The Body & The Ensemble
- Kalari Movement
- Animal Movements
- Ice-Breaking Section
Technopark, Trivandrum · Four days
Acting is learned standing up.
Four days on your feet — movement, improvisation, text and character — ending in a performance you build yourself and show to an audience. Open to trained actors and to people who have never stood on a stage.
4Days
12Modules
1Live performance
0Experience needed
The arc
Four days that build on each other
The body is trained before the imagination is asked to work through it, and the imagination is freed before any text arrives. Nothing is taught from a chair.
Impulse & Expression
- Improvisation Games
- Act Without Words
- Concentration & Relaxation
Story & Text
- Real Stories
- Play Reading
- Scene Creation
Character & Performance
- Monologue
- Psychological Theories
- Performance
Kalari Movement and Concentration & Relaxation open and close every single day.
What you leave with
Six things you can use the day after
A trained instrument
A daily physical practice built on Kalari — alignment, stamina and control you can keep doing at home.
Freedom to improvise
The confidence to respond truthfully without a plan, and to recover when a scene falls apart mid-way.
Meaning without words
Precision of gesture and face — what the body says before, and underneath, the line.
A way into a script
Read for action and subtext, then break a scene into beats you can actually play.
A prepared monologue
An audition piece you have already performed in front of a room, ready for a casting call.
Performance experience
A finished piece, devised with a company and shown to a real, invited audience.
Your workshop director
Dr. Syamraji S S
PhD · M.Phil · UGC NET · MA (Theatre & Malayalam)
Theatre director, actor, educator and researcher with decades of experience in Malayalam theatre and performing arts education. He leads the artistic direction of The Act Cafe — and teaches all four days himself.
- PhD on freedom of expression in Malayalam theatre — School of Drama, Calicut University
- Junior Fellowship, Ministry of Culture, Government of India
- Assistant Professor of Performing Arts; formerly School of Drama & Fine Arts, Thrissur
- Casting director for Malayalam cinema
Casting for cinema
He casts films, too
Alongside the teaching and the stage work, Dr. Syamraji S S has served as casting director on two Malayalam features — which is why the workshop treats the audition and the camera as seriously as it treats the stage.
Biriyani
Directed by Sajin Baabu. Winner of the NETPAC Award at the Asiatica Film Festival, Rome, and recipient of National and Kerala State Awards.
Moonwalk
Directed by Vinod AK and presented by Lijo Jose Pellissery — a story cast largely from newcomers.
Who it's for
Built for beginners. Demanding for professionals.
The workshop is designed so a complete beginner and a working performer can stand in the same circle and both find the work hard.
Complete beginners
No stage or camera experience at all. This is the place to start.
Theatre & film students
Practical craft to sit alongside what you are studying.
Working actors & models
Refresh technique, physical range and improvisational confidence.
Professionals in any field
Build presence, expressive freedom and the ability to hold a room.
Writers & directors
Understand the actor's process from the inside out.
Teachers & trainers
Take interactive theatre methods back into your own classroom.
Places are limited
The work depends on a group small enough for every person to be seen individually. Send an enquiry and we will confirm the next batch.
Reserve a place