ISLAMABAD, Aug 8: About 45 students were found busy writing five minutes plays depicting raw life at an open air theatre workshop arranged here on Friday by Sarmad Sehbai and Tarash, a new group of theatre professionals recently established in the federal capital.

Claire Pamment, a freelance dramaturgy director, currently visiting Pakistan on a British Council bursary, was giving directions to the group of boys on the method of writing action- based plays and containing real life situation dialogue.

She said the best way to teach theatre arts to amateur actors and would-be playwrights was to try simulating dramatic situation and act it out. Some of the time, students would only write monologues, but drama experts said it is a good method to begin with. For a moment, students might forget dramatic tension, and thereafter they could proceed with writing action packed dialogue.

Ms Pamment said Pakistan had a small, but very active and live theatre, and that dramatic groups in the country were full of promise. She made these observations especially about Lok Ras theatre group at Lahore. With this group, she spent a lot of time focussing on different classes of people.

She said she was very fond of Pakistan. She returned here to write a doctorate thesis on Pakistani theatre as well as issues concerning globalization and how it would work out in Pakistan.

When asked about the performance of the students she was training Friday evening, she said they showed great promise. She praised Sarmad Sabhai for doing a good job with the theatre group, and said he had taken on a challenging task of moulding a group of amateurs into professional class of thespians.

Mr Nasir, executive officer of Tarash, told this reporter that the organization arranged teaching in acting, dancing, screen writing, and classical music for young and talented people. It also found placements for them in the media. Tarash has found about 20 jobs, and the credit goes to Sarmad Sehbai, he said.

Amina Malik, who is giving play directions, said Tarash had a number of theatrical productions on the card. The theme of the would-be plays were denial of opportunities to talented artistes.

Fatima Mobeen, representing the British Council, gave a background of this new initiative taken by her organization, which was particularly devised for the young generation.

She gave a resume of Claire Pamment’s career, as an educationist, who did her B.A. in dramaturgy from Cambridge and M.A. from the University of London. — Jonaid Iqbal