International Scene
In New Delhi, you will find The National School of Drama, one of the foremost theatre training institutions in the world and the only one of its kind in India. Set up by Sangeet Natak Akademi in 1959, is]t is fully financed by Ministry of Culture, Government of India. Its acting training program consists of 3 years, and also includes training in children’s theatre and offers other types of workshops. In 1999, the National School of Drama organized its first National Theatre Festival, which was christened Bharat Rang Mahotsav, and is generally held during the second week of January each year.
The National School of Drama’s training is highly intensive and covers every aspect of theatre, and students are required to produce their own plays which are performed before the public.
Admission to the School is restricted to 23 students in the first year of the course. The School has two performing wings – Repertory and Theatre-in-Education. The Repertory Company was set up to provide a platform for graduates to produce and perform creative theatre on an experimental and later on a professional basis. The Company organizes its own festivals every summer. During this festival old and new productions are selected and staged. It also performs extensively on tours in India and abroad. The second performing wing Theatre-in-Education was established in 1989 with the objective of promoting theatre among children 8 to 16 years old. Later renamed The Sanskaar Rang Toli, it has completed more than 600 performances across the country.
The National School of Drama is led by Mrs. Amal Allana. A graduate of the National School of Drama in 1968, she received the Girish Ghosh and Bharat Puruskar Awards. She also went on to study directing at the Berliner Ensemble; the National Theatre, Weimar; and the State Theatre at Dresden. On her return to India she began her professional career and set up ‘The Workshop’, a theatre group, along with her husband, Dr. Nissar Allana, a stage and lighting designer. Some of her productions which received critical acclaim at the time were Brecht’s “The Good Woman of Setzuan,” Strindberg’s “Miss Julie,” and Wedekind’s “Spring Awakening.” In 1975, Mrs. Allana was awarded the Homi Bhabha Fellowship for her research in traditional Indian and Japanese theatre, which led to her visiting Japan and studying the Noh and Kabuki theatre. In 1977, she headed the Department of Indian Theatre at the Punjab University, Chandigarh. Mrs. Allana also wrote for television, and her teleplay, “Wapsi,” received an award from Czechoslovakia in 1983. This was followed by two 13-part series, “Raj Se Swaraj” and “Mullah Nasruddin,” which received the NEFA award. In 1990, she received a Ford Foundation Fellowship to research the contemporary theatre movement.. For info: www.nationalschoolofdrama.org
