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Actor Asif Basra has carved a niche for himself in the area of theatre and theatre based workshops. His theatre workshops for children are a regular feature at Prithvi Theatre’s ‘Summertime’, which is an annual event, offering a plethora of workshops and plays for children. Asif conducts these workshops along with his two colleagues, Pramod Pathak and Suondher Krishnan. He also conducts workshops for adults and his participants could be shy teachers or corporate clients willing to roll up their sleeves. Asif talks to Mumbai Theatre Guide about being a workshop conductor/facilitator and of what he hopes to achieve through them. For a more detailed profile on Asif Basra, please click on the link below.
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Deepa Punjani
From an actor how did you graduate to becoming a theatre workshop conductor/facilitator?
I think it all started with MAIN BHI SUPERMAN (Hindi), a children’s play in which I played a 12 year old child, suffering from Spina Bifida. In 1996 I had also quit my job since I had started finding assignments in television. But this work was scattered and visits to production houses didn’t take place every day. I was a 9 to 5 pm man but I found myself free in the mornings. Suddenly there was a lot of time on hand and I didn’t know what to do with it. So I started volunteering with NGO’s like Sadhna and worked with autistic kids. In 1998 I came to be one of the founding members of ‘Thalia’, a community of volunteers who used theatre to work with children. Our group comprised volunteers from the UK and we would conduct weekend workshops at Madh Island. We largely worked with street kids but our workshops were open to one and all. ‘Thalia’ no longer exists but my colleague and fellow-actor, Pramod Pathak and I still use so much of what the Thalia experience has taught us.
What were your early experiences?
You could say I was apprehensive but over a period of time I could sink my teeth into the process. I wasn’t trained to become a workshop facilitator but I learnt through my experiences.
Is it relatively easy for an actor or director or for anybody who has been closely involved with the theatre to become a theatre workshop conductor? Or does workshopping require skills of its own?
It definitely does. A good actor need not be a good workshop conductor. He may be great on stage but could still not deal with people. A workshop conductor or a facilitator must be a people’s person. S/he should be able to listen and be patient. I do feel a facilitator has to be selfless to the extent s/he does not let his personality overwhelm that of the workshop participants. A facilitator has to make his participants feel that ‘we are good’ not ‘I am good’. S/he has to bridge gaps and create a suitable workshop scenario. There is no best way for facilitating. A good facilitator has to constantly explore ideas and must be a good researcher too. I could well pick up something that I have observed and turn that into a game or an exercise.
You have worked with different age-groups. With which age-group are you most comfortable?
I am comfortable with all age-groups. It doesn’t matter what age-group my participant falls in. For me it is the process of the workshop that counts. But children do teach you to be patient. You cannot impose anything on them. You have to be calm and see how things go.
Are your workshops pre-designed or do you customize them?
There is the familiar set of ice-breakers, which we constantly innovate but almost all our workshops are dependent on a brief. The brief is one of the key things that I take into account while designing a workshop. Depending on what is required we frame the structure of the workshop. But we have to be ready for unexpected things. We constantly have a bag of tricks stowed away in our minds and we dip into that as and when necessary.
Your workshops for children are a hot favourite at Prithvi’s ‘Summertime’. I remember attending one such workshop a few years back. In it there was a game like exercise in which you take your young participants on an imagined journey that is full of surprises. What else do these workshops have?
Our aim in playing out such sequences is to aid the child’s imagination. Likewise we have games and fun exercises for attention, concentration, perception, responding to your senses and so on.
You must have often come across pressing parents who insist on tangible results. How do you deal with them?
Oh parents can be infuriating. My response to questions such as: ‘will my child become an actor?’ or ‘will my child become more intelligent?’ is usually curt. The thing is that parents are often unwilling to just let their child experience- to see how s/he has had a good time; to see how s/he has been able to work with 30 other children. Workshop results are not immediate and they don’t have to be tangible. Parents have money to spend over their children but they just don’t have the time to listen. So if they expect their child to display potential, they need to build an atmosphere for it at home first. I am actually seriously thinking of conducting a workshop for parents and their children together next year. I think it is they who need a workshop first!
What do your workshops for the corporates involve?
Corporate houses are essentially looking for team building. They have woken to the possibilities of theatre only now and I am glad they have. Theatre based exercises and games are very effective in helping people understand themselves and the others around them. Physical sports such as rappling and mountaineering are also encouraged by companies in order to encourage their people to work together effectively but I do feel that theatre intervention is much better in bridging the gap between the self and the other. One has to first emphasize on self and slowly inhibitions are shed. I see myself becoming more and more of a facilitator than a conductor- observing things, interrupting only when necessary, guiding or suggesting rather than telling what to do.
What is the one thing that you feel that your participants should go home with?
I think that if they are able to appreciate the shapes and forms that their selves have undergone, it would be a welcoming outcome.
There are theatre workshops that claim to teach everything-from acting to light design, not to mention personality development. What do you make of these workshops?
I think it is all bullshit. A 7 or a 10 day workshop can hardly teach you anything. I for one never make such claims. An entire lifetime is spent building a personality or getting good at something. A workshop is just a catalyst.
To date, which has been your most memorable workshop?
I have really enjoyed working with NGO’s like Vatsalya and Magic Bus. I find these workshops more fulfilling than the workshops I do for corporate companies. At Vatsalya we ended up doing proper plays with the children. And that is when you realize that theatre is such a beautiful medium. You can do anything through it. The sky is the limit. Such workshop experiences have even aided me as an actor. It is an interesting process.
*The interviewee is Editor of this site, a theatre critic and an academic keenly interested in Theatre and Performance Studies.
More about Asif Basra
- Artist Profile
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