BA Degree in Theatre

Originally printed in THE NEWS on 3rd December, 2010.

The single overarching aim is to develop the intellectual and practical artistry, craft and attitude of highly trained professional actors and directors. The course will provide a safe environment in which experimentation, innovation and creativity are a highly valued part of the learning process. The aims of the degree are designed to provide an integrated academic and professional training environment conceived and structured in such a way as to enable students to gain the knowledge, understanding and skills to pursue and sustain worthwhile careers in the performance industries.

The 4-year degree programme is comprised of two semesters per year, each of 18 weeks duration.

Level 1 (Year 1)

The first level equips students with foundational practical skills and theoretical knowledge upon which students can develop their own methodologies, and is comprised of core modules in acting and theory, theatre history, dramatic texts, music and voice, dance and movement, production analysis, scenography and a production studio. The first level provides a broad overview of Pakistani theatre, within historical and contemporary perspectives, and inducts skills pertaining to classical and modern theatrical approaches: song, dance and acting and the synthesis between them.

Strong emphasis will be placed on training the physical body, voice, presence and energy of the performer. Training draws upon regional theatre practice, contemporary theory, together with philosophies of theatre from world practice to create a holistic approach to the acting medium.

Islamic Studies and Pakistani Studies are modules shared with the other departments, facilitating interaction between other students and faculty. Further, components of the foundation Visual Theory may be incorporated into the History/ Dramaturgy strand, as appropriate.

Students can expect to perform in at least 2 directed studio productions over the year which will bring together all of the skills and ideas developed.

Level 2 (Year 2)

The second level challenges the processes students have acquired at level 1, and encourages them to discover their own creative processes.

This year continues with core modules at a more advanced level in music and voice, dance and movement, acting and direction theories and practice, dramatic texts and a production studio. Dramaturgy modules replace the History modules at this stage of the programme to strengthen theoretical perspectives and explicitly forge a nexus between theory and practice, aimed at transference of taught theory and concepts through a practical workshop orientation.

At this stage, students have the opportunity to choose minor electives, informed by their own career pathways.

The production studio enables students to participate in ensemble creation, direct elements of their own training, and consciously choose techniques to develop a contemplative approach to the creative processes of theatre-making.

Level 3 (Year 3)

From the third level, students will take one of two major electives: acting or direction. Students will receive training pertaining to their major, strengthened by core courses in research.

Students have the opportunity to choose minor electives, informed by their own career pathways.

At this level, the focus of the course aims at inculcating a professional work ethic in the students, and they have the opportunity of working each semester on a large-scale production with professional theatre directors, undertaking an internship in a professional environment and finally producing a self-directed large-scale performance.

First Urdu play recreated at NAG

Originally printed in DAWN on 22nd March 2009

By Jonaid Iqbal

ISLAMABAD, March 19: An appreciative audience watched the lecture and musical performance of the first Urdu play Indar Sabha performed at the National Art Gallery on Thursday. The programme is part of a series of lectures and performances organized by the Theatre Department of National College of Arts (NCA), Rawalpindi campus as an exercise to generate a new literary renaissance through folklore traditions.

This aspect of the new study was also explored in the second of four lecurers and performance workshops organized by the department.

The sond lecture in this series was on the first Urdu play Indar Sabha, written in 1855 by Agha Hasan Amanat Ali. This was followed by a performance of the same musical drama.
These two presentations served as an apt hark-back to our past literary and musical traditions as the nation prepares to commemorate the 49th anniversary of the historic Pakistan Resolution four days hence.

Indu Mitha, the well-known classical dance exponent, choreographed the music and dance part of this drama that, incidentally, could also be called the first Urdu opera. Some snatches of this opera were performed by some of her students in the three acts we witnessed Ms Mitha successfully demonstrating the secular nature of arts, dance, music and literature which prevailed in the Muslim courts, particularly that of Nawab Wajid Ali Shiah in Oudh.
As the opera was being performed on a make believe stage of the National Art Gallery lecture room, Mehwish Bandaley sang from Amir Khusrau to the accompaniment of dances by Farosk Hashmi, Noor Cheema, Amna Mawaz, and Ayesha Iqbal. Mahnoor Khushnood recited lilting poetry.

To revert to Nawab Wajid Ali Shah, he was an accomplished poet, writer and artist of great repute in performing the Moghul kathak dance. In the words of Russian Oriental scholar Anna Suvorova, who in her lecture informed the audience that Urdu theatre was born at Lucknow. She said the splendour of this city (Lucknow) vied with the most magnificent courts of the world, including the Moghul Court, of which Oudh was a vassal but later came under the suzerainty of the colonial empire founded by the East India Company.

In her talk Anna Suvorova also referred to the popularity of Indar Sabha which had many features of folk theatre as well as its derivation from the popular dance drama Rasleela, combining kathak dance with Hindu mythology about Radha and Krishn. In fact the popularity of Indar Sabha spread to Europe where it was adapted as an opera with different situations yet retaining the theme.

National Language Authority Chairman Iftikhar Arif who chaired the lecture programme referred to Anna Suvorova as an orientalist of international standing, international stature as well as specialist in Islam in the South Asian Subcontinent and also acknowledged as reputed scholar of South Asian literature in Russia.

In regard to the popularity of the Urdu drama Indar Sabha, 70 editioons of this play are preserved in tIndia Office Library at London, in addition to several editions of the play in the India and Pakistan subcontinent.

The book Early Urdu Theatre written by author Anna Suvorova was also launched on the occasion. The 204-page book added to eight pages of indice, as well as appendix containing summary of selected Urdu plays staged by Parsi Theatre.

Claire Pamment is doing a fine job of work in developing theatre at the centre of renaissance of arts and literary revival in the federal capital, Iftikhar Arif told Dawn on the sideline of the performance.

Indu Mitha also paid compliments to Sarmad Sehbai as a problem solver and said, " When something went wrong she found Sarmad at her side to clear the confusion."

NCA launches its Bachelors Degree in Theatre

RAWALPINDI, The National College of Arts (NCA), Rawalpindi campus, has launched a four-year degree program in theatre.

The initiative was taken after two years of creative theatre activities in the college nurtured by performing arts luminaries and academics like Arif Jafri, Fazal Jatt, Indu Mitha, Zia Mohyeddin, Claire Pamment, Farooq Qaiser, Fasihur Rehman, Sarmad Sehbai, Rehan Sheikh and Dr Anna Suvorova, says a press release issued by the college.

The NCA is the only institution in the country which offers an undergraduate degree in theatre.
The degree program is aimed to develop the intellectual and practical artistry, craft and attitude of professional actors and directors who have a comprehensive foundation of all areas of theatrical practice.
The program is led by faculty comprising eminent academics and practitioners from within the country and abroad.It is anticipated that the students after graduation will bring further activity to the city by joining the college’s theatre as repertory artists.

Amad Festival starts at National College of Arts Rawalpindi

RAWALPINDI: ‘Amad Festival’ at the National College of Arts (NCA) is a celebration of improvisational theatre, which is one of the primary techniques in theatre practice that challenges performers’ imagination, spontaneity and ensemble work.

The festival features two events, ‘The Challenge’ that was held on Thursday night. It was a competition between selected theatre troupes from Rawalpindi and Islamabad who created short unscripted extemporaneous scenes out of a few hints and guesses. These groups included ‘Party Quirks,’ ‘Vaylae Mushtandae,’ ‘The ‘Unknowns’ and ‘Dimagh ki Lassi’. For many of these performers, their exposure to improvised theatre was new.

The competition was set in a modest stage design by Fatima Hussain, who has created an intimate studio space in the Liaquat Hall. The groups were given different situations on which the characters competed with each other, performing with the props, creating spontaneous humour and depicting the pictures and generating instant dialogues on given situations.

Department of Theatre Head Associate Professor Claire Pamment introduced the judges to the audience. Judges of the competition included renowned puppeteer Farooq Qaiser, poet, playwright and director Sarmad Sehbai and one of the leading stars of the popular stage Babu Baral, who is known for his brilliant improvisations.

‘Damagh ki Lassi’, which were the winners of the competition, would spend the weekend working with Babu Baral and NCA faculty in creating short pieces for performance. These short performances will be showcased in a programme titled ‘Kuch Kaho’ to a public audience on Monday, October 19, at 7 p.m. It will be followed by a public discussion on the art of improvisation through the life and work of Babu Baral, chaired by Sarmad Sehbai.

‘Aamad’ is one of many outreach activities the Department of Theatre has been conducting over last two years at the NCA based in Rawalpindi at the Liaquat Hall Complex.

These activities have invited theatre practitioners, groups and young aspiring performers to participate in performances, discussion program, workshops and conferences, generating public theatre awareness. In January 2010 NCA will begin its regular BA Theatre Degree programme, for which admissions will be open in the next month.

Giving the background of the improvisation, Associate Professor Head Department of Theatre Claire Pamment said that in the 1960s and 70s improvisation began to enter the Pakistan Arts Council through performers from the dwindling folk theatres and local city circuits.

These improvisations began to re-interpret the European style drawing room comedies in form and content, and gained popularity. In the 1980s the popular improvised comedy on the urban stage began to flourish in the Arts Councils — a return of the primary sources of inspiration in theatre arts.

HOD Department of Theatre TV Interview

Claire Pamment, Head of Department of Theatre at NCA talks about the work being done by the department.