Bhubaneswar, Nov. 9: When Pinki Dey, a girl from Tripura who is undergoing a teachers’ training course at the Regional Institute of Education in the city, was asked to take part in a theatre workshop, she immediately agreed.

She felt that theatre would allow her to break fixed notions and help to effectively connect with students. It would help her open up and shed all inhibitions that in turn would facilitate her possibilities of becoming a good teacher.

“Theatre is an effective teaching tool and participating in the workshop will be a self-building process,” said Dey. Like Dey, 35 other students of the institute have taken part in a theatre workshop being conducted by theatre activist Subodh Patnaik.

Focusing on improvisational theatre, the trainer has given the amateurs a freehand to explore their creative pursuits while learning the basics of theatre.

“Each team has been given a theme and there is no particular script. It will evolve at the moment they perform on the stage. This will help them overcome inhibitions and open up,” said Patnaik.

While the first production is based on women trafficking, the second focuses on the generation gap issue and the last one portrays the eternal conflict between two groups of students in a college – the studious and the non-studious.

The three plays, which are of 20-minute duration, will be staged in the institute auditorium on November 10 as part of the 29th found ation celebrations of Patnaik’s theatre group, Natya Chetana.

When asked about the experience they were having at the workshop, one of the participants Ram Yatan Kumar, a student from Bihar said: “I learnt how to work as a team. Working as a group has also improved my concentration level. I have learnt how to promptly act in all situations. It is a constant learning process and will help me attempt new teaching methodologies while interacting with my students.”