There's no business...
ON STAGE
| But there are the inevitable questions at parties, during train or air journeys, or at weddings: "Are you a housewife?" I usually retort sharply: "No, I am working." |
| Where? When I say teach at a theatre institute, it's usually followed by a kind of commiserating smile: "Oh, how nice!" |
| Is that a patronising or a confused reaction? Actually, it depends on who has asked the question. |
| If it is the corporate sort, the response clearly indicates pity at being part of a meaningless, non-productive and non-profit activity "" and not even glamorous! If it is someone harbouring aspirations of acting, it is confusion "" Training? what training? |
| This time it happened at a dinner. After the usual preliminaries, the questions came thick and fast: "So what do you teach?" (by way of starting a conversation); "How do you teach acting?" (sarcastically); "You mean acting can be taught?" (indignantly). |
| The aggression forced me on the defensive "Of course," I retorted, "it is a total art form, it demands intensive training. In fact, our students go through rigorous three-year training with an 8 am-11pm schedule. And even that does not seem enough." "Three years?" (you-must-be-joking tone) "What on earth for?" |
| I spoke with a false politeness: "You may not know that actors have to learn more than 20 subjects starting from theatre history to voice training, speech modulation, movement, music, improvisation, lighting and..." |
| Clearly my interrogator did not like what he was hearing so he cut me short: "And where do these intensively trained actors go? How come we have not seen them?" |
| I faltered. I faltered because these actors do theatre which my interlocutor probably never sees. Several have also gone into films and TV and made a name but have not become stars. |
| So how was I to make my point? Mistaking my faltering as an admission of defeat, the acquaintance toned down his tirade: "Oh, come on, how can theatre be taught? I acted in two plays when I was in class five. Everybody loved my acting and nobody taught me, I just had it in me. If I hadn't landed this corporate job with an MNC, I would probably be a filmstar. Look at Amitabh Bachchan or even Shah Rukh Khan "" you mean somebody has taught them acting? They are just natural actors! And how good they are!" |
| Suddenly, I was exhausted. I had been confronted with this or similar responses earlier, and didn't feel like reiterating my position. Instead, I sulked and kept silent. |
| If I hadn't been so exasperated, I would have said: Yes, natural talent exists, but it needs direction, it needs polish, it requires several skills to become a really good actor. |
| Why do people think of going to music school or dance school? How come no one thinks that it is possible to become a dancer or a painter without learning the form? |
| And theatre is a much more complex art form. It needs training of the body, the voice, and so much else. So why this question for theatre? |
| My dinner ruined, I decided the next time someone asks me what I do, I will say I teach Sanskrit at a degree college. That way, at least no one will be interested in carrying on the conversation. |