A 15 days’ workshop on theatre music was conducted by Ashique Hussain, a multifaceted actor, actor trainer, expert in speech and theatre music. He is a product of Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA), National School of Drama (NSD) and Central School of Speech and Drama, London, and is presently based in Mumbai.
The workshop was for the second semester students and concluded on 28th Feb’2017 in the department studio with a devised musical performance of 1 hour 15 minutes duration. The songs composed were based on the poems written by some of the legendary poets of modern Hindi literature like Jayshankar Prasad, Sumitranandan Pant, Sufi poets Amir Khusro, Nazeer Akbarabadi and the rich folk traditions of storytelling like kathavaachan and folk theatre Bidesia.
The focus of the workshop lay in understanding and recognizing the ‘the actor’s own voice’ through group rendering of various texts, with emphasis on breath control, stamina, projection, clarity, variation, energy, rhythm, coordination, control, enthusiasm etc. all sharpening the voice mechanism of an actor.
The music ensemble comprised of Tabla player, Surabhi Sreenath and our student Mohd Fazil playing the harmonium, without them this musical journey would not have been possible.
The students and faculties of The Theatre Arts Dept. S.N. School would like to thank Ashique Hussain for imparting the training and practice of theatre music.