The National School of Drama is in the process of establishing five regional centres in India, including in Jammu and Kashmir and the North East.

While one of these regional centres –in Bangalore– has already been set up, the NSD is in the process of identifying locations for other centres in consultation with state governments and other stake holders.

This was said by Minister of State for Planning and Parliamentary Affairs, M V Narayanasamy, who also holds the ad-hoc charge of the ministry of culture.

“It is proposed to set up five regional centres of the National School of Drama — at Bangalore, Kolkata, in Jammu and Kashmir, Maharashtra/Goa and in the North East,” he said.

National School of Drama (NSD) is planning to set up regional centres in the country and Pune is a front-runner in getting one. The reputation of city as a cultural capital of the country is giving it the edge even as the theatre community cannot hide its excitement

A budgetary allocation to set up such regional centres is being made in the 11th Plan and the idea is to set up at least one centre each year in five states. A 15-member high power committee of experts from all over the country was set up to make recommendations to expand the NSD.

The 10th Bharat Rang Mahotsav at the National School of Drama introduced a form of theatre never seen earlier, a form of theatre where there was no performance, no stage but an actor living out his life like every normal person, except that in this case he was being watched for 15 days in the glass house.

37-year-old actor Harish Khanna’s novel venture, The Glasshouse Project is clearly inspired by Shakespeare’s famous maxim of the entire world being a stage

The glass around the bathroom is frosted. Harish has all the comforts of the world including a geyser, apart from his laptop and mobile phone. The stunt is getting a mixed reaction from the audience.

Khanna had come up with the idea two years ago, According to Rajesh Kumar Sharma, who shares an apartment with him at Paharganj. “He wanted to do it as part of the festival that celebrates NSD’s 50th anniversary.”

Harish Khanna spent 15 days in the glass house. His stunt became a major attraction at the 10th Bharat Rang Mahotsav organised by National School of Drama from January 3 to 20.

Harish had all the comforts handy including a geyser, apart from his laptop and mobile phone.

Harish Khanna as performance has been titled as ‘The Glass Project’.

Producers of this reality drama consider this something distinct. Performed in real time, this is a unique performance that is unpredictable as life itself.

In there, Khanna got his daily supply of fruit, milk and newspaper early every morning. The spectators could not speak with him but Khanna was free to make calls from his mobile phone, log on to the Net, watch television, or even test his culinary skills in the kitchen equipped with pulses, bottles of sauce, jam and pickles.

Khanna who is a guest lecturer at NSD, has an illustrious profile to back up his rather interesting act. After graduating from the hallowed quarters of NSD in 1993, Khanna has performed with bigwigs like Prasanna, Ranjit Kapoor and Anuradha Kapoor. He has also acted in Govind Nihalani’s Sanshodhan and Hazar Chaurasi Ki Ma, Milan Luthria’s Kachche Dhage, Tigmanshu Dhulia’s Charas and Sujith Sarkar’s Yahaan.

NSD is Staging A Plethora Of Plays for theatre Lovers -10th Bharat Rang Mahotsav beginning On January 3. The National School of Drama (NSD) is staging a plethora of plays to celebrate its 50th anniversary this January.

A total of 76 productions, including several foreign plays, will be staged during the 17-day festival titled the “10th Bharat Rang Mahotsav.”

The annual theatre festival “Bharat Rang Mahotsav” organised by the National School of Drama this year will have a distinct foreign flavour.

Representation of contemporary international theatre will be showcased with plays from Poland, Switzerland, UK, Norway, China, Japan, Iran, Nepal,Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, with some of them seeking to explore new convergences between theatre and other performative art forms.

Also, festival directors from countries like Austria, Belgium, Pakistan and Croatia have been invited and will interact with the Indian theatre directors.

Afghanistan is participating for the first time with two productions.

The fortnight-long event will kick off with eminent Manipuri director and NSD alumni Ratan Thiyam’s ‘Prologue’ at the Capital’s Kamani Auditorium on Monday, Jan 3, 2008.

Delhi chief minister Sheila Dixit will inaugurate the festival at Kamani auditorium in the presence of many distinguished theatre personalities including Ebrahim Alkazi, former director of NSD and architect of contemporary Indian theatre.

The festival which is being held in Delhi from January 3-20, 2008, will also have a parallel “Satellite Festival” in Mumbai from January 7. The Satellite Festival accompanying the 10th Bharat Rang Mahotsava will be held in Mumbai from the 6th to the 17th of January, 2008.
A total of 26 productions will also travel to Mumbai for the “Satellite Festival”.
The Satellite festival is being held with the collaboration of Maharashtra government.

In the international category, “Delirium”, a Swiss play and Pina Bausch’s latest work “Bamboo Blues” would be awaited.

Tanvir’s evergreen ‘Charandas Chor’ in a Sri Lankan production, Tendulkar’s ‘Ghansiram Kotwal’ in a Manipuri adaptation, a docu drama using rare archival footage and live acting on correspondence between Gandhi and Tagore, Gandhi and Nehru are some of the higlights.

The Manohar Singh and B V Karanth Smriti Puraskar, the two annual NSD awards for its alumnni, will be conferred at the inaugural function in Delhi.

In the last 50 years, 750 students have passed out of NSD. Out of which 400 of the alumni live and work here. Prominent of them like Naseeruddin Shah, Nadira Zaheer Babbar, Rohini Hattangadi, Atul Kulkarni, Jaydev Hattangadi will be present on the occasion.

The venues for the performances of different plays in Delhi will be –Kamani Auditorium, Sri Fort Auditorium, LTG Auditorium, Sri Ram Centre, and Abhimanch, Bahumukh and Sammukh at the NSD premises.

The venues for the Satellite Festival in Mumbai will be- the Nehru Centre and the Rabindra Natya Mandir.

Tickets available at NSD Ticket counter for Bharat Rang Mahotsav
Ticket price Rs 100, 50, 25, 10 per ticket
Note: Ticket price Rs 30 flat at Sammukh & Bahumukh
Available from 30 December 2007
between 11 am to 4 pm and one hour before the show at venue.

National School of Drama
Bahawalpur House, 1 Bhagwandas Road
New Delhi-110 001
Phone: +91 11 – 23384531
Tkt Info  : +91 11 – 2338 7916
Media Enquiries: Mr A.K Barua 98716 13664
Email: nsdr@rediffmail.com , info@nsd.gov.in
www.nsd.gov.in ,www.nsdtheatrefest.com

The National School of Drama in the Capital plans to unveil a riveting theatre festival in the New Year from January 3 to 20 titled the Tenth Bharat Rang Mahotsav.

The festival to be inaugurated by Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit in the presence of the distinguished theatre personality Ebrahim Alkazi at Kamani Auditorium — will open with a performance of “Prologue”, the first part of veteran director Ratan Thiyam’s “Manipur Trilogy”.

Plays will be staged at seven venues including Kamani Auditorium, Shri Ram Centre, Siri Fort Auditorium, LTG Theatre and the three theatres on the NSD premises — Abhimanch, Sammukh and Bahumukh.

The festival will feature 76 productions of which 57 are from India and 19 from abroad. A total of 26 productions will also travel to Mumbai for the “Satellite Festival” being organised there from January 6 to January 17.

National School of Drama (NSD), an autonomous organization under the Ministry of Culture, Government of India, is theatre training institution based in New Delhi. The school was established in 1959 as one of the constituent units of Sangeet Natak Akademi. It acquired the independent status in year 1975 when it got registered under the Societies Registration Act XXI of 1860.

The school offers a three-year diploma in dramatics for the theatre aspirants. It has two performing wings – Repertory and Theatre-in-Education. While the Repertory wing of the school performs professional plays, contemporary as well as traditional, the theatre-in-education wing,Later renamed The Sanskaar Rang Toli of the school performs plays that are creative, curriculum based and participatory in nature. Such plays are aimed at children of different age groups.The School also has an active Extension Programme, Publication Section and a literary forum named Shruti.

The school has produced many successful theatre artists. The products of NSD have made big in the world of television and movies.