Proscenium theatre

Sanjay Kumar’s involvement with proscenium theatre goes back to his Delhi school – Modern School, at Humayun Road and at Barakhamba Road, participating in theatre every year of his life there. 

From 1987, this passion led him to six years of directing a play every year at Hansraj College, his place of work, with the Dramatics Society of the college. 

Theatre for Sanjay  is an attempt to take on the status quo of our society. Theatre became a tool to understand what is wrong? The loads of decadence demanded a position, a stance – proLeft, proFeminist and atheist. Theatre also became the end of the process, a critique of what is and a vision of what should be. The two special features of the plays with Dram Soc were that college theatre moved out of the college festivals circuit, (this circuit creates 30 -40 minutes plays aimed at grabbing some cash prizes) to plays that were moving towards relevance to our society, plays taking a position – proLeft, proFeminist and atheist. He directed with the college society full 90 minutes to 3 hour plays and stage 5 to 8 shows in the professional auditoriums, Sri Ram Centre being the favourite and also AIFACS and the little basement at Sri Ram Centre. And second and more important it was an attempt to take it away form the financial umbrella of the college. Seeking no financial support from the college, along with students and some fellow teachers, money was gathered from small donations to create an independent, semi-professional form.

Pandies is possibly the only example of theatre emanating from a college society and moving on to establish credentials as an internationally famous theatre group.

Journey to pandies          

pandies: The Gendered Nineties         

Against bigotry: The first decade of the 21st century

The Last Decade: Icons from the pandies’ stable

The pandemic 2020 and Cyber performing

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