Rourkela, Dec. 28: The 15th theatre workshop today came to an end with a 20-minute play here.

The play Niraba Pratharna was dedicated to the children in Pakistan, who recently lost their lives at the Peshawar massacre.

The participants were aged between 13 and 25. However, the youngest participant, seven-year-old Sreyashree Mohanty, was inducted on a special consideration for her interest in acting.

Choudhury Bikas Das of the Utkal Sanskriti Viswavidyalaya, Bhubaneswa-r, and Rakesh Parida, a postgraduate student of the same institute, designed the five-day workshop.

Every day, the camp began on the premises of Home and Hope, an institute for mentally and physically challenged, at 8am.

Rupali Mohanty, one of the participants, told The Telegraph: 'We are being taught many aspects of acting. The activities begin with yoga after which Das sir, the camp director, would decide on the day's events.'

After physical exercises, the participants were taught about voice modulation, group discussion on acting and techniques, how to have faith on fellow artistes, team spirit, theatre games, space utilisation on stage, balancing the body and many more things.

Another participant, Gulab Sharma, 21 who is pursuing his graduation at a local municipal college, said: 'I learnt many acting techniques. The camp was very informative.'

Sharma, who wants to become an actor in Bhojpuri films and has got five offers, said acting was his passion.

'Once I appear for my finals in April, I will shift to Mumbai or Patna. At this moment, I am in touch with Manoj Tewari, the famous Bhojpuri actor and singer.'

For the participants, one of the most important things to learn, apart from teamwork, was the difference between dialogue delivery and speech.

The workshop was organised by cultural group Pratidhwani. All the participants were provided with a participation certificate. Pratidhwani did not charge anything from the participants for the workshop.

'The workshop aimed at training aspiring artistes on the nuances of theatre,' said Ramesh Mohanty, the camp co-ordinator from Pratidhwani.