Kerala - Thrissur   

‘Schools should give more importance to drama’

— PHOTO: K. K. Najeeb

IN COMMUNION WITH THE AUDIENCE: Actor Naseeruddin Shah delivering a lecture at the Second International Theatre Festival of Kerala in Thrissur on Monday.

Thrissur: Actor Naseeruddin Shah has said that schools in the country should give more importance to drama.

Delivering a lecture on ‘The methodology of acting and direction’, he said that schools were the real breeding ground for talent. “In schools, drama is still considered a fringe activity. Also, the kind of plays being staged in schools is to be blamed. They are made to look like films,” he said.

Indian theatre, he stated, should not try to imitate grand stage productions of the West and cinema.

Quoting Polish theatre director and innovator of experimental theatre Grotowsky, Mr. Shah noted that “our poverty of resources should be our strength, not our weakness.”

“Words form the essence of theatre. Dynamism, movement and excitement can be generated by speaking words in the desirable manner. The actor is a messenger to convey the content of the script. I call it the theatre of words. For me, acting on stage is the deep communion between the actor and the audience. By communion, I do not mean superficial aspects such as applause and recognition. The communion signifies a deeper communication. It gives the actor an incomparable high. And to achieve this, you cannot depend on nebulous phenomena like talent and luck. It comes out of hard work. Theatre needs educated people and an educated approach,” he said.

He observed that acting was poised to witness in the digital age a quantum leap, a huge qualitative improvement, because of changes in the manner in which an individual looked at himself. “When I was a child, a camera was a wonder and getting photographed was an event of rare significance. Today, a child is photographed and videographed right from the time it is born. People have repeated opportunities to look at themselves. This would change the nature of behaving and acting,” he said.

He stated that acting in cinema no longer excited him. “I am deeply satisfied as an actor. I have donned all kinds of roles that I wanted to. In fact, I have a ‘marital discord’ with the camera now. I find the camera intrusive. I do not like it all.” He said that he drew inspiration from Geoffrey Kendal, actor-manager of a repertory company that toured India, mainly schools, after the Second World War, staging Shakespeare, Shaw and Oscar Wilde.

“As a school student, I was dazzled by his work, his reverence for the written word, his servility to the script. Later when we worked together in ‘Junoon’, I asked him why he did not stay in London to be feted and opted instead for travelling in caravans and third-class rail compartments to stage plays in Indian schools. He replied that he was not an actor, but a missionary to take Shakespeare to the masses. I was deeply moved,” Mr. Shah recalled.

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