Anudeep Yegireddy – Feedback on Level 1 Workshop (2024/1)
Email : anudeep.yegireddi@gmail.com
My first encounter with MISF!T was a play they set up at Alliance Francais that a friend invited me to. I was blown away by the performances, the seriousness to the craft and the story. I was most impacted by the acting itself. These were people I related to who had gone on stage and given a beautiful performance. Over the next few weeks I noticed a stirring interest in acting. I am an entrepreneur, and this art form felt both alien and welcoming. Some 3-4 months later, I heard that Vishal (one of the directors of the play) was doing an acting workshop, signed up, attended the interview and in early March I was attending the first day of the workshop.
Vishal is the heart and the soul of the workshop. He learned his craft from Mr. Ratan Thakore Grant (affectionately called Baba) who was the founder of MISF!T some 20 years ago. After his passing, Vishal took on the mantle of teaching. What makes this workshop the incredible experience it is, is that the workshop itself was honed and finetuned over 20 years. This isn’t somebody just starting out and deciding to put on a workshop. There is a wealth of experience behind it and a dynamic teacher who learned from every workshop and adjusted for the next.
This shows, in the quality of the training, the choreography of the program and the community behind it.
The workshop itself can change the way you experience life if you let it. The workshop deals in equal parts with theory and activity based learning. The theory portion, which includes copious notes, teaches the students about the technicalities of acting, and boy is acting technical. But it isn’t like a classroom where you are sitting and just taking notes. The theory portion is where Vishal and the acting assistants (someone from the previous batches) put on a performance to explain the theory. Once a point has been introduced and explained, we do exercises with each other to get a physical feel for that technical aspect. I loved this “show and tell” aspect, where Vishal along with an acting assistant will show a mini performance without applying the technical aspect and then applying the aspect. Then he will do variations based on questions that the students may ask to drive home the point. This aspect of the workshop is fundamental to the Misfit way. As Vishal puts it, and baba used to put it too, no intellectual masturbation, act! So even when teaching, Vishal acts and tells.
The central tenet of this approach as I understood is “Acting is reacting in character.” The job of an actor is not to mimic, because mimicry becomes boring, both to the actor and to the audience. The job of an actor is not to learn the moves and the body language to reproduce on stage. It is to modify the inner landscape to reflect the character they are portraying. This means to own their life experiences, whether you relate to the character or not. The mark of a good actor is to be able to play someone you cannot relate to. Find the relatability. You do this by finding something that you, with your personal lived experiences, can connect to. It is vital to build empathy with the character. Your ability to empathize, and build empathetic bridges arguably determines your success as an actor.
The workshop is implicitly designed (at least level 1 is) to break down the walls we’ve built up in the process of living and conforming to society. The most impactful moments of acting happened when the actor was unabashedly foolish and vulnerable. When you stop caring about the world, the world starts caring about you.
This is true on stage. Hence the workshop takes silliness seriously. From day 1 we engage in exercises to get us to be purposely foolish. This is uncomfortable but rewarding in so many ways. As an example, the 13 people who took the workshop together became genuinely comfortable around each other, the kind of comfortable you are with your old friends. Being foolish together binds you in a fellowship of foolish.
Vishal is what brings the entire experience together. He is a tour de force. The energy, the empathy and the passion he brings to the workshop and to the craft of acting is a privilege to be around. He is cinematically diverse in his taste, and highly observant of moments of “actor’s magic” as we’ve learned to call it. Actor’s magic is when the performance goes beyond the technicality, and touches the soul. This is rare, but common amongst the great actors. This requires unreserved acceptance of yourself, and the ability to channel authenticity into your character. That is how you make a character your own. So throughout the workshop Vishal will make references to movies and actors from Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Kannada and English. He will give such specific examples, like Mohanlal doing this one particular thing is one particular movie from 20 years ago and how that was…
…magical. These references (some of which were shown in class) were as entertaining as they were in illuminating our understanding. Each one of us has this “magic”, The Workshop sets you off on the journey to discover yours.
A characteristic of Vishal that makes the workshop an amazing experience is how kind and giving he is. Case in point, 3 students couldn’t attend a particular weekend because of some genuine issues. Knowing how important those classes were, he offered to take make up classes over the week. It was supposed to be for 2 hours to cover the weekend’s class, but ended up being 6 hours. This is a common theme that I am revealing through a single incident. There are many more. Like Vishal losing his voice due to a throat infection and still continuing with a whisper.
I want to touch upon the Misfit community. In the world of Bangalore theatre, a casting director knows a Misfit trained actor when they see one act even for 5 minutes. This is why the ones most serious about acting find their way here. 90% of the people who attended in my batch were taking the workshop to pursue acting as a career.
Misfit has a rich history, and their approach is that the first workshop is an induction into the Misfit world. Misfit is a world that Baba created, and Vishal and Venky are taking forward. Once you are done with the first workshop you can (and should) attend future workshops. You can go through the entire workshop again, participate in exercises, support Vishal as an acting assistant and direct the student plays. It is a vibrant and rich ecosystem, filled with people who are passionate about the craft and want to stay connected with the art form. Everybody is unquestioningly welcome. This is the cherry on top of the Misfit cake, the alumni are so present. We unfailingly have post workshop bonding sessions at a coffee shop where current and past students show up and we all vibe together. It is an enchanting experience.
Let me finally talk about the changes in me I attribute to attending the class. I am someone who understands science and technology unreasonably well, I think it came at the cost of understanding the people around me. I may build a great product, but if I am raising money, hiring people or getting customers, it is a human endeavor.
The workshop taught me acting, and acting taught me empathy. Not the fake kind where you mimic, but the authentic kind where you realize the beauty in humans. Now I am less afraid to be foolish, and am more observant of others. The most random people make for the most interesting characters. I am now able to build better products because i am able to empathize with my users, rather than pushing my idea down. I know how to find empathetic bridges to the person and understand what they are looking for. I am able to be a better friend. And most importantly, I am becoming less apprehensive of people, and going the other route of enjoying the human aspect.
I learned how to make characters, how to change your tone and body language, and be purposeful in everything I do. I learned to improv with other actors, and found the fun in it. I learned to appreciate movies and actors. I learned to let go of English and find beauty in India’s regional languages. And most importantly I learned the beauty of humans. Acting is a generally applicable skill. Anything you do, if it deals with working with humans, you will get better through the craft of acting. As I did.
I have 40-50 pages of notes, and drawings and memories from the workshop. This has been one of the most uncomfortable and unfamiliar but wholesome and rewarding experiences of my life. I encourage whoever is reading, to go try Begin to Believe and Misfit. I can’t think of a better place to learn the craft and discover the passion for acting. Thank you Vishal for the experience, it is a joy to be around you.