Full of vigour and energy, he transmits the same to those around him. This contagious verve wins him friends wherever he goes, especially little ones. Restive, he’s always tapping his creativity to express things that tug his heart, for acting is Manu Jose’s life blood.
In ‘Ritu,’ he did full justice to his role just as he did in ‘Gadhama,’ ‘Race’ and a couple of other movies. But his heart is into theatre. From the time he got out of the School of Drama in Thrissur, his home town, his world has revolved around theatre, a tool which he uses for his other activities.
He has donned the role of many characters in over 70 theatre productions, worked with the likes of B V Karanth, Kavalam Narayana Panickar, Jose Chiramel, S Ramanujam, Indira Parthasarathy and Maya Tangburg among others. He has proved his mettle not only on stage but also in radio plays. He has acted in about 15 radio plays.
Bridging communication gaps and developing life skills through theatre is his other passion. Many children must be familiar with Manu uncle aka ‘Dumdum maman’. He had anchored ‘Chirakukal,’, ‘Changathikoottam,’ ‘Kalichirineram,’ ‘Dolphin Dolphin’ and ‘Gulf Beats’ for Asianet, ‘Oridathoridathu’ for India Vision and ‘Mittaivandi’ for Kairali, a few of which have won state awards for the best television programme for children. All these were a rich and fun-filled learning experience for children. These programmes were very popular as he travelled a lot with children exposing them to things they wouldn’t have got to see otherwise.
No wonder DC Books made him the brand ambassador for their children’s books from 2005 to 2006. Through their programme ‘Story on Wheels,’ he created awareness in schoolchildren on the importance of reading. Ever since he set up Meandyou Performing Company in 2002 he has been doing many programmes that use theatre for imparting knowledge. His story telling sessions augmented by songs, anecdotes and theatre elements had kids gloating over him.
When Manu is with children, he taps their potential in a unique way. Devising new creative applications, he makes his workshops on communication, teaching, learning, self evolution and soft skills more interesting. He enjoys sharing his creative skills with school and college students, professional students, teachers, management teams and executives. He squeezes out the best from the basic tools of theatre, namely, body, voice and mind. With body language, speech and emotional expressions that are part of everyday life, he creates wonders. “That’s the invisible theatre. We explore child psychology, neuro linguistic programming and transactional analysis and incorporate its spirit in theatre,” says Manu.
Manu has a way with children and an uncanny knack of developing life skills in children and adults through theatrics. His kinesthetics can kindle any soul and create dialogue and trigger interaction.
Manu hopes to bring about a sea change in society by using theatre for education. His Meandyou Performing Company is organising ‘Sea Shells,’ a summer camp that will take children on a journey through the rustic charms of Malipuram near Vypeen.
Through theatre, Manu is confident of enhancing the personality of children.
Voyage to the sea, chavittunadagam, batik printing and other crafts are the other activities charted for the camp which is from April 5 to 14 for students aged between 10 and 17.
For details, call 9447194411.
surekha@expressbuzz.com