ACTING CANNOT BE TAUGHT, BUT IT CAN BE LEARNT…

My school years were largely unhappy. I wasn’t a depressive child, rather had a lot of fun, enjoying sports, games, friends, films et al. It is the classrooms and especially the exams that made me extremely dull and repressive as I feel it does for a lot of children, exploring the world outside their immediate family, a time that decides and builds our perspective, character and ideals for another fifty years or more to come.

Our education system and majority of teachers do not let us QUESTION! We are hoarded from one space in the school to another, like prisoners. Classroom settings too do not inspire growth. A child who paints red leaves and purple mountains is asked to correct it immediately. Largely there is one fixed way of executing everything. One answer to a question. One discipline. One demeanor. One way communication. Only one way, which is the teacher’s way, the education system guideline’s way. It is their way or the highway.

They kill our IMAGINATION, which is so sad…

I read in a book by Uta Hagen (renowned theatre Actor and Acting teacher) wherein it’s mentioned that there are Acting schools in London where the teacher stands in front and shows every gesture, pause, intonation to play a Romeo, a Hamlet, a Jocasta etc. And all Acting students stand in huge groups imitating the teacher! And I’m reminded of my schooldays and schools in my country (my experience isn’t limited as I have studied in ten different schools).



I love teaching. Though every month I’m repeating similar exercises, by themselves they are redundant, it is the individuals who participate that make every class new, fresh, exhilarating. The exercises, the improvisations are just means to explore a plethora of possibilities of doing the same thing. For the same reason it is named the ‘Actor’s Workshop’ and not the ‘Acting Workshop’. I am but an observer. My job is to give tailor-made suggestions, specific feedback, to make the Actor come closer to achieve what he/she attempted to reach.

I cannot go inside the student/actor to perform for him/her. They have to do it; I can only help them reach there, within my limited means. Thus I refrain from illustrating ways to perform. If I were to do that, all would be my way and the immense possibilities of beautiful creations would never germinate.

I can’t teach an Actor how to Act, but the Actor can learn from the Workshop, how he/she can Act. The Actor’s Workshop module is designed scrupulously so as to evolve latent potential, find new possibilities, to enhance awareness and thereby discover ingenuity. All this by not displaying, but guiding. I am a facilitator in the Actor’s journey and not so much a ‘teacher’.

The Actor needs to have/acquire certain qualities to be able to learn. One such underestimated quality for an Actor, which is not talked of much, is Common sense and I often mention it in class that it is quite uncommon. In addition to the above; Inherent expressive skills, Discipline, Concentration, Willingness to Growth, Openness of mind are elementary. When an Actor imbibes the above mentioned qualities he/she is ready to learn Acting and it makes my job harmonious.

Two paramount qualities for an Actor to possess are Strength and Compassion. Acting is being other people, so it requires huge degrees of Awareness, Observation and Listening abilities.

The Actor’s Workshop thus is as much about Life as it is about Acting.

There is nothing more satiating than creating an environment to enhance the student’s skills, broaden their horizons, open minds and bodies, strengthen foundations, develop opinions, rebuild imagination, make them question again. In the minimal time I spend with the students, I strive for this with zest and vigor.

It is this that I do love and it is in these times that I do feel Alive.