One Year Certificate Course in Acting and Theatre-Making

Certificate by The Drama School, Mumbai Mumbai View Contact

Starting from: INR 2,00,000 Per Course (Taxes As Applicable) Request Info

One year certificate course in Acting and Theatre-Making which covers Training, Internships, and a Touring Production.

Six Months of Training

The teaching methodologies and curriculum structure of the school are informed by best practices from both Indian and western pedagogy; the curriculum structure is designed based on those of some of the best drama schools across the world.

The course works on building the participants awareness of how to use the Body, Voice and Imagination (the basic tools of an actor), in order to create Presence, Immediacy and Watchability (the goals we strive for in the actor). The journey each participant will take, will first start with working on the Self,  then with the Other, and applying that to Performance. Along the way, the students will also be made to inculcate Theatre Professionals’ key philosophies into their practice: self-learning, focus, rigour, and discipline.

All this is designed to make the actor-creator-entrepreneur.

• Early Morning: Conditioning

The Body, and Voice and Mind, are the fundamental tools for the performer:

Movement Practice: Either yoga with Mandar Gokahle or kalari with K Vipin on a daily basis to understand movement, strengthen bodies, and connect the breath to movement.

Voice Practice: Voice work with a Linklater technique-trained Deshik Vansadia or singing with Mandar Parkhi on a daily basis to condition the voice and breath, and their connection to the body and mind (articulation).

• Late Morning: Performance Studies

Each block will last for 2 – 3 weeks, through which the instructor will use a particular mode or style of performance to train the student on three fundamental goals that a performer needs when working: presence, immediacy and watchability.

In all, students will work throughout the first 20 weeks with five styles.

Students will be taught this through instructors informed by forms and schools of study such as Noh, Butoh, Tamasha, Chorus, Commedia and Stanislavsky, simultaneously cultivating an understanding of theatre practices from across the world. While this part of the course is about embodying awareness of presence, immediacy and watchability through training, it is designed to run in parallel with the devising component of the course.

The Job of an Actor: The first two weeks will be Jehan Manekshaw and Geetanjali Kulkarni providing participants with an understanding of the various elements they will expect to prepare for. They will work on the basics and prepare a pre-language, a first level of common vocabulary, and experientially – through exercises and activities, be made to understand what kind of journey they will be embarking on for the process, preparing them to take the learning in.

Foundations for Devising: Working parallely with Geetanjali and Jehan, Yuki, Deepal and Kathryn will introduce the actors to a number of improv exercises and theatre games that prepare the actor for devising. Giving them the initial tools with which to set on the journey of devising and performance, which they will be expected to do for all 18 weeks subsequent to this.

In those following weeks, each of the performance units mentioned below will be accompanied in parallel with tasks and assignments provided by the instructor of that unit. Based on that, students will work daily to devise their own performance pieces that they will then present to the faculty once a week. The performance modules are:

Breaking Down the Actor: Over three weeks, Prabhath Bhaskaran will use his training (Butoh and Kalari) to break down the individual inhibitions, and barriers to learning, to make them be aware of themselves, how they work, think, react, so that they can then build an awareness of the elements required to be immediate, present, watchable. Everything after this becomes a study of how to further cultivate these three elements. Prabhat’s rigour also ensures that will have strengthened both physically and mentally for the intense training ahead.

The Actor and the Scene: For three weeks, Aniruddha Khutwad who teaches at both NSD and FTII will come in and work with both Hindi and English texts and show the performer how to work with scenes and scene study. Aniruddha works primarily with the methods taught by Konstantin Stanislavsky, and will introduce students to the fundamental principles at work in Stanislavsky’s methods.

The Aware Actor: Jehan Manekshaw and Geetanjali Kulkarni return to the classroom to work with the students to look at how their work at the level of the individual is being amalgamated. In addition they will consolidate the experiences actors have had till this point, with a combination of new and similar exercises from the first part – so that the actor can recognise the changes within themselves. They will also introduce the actors to understand the self in the context of working with others.

Chorus and the Ensemble: Over three weeks, Yuki Ellias will teach how to work and create in an ensemble using her Lecoq and LISPA training. While there will be a lot of physical theatre work here, Yuki will also work with epic texts. Students will be pushed to work as a team here, through chorus, they will build a much stronger sense of peripheral awareness, being alert and aware to the group and ensemble around them at all times.

Commedia dell’arte and the Character: In these three weeks, while the students will work on the masks and characters of this improvisational form with its origins in Italy, helping them understand characterisation better. This training will also push the limits of the students’ stamina, and build technique on the clarity of actions and working on building moment to moment.

The Actor and the Performance: Here the students are made to understand the nature of performance as a whole, and the possibilities of creating real moments on stage. Because Sankar Venkateswaran has worked with different styles, and given his knowledge of the Natyashastra, working with him will help the students connect the dots between what their bodies know genetically and the training that we are giving them in this short six-month period.

The Ever-Learning Actor: Here Geetanjali and Jehan Manekshaw will amalgamate the learnings of the previous 18 weeks, understand principally what ‘learning’ itself comprises of in order to cultivate the understanding in the students that learning is a lifelong process, and every production, performance, rehearsal, activity they do from now on, can be looked at as further learning. They will also lay down the groundwork for the professional directors who will spearhead the final two productions.

* modules are subject to change.

• Afternoon: Theory and Applied Practice

Theatre does not exist in isolation. While a small unit of time across the six months, this is one of the most integral elements of the programme that will prepare the students for a life of informed and effective practice once they graduate.

Theory: Students will be introduced to a range of topics: History of Theatre, Indian and Western; Philosophy; Art and Society.

Research and Praxis: Dramaturgy, ways of seeing, case studies of directors’ processes, reading and discussing seminal plays, and texts on theatre.

Applied Skills: How to be an effective facilitator of drama. Voice for radio, acting for camera.

Production and Producing: Introductions to design for theatre, budgets, funding, marketing, and other ancillary theatre processes.

• Late Afternoon: Devising and the Performance Lab

Devising time and the opportunity to present the results of that process to faculty and your peers for critiquing, is one of the most provoking components of physical theatre schools across the world, and something that was implemented to great success during the Intensive Drama Program 2012.

Students are given an hour each day to work together in smaller groups, or on set devising assignments, given by the faculty member from Performance Studies, which students have to then present to the faculty on the Saturday of each week.

The constant process of feedback, creation, and presentation that lasts through the 20 weeks of the programme gives students a space in which they attempt application of the learning they are embodying. They are challenged to create as a group, and as individuals, to present their work repeatedly for feedback and critiquing. Through this, their abilities as creators of theatre begin to get cultivated, their attempts at applying their new-found knowledge deepen their learning, and they develop an independence and autonomy of thought on how to build performances.


Students of the DSM will be required to:

- Attend School Every Day Mon-Sat 7:45am-4pm from 1st of July – 24th of November.

- Attend full day rehearsals till 6pm for six weeks from the 23rd of November till the 4th of January.

- Be available at least one sunday a month – to be determined by the DSM and intimated to you at least 2 weeks in advance, to do a field trip of a theatre/s within Mumbai or other activities.

- Be available to your colleagues and classmates for group rehearsals and creation tasks at times outside school hours when required.

- Be available from time to time for other work that we assign you/workshops/masterclasses that we plan for you that will enhance your learning as a performer. Advance notice of 2 weeks or longer will be provided. These include:

• one on one meetings with your faculty supervisor three times in the first six months of the course.
• one on one or small group meetings with our physio-therapist, voice specialist.
• one on one meetings with any mentors assigned to you during the process.
• group workshops and masterclasses arranged by us for you in the second 6 months of the course.

It is expected that you will attend every single day diligently and strictly maintain 100% attendance*, as this is ensemble learning, and the group relies on each individual to be reliable.

*In case of absolute emergencies (accidents, family emergencies, extreme-illness of the hospitalisation kind, etc.) you may miss out a maximum of 8 days of class.

Six Months of Production

After the first 20 weeks of training, we apply the tools we have learnt. In the rehearsal of two productions under Teacher-Directors, that runs for the final six weeks of the training period.

From Nov 25th-Jan 4th for 6 weeks,  students will be divided into two ensembles and will rehearse and prepare all aspects of a production for performance. The productions will be presented for a week in January, which also launches the students 6 months of working on a touring production.

During the next 6 months, the students commit to rehearsing and presenting no less than 20 performances* of the production, as determined by the director, the producing company, and the school.

During these six months, students will also be able to complete their internships, research assignments, and the residency requirements of the program,  they will also be introduced to larger networks of practice, and be encouraged to seek out new opportunities for work, creation, and begin their life-long journey of learning and  Theatre-Making.

*Subject to change.

Internship, Reading and Research

In addition to the 8 hours of training at school, students need to keep significant personal time available in the afternoon/evenings for research and internships.

Independent research and study, and reflection:

- Reading plays
- Reading Theoretical Texts on theatre
- Researching forms and styles on the net, compiling your research into a record for yourself, and to share with your – classmates.
- Recording video-journal entries of your learning on a weekly basis.
- Maintaining a strong written record of the exercises and activities you do in the classroom.
- Writing a letter to a particular member of the faculty, in which you share with them your thoughts about your process/progress/challenges at that point in time in the school.
- We will be maintaining an online e-learning portal, where you will be expected to access daily, read content, and upload content for others to read, including outcomes of your research, and your own submissions.
- All work except for the individual letter to a faculty member: is for public presentation to all members of the DSM, Faculty, Students and Staff.

Watch and Attend Plays:

You must watch and provide a one page review of 10 plays during your time in the DSM. This goes from get-in/load-in time, to get-out and removal time.

Internship 1:
Watch and attend at least 6 days worth of rehearsal of a company putting together a play. Observe the actors, director, the process being used.

We will be asking an individual at the place of internship to comment on your presence there.

We will be asking you to write a 2 page report of this internship, and your response to the process.

 

Internship 2:
Take a backstage responsibility on a show, and work on at least 6 runs of the same show.

This includes: Props, Costume, Lighting, Sound.

We will be asking an individual at the place of internship to comment on your presence there.

We will be asking you to write a 2 page report of this internship, and your response to the process.

 

Research Papers:
You must write two 5 page papers on particular form, aspect, style, or practice of theatre unfamiliar to you.

You must write a 12 page paper as a final project on a topic that will be determined in agreement with the assigned faculty member. Your paper will be assessed based on:

- Research done around the project.
- Your demonstrated understanding of the project
- Original thinking and your own expression of ideas and how you have synthesised them into ideas about your own practice.
- The above 4 points need to be satisfactorily completed on or before the 31st of March 2014. It is expected that you will do at least 50% of this workload, before the 31st of December 2013.

 

Optional Residencies Outside Mumbai:
In our efforts to connect you to work that exists across the country, we will be setting you up with opportunities to go and do one-two week residencies in other parts. This will require strong calendar planning to be done in liaison with the DSM Program Coordinator so that it does not interfere with your touring obligations to the show that is being produced with you in it.

We will provide you with the information, connections and the permission from the hosting agency to go there, if and when possible, your travel to and from there by 2nd Class Non-Ac Train.

While some of these spaces host, and others do not, it is expected that you will be ingenious, innovative, resourceful enough, to find solutions to arrange for whatever needs the space cannot provide in order that you can be there to experience them and learn – a skill required of anyone pursuing a career in theatre.

How To Apply

We are looking for 18 participants who hope to be part of a new breed of theatre makers who are open, professional, ready to work. They see the potential of theatre as a viable career, and they want to change the world in the process.

Application Phase 1:

    Please submit a detailed C.V.
    Please submit a cover letter answering the following:

    What is your interest in working in theatre?
    What kind of learning do you think you need to be a theatre maker?
    Tell us a story of an experience you have had, that you feel has stayed with you for your life.
    Tell us about something (outside drama and theatre) that you are really passionate about. Why are you this passionate about it?

Please give us two people (non-family members and no friends or peers) who can give us a reference of your character.

For an example of a well detailed C.V. Look here.

Please send your C.V. and cover letter to info@thedramaschoolmumbai.in

 

Application Phase 2:

Stage 1: Individual Work
Applicants have to come in having learned 2 pieces of text in two different languages. Each piece must be between 8-12 lines long.
You may prepare and present:
A piece in Hindi and a piece in English


OR a piece in Hindi and another piece in any language of your choice.


OR a piece in English and another piece in any language of your choice.


We recommend that you chose languages you are most comfortable in and that you will play to your strengths.

We ask that you learn these lines by heart and do not refer to any paper while speaking them.
Tips to remember your lines:
The best way to learn lines is not to mug them up.
Understand what the writer is trying to say. Then learn the lines: idea by idea, thought by thought. (In the process of doing this, they become your lines, instead of the writers, and that will make them easier for you to say).
We want you to present the text pieces simply, in neutral.
We will then direct you, put you in situations, and try different things with you, using those lines. Just to see how you work with them, and how you will take our inputs, the lines are just raw material with which we can start working together.
 

Stage 2: Group Work
You will be asked to workshop with us and other people. Just show up, ready to work and play drama games and do small exercises with us.

For stage 1 and 2 of the audition process, please come in plain loose comfortable clothing. No tight or fancy clothes or jeans. We reccomend loose cotton trousers, or baggy pyjama bottoms, t-shirt or loose top) in which you can move around easily.
Long hair must be tied back or put in a headband.
You will be working barefoot.
Please do not wear any large pieces of jewellery or watches etc. that could accidentally hurt someone as there will be contact work involved in Stage 2.
Please carry a small towel and a bottle of water with you.

Stage 3: Meeting and a Discussion
This is a meeting between you and the panel of conveners.
(This is just for both you and us to know each other better, get a clear sense of the expectations of The Drama School, Mumbai of its students, and to also answer any questions you may have.)

 
Students will be enrolled on the basis of both the above two phases of application. We will announce the ensemble of selected participants on or before the 1st of June.

Scholarships:

Our team is currently busy compiling a list of all institutions and grant agencies who can give partial or full scholarships.

Our Programme Manager for the Drama School is available to advise and assist candidates on making independent applications to these agencies. However, while assistance will be provided, the initiative to apply, and success of the application will depend entirely on the candidate making the application.

The Drama School, Mumbai

Our History

The Drama School has been an idea 5 years in the making. Understand more about the organisation behind it, and what people have had to say about our teaching history, with the Advanced Workshop Program and the Intensive Drama Program and how they allowed us to create the Drama School, Mumbai.

Theatre Professionals, founded by Jehan Manekshaw and Tasneem Fatehi, is a five-year-old company. We started in 2008, with a six-day acting workshop aimed at performing arts practitioners in Mumbai, taught by two recent graduates from École Philippe Gaulier.

It was our first attempt to bring best practices from theatre into a workshop environment where rigour, discipline and professionalism were sacrosanct. The idea: to create a breed of future theatremakers who see theatre as a whole, who are focussed and regularly create their own works, and who, Eklavya-like, believe in self learning and see learning as a lifelong process.

We have since then conducted more than 50 workshops by some of the foremost theatre trainers from India and abroad. They are all dedicated practitioners who share a pluralistic view of theatre, and who are committed to the same standards of rigour and dedication that we expect from our participants. Anamika Haksar, Naushad M., H. Tomba, S. Raghunandana, Daniel Goldman, Ravi Verma,  Aniruddha Khutwad, Geetanjali Kulkarni, Prabhat Bhaskaran, Martin Chalissery and Jairo Vergara are just a few who have worked with us over the past years.

We also streamline our Advanced Workshop Program, organising seasons of workshops at the advanced level. We recently concluded two Season of workshops. The Physical Theatre Season, comprising European physical theatre traditions such as Clown (with Claudio Clavija of Chile), Commedia dell’arte (with Deepal Doshi who trained in the form in USA) and Chorus (with Yuki Ellias who trained at Lecoq and LISPA, London), and the the Season of Voice Workshops for the Performer, starting with the vocal system with voice doctor Dr Sadhana Nayak, scene study with eminent theatre director Sunil Shanbag and Shakespeare with Deshik Vansadia of Shakespeare & Co, USA.

Alongside, we have evolved our flagship programme: the annual three-week long Intensive Drama Program, where multiple trainers work on a collaborative pedagogical approach to train experienced actors. The IDP started in 2009, with 6 instructors teaching 48 students back to back, the programme evolved deeply over the next three years, adding a performance outcome, providing longer engagements with the instructor, building collaborative teaching methods between instructors for a deeper enrichment of the student.

Our last IDP was the strongest our methodology has ever been.  We had H. Tomba from Manipur teaching voice, Preethi Athreya from Chennai working on body, and Sankar Venkateshwaran from Kerala and Ben Samuels from the UK bringing these two aspects together using Natyashastra and Lecoq, respectively. The IDP 2012 was a much more refined process divided into three stages: Conditioning and Fundamentals, Ways of Creation, and then Devising. The devising component of the project resulted in a strong assimilation of the learning provided in the first two weeks. In addition, the faculty in their feedback, had opportunity to speak as one voice to the students about the performance lab, giving us complete confidence and sense of strong pedagogical unity, that we had been striving for in the last four years. This is what we bring to the Drama School Mumbai.