The Department of International Studies and History, which has always pushed forward for co-curricular prowess along with academic rigor, had organised a theatre workshop for its students on 18th June 2019. The workshop aimed to enlighten budding theatre artists about the basics of acting, direction and playwriting. The Guest Speaker for the afternoon was Mr. Stan C Denman, Faculty, Department of Theatre Arts at Baylor University, Waco, Texas. Mr. Denman proved to be a splendid orator and one of the best in his field, as he kept the audience engaged for almost four hours, with sufficient short breaks.
 Mr. Denman began his discussion by drawing humorous parallels between Indian and American ways of living, by contrasting the population of Texas to a small village in India and later remarking about the wage gap between theatre artists of both the nations. The audience got a sneak peek into the unfamiliar domain of Broadway Theatre through some videos showed by him and also acquired a deep insight on the management aspect of a theatre. Mr. Stan elaborated on the process of getting into schools like Baylor University, to pursue a degree in theatre which included contrasting monologue auditions for aspiring actors and directors and portfolio presentations for technicians and designers. A couple of interesting and innovative activities were conducted with student volunteers to explain concepts like stage fright, stage emotions and over acting. The most striking feature about Mr. Denman’s persona was his humour and how he channelized it throughout his talk. Halfway through the workshop, Mr. Stan was joined by his daughter Ms. Merritt Denman, who is also a distinguished personality in the field of theatre and academics. Towards the end, students were free to ask questions regarding theatre or career opportunities after graduation and since most of the students belonged to political science and history backgrounds, majority of the questions pertained to historical analyses of theatre characters and political correctness of the elements of a play. At the end of the session, students emerged from the workshop as refined and promising artists, forever indebted to Mr. Stan C Denman, Ms. Merritt Denman and the Department.