Seated on the carpeted floor in a circle the teenagers there seemed uptight initially. With new faces and unknown names, the workshop began with an icebreaker to familiarise one another and understand musical notes. As the game began, the relatively silent room transformed into a lively and loud one.
Broadway Bangalore, a musical theatre workshop conducted recently by the British Council and Imbroglio Productions, began with lessons from a music instructor, Rohin Joseph who trained participants in names and time duration of musical notes. That was followed by classes on acting by Yeshaswini Chennaiah which made them aware of space and their surroundings and finally ending it with a dance session by Mithun Prasad which helped them in understanding movement.
The main goal of the event was to hone and prepare participants in musical theatre and help them finesse their skills. Divyesh Bhandari, director and founder of Imbroglio Productions, says: “We've been conducting Broadway Bangalore for five years now. The response has been terrific. The kids in Bangalore enjoy the combination of music, theatre and dance. Many students from the workshop come back to work with us on shows.” Imbroglio Productions are one of the few registered production houses in the city. Bhandari adds: “Our focus has been on quality entertainment. We specialise in doing musicals and have conducted various performances that have been witnessed by thousands of people over the past six years.
We have worked with Disney US, Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre (London), The Doordarshan Network and many other groups.”
When asked about their plans in the future, Bhandari explains: “We are coming up with a massive production of Ali Baba and The Forty Thieves along with India’s first Michael Jackson Musical with an original script to mark his 60th Birthday this year. We are hoping for this to be our biggest production this year.”
