Ahead of India’s 75th Independence Day, theatre artists share practices they seek freedom from
India will complete 75 years of Independence this month. Freedom (or Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, as the Government of India calls it) is the word on the street everywhere you go. We wondered, Iin these times, what does the concept of freedom mean to artists and theatre practitioners. To find out, we interviewed some practitioners to […]
Curated Conversations: Nisha Abdulla, Rumi Harish, Krupa on the non-definitions of the body
What is the body? How does the body engage with other bodies to form a community of bodies? What is the body’s first memory of artmaking? How does it connect to wellness, to health? In this edition of Curated Conversations, we had three panellists – Nisha Abdulla, Rumi Harish and Krupa – who spoke about […]
Things We Can Say and Can’t: Jana Natya Manch co-founder Moloyshree Hashmi reflects on censorship, Safdar’s death & making theatre
Editor’s Note: India has a rich history in theatre, but our knowledge about the work our contemporaries and older groups have and are doing, is often limited to urban centres or the geographies we live in. Driven by a curiosity to know about the work being created across the country, over the next couple of […]
A Culture of Care: Talking Mental Health in the Rehearsal Room
I firmly believe artists bring their whole selves to the theatre – their lives, their experiences, journeys and traumas. And in this space of extreme vulnerability, to ensure longevity and stability of performers and crew alike, it is imperative to talk about mental health in the rehearsal room. The work of bringing characters to life […]
Curated Conversations: Indu Harikumar shares how she tells taboo stories and what fuels her art
A self-taught artist, Indu Lalitha Harikumar shared about her artistic journey with the students of the current blended learning batch during the latest Curated Conversations. Indu shared how honest personal connection led her way from a playful 16-year-old playing around with photoshop on her first computer to today, becoming a distinguished illustrator, telling stories about […]
Careers@Drama School Mumbai
Building the New Generation of Theatre-makers… Requires a Sales & Marketing Managers, Course Advisor, Development Officer, Course Coordinator, Impact Survey intern, Growth Manager and Course Leader unlike any other. The past year has given us a chance to renew our commitment to the acting and theatre-making community by finding new, more resilient ways to […]
Unrehearsed Futures (S3) #10 Day 127: Ukrainian Theatre Artists Respond to the War
As part of the last session before our mid-season break, we decided to continue our conversation on Ukraine. On Unrehearsed Futures, we engaged with Ukrainian and Russian artists twice (here and here) about the war and the dramaturgy around it. While the news cycle is tiring of Ukraine, we are convinced that Ukrainians, near or […]
The Actor’s Resource: 4 Tips to Help Actors Put Life Into Their Lines
How do professional actors make a scene realistic? Most of us know that the basics involve reading the script, understanding the character within the context, and then putting life into the writer’s words. Of course, this is easier said than done. In this post, we discuss the different ways we can explore the meaning behind […]
Unrehearsed Futures (S3) #9 From This Place to That Place: Re-directions of creative energy
In a special sitting of Unrehearsed Futures, we celebrated the book launch of ‘This Place / That Place’, written by Nandita Dinesh, a writer and researcher who has traversed through the cosmos of performing, theatre-making, activism and more. It also happens to be her first novel. At first glance, This Place / That Place feels not like […]
Adishakti: Reflecting on Veenapani Chawla’s legacy and shaping a constantly evolving ideology
Editor’s Note: India has a rich history in theatre, but our knowledge about the work our contemporaries and older groups have and are doing, is often limited to urban centres or the geographies we live in. Driven by a curiosity to know about the work being created across the country, for the next couple of […]
Amplifying The Queer Voice: Lessons from Queer People in the Performing Arts Industry
When I studied at drama school, students were asked to present a theatrical piece bringing the energy of a space and embody it, as part of our Theatre Making Lab activity. Understanding the space and squeezing into a tiny performance space felt like a restrictive activity. But, in addition to this, I wondered about how […]
Unrehearsed Futures (S3) #8 Seeding the Field: Experiencing the now, perpetually
We live in a world where we are conditioned to look for stability and balance. But if the events of the past two years have taught us anything, it is that we live in a perpetually chaotic world where we try to find and establish order. If we are to accept that we live in […]
Unrehearsed Futures (S3) #7 The Arc of The Dervish: Learning New Consciousnesses For An Ever-Changing Reality
By now, we’ve established that we are citizens of a perpetually chaotic world. The pandemic was one kind of a disruption. We are facing and fighting multiple kinds of wars each day – be it physical, political or ideological – and as we progress through time, we find ourselves in a world where it is […]
The Actor’s Resource: How to Choose a Drama School
Are you looking for a place that can train you in acting and help you acquire essential skills for moving ahead in the theatre and film industry? Looking for a drama school that provides such opportunities is a good place to start. There are some prominent drama schools in India—in both rural and urban spaces. […]
Unrehearsed Futures (S3) #6 Ukraine: The Show Must Not Go On
For all her life, Ukrainian theatre-maker and co-founder of the Ukrainian Physical Theatre School, Maria Koreneva was a pacifist and against war. As a Gestalt psychotherapist herself, she knew what collective trauma meant and hence she always argued against the need for aggression. She was the person who said, “the war should end, and then […]
Tick, Tick, Boom: Theatre as an Antidote and Solution to the Climate Change Crisis
I started my research for this article already in a deep state of overwhelm. Truthfully, I sometimes avoid climate data and information because it leaves me with an intense despair followed by romanticising and imagining a past I could’ve shared with nature had I not been born so late in the anthropocene. I am an […]