According to Hazem Fouda, a Higher Institute of Cinema graduate who also studied directing actors at the Stella Adler Academy, Los Angles, many of the most familiar faces from Ramadan television honed their craft in acting workshops. Fouda has been coaching actors since 2006, and he feels that the three official institutions that teach acting – the Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts, the Academy of Arts, and the Higher Institute of Cinema – are no longer enough for the number of talented actors who need them. For Fouda, talent is indispensable.
“We are born actors,” he says. “Only a talented person is capable of being a good actor. Coaching builds the actor, addressing the weak points, but it is no substitute for talent.” A good coach, he explains, can discover a person’s talent and raise their self confidence. “As long as the person is open to receiving directions from the coach, they can benefit.”
Actor Mohamed Kamel agrees that talent is indispensable. “The late star Ahmed Zaki is evidence of that. He did not attend acting workshops or study acting but he chose an acting method that depends on emotional memory. It is one of the most demanding methods, physically and emotionally.”
A 2000 accounting graduate, Kamel worked in marketing till 2013, in Egypt and abroad, then he joined a six-month workshop and it changed his life. “I attended different acting workshops with different coaches of different nationalities, then I joined the cast of the television series Sokoot Hor [Free fall] in 2017.” Drawing on his presentation skills as well as his training as an actor, Kamel eventually became a coach too. “A good actor doesn’t necessarily make a good acting coach. The acting coach should be able to deal with an actor’s psychic black box, as it were, should it fly open at any point.”
Coaching is hardly a new phenomenon. As actor and acting coach Ahmed Mokhtar points out, the great director Elia Kazan established The Method in the 1950s, and people like stage director Jerzy Grotowski carried the tradition forward. By 2000 acting had developed into something different.
Mokhtar started acting at the Tali’a Theatre actors club while a secondary school student in the 1980s. “Our coach at that time was Nabil Naguib, a professor at the acting department of the Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts. “I enjoyed attending acting workshops along with some colleagues from the Faculty of Commerce. I was keen to attend every acting workshop held by coaches of different nationalities, then my interest in coaching developed. I coached many university theatre troupes before launching my own actor training studio.”
Aimed at beginners, advanced or professional actors, workshops teach people to express themselves effectively with far fewer words. A small role in a film or play, says Fouda, is more difficult than a big one. Actors should aim for such a role as part of their training.
Mokhtar believes that coaching improves the actor’s humanity as well as their tools, resulting in a supple, elegant performance: “I always concentrate on developing the actor’s awareness of their body and sound, their imagination and concentration, and their ability to express themselves and their power of observation.”
Fouda agrees: “The main goal of acting workshops is becoming a better human being”. That is why the audition is essential. Kamel too feels the audition is not only a test of talent but also a window into the psychological constitution and personality of the applicant.
Becoming an actor is one thing, but to be a star, Fouda feels, you need “to be able to do things others cannot”. Having little to do with actual fame, this capacity will be evident from the moment someone starts acting. Kamel is rather less confident, feeling that in Egypt especially the business of stardom has a lot to do with personal connections and industry politics.
The Covid-19 pandemic negatively impacted acting workshops, says Mokhtar, but the internet came to the rescue. “The Mokhtar Club for the Talented started its online activities free of charge during the lockdown,” he said. Online workshops have been used by major directors but the lack of face-to-face interaction remains a major challenge.
The benefits of acting have become so evident that the Al-Ahram Regional Institute for Journalism (ARIJ) organised its first workshop this year. According to ARIJ director Sameh Abdallah, “It was out of our belief that acting needs professional training by experts, that people from different backgrounds should have the benefit of proper training just like the foreign affairs exam applicants we tutor .”
The Dean of Higher Institute for Dramatic Art Medhat Kashif agrees with Abdallah on the importance of learning how to act according to scientific methods. Kashif himself gives workshops across the Arab world, and he enjoys the passion of amateurs who may or may not embark on a professional career. “Whatever the actual goal of an individual, money or fame, applying to a workshop means passion. If five out of 110 million Egyptians want to act that is their right.”
Many workshop attendees go on to become successful actors, but Kashif doesn’t feel all acting workshops in Egypt are up to standard. “Amateurs must learn certain basic skills that the trainer should be aware of, they should be made aware of the eight acting books taught at the institute.” Of the institute’s 1500 yearly applicants, only 200 are accepted: “The rest should find out about the trainer before they join a workshop.”
*A version of this article appears in print in the 16 December, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.
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