Sri Lanka is a centre for cultural diversion and a hub for intercultural discourses with a long-running history. Prof. Saumya Liyanage, together with the University of the Visual and Performing Arts (UVPA), put together the project “AHEAD” (Accelerating Higher Education Expansion and Development) in order to develop an actor training methodology through Sri Lankan combative art forms.
Many Sri Lankan dance forms and traditional dance drama practices have been heavily influenced by the Asian corporeal arts traditions ranging from martial arts, kathakali dance drama, traditional folk theatre, and many other arts and crafts. Sri Lankan modern theatre in particular has a direct link to the Indian Subcontinent, and theatre practices developed in the modern era in early 1940s and 1950s had a strong connection to the Persian and Tamil theatre in South India.
However, in the development of modern Sri Lankan theatre, both Tamil-speaking and Sinhala, actor training methodologies have been a least focus area where actors were not trained within an accepted training methodology. Unlike the cinema industry in India or elsewhere, modern theatre was not flourishing as a rich and commercially viable cultural industry.
Prof. Liyanage commented: “The need of developing a training system for actors or establishing a scientific methodology to train actors was a hidden agenda for the Sri Lankan theatre.”
Actor training was introduced as part of “on-the-job training” and actors were trained through self-learning and observation of acting practices executed by their predecessors. Because Sri Lankan theatre practice was not developing as a cultural industry accumulating capital and attracting investors, the modern theatre tradition malfunctioned without a proper actor training system. Hence, he explained, this research focuses on developing an actor training system based on Sri Lankan combative art forms and trying to fill the gap in the actor training methodology which can be utilised to train and discipline actors for the contemporary theatre, pedagogy, and film industry.
As this research project focuses on the Sri Lankan combative art form named “angampora”, the underlying assumptions behind bodily training and execution of physical movement are similar to what other forms of corporeal arts are being trained and embodied. The Sri Lankan combative arts form of angampora goes back to 200 years before Christ. Arabs, Persians, and Chinese who were “responsible for sea-borne traffic of Ceylon” have appreciated these martial arts. As research indicates, the oldest combative art form in Ceylon can now only be seen in some of the remaining sculptures, frescoes, and lingual expressions to date.
Explaining the meaning of a traditional Sri Lankan martial art, Prof. Liyanage said: “‘Angam’ (angé) means the ‘body’ and ‘pora’ means ‘combat’. In this angampora tradition of martial art, physical fighting is carried out either with or without weapons.” However, he added that having understood the scope of angampora tradition currently existing in Sri Lanka and their various branches of practices and gurukulas (teacher disciple tradition), this research work mainly focuses on the physical combative movements and wrestling techniques.
The second stage of the research, Prof. Liyanage explained, is about implementing the basic principles the research team obtains from field research to train UVPA performers. Six to 10 performers, including UVPA alumni and undergraduates from both genders, will work closely with the research team and combative master artists to develop a series of training sessions with the selected actors, allowing them to undergo rigorous training under invited combat artists.
“The research team and combative artists will choreograph a theatrical performance and the performers will go on rigorous practice sessions on both the artistic performances and combative arts. Combat artists will come to UVPA to train the performers while the research team will use the documentations to further broaden the understanding of the combative arts of the performances,” Prof. Liyanage commented.
Prof. Liyanage noted that there has been no such project which combines the Sri Lankan traditional combative arts and modern art production. The outcome from this project will have a strong impact on society. “The theatre performance will be presented to the public in a national theatre. Given the public interest in Sri Lankan traditional combative arts and the research team’s experience, and the creativity on creating mass theatre production, this theatre performance would be an economically successful project.”
He explained that the videos of the whole project will be edited into two one-hour documentaries, one on traditional combative arts and the other on the practice sessions and the final theatre production.
“Since there is no significant literature on traditional combative arts and actor training in Sri Lanka, the two documentaries will have a lasting effect on Sri Lankan culture and academia. The book publication, which comes out after the theatre production, will be the first of its nature in Sri Lanka. This book will definitely affect positively to enhance the existing actor training pedagogy at universities and other institutions in Sri Lanka and beyond,” Prof. Liyanage noted.