After starring in about a dozen music videos, Yamu Thapa, from Gaindakot-10 in Nawalparasi, has just started taking regular acting classes. With the classes, which she’s currently enrolled in at Narayani Kala Mandir, she wants to forge a career in the theatre. “In music videos, you would do what the director tells you to do. But in the theatre, I have found, it’s like you are actually becoming the character you’re portraying,” Thapa said. 

Speaking to the Post, another trainee actor Bishal Shrestha said, “I have portrayed minor roles in feature films, and I enjoy doing caricatures of other actors. Only now have I found that there’s a lot to go before I call myself an actor.” He added that, as everyone has their own unique style, there’s really no need to caricature other actors. “Being yourself is enough,” Shrestha said. 

Like Yamu, Bishal too wants to make a career in theatre once he gets done with the acting classes. “I feel like I have become addicted to theatre,” Bishal said, “I plan to make a living out of it and pursue it over a lifetime.” 

The workshop, organised jointly by Rastriya Nachghar and Narayani Kala Mandir, features a total of 27 trainee actors from the western region. The workshop is part of Kathmandu-based Nachghar’s campaign to ‘decentralise’ Nepali theatre. 

The fortnightly workshop, mentored by theatre practioners Narendra Baral and Pushpa Acharya, concluded on Monday. 

Speaking to the Post, Acharya said, “The workshop is part of a campaign to decentralise Nepali theatre and in turn produce dilligent and trained actors, which could make the Nepali theatre scene better. For long, theatre has been clustered around Kathmandu, especially in the last decade. This is a bid to ensure that this powerful medium flourishes all around the country.”