Reflections on Theatre Education

Abstract

The chapter engages with the questions that emerge from three theatre institutions in South India, i.e., “Ninasam,” “Natanakairali,” and “Adishakti.” Through their craft, practitioners in these institutions have sought to address some critical questions in post-Independence India: What does it mean to reclaim one’s roots without being nativist? What does it mean to be truly original about devising an actor training system strongly connected to one’s culture and collective memory?

Through an experiential account of my 3-month long internship in Ninasam, a theatre school in Karnataka, India, I try to offer a first-hand report of what it is like to be a student in this Institute. The essay attempts to cover some major aspects of the Ninasam training system like Yakshagana, the contemporary module for actor training, the exposure to the minimalistic art form called Talamaddale, and the theory classes. The reflection on the theatre education at Ninasam is presented in comparison with two other training systems that I have gone through, i.e., “Source of Performance Energy” workshop at Adishakti in Tamil Nadu and the “Navarasasadhana” module in Natanakairali in Kerala. In the process of reflecting on these experiences, the chapter also draws on some significant voices from the national and international theatre such as of Phillip B. Zarrilli, G. Venu, Vinay Kumar, Anuradha Kapur, and T. Sasitharan.