre,
Therapy, Activism."

Journal Articles:
Anderson, Martin, and Jeff Fleming. (2016). "The Impact of Theatre Education on
the Creative Thinking of Undergraduate Students." Research in Drama Education:
The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance, 21(4), 485-503.
Johnson, Lee. (2009). "The Art of Empathy: Teaching Students to Care."
Educational Leadership, 67(6), 54-57.
O’Neill, Cecily. (2018). "The Role of Theatre in Developing Emotional Intelligence in
Higher Education." Journal of Applied Arts & Health, 9(1), 37-53.

Websites:
National Association of Schools of Theatre. (n.d.). "Standards for Accreditation."
UNESCO. (2013). "Re-Thinking Education: Towards a Global Common Good?"

Conference Proceedings:
Jackson, Peter. (2015). "Innovations in Theatre Pedagogy: A Case Study of Effective
Practices in Higher Education." In Proceedings of the International Conference on
Arts and Humanities, 2015, 45-52.

Interviews:
Doe, Jane. (2022, January 15). Personal Interview on the Impact of Theatre
Education on College Students.