Participants at the theatre workshop organised by Uttar Purush at Secretariat Recreation Club in Bhubaneswar. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, Aug. 21: Thirty participants from different age groups are attending an acting orientation workshop that is ongoing at Secretariat Recreation Club.

Organised by city-based group Uttar Purush, the two-week workshop is named Rangabharati.

The group has organised five such annual workshops earlier. Theatre stalwarts of the state Gopal Patnaik, Bijay Mishra, Ajit Das, Manoj Pattanayak, Subodh Patnaik and Haren Sahoo attended the 6th edition that commenced on Sunday.

The participants that mostly comprised of youngsters eagerly listened to what the veterans had to say about acting, direction, set designing and playwriting.

At the workshop, the students will be taught about various aspects of acting on stage.

“The teachers will begin with de-conditioning of the minds of the students. They will be taught about losing their inhibitions. Such workshops do a world of good to the confidence of the participants,” said Abhinna Routray, member of Uttar Purush.

A lot of thrust is being put on voice modulation. Directors Choudhary Jaiprakash Das and Mihir Swain and Odissi danseuse Aruna Mohanty are teaching the students. The directors will focus on dramas and comedies and Mohanty will assist them while teaching dance-dramas. The participants will be playing different characters from the short stories during the later stage of the workshop.

Deb Panda, an engineering student turned actor is a regular at the annual workshop.

“I attended the last edition of the workshop as well. Learning the stagecraft is a continuous process as practice only can make a man perfect. A solitary workshop cannot turn anybody into a seasoned actor,” said the 23-year-old, who features in several soaps on DD Odia.

The youngest participant is Ishita Sahu, an eight-year-old, who comes with her mother Rubi Sahu. “Ishita comes home, finishes her homework and gets ready for the workshop. She enjoys it very much and it has re-ignited my interest in theatre as well. Such workshops are very good for personality development,” said Rubi, a homemaker.

Although most students came to know about the workshops through leaflets distributed at various educational institutes, a few from outside the capital got to know through social networking sites. The three-hour class begins at 6pm. Uttar Purush is mulling have a workshop exclusively for kids towards December.