Education for a Thespian

Ariq Anam Khan
-------------------------------------

There are many who spent their childhood studying for something that they would probably not even pursue when they grow up. You were sure to pick a profession that required an enormous amount of studying and the more you studied, the more people recognised you for your education qualifications.

On the other hand, if you happen to say that you want to become an actor or a film director, you would be met with endless lectures on life, education (it seems an actor needs no education), ramifications of society, and everything that is against any form of art. And there are always those who believe that acting is the easiest job, and that anybody can become an actor, a director or a producer. Studying anything related to the media and film is simply out of the question.

However, due to the immense success of the Bombay Film industry (to be called Bollywood hereafter), and the immense popularity of the film institutes in India (Pune, SRFTI, etc.), an ever increasing number of people are interested and even encouraged to be a part of the 'show business'. The interest in film and acting has spread to certain parts of society, and universities have started to offer courses in film, media, acting and directing.

Whatever your career choice may be, what matters most is getting a decent education, just as our parents have reminded us a million times. However, being educated does not necessarily mean that you must have a Masters or a PhD, or even any degree for that matter. It means learning, which begins right from the day we are born; it sure is an endless process. This reminds me of a dialogue in Satyajit Ray's political satire, 'Hirok Rajar Deshe' when the tyrant king, the antagonist, sends his education minister to close the only school in his kingdom, “Janar kono shesh nai, janar cheshta britha tai (There is no end to learning, so trying to learn is useless).” But we know the consequences of being in the possession of such 'tempting' thoughts (although you have the full liberty to think otherwise), and so we can safely agree on the fact that education is, to put it simply, important.

I believe my thoughts and philosophies are more along the lines of the idea portrayed in the movie "3 Idiots". Learn to empower yourself. I would like to mention someone who I think should be an inspirational figure for all of us. He is a philosopher, one of the first in Bangladesh, and his name is Aroj Ali Matubbar. He neither had a 'formal' education nor did he have a degree, and yet, his philosophy and knowledge was far greater than many of us would give him credit for. He always had a tremendous hunger for knowledge and spent hours, even days in libraries. He is just one of the many examples of being educated with or without a degree.

The name Aroj Ali Matubbar immediately came to my mind because we at Nattokendro performed a play based on his life called Aroj Charitammrito. The team had to study and spend hours researching Aroj Ali's life (1900-1984). The play was based in Barisal, and we had to dig deep to make the audience live through the scenes.

All great films and theatre productions go that extra mile to make the whole journey realistic and help stir the right emotions in the audience. Whether you are an actor or a director, conviction and belief is always the key. Almost all directors believe that a film or a play is a journey - a journey through time and impossible feats. Such a journey will be accomplished only if what you show on stage or the screen is truthful. The secret of a great film is “a good story well told”, and that story cannot be told well if it is grounded on superficiality. We performed two historical dramas on stage, 'The Crucible' by Arthur Miller and 'Tughlaq' by Girish Karnad, and although I was very young back then, I still remember how we went through endless books, articles, pictures and films, to make sure we knew the era and the society we were dealing with, because there is no room for compromise when it comes to the arts or any performing art.

Whenever we play a character, it is important to know the psychology and motivation of the character as well as the situation. This is achievable only by having a vast knowledge on everything around us. Some may disagree and say that having enough knowledge in acting, dramatics and directing is enough; but to understand the entire production requires a greater pool of knowledge, especially if you are a film or theatre director. You need to have a thorough understanding of History (when the play took place, how it is relevant and what was happening around that time), Geography (where it took place, what people in that area did), Sociology (how society worked), Psychology (how people in that era behaved, why they behaved the way they did, their motivations and character psychology), Economics (what the economic structure of the region is, how the character/society is shaped by the economy and the socio-economic class), Literature (what other books were written on that topic, documents on the subject, and if there were any similar books on the story), Architecture (what the cities and households looked like) and as you can probably guess, the list is endless. Science also plays a big part because the technology used in art is always evolving. The camera is going through changes every day with new lighting techniques being introduced.

In a film or a play, you are dealing with a very big picture, and trying to create something from scratch and making the audience live through the sequence. An actor perhaps has it just a bit easier, but even then, it is essential to be educated in a wide range of topics. An actor also needs to be aware of the human body. He needs to be aware of all muscles (especially facial), his vocal chords (to control the tone and pitch), movement of the diaphragm, breathing and respiration, his eyes - in short, all the mechanisms of his own body.

An actor deals with several different characters in a lifetime. It could be a person living in Bogra in the 19th century or a 17th century Scottish King, an ancient Chinese monk or even a prince in a faraway galaxy in the year 2306. Nowadays, actors take the time to research a character or topic. Research goes from days, to months and even years, just to make the work believable. Even if the character you are playing is based on your own society, your own neighborhood, or even in the contemporary era, an actor still has to do research to avoid anything vague and artificial. And that is the success stories of every great actor - making one believe what one already knows.

For a director, it is even harder to portray something believable, because the director is the captain of the ship, and the audience sees what the director wants to show them. Not to mention that the director is the supervisor of every little thing starting from the acting, the set, the costume, the make-up, the music. And as I mentioned before, in order to have a firm grip on all aspects of the production, you must first have a grip on all subjects related to it. If you want to be a director, be prepared to go through tons of books and research, besides having an exceptional sense in acting, composition, music, aesthetics, and design, not to mention knowing the technicalities of the camera, film, editing software, projection techniques and lighting.

The fun part of being in the arts is that nobody will ever tell you to learn or research more. It is entirely up to you how to go about the initial research phase. If you do not feel the urge to dig deeper, you may find yourself withering away like so many have done before.

Working in the visual media is no longer an impossible dream. More and more people are striving to become the next big star or the next big director. However, being a star does not mean being a good actor or a director. The recipe for success is simple: never stop learning; do thorough research and be knowledgeable in everything. As Shakespeare said, “Ignorance is the curse of God; knowledge is the wing wherewith we fly to heaven.”

(The writer has just completed his Bachelors from North South University and has been working with the theatre group Nattokendro.)