Sreejith Ramanan, India 2024
Actor, director, researcher and acting-trainer, Sreejith Remanan is currently Head of the Department at the School of Drama and Fine Arts, and Campus Director at Dr. John Matthai Centre, Thrissur. (University of Calicut)
Born in the southernmost state of India, Kerala, Sreejith has completed his Bachelor of Theatre Arts (School of Drama, Thrissur), Master of Performing Arts (University of Hyderabad), Master of Philosophy in theatre (Mahatma Gandhi University) and three-year diploma in contemporary acting (Theatre Training Research Programme, Singapore). He is an active performer, who has participated in about 90 productions in various capacities that were staged all over India and abroad. He was casted in the lead role in the play Saketham that was staged in Tokyo and also in the plays of Maya Tungberg, Philip Zarilly, Fueda Uichiro, Leela Alaniz, Kok Heng Luen, S.Ramanujam, Abilash Pillai,Hiroshi Koike and Ram Gopal Bajaj. He has also won the best actor award by the state government of Kerala in 2003 for Chayamukhi, directed by Prasanth Narayanan. He was the Technical Director for the prestigious International Theatre Festival of Kerala.
Exploring Contemporary Performance Practice
Theatre should not be a location for exhibitionistic manifestations of actor training methods. Training methods in theatre and acting need to be catalytic in the creative sojourn of characterization. A contemporary actor has to develop psychological states which can appropriate the new and inquire the unknown. Otherwise it would be difficult for a contemporary actor to engage in a novel and inspiring acting method. The choices of an actor to preserve and experiment with his body as a medium must be scientific, objective and rational in an age where mechanization and techno craziness prevail. The actor is entitled to explore his/her energy to bring out a bang of the mass media, maintained and manipulated consistently by hegemonic cultural practices and dominant ideologies in the world of art. The creative ambience in acting is to be reconsidered so that the actor can reconstruct the creative process through one’s own body and psyche.
Key word: Contemporary, actor, creative and cultural
Objective: The objective of this workshop is to provide participants with a comprehensive understanding of contemporary performance practices and their significance in the performer body, voice and mind. Participants will gain hand-on experience and practical knowledge to incorporate these practices into their own performances.
Workshop Components:
Preparation - of the body, voice, the art of collaboration and imagination
Throughout this workshop sessions, participants will be systematically trained in areas pertaining to acting, movement, and the practice of working across linguistic and cultural boundaries.
This includes work in Acting Approaches, Movement, Voice & Speech, Taiji and Kalaripayattu and the immersions in Theatre Traditions. The objective is to shape, condition and build the actor’s body and mind into an instrument capable of meeting the demands of Contemporary Theatre practice. They will be immersed in different Asian Classical Theatre systems and martial arts as well as Koodiyattam voice training.