“Can you hear the darkness? Touch it, feel its texture... how does it smell?” asks Manu Jose as I step into the pitch dark interiors of Ala. A centre for culture and alternative education, designed by the actor this space was once a godown, and is set in Mulanthuruthy, an outlier town of Kochi. Inside, silence engulfs me and the darkness is overpowering. My senses are more receptive and I seem to hear, feel, taste, see and sense more.
The blackout is one of the tools Manu, who is also a storyteller and theatre personality, uses in theatre education to highlight the importance of the sensorial in daily life. When the lights come on, they reveal a hall with a high ceiling, fitted with iron bars for lights and large windows curtained in black. A striking red and wooden walls offer sound proofing.
After studying theatre at School o
As he began his acts, he brought painter-musician OC Martin and founded ‘MeandYou Performing Company’, which aimed at introducing various styles of storytelling — Chitrakathi, Kamishibai, etc— using papercrafts and painting, from across the world. It performed about 500 live storytelling performances across India and parts of West Asia. He incorporated theatre tools like body language, life skills training and later delved into psychology, learnt Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) and Transactional Analysis(TA) and introduced these elements into his self -designed workshops.
“The basic guiding principle of Ala comes from TA, which is about autonomy of people: they can think and can change. Theatre is a wonderful tool to help people gain confidence, to think and change, ” he says.
In 2008 he did a short stint with corporate trainer Santosh Babu, in New Delhi to conduct workshops for entrepreneurs, which reinforced his confidence to explore the potential of theatre training among different professionals including teachers, social workers, health professional, architects, factory workers, Kudumbasree women entrepreneurs.
Manu’s workshops for professionals in different fields now began inculcating a tailor-made idiom, transforming his role from an actor to an educator.
He conducted 160 workshops over a period of two years with teachers, students and non teaching staff only in Manipal University besides several others with different professional groups. In 2016 he was invited to head the Art By Children (ABC) programme of the KMB and added the visual auditory and kinaesthetic (VAK) angle to the making of art. He encouraged students to adopt an out-of-the box approach and asked them to find the colour of a smile or of an itch. He took the programme to about 100 schools in all 14 districts of the State.
“Theatre in Kerala is strong in performance but the learning process of those who work with theatre is not continuous,” says Manu. His wish to give back to society what he had earned from it found fruition with the idea of a designated space for community development in Ala.
In its first year, Ala has hosted cycling, chess, yoga mindfulness programmes and film clubs to help people slow down and savour life. “I ride along with the members and kids to a park where look around, chat and spend leisure time. Such spaces are important; it nurtures love among people,” he says.
