The 16th edition of Thespo, the annual drama festival for
theatre-wallahs below the age of 25, is back. Taking place from 15th to 21st
December 2014, the festival is centered on the theme ‘Plug-In to the Tamasha’.
Along with providing a stage for today’s young theatre wallahs, the festival
also believes in nurturing their craft and expanding their knowledge through
its numerous workshops.
Playing Comedy: A fun workshop on The Art of Comic Timing by
Imran Rasheed
When: Monday, 15th December’2014 and Tuesday 16th
December’2014, 10 AM – 2PM at Prithvi House
Magic Hour: Arghya Lahiri has worked in the theatre for over
fifteen years, primarily as a Lighting Designer and Director will host a
workshop that will cover lighting theory, standard lamps and accessories, their
uses and the range of their ability, lighting systems and rigs, and approaches
to designing and executing light plans. The aim is to arrive at a greater
understanding and appreciation of a lighting designer’s role within the
theatre.
When: Monday, 15th December 2014, 10 AM - 8 PM, Prithvi
House
Workshop by Mahesh Dattani: Mahesh Dattani is a playwright,
stage director and film maker will host a workshop on the aesthetics of writing
and acting in Indian English. Every aspect of theatre contains scope for
artistic choices, including language. The workshop will explore the choices
available to playwrights who choose to write dialogue.
When: Tuesday, 16th December 2014, 2 PM - 5 PM, Prithvi
House
Collaborative Writing Workshops: A half-day workshop for
writers and performers exploring how we can use each other’s skills to create
texts for performance. We will use short writing exercises, stolen quotes and
stupid games to create our writing. This is not about being precious; it’s not
even about being good – it’s about finding ways to begin writing, to stop being
scared of it and to look at it as a collaborative practice rather than
something that exists only within the writer-director-actor set-up. Rachel
Clerke is a UK based maker of performances, writings, drawings and films.
When: Tuesday, 16th December 2014, 10 AM - 1 PM, Prithvi
House
Out of the box: In a toilet, on a bench, up some stairs.
This workshop will be an introduction to creating movement and sound for
unconventional performance spaces. Using acapella soundscapes and movement in
unusual settings, we'll look at how to tell stories without speaking; breaking
the boundaries of traditional theatre set ups and exploring what we can do
outside of a black box studio. The workshop is by Josephine Joy, a professional
performer and deviser working in the UK. She has a background in dance and
acapella singing.
When: Wednesday, 17th December 2014, 10 AM - 1 PM, Prithvi
House
Understanding Music for Theatre: Kaizad Gherda who is grade
8 western classical pianist trained from the Royal School of Music will conduct
a workshop on the general uses of music, it's styles, themes and scales of
performance in various types of productions, and how it can be the most
adaptive member of your cast. This workshop will also teach to start thinking
and developing a particular chain of thought while composing for a production.
When: Wednesday, 17th December 2014 and Thursday, 18th
December 2014, 2 PM - 5 PM, Prithvi House.
Speak the Speech by Shernaz Patel: We actors love the sound
of our voices, don't we?! Booming voices fill the stage after all. But in truth
our job is to serve the text that we have been given...to communicate someone
else's words and emotions to an audience. This workshop will focus on the
actor's relationship with the script....how we can unravel the meaning of not
just our lines but also what lies behind these lines and what lies between
them.
When: Thursday, 18th December 2014, 10 AM – 2 PM, Prithvi
House
Acting In A Musical: Alyque Padamsee to talk about the
making and re-making of the musical spectacle Jesus Christ Superstar, how the
production has retained its entertainment quotient and is a story worth telling
even four decades later. Learn the intricacies of a genre of theatre that has
not been experimented to its full potential in India. Joining him will be Karla
Singh, the associate director of Jesus Christ Superstar.
When: Friday, 19th December 2014, 2 PM - 5 PM, Prithvi House
The Actor’s Tool Box: An acting workshop created exclusively
for theatre artists. Designed for actors, emerging and established, to
discover, explore and maintain their talents using tools and techniques that
Glenn has developed over his 28 years as a working artist together with Kyla's
training at The Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute in New York.
When: Saturday, 20th December 2014, 10 AM – 5 PM, Sitara
Studio
A Musical Rebellion: Catch Lok Shahir Sambhaji Bhagat in all
his glory talking ever so passionately about music and theatre. Described to be
the voice of millions, a political soothsayer, rebel and a man of astonishing
talent, Sambhaji Bhagat's infectious energy manages to captivate his audience
and engage them in a musical dialogue. Join him as he recounts the history of
protest theatre in India, in his energetic style! Lok Shahir Sambhaji Bhagat
dons many hats. He is a folk poet who believes that power grows out of music.
Through his songs he speaks of the many misgivings of society and the
oppressive nature of the society we live in. He teaches in a school in suburban
Maharashtra and along with his troupe performs in the slums of Mumbai.
When: Saturday, 20th
December 2014, 2 PM – 5 PM, Prithvi House
An Actor’s Foundation: Aspirants can also look out for ‘An
Actor’s Foundation’, which offers a peek into an actor’s inner emotional life
and how to effectively wield the instrument of body movement under the guidance
of Jeffery Goldberg, faculty member at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film
Institute, The School of Visual Arts, and Fordham University.
When: Sunday, 21st December 2014, 10 AM - 1 PM, Sitara
Studio
Playing With Masks: Our facial expressions are the windows
of our soul: a give-away into our feelings. But what happens when these basic
tools are hidden? Come explore the world of masks with Puja Swarup that enables
for interesting experiences, allowing one to be in the moment and making the
most of it. Find a character and its story through different masks like the
silent mask and the half mask and get a feel of the level of energy the actor
needs to maintain to keep the mask alive. Puja Sarup, a trained theatre actress
from Mumbai University who has worked world over with various theatre companies
and directors.
When: Sunday, 21st December 2014, 2 PM - 5 PM, Sitara Studio
Creating a Make-Believe World: A two-day workshop for anyone
who has a passion to create and an imagination that knows no boundaries. A man
of many talents, Vivek Jadhav will walk us through the meandering streets and
markets of Mumbai that serve as an inspiration to his acclaimed work as a stage
designer followed by a session of how to apply ideas to create a whole new
world on stage that not only aids the craft of story telling but takes it to a
whole new level.
When: Sunday, 21st December 2014, 10 AM – 5 PM, Prithvi
House.
With such an all-rounded medley of workshops, Thespo 16 is
no less than a week-long crash course in Theatre School. Organized by QTP,
under the aegis of Theatre Group Bombay, it will be taking place in two venues
this year: the iconic Prithvi Theatre, which has been the home of Thespo since
2008, and Sitara Studio, the city’s latest indie cultural space that used to
stage Marathi plays back in the 1970s.
For workshop registrations please contact: 9769145101. For
information on the complete schedule of events, ticket prices, etc., please
visit www.thespo.org.
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