Kathmandu

Loud chatter, laughter and screams filled the room as soon as theatre veteran Feisal Alkazi asked his trainees to enact a scene. In groups of two, they were asked to showcase impromptu acting in different contexts — a person ditched by his friend to go to a party, asking for a restroom in a foreign land without the knowledge of language of that country, and so on. The participants did explore their acting skills very enthusiastically — putting away all their inhibitions, most of them immersed in their roles.

It was just the beginning of a nearly three-hour long Actors’ Workshop — a part of two-day ‘Stage Whispers: A Theatre Festival’, organised by BP Koirala India-Nepal Foundation (BPKF) and Embassy of India. The workshop, conducted by Alkazi and his team from the Ruchika Theatre Group, India was held at Moksh Live, Jhamsikhel

on May 27.

Alkazi also made them play “seemingly easy but very difficult games” — Bing-Bong (a game that tested their concentration) and number counting (that checked their patience).

Initially, most of them struggled to play the games in the correct way, but gradually improved their skills. For instance, in the counting number game, they were asked to count numbers from 1 to 5 with their eyes closed — only one person (anyone) was allowed to say the numbers aloud. When the game started, everyone was saying the numbers, and it was a chaos. After many attempts, and frequent instructions from the energetic Alkazi “to hold yourself back, and give way to other people”, they got it right.

“You can’t be an actor unless you are a good background actor. So, patience is very important for an actor,” 62-year-old Alkazi, who has been working in theatre for over four decades now, told them.

Fun and learning happened simultaneously and Varuni Shukla, a housewife participated in all the activities enthusiastically. “The workshop was well thought out, meticulously planned and very effective” for Shukla, who was at the workshop to “experience new things”.

Shyam Bikram Rana, an artiste working with Shushila Arts Academy, was also at the workshop to learn new things. “I am a learner,” expressed Rana, who was attending the workshop by Radhika Alkazi, Feisal’s wife.

“As an artiste you need to learn new things from new people” which is why he was at the workshop. It turned out to be fruitful for Rana as “I learnt more practical things here — about acting and creativity”.

Eighth-grader Diya Shrestha was another participant who found the workshop “different” from her school plays where “everything is scripted”.

Feisal and Radhika trained around 100 theatre enthusiasts, in two groups, as a part of Actors’ Workshop for adults.

Meanwhile, nearly 100 other children (aged eight to 15) participated in the workshop for children — conducted by Ashish Dhameja and Armaan Alkazi of Ruchika.

“The BPKF has just completed 25 years, and we thought this is the time for an active theatre scene here. There were people looking for those who could come and train aspiring theatre actors. Therefore we thought of doing this workshop,” Ruby Jaspreet Sharma, First Secretary, Press and Culture, at the Embassy of India stated.

Ruchika will also stage a play — A Quiet Desire, written and directed by Feisal, at the Army Officers’ Club, Bhadrakali on May 28 as a part of the festival. To coincide with Tagore’s 156th birth anniversary (that is in May), “we collaborated with Ruchika to do a play on Tagore’s life”, as per Sharma.