
Drama School Mumbai
Drama School Mumbai was founded in 2013 to forge a new generation of theatre-makers; actor-creator-entrepreneurs who are professionally trained to perform and create work to a higher global standard of storytelling. Our alumni are all highly active – founding theatre groups, acting in award-winning plays, working in films as well as applying their craft in education and corporate-training.
We work with a faculty comprising of the best theatre practitioners, actors, playwrights, directors, theatre designers and producers.
Armed with fundamental skills in performance, direction and producing, our graduates embark on making their own livings and careers in the theatrical arts, contributing to a gradual development of the sector with work that aims to be of a higher standard for all audiences.
Drama School Mumbai also works to promote the awareness of theatre and its processes to a wider audience interested in exploring and understanding the medium for themselves through shorter workshops, lectures, and regular presentations of work created by the students and faculty.
A Note From Heads of School
Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality. – Warren Bennis, American scholar
We are going through a time of tremendous flux. Whether it is the rapidly fluctuating economic landscape or the burgeoning rhetoric of discrimination and difference, we find ourselves asking fundamental questions about what drives our art. As a school, we hope we can further this dialogue: to ask why we are telling the stories we’re choosing to tell; to question the traditions we have been taking for granted; to figure out what kind of theatre belongs to our time.
Theatre education comes with a lot of opportunities, and at DSM, we like to focus on:
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Pursuing excellence in everything we do, while learning, unlearning and relearning.
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Imparting quality education through various programmes
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Producing actors, creators and entrepreneurs
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Providing a safe and brave space to one and all
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Creating an environment which balances work and life.
One of the things that makes the DSM an exciting institution to join is that it is not stuck in its ways. It feels like an ever-growing, ever-adapting organism. In the past, the DSM has been asked about its focus. Whether it is a school that primarily focuses on training actors and whether the theatre-making aspect of the training is as involved. Over time, that has been shifting. The DSM is becoming a fertile testing ground for students to make rigorous, experimental and provocative work. We hope to take this further.
Our motto here is to aid each one to become creative and a great storyteller which further enables them to lead their life independently such that they will be able to face any kind of difficulty coming their way.
With the help of the entire team, we hope we can drive the pedagogy towards a more holistic and multidisciplinary approach. To not only build competence and skill but to also facilitate the process of discovering students’ artistic voices. To prepare them to participate vigorously and generously in a global community of the performing arts.
With this in mind, we would like to invite each and everyone with open hands, to come and take this opportunity and be a part of this revolution, where we can enkindle one and all towards learning theatre, and also embrace every individual who aspires to bring change in the society through their imagination and storytelling.
– Irawati Karnik (Academic Head) and Ekta Doshi (Executive Head)
Executive Team

Jehan Manekshaw

Irawati Karnik

Ekta Doshi

Prachi Koppikar

Maneesh Verma

Shruti Arora

Phalguni Vittal Rao
