the best of collegiate theatre · the best of collegiate theatre presents an o ld w orc u tep s nai...

W RLDO

Participating Colleges

Hindu College, Indraprastha College,

Shri Ram College of Commerce, Delhi Technological

University, Dyal Singh College, St. Stephen's College,

Sri Venkateswara College, Kirori Mal College

Feb. 13 - 23, 2015

The Best of

Collegiate Theatre

p r e s e n t s

An Old World Culture Presentation

Habitat World at India Habitat Centre,

Lodhi Road, New Delhi - 110003

Tickets at Rs.150 available at the Programmes Desk.

For queries, contact the Programmes Desk

at 011 - 43663085 / 90

supported by

The Collegiate Theatre Festival which has

always been an integral part of our Annual

Theatre Festival is now a separate stand

alone Festival.

The passion, quality, maturity and

innovative stage craft displayed by the young

practitioners, working with limited budgets

at their disposal is laudable. We are happy to

be able to do our bit in helping nurture this

creative energy by providing a mainstream

platform to showcase their talent.

Our grateful thanks to Keval Arora for his

continued and unstinting effort every year

for his thorough and painstaking inputs in

previewing and shortlisting the participating

productions.

Thank you Barry John for taking out

precious time from your busy schedule to be

our mentor for this year's Festival. Your

presence, feedback and interaction will

surely be a much valued and treasured

ex p e r i e n c e f o r o u r yo u n g t h e a t r e

enthusiasts.

Feb.13 & 14

7:00pm|Hindu College- The Interview (English/60mins)

Dirs.Abhishek Chauhan & Madhav Kodesia

8:00pm|Hindu College- Who Fills the Blank?

(Bilingual/45mins) Dirs.Maayank Murti & Aakash Ahuja

Feb.15 & 16

7:00pm|Indraprastha College- Keh Do Usse

(Bilingual/45mins) Dir.Surabhi Dogra

8:00pm|Shri Ram College of Commerce- Pune Highway

(Bilingual/60mins) Dirs.Raghav Puri, Tarunika Sharma

& Vidushi Chadha

Feb.18 & 19

7:00pm|Delhi Technological University- Fandi

(Hindi/50mins) Dir.Arpit Vashishth

8:05pm|Dyal Singh College- Haath Kaa Aaya? Shuniya

(Hindi/70mins) Dir.Aakash Hingorani

Feb.20 & 21

7:00pm|St.Stephen's College- The Zoo Story

(English/50mins) Dirs.Tanya Duckworth &

Risheek Srivastava

8:05pm|Sri Venkateswara College- The Goat, or

Who is Sylvia? (English/60mins) Dirs.Kartik Mathur

& Manik Papneja

Feb.22 & 23

7:00pm|Kirori Mal College- Words Words Words

(English/55mins) Dirs.Katyayani Prabhakar &

Lakshay Narang

8:10pm|Kirori Mal College- The Players Presents…

(Bilingual/70mins) Dirs.Pranshu Shrimali & Sparsh Rana

FESTIVAL AT A GLANCE

Theatre Advisor:

Keval Arora

Dept. of English,

Kirori Mal College

Mentored by:

Barry John

Veteran Theatre Director

The InterviewEnglish/60mins

Feb. 13 & 14 | 7:00pm

Masque, Hindu College

Directors : Abhishek Chauhan,

Madhav Kodesia

Playwright : Akarsh Khurana

Cast

Man : Tejus Menon

Interviewer : Abhishek Chauhan

Keith : Madhav Kodesia

Secretary : Aviya Chadha

Backstage & Production Credits

Akshit Kapoor, Shraman Ghosh, Revathi Krishnan,

Subhendu Pal, Shivish Soni, Ragini Bhasin,

Kriti Upadhayaya, Vrishbhanu Singh, Uma Shankar

Goswami

Synopsis

A one-act play about a bright young man who goes in

for an interview for a coveted corporate job. But

nothing he's learnt in college, university or his last few

jobs has prepared him for what comes next- perhaps

the most unusual and challenging hour of his life; yet

he's keen to make it through this. After all, it's a job to

die for…

Synopsis

One bounty that an individual possesses is his life. He

seeks to play with it, ride with it or even bring it to a halt

as and when he wishes to. A plot that revolves around

the stories of four people- a rich business tycoon who

believes in living life on his own terms, a headstrong

young woman who has been moulded to become the

bolster of her family, a middle aged school principal

who is also a reputed political figure who believes that

his authority cannot be questioned, and a 17-year old

schoolboy whose biggest fear in life is the consequences

of his actions.

What happens when they start believing that life has

played against them and they decide to play against it?

What value does the bounty hold now?

Who Fills The Blank?Bilingual/45mins

Feb.13 & 14|8:00pm

Ibtida, Hindu College

Director : Maayank Murti

Playwright : Self-Scripted by the

members of the society

Cast

Hari Om Shukla : Gaurav

Sunaina Tiwari : Arunima Trivedi

Sachpreet Singh

Virk (Sonu) : Manan Madaan

Sanjay Khanna : Rohan Chandna

Ratan Mishra : Shashvat Jain


Steffy Munjal, Ayushi Kulsreshtha, Sanjeev Prasad,

Aakash Sharma, Pragya Paramita, Vidushi Verma,

Sakshi Mendiratta, Vedanshi Pathak, Nisha Das,

Samarth Khanna, Tuhin Basu, Vibhor Batra,

Aakanksha Nehra, Aakash Ahuja

Keh Do UsseBilingual/40mins

Feb.15 & 16 | 7:00pm

Abhivyakti, Indraprastha

College for Women

Playwright & Director : Surabhi Dogra

Assistant Director : Mini Dixit

Cast

Karanveer : Rashi Jain

Karanveer : Shreya Agarwal

Zooni : Stuti Sood

Various Characters : Radhika Modi,

Tanvi Manchanda,

Debosmita Dam,

Shiwani, Varnika Sharma


Alina Ali, Neha Padbidri, Sameeksha Dandriyal,

Pratishta Sharma

Synopsis

Death toll rising in the border areas. Militants

captured. Civilians killed. Army men beheaded.

Faceless people dying daily. Statistics. Statistics.

Statistics. News of death, a permanent fixture! Keh

Do Usse is about people at the borders. The play deals

with their turbulent lives and the difficult choices these

men and women are forced to make every day. It is also

a satire on how the issues are dealt with by the media.

Pune HighwayBilingual/60mins

Feb.15 & 16 | 8:00pm

Dramatics Society,

Shri Ram College of Commerce

Director : Raghav Puri

Assistant Directors : Tarunika Sharma and

Vidushi Chadha

Playwright : Rahul Da Cunha

Cast : Vishnu Sinha, Uday

Mathur, Vidushi Chadha,

Sidharth Yadav,

Raghav Puri


Manvi Bhutani, Talia Balti, Dev Khandelwal,

Zorawar Whig, Kunal Basu, Madhurima Shekhar,

Veni Arora, Parth Luthra, Abhishek Naulakha,

Sabhya Virmani, Sameena Jaggi

Synopsis

It's 5 a.m. Three young men- a stammering coward, a

sarcastic ex-coke addict and a persistent liar- are holed

up in a seedy hotel room just off the Bombay-Pune

highway. They have just witnessed the killing of a

fourth friend, in a robbery attempt by thugs. They need

to desperately get back to Bombay, but are constantly

thwarted by obstacles.

A comic thriller that explores the survival of

friendship in extreme circumstances- the play is filled

with tension, nostalgia and humour.

Fandi Hindi/English/55mins

Feb. 18 & 19 | 7:00pm

Pratibimb,

Delhi Technological University

Director : Arpit Vashist

Playwright : Dr. Shankar Shesh

Cast

Fandi : Arpit Vashist

Lawyer : Mayank Kakkar

Warder : Ritesh Kurar


Aman Sawhney, Rahul Chaudhary, Apoorv Singh,

Shikhar Sachdeva , Himanshu Makhija

Synopsis

What do we do when the person whom we love the

most asks something from us? With no second

thought, we give that thing to that person. But what if

that person is your own father and what he asks for is

nothing but Death!

Fandi a poor truck driver choked his father to death

and that too while his father was suffering from the

most painful stage of cancer. He is in jail and Section

302 is imposed on him. Death is certain. Advocate

Bhagatram, who has, however, been an unsuccessful

lawyer in his career, fights for Fandi's case. Would this

be justified on Bhagatram's part to save a brutal

murderer? Would he be able to save him and win a

single case in his entire career? And most importantly,

what goes on inside Fandi, who is to be hanged after a

few days and is simply waiting... for death to come.

Haath Ka Aaya?ShunyaHindi/60mins

Feb. 18 & 19 | 8:05pm

Astitva, Dyal Singh College

(Morning)

Director : Aakash Hingorani

Playwright : Manav Kaul

Cast

Arun : Aakash

Shashi : Saakshi

Nidhi : Himani

Purab : Samar

Vimal : Naveen

Amal : Vikhyat

Kamal : Rajesh

Joker : Rahul

Indrajeet : Diksha

Boss : Yogesh

Manoj : Vaibhav

Bani : Ruchika

Daddy Ji : Gurkirat


Harshit, Kritika, Ishan, Minati, Varnika

Synopsis

The play runs in three parallel stories.

The first, woven around the idea of domestication is about

our tendency to put a "naal" or horse-shoe on a wild beast

in order to domesticate him. A not so happily married

couple in the usual domesticity of life plough through

time and the "naal" gets tighter and tighter around their

feet...

The second involves two people choosing to exist

separately. They sit in the audience disjointedly and from

sitting in so unconnected a manner, they part ways in life

despite having spent most of their childhood together.

The third comprises of three blind jokers in endless wait

for an opening at a major multinational circus company.

They weave their own stories into bigger philosophies of

life and search for a sighted leader to come along.

The Zoo StoryEnglish/50mins

Feb 20 & 21 | 7:00pm

The Shakespeare Society,

St. Stephens College

Directors : Raj Srivastava,

Tanya Duckworth

Playwright : Edward Albee

Cast

Peter : Ajit Deshpande

Jerry : Edwin Joseph


Risheek Raj Srivastava, Siddharth Shane Shastri,

Tanya Duckworth, Viraj Gupta

Synopsis

Edward Albee's The Zoo Story is a one-act play about

how a man who is consumed with loneliness starts

up a conversation with another man on a bench in

Central Park and eventually forces him out of his

comfort zone. The play deals with themes of class

difference, intimacy, failures in communication

and urban alienation and is a classic example of

'Theatre of the Absurd'.

The Goat, Or

Who Is Sylvia

English/60mins

Feb 20 & 21 | 8:05pm

Verbum, Sri Venkateswara College

Directors : Kartik Mathur, Manik Papneja

Playwright : Edward Albee

Cast : Kartik Mathur, Anugrah

Gopinath, Tanvika Parlikar,

Ananda Dhar James


Urshila Elizabeth Bhuyan, Anupama Nair,

Vitasta Tiku, Tanya Nair, Akanksha Kumar

Synopsis

Tale of a married, middle-aged architect Martin, his

wife Stevie, and their son Billy, whose lives crumble

when Martin falls in love with a goat.

The play focuses on the limits of an ostensibly liberal

society. Through showing this family in crisis, Albee

challenges audience members to question their own

morality in the face of other social taboos including

infidelity, paedophilia, incest and bestiality.

Words Words Words

English/55mins

Feb 22 & 23 | 7:00pm

The Players,

Kirori Mal College

Adaptation & Direction : Katyayani Prabhakar &

Lakshay Narang

Playwright : Adaptation of Enda

Walsh's Chatroom

Cast : Varun Abhinav

Khetarpal, Madhav

Lakshay Narang,

Nikki Ritu Ahuja,

Naina Shweta Pasricha,

Shivam Lakshvir Singh

Saran, Samridhi

Hirashmi Singh


Ankit Pandey, Vaishali Vashishtha, Katyayani

Prabhakar, Ananya Nanda, Ritu Kalra

Synopsis

Six teenagers, each not a child and not an adult, find

comfort in the shadowy, virtual world of chatrooms.

Their disconnect with their 'real' surroundings shows

in their thrill at speaking without restraint and feeling

in sync with someone, even total strangers. However,

despite the freedom granted by internet-enabled

masks, people's voices sound disconcertingly similar.

Because, in these spaces words are power — a power

that drives us towards further disconnects with the

spaces and needs of others.

The Players

Presents...

Hindi/English/70mins

Feb 22 & 23 | 8:10pm

The Players, Kirori Mal College

Synopsis

This free-ranging adaptation of the Woody Allen classic

is designed as a tribute to the writer's predilection for

soaking corny situations and non-existent narrative in a

marinade of broad philosophical angst. In performing his

comic take on logic and causality (posed through the

crisis a theatre group faces when it takes the stage without

having found an ending to its play) with liberal doses of

'freedom' and 'chaos' drawn from the mythological to the

contemporary, our production takes no sides when

articulating the play's central concern, “Is freedom

chaos?”

Directors : Pranshu Shrimali & Sparsh Rana

Playwright : Adaptation of Woody Allen's God

Adaptation : Pranshu Shrimali, Jasjit Singh,

Samdish Bhatia

Cast

Actor : Das Jasjit Singh

Gabbar/Hanuman : Hiranakashyap Sparsh Rana

Playwright : Sutradhar Vaishali Vashishtha

Announcer/Big Boss : Pranshu Shrimali

Akanksha : Dasi Sana Taneja

Falaana : Saarthi Vishwas Dhingra

Dhimkaana : Bhagwan Rajeev Chaturvedi

Random Goswami : Naval Kumar Garg

Random Predictions : Abhinav Khetarpal, Lakshvir

Singh Saran, Ravana

Chintamani Anil

Chaos scene : Samarth Surana, Dharvi Vij,

Afreen Sen Chatterjee


Abhinav Khetarpal, Pranshu Shrimali, Ritu Kalra,

Anahad Madhav, Shobhit Agarwal

Barry JohnTheatre Mentor

After a year of being a

disil lusioned Drama

Teacher in the U.K.,

Barry came to India in

1968 on a voluntary

service scheme. He

t r a ined t eache r s o f

English in Coimbatore,

Mysore and Bangalore.

In 1970 he shifted to Delhi and launched a theatre career

that saw him teaching in several schools and colleges, as

well as acting and directing in a freelancing capacity.

In 1973, he co-founded Theatre Action Group (TAG) and

was its Artistic Director until 1999. It was renowned for

its work with and for children (including differently abled

and street children) as well as the quality of its mainstream

theatre productions, such as Macbeth, Marat-sade,

Equus, Amadeus, A Map Of The World, Blood Brothers

and Indian Ink.

He was on the faculty of the National School of Drama

from 1977 – 80, and from 1989 – 92 was Founder-

Director of its Theatre-in-Education Company. For the

NSD he directed Oedipus Rex, The Bourgeois Gentleman,

King Lear, The Adding Machine, Hedda Gabler and The

Fool.

In 1998, he co-founded Imago Media Company which

runs an acting school, a theatre group, a theatre-in-

education company and a casting agency. It has offices in

Mumbai and New Delhi under the name Barry John

Acting Studio.

Over the years, Barry has acted in numerous films,

usually in a supporting or a cameo role, but they are not

performances that he is particularly proud of. He is proud,

however, of having become an Indian citizen.

Keval Arora

Theatre Advisor

Associate Professor at

Department of English,

Kirori Mal College

Keval Arora is actively involved

with mentoring the work of

students in collegiate theatre since

the '80s. He is also theatre

commentator and critic.

the best of collegiate theatre · the best of collegiate theatre presents an o ld w orc u tep s nai...

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