BEIRUT: Professionals often stress that a performer’s craft is one that takes years of conservatory training to perfect and attain mastery. Lebanese director Jacques Maroun is one such professional, as his mantra “acting is not instant pudding” dictates, and his eight week acting workshop for beginning actors was formulated with this in mind.

The last two weeks of the workshop resemble most professional rehearsals, with a technical crew, lighting and audio design, and, of course, a Thursday production at the Monnot Theater.

“Al-Akdam al-Hafiya” or “Bare Feet” is a selection of six scenes and three contemporary monologues featuring famed playwrights such as Harold Pinter and Oscar Wilde, as well as one new Lebanese work that was a product of an improvisation between two actors from the workshop.

Maroun – who studied acting and directing at the University of Texas and later studied acting at the New York-based Actor’s studio – adapted the works, most of which are English-language, into Lebanese Arabic along with his 13 performers.

“My methods are a combination of many performance methods,” he says, “my students are training in the acting process but not all of them are actors. I custom tailor my methods to the needs of the students.”

Indeed, Maroun has, in addition to actors, engineers, a banker, and a college instructor in his class – the workshop accommodates people from all walks of life.

During the workshop, students were introduced to the nuts and bolts of the actor’s process. The first few weeks were spent going over how to read a play, namely, how to divide a play into beats and find the rhythm inherent in the text, reflecting the musicality apparent in regular conversation. Next, students applied these techniques as they read scenes together, and then finally together for an audience.

During rehearsals, Maroun gave each of his actors a preliminary account of their characters and urged them to dig deep into their lives in order to develop them and bring them to life.

“If I ask you a question about your life,” says performer Kristin Bouzeit, “you can tell me immediately, without even thinking about it. Jacques wanted us to reach this kind of depth with our characters.”

This involved much mental work. The actors were advised to keep a journal to document these details, ranging from where these characters came, from what they do in their day-to-day lives, their family histories to their morning routines. While in the moment of performance, this background research may not be explicit, it provides the performer with a rich foundation to pursue verisimilitude.

Learning the difference between representational (the kind Marroun advocates) and presentational performance was a challenge for most and took time to set in practice.

“I am inspired by people and I am inspired by the performing arts in general,” says Marroun. “I am inspired by its methods and I enjoy seeing its transformation. I have enjoyed witnessing the journey of where my actors started and where they ended up. Most especially I have enjoyed seeing the intimacy of their private moments on the stage.”

Indeed, Marroun’s actors have had to learn to be private, publicly. And while it is one thing for some of them to pretend to assume their roles in the private corridors of the Monnot Theater where many of them recite their lines prior to rehearsal, it is an “entirely different ball game” when they have positioned themselves under the bright lights awaiting their cue to speak. “Relaxation, focus, and using your imagination, which is also a muscle you have to train” will certainly ensure that come Thursday, the show goes on.

“Bare Feet” will be at the Monnot Theater Dec. 1 at 8 p.m. For reservations, please call 01-421-875.