Over "Black Coffee"

Lights! Camera! Action!

Want to be a part of the Lights! Camera! Action! crowd, whether as an actor in front of the camera, or behind, as script writer? Sign up then for the action and dramatic writing workshop by Black Coffee on Lavelle Road.
According to a release, the acting workshop will focus on performance skills in a theatrical context. The emphasis will be on working with the fundamental tools that are available to an actor, his/her body and voice. The workshop will help participants discover their own potential in these areas and help them utilize this in terms of creating an appropriate body and a sound for their character. In addition to this, the workshop will introduce participants to different schools of thought in terms of acting techniques. It will help participants engage with text, from effective reading to using text in performance.

Preetam Koilpillai, founder-director of black coffee productions will conduct the acting workshop. His career in the Performing Arts started at the age of 11 when he first performed as a pianist. Since then he has performed extensively in Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai, Kodaikanal and Thrissur including performances with sitarist Gaurav Mazumdar and percussionist Sivamani. He has hosted classical music programs on radio and made numerous appearances on television.

The dramatic writing workshop will acquaint participants with basic principles of writing for the theatre. Starting with an introduction to dramatic writing the ‘basics’ module will cover dialogue and the dialogic beat, character, action and plot. Participants will be encouraged to build on these basics by understanding the need for objectives and obstacles in a scene, revelation and reversal, subtext and images. Once these essential areas are covered participants will engage with theme development as a precursor to writing their own scripts. All modules are delivered through hands-on writing exercises. Participants learn ‘by doing’ and will create their own material by the end of the process.

Ram Ganesh Kamatham, a theatre professional with a background in media studies and formal training in playwriting with the Royal Court Theatre, London, will conduct the writing workshop. His international collaborations include the Royal Court Young Writers Programme and the BBC World Service. In 2001 he received the Outstanding Original Script Award at Thespo III for his experimental production The Dead Metaphor. Ram was recently invited to be writer-in-residence at the Royal Court Theatre in July-August 2007.
A Bangalore-based theatre company turned production house, black coffee productions, established 1999, is a brainchild of Preetam Koilpillai and N. Venkatesh. Through the years, black coffee has created and produced work that has not only won critical acclaim, but has also built a loyal audience. Apart from stand-alone productions, its plays have featured at prominent theatre festivals and venues in Bangalore and other cities in India.

The success that black coffee productions has had with its plays led it to start work in allied areas. It regularly conducts public theatre workshops, management training workshops using theatre and theatre-in-education workshops aimed at encouraging the use of theatre as a teaching tool in school curriculums.