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
Backstage & Production Credits
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
Backstage & Production Credits
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
Backstage & Production Credits
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
Backstage & Production Credits
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
Backstage & Production Credits
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
Backstage & Production Credits
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
Backstage & Production Credits
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
Backstage & Production Credits
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
Backstage & Production Credits
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.