A studio for actors

I MET 33-year old Pravin at Karaikudi a couple of months ago, where he was shooting for a TV serial. Little did I realise the extent of his training in theatre and his commitment to it then. Trim and fit, he seemed slightly miscast as a 50-year old widower trying to reach out to his daughters - and losing. He looked ridiculously young despite his make-up, but impressed me with the enormous patience he showed in dealing with the playful recalcitrance of some of his younger colleagues on location.

I was soon to learn that he was about to launch the Magic Lantern Actors Studio and that he had a formidable stage background, even before he directed that spectacular production of Kalki's "Ponniyin Selvan" that made waves in the city a couple of years ago.

He had extensive exposure to French theatre traditions, through his association with Alliance Francaise and the numerous stints he did in France thanks to the scholarships he won to study acting, direction and aspects of drama and cinema. These scholarships took this zoology graduate of Loyola College, Chennai, to Theatre Nationale de Strasbourg and Ariane Mnouchkines Theatre du Soleil.

Thanks to the generosity of Na Muthuswami, Pravin who joined the repertory Koothu-p-pattarai on his return to India, directed his first play, "Don Juan" in Tamil. After a three-year stint there, he launched Magic Lantern in 1993, and ever since, has been involved in direction, coaching actors, and acting as a casting director for the Indian cast of foreign language films, mainly French.

It was when Ms. Mnouchkine brought Kalamandalam Karunakaran to Paris to do a Kathakali show that Pravin realised that he ought to be returning to 'my home, my milieu'. Magic Lantern followed, where he and a band of theatre fanatics - Hans Kaushik, Kumaravel, Pasupathi, Swarnavel, Krishna Devanandan and Rajiv Krishnan - did a number of productions in Tamil, like "Pinnochchio" for school children to raise funds for CRY, "Veshakkaran", based on Moliere's "Tartuffe", "Jeremy" by French playwright Philip Minyana and "Dr. Naak", directed by Mu Ramaswami. In English, the group staged Dario Fo's "The Accidental Death of an Anarchist", directed by Rajiv Krishnan. Where's the need for an acting school in Chennai where there is already a full-fledged film institute, I asked Pravin and Kumaravel, the man who recently achieved fame through his script for the ad film 'Kaile matter' for Lintas. Kumaravel assured me that the demand for acting coaching was far greater than the supply. This 36-year old who studied theatre at the PG level at Pondicherry University under Indira Parthasarathi, learnt koothu from Kannappa Thambiran, attended Peter Brook's all-India workshop at Bangalore and is now co-writing the script for an Indo-French film. His magnum opus has been his dramatisation of "Ponniyin Selvan".

Besides Pravin and Kumaravel, who trained the first two batches for the Y.G.P. Acting Academy, it is Hans Kaushik, a trained sculptor and versatile stage actor comfortable in Tamil, Hindi and English, now working in films as well, who will impart training in acting skills and technique. Pasupathi, an actor on the Tamil stage, and like Kumaravel, making a mark in Nasser's forthcoming film, "Mayan", is an actor trainer of considerable experience, with his knowledge of folk theatre, dance and the martial arts.

Dancer and yoga expert Krishna Devanandan and actor-documentary filmmaker-theatre director Rajiv Krishnan are two other resource persons who will play important roles in the institute.

The visiting faculty to extend their support to the venture includes veteran actor-theatre person-filmmaker Nasser, filmmaker-director of TV serials Swarnavel, National award- winning director and acting teacher Hariharan, stunt master Vikram Dharma, cinematographer and filmmaker Karthikeyan, and film dance choreographer Kalyan.

The Actors Studio will train aspiring actors for careers in mainstream cinema and television. Auditioning for the first course began on June 25 at the Alliance Francaise on College Road, where the course will be conducted. Magic Lantern is considering requests by several callers for a part-time course to be added.

The syllabus of the course includes physical training which covers yoga, breathing, voice, movement, dance, martial arts, stunts, circuit training, gymnastics and relaxation techniques. The inputs listed by the published curriculum make interesting reading.

They include real life studies, watching the self, watching co- actors, traditional theatre, storytelling, watching films critically and improvisation.

Pravin and Kumaravel are confident that with Magic Lantern, they will be able to smash established prejudices against products of the Film Institute prevalent in the film industry, as their syllabus, while comprehensive and rich in content, is yet rooted in the reality of commercial cinema and the increasing demand from the more progressive directors for trained actors.

As it is an extension of work they are already doing, they are convinced they have a winning product. Magic Lantern can be contacted at 8271477.

V. RAMNARAYAN

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Entertainment
Previous : Accent on accent
Next     : Revelling in remixes