Theater as a deadness for loneliness. Drama Schools Foundation Interview with Jehan Manekshaw of Mumbai

A rehearsal session at Drama School Mumbai.

From studying theater at the University of Vesleyan at London’s Connecticut and Birkbek College, to work as an associate executive manufacturer with Zarina Mehta and Ronnie Screuva at UTV, Jehan Manekshaw has come to a long time to become a director (strategy and vision) at Drama School Foundation Mumbai (DSFM). DSFM is a parent organization under which a drama school, an e-learning initiative for theater makers, a theater education initiative in schools, a corporate training initiative and more.

After being an integral part of Mumbai’s theater ecosystem for more than 25 years, Manekshaw is now channeling his energy for the construction of ‘Mumbai Theater District’ – “Like Broadway in the West End of New York or London,” South Mumbai as a cultural center for theater ” Need to understand, “They say.” And the government needs to enable places where art and culture can be supported. “Edited excerpts:

Drama School Foundation Mumbai’s Jehan Maneksow

Question: How is the theater restoring themselves in the era of Instagram, when the audience feels less attention?

A: The storytelling has changed from the listener’s side or the number of audience as we have to accept the reality of mobile phones. We can no longer play for three hours. On the other hand, it now has a place in live entertainment as people are looking for ways to resume their senses that are capable of digital devices. The theater is allowing people to join deeply. This is the basic form or medium of storytelling. It came a lot before coming to the cinema.

Think how clever and more enables a content creator, if they have a theater background with a strong foundation in the basic principles of visual, emotion, acting and performance. I really wonder what comes from it to jam and see some good theater manufacturers and content creators. People are saying that the theater is dead, but it will not just die. It can take a new avatar, but it will not die.

Question: People who do not come from rich families usually find themselves theater very hard. Drama School Mumbai, of which you are co-founder, equip students to be financially safe? What kind of opportunities open after graduation?

A: I’ll be honest. This is not easy for the course itself. Its price is around ₹ 6 lakh per student. We try and find more and more beneficiaries to give students scholarship. Additionally, the drama school gives students themselves to help students to bridge the gaps. This is not an MBA program, so there is no immediate campus placement in the end. They have to go out and make freelance, so this is a conflict. However, in Mumbai, they get all kinds of jobs along with chasing the theater. They do advertising films, they become assistant directors on the movie set. Some write gigs and digital assignments.

We have alumni major corporate training workshops using the theater. We also have alumni who become poets, storytellers and spoken words artists. Many people go back to their hometown and start their initiatives. One of our students has become a theater godfather in Mysuru. Another has started an evening drama school in Ahmedabad. The wave effect is cute. We hope that these students will enrich the society in their own way.

Question: Psychologists often speak of urban loneliness as an epidemic, where people feel disconnected from themselves and each other. What role can the theater play in this scenario?

A: The theater is about connection, not to feel alone. The theater-making and rehearsal process is about keeping the space and allowing people to be themselves. It has security and treatment. Theater is also used in art-based medicine. In particular, the work of Brazil’s Theaterson Augusto Boal has been quite powerful. Their theater is the way people get to express what they feel and think, and share why they are taking some decisions. They feel both looked and heard.

Training as a theater-producer also teaches you to be flexible, to go with the flow, and adapt to change. For example, if you are on stage, and some do not go enough according to some plans, then you have to move forward with the show. I think these life skills are much more important than doing a play.

Question: What new directions are the theater taking new directions in India, in the context of places where viewers can come and watch a play?

A: Theater-producer is saying that I want to tell a story and I want to see a bunch of people. You are experiencing theater in small studio places in the suburbs. It is from here that these stories can be told. Instead of telling the manufacturers what kind of stories are told, we help them find out what they really care so that they can tell their stories an authentic way. We teach them crafts. We also have a production grant for alumni named after the late Neelophary Sagar, who taught Drama School in Mumbai. Thanks to his family, alumni receives money for writing, directing and producing plays. Many of them have been staged in small studio places.

The interviewer is a journalist, teacher and literary critic.