All The Stage's A World
The Meta Centre in Pune. Photo: Jurish Nath
Using theatre to shape the lives of children and young adults in Pune
Eight-year-old Adhiraj walks into class after being a student for a few months. When he first came to me, he could barely speak, let alone spell, so I decided to put him up for a Spoken English Examination.
“Hi, I’m Jurish,” I say. He recognises his cue. We’ve done this before. He knows what he needs to do.
“Hi, I’m Adhiraj, nice to meet you.”
“And how are you today?”
“I’m fine, thank you. And you?”
This exchange continues until I find areas where he needs improvement and train him further. He’s only doing a Level-1 examination, but it’s the beginning of a learning curve that won’t end for many years.
It is at times like this when I realise how truly therapeutic theatre can be, and how badly young people need an outlet to vent and create. Catharsis happens at all ages. Babies cry, children sulk, and adolescents create art.
I arrived in Pune two and a half years ago with the sole intention of studying industrial psychology and eventually getting into the corporate realm. Life, however, had other plans for me. I’ve always been passionate about theatre and acting, having been a part of multiple productions since I was young. While interning in a consultancy, I realised that training adults is somewhat challenging since their minds tend to be less flexible than younger minds. Thankfully, I got certified as an Associate of Trinity College London and set up an Acting and Communication Centre called The Meta Centre with a friend.
Pune is a rapidly growing Tier-2 city, with a massive influx of people owing to urbanisation. This means that means more families need education for their children. But here’s the catch: how many schools actually give children life skills? The education industry rushed to meet the demand of newcomers to Pune, but how many of them impart quality education?
Luckily, some parents are smart. They know their children need better competencies to get ahead. A 90%-score means nothing now. People want to see tangible skills, and that’s where I come in. I’ve been training young people in acting, communication and a variety of related subjects for a few years now, watching them grow and be more comfortable in their own skin, and freely express their ideas.
Mihir walks into class excited as always. He’s a foreign student who wants to explore acting, so I put him to work, preparing him for an Acting Examination. I give him a play to read by D. M. Larson, Flowers in the Desert. I also select a few pieces that he would have to perform for the examination while working on his speech and pronunciation. He goes up for a Level-5 examination. (The highest grade being a Grade-8)
He plays a criminal in the first piece, a lovesick man in the second. He develops his character sketches and performs them for me. Now comes the tough part: Improvisation. This is a tricky part. I need to make sure he is prepared for anything the examiner might ask him to perform, on the spot. I won’t be able to help him when he’s in the examination room, so Mihir and I sit down and analyse every possible scenario that may come up. It isn’t easy at first, but he picks up quickly. It’s just one of the advantages of having young and passionate learners.
Trinity College London has been conducting examinations in music and speech and drama since the 1800s. Back then, an examiner would take quite a while to arrive in India by sea, since flights hadn’t been invented. Now, they’ve established their presence in many countries and are able to help children and adults get certified through examinations of their choice. These examinations continue to attract attention in India. There are so many options to choose from that one couldn’t possibly do everything on the list.
I conduct class once a week for my students and we rarely have attendance issues, since they look forward to these classes more than they look forward to school, or even their jobs. To me, that’s what education should be. It reminds me of the cliché: there are no bad students, only bad teachers.
I train students in a variety of subjects, from communication skills, reading aloud, to performing text, speaking, group drama, acting and more, but I tend to see my students flourish in theatre and acting. There could be a list of reasons for this. It could be my proclivity towards acting and all the years of experience I have in it that have led me to be biased towards the subject, or it could be that reading plays opens up my students’ minds to different worlds and sensitises them to different issues faced by different groups of people.
For example, in The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare, the students learn about anti anti-Semitism. There are stories about the marginalised from Dalit playwrights. What seems to resonate with them the most, however, are pieces that relate to coming of age, and showcase humour, parody or satire. Being a young teacher myself, I encourage them to find their own niches as they get older and display an inclination towards a particular genre or theme, while also making sure they are exposed to as many different types of themes as possible.
Students like Mehir love improvisation, where they have to act ‘on the spot’ after being given a topic. Every student begins with unsteady feet, but after a few classes, it’s all they want to do. It keeps them on their feet and helps them develop the ability to think and act immediately, a skill they don’t even know they’ve developed until they go into the world as adults, or start competing in debates or acting competitions.
Improv also gives young adults the opportunity to express themselves in their own unique ways. I’ve witnessed a remarkable range of styles: from sarcasm and dry wit, to animated and expressive, every child has their own style and comes to embrace their own individuality. Eventually, you’re left with students who are so close to perfect, you have to nit-pick at small inconsistencies in their performances. Personally, that is the most rewarding feeling ever.
The same goes for performing monologues. As students get older, I don’t show them how to perform pieces, but rather, encourage them to go through the piece and perform their interpretation of the piece. Usually, I’ll ask them to read the play from which the extract is taken so they can get a little more context and are able to justify why they acted the way they did, or what they believed their character was feeling.
It is at times like this when I realise how truly therapeutic theatre can be, and how badly young people need an outlet to vent and create. Catharsis happens at all ages. Babies cry, children sulk, and adolescents create art. A few of my students have been able to cry on cue. That is not an easy feat to accomplish, and also gives me an insight into their minds and the degree of empathy they possess.
Empathy. Yet another skill that is so often overlooked in schools. It wasn’t an easy decision for me to make when I moved into this line of work. I had studied psychology for seven years. But when you witness your student being moved to tears while reading a play, or an audience crying silently, hooked on to every word of a monologue your students are performing, or stifling a laugh so they don’t miss any lines; I don’t regret my decision. I learn just as much from my students as they do from me, though it may not always be related to what I’m teaching
“Did you know, turtles have been around since the dinosaurs?”
Since art is a representation of someone else’s reality, I often end up discussing a variety of subjects. Hard-hitting plays, like Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, for example, will lead down roads of philosophy, psychology, and mental health. Public speaking will lead to discussions about current affairs and the economy.
“Thank you, Swara, but can we get back to the topic we’re working on?”
Sigh. “Okay...”
Sometimes, the students surprise me and put me in situations that I don’t know how to deal with.
“Okay, can you tell me where your sole is?”
The seven-year-old points to his heart. I can’t help but laugh.
“No, the other one. I’ll give you a hint, it’s related to your foot”
The child looks confused; I don’t have a clue as to how I’m going to a explain the difference between sole and soul without confusing the children even further.
Over time, I see my students grow and flourish into mature, responsible adults. From shy and reticent to confident and opinionated and though it takes more than a few years, it’s still worth it. Their language skills improve, they try more things that they would have been otherwise intimidated by, and their overall well-being increases dramatically (pun intended).
Most, if not all of my students come from middle class families, and sometimes, parents don’t understand the value of the classes that I provide, being stuck in the archaic ‘marks in school are all that matter,’ mentality. But when they see their children doing visibly better in educational, professional and social situations, they come around; and they don’t regret it, either. After all, there’s so much on offer. Apart from being more confident and having a better command over the language, there are vocational advantages to doing speech and drama. Every time a student completes an exam, they are evaluated and given a score, along with a list of strengths and weaknesses. The get a lot of feedback, and when these children finish with a Grade 8 (the highest grade one can complete from Trinity College London), they can choose to continue and get professional certifications like I did.
I also provide students with opportunities to intern and certify themselves should they ever choose to get into training or education, or even theatre and acting. These exams leave students with internationally recognised academic credits which can be leveraged while applying to universities within and outside India, and are especially useful while applying for scholarships.
The bottom line is, it affects employability in a positive manner and parents can appreciate that.
Our classes aren’t just about language and the performing arts. Since art is a representation of someone else’s reality, I often end up discussing a variety of subjects. Hard-hitting plays, like Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, for example, will lead down roads of philosophy, psychology, and mental health. Public speaking will lead to discussions about current affairs and the economy. I’ve seen students talk about the plight of women in India, or address topics like demonetisation with such elegance and maturity. That make me realise that adolescents are truly a force to be reckoned with.
Our youth is remarkably sensitive, from issues about the environment to problems plaguing out society. They pick up concepts quickly and are often smarter than we give them credit. It is said that every ten years, or every new generation has a different neurological map, or the pathways in their brain are wired differently.
This is why it’s important to emphasise on good teaching. Over the years, automotives have evolved from steam to internal combustion to electric. Storage devices evolved from floppy discs to compact discs to pen drives. But the only addition to a classroom has been a “smart board” that usually just sits there while teachers continue to use traditional methods of teaching. In the road ahead, the field of teaching—and teaching through theatre—needs to evolve along with other fields to deal with the changing world.
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Jurish Nath is an acting, communication and language trainer based in Pune. He also holds an Associate of Trinity College London (ATCL) diploma and a Grade 8 in Acting. He completed his Master's of Arts in Psychology from Fergusson College, Pune. You can follow him on Instagram: @jurish_ig
