It is very rightly said that you can never learn acting. Either you are born with it or no. Yes, you can fine tune it, polish it and hone it! And, doing theatre or something by which you are directly interacting with the people is the best way to do it. I consider myself very lucky that I made the right decision of joining a theatre group at the right time. The best part was that as a group we did a lot of street plays. These plays are basically message oriented and the main advantage is you get an instant reaction from the audience. I really enjoyed doing street plays and I feel anyone who can perform in front of a crowd can perform anywhere. That’s why it’s said an actor should be shameless, uninhibited. We would do street plays at check posts, red light areas, schools, colleges, markets, societies etc. It was fun.
Of course we did stage shows too, mainly comedies. The best part about plays is there are no retakes and there is no ‘cut’ so you can imagine the level of confidence. We would rehearse for about a month and the best part was whether you were doing a role or not everyone would be present for rehearsals. Before entering the rehearsal place or hall we used to sweep the floors properly. We were a bunch of people including students, working people, TV actors but every evening without fail we would gather together and rehearse for our plays.
Everyone would ask me, ‘What do you get from doing theatre?’ My parents never stopped me but yes they were worried and naturally so because for them I had finished my college and should have been independent by now. I would tell them that I was working towards my future.
As I say patience always pays. I did theatre for almost three years. We did almost 150 street plays and around 100 stage shows. I can proudly say that without theatre I wouldn’t have reached so far. If in future, I get another chance to do theatre, count me in, buddy.
Disclaimer: the views expressed in this column are those of the author and TellyChakkar does not necessarily subscribe to the same.