Mark Kane at the workshop. Picture by Anindya Shankar Ray

She has worked behind the scene with Penelope Cruz and Daniel Craig. He has performed with the likes of Ralph Fiennes. Now they are in the city to train Calcuttans.

Anne Walsh and Mark Kane, from the Central School of Speech and Drama of the University of London, are conducting workshops on communication and acting at a city hotel.

Organised by British Council, the workshops will cover a range of topics from performing Shakespeare to learning boardroom skills, and cater to actors, aspiring actors as well as corporate professionals.

“We received an overwhelming response,” said Manish Gupta, the manager of Young Audiences, a division of British Council. Around 300 people — students, teachers, executives, artistes and writers — have signed up for the workshops that began on Monday and will go on till May 30.

The communication skill sessions, conducted by voice trainer Walsh, are divided into three categories — confident communication in business, performance in presentation and telephone skills for impact, influence and relationship building.

The communication skill workshops have executives of companies, including Tata Consultancy Services and Emami, as well as heads of schools signing up while the acting skill workshops, conducted by Kane, are more popular with students.

Subham Ladha, a Class X student, dreams of a career on Broadway. “I want to go to Broadway. I am here to pursue that dream,” he said.