Backstage: A Theatre Appreciation Workshop

Mahesh Dattani is a playwright, stage director, screen writer and filmmaker. In 1998 Mahesh Dattani won the prestigious central Sahitya Akademi Award for his book Final Solutions and Other Plays, the highest award for a literary work in the country. Today his plays are produced in all the major cities of India. His works have been produced in cities outside the country as well including London, Leicester, New York, Washington DC, Sydney, Colombo, Toronto and Dubai. Some of his plays have been translated and performed in Hindi, Gujarati, German, Japanese, Nepali, Odiya and Kannada. His plays are on the syllabus of several Indian and foreign universities and schools. His film Mango Souffle (writer and director) was shown in several international film festivals all over the world and was adjudged best motion picture at the Barcelona Gay and Lesbian Film Festival 2003. The film was also selected by the London Gay and Lesbian Film Festival for a 28 theatre screening across the UK. His film Morning Raga (writer and director) had its international premier at the Cairo Film Festival in December and he won the award for best artistic contribution. The script has been archived by The Academy of Motion Pictures, USA. Where Did I Leave My Purdah and Gauhar are his most recent works as a playwright, both directed by Lillete Dubey of The PrimeTime Theatre Company, Mumbai. Most recently, he directed his play Where Did I Leave My Purdah? on film for Zee5 Productions. His other directorial credits include adaptations of Lorca's Yerma and Blood Wedding. He also directed Tagore's Chokher Bali for Barnard College, Columbia University, USA. Currently he is working on one new play as writer and one as a director. He is also the co-founder and Artistic Director of Playpen Performing Arts Trust, Mumbai.

Sheena Khalid is a theatre director, writer and actor based in Mumbai. She is a founding member of the theatre company, Patchworks Ensemble. She has trained in Physical Theatre at the London International School of Performing Arts. At LISPA she was a scholarship student for the Advanced Course. With Patchworks, she has co-directed and co-devised the shows, Ila, The Gentlemen’s Club AKA Tape, Fly By Night, and Shikaar. Ila is based on a lesser-known myth in the Indian epic texts called ‘Puranas’, about a king whose gender waxes and wanes in accordance to the moon. In 2016, Ila won the Laadli Award for Gender Sensitivity. Gentlemen’s Club AKA Tape is a unique cabaret-style theatre performance about the lives of various drag kings (a fairly unknown and unseen performance style in India). Both Ila and The Gentlemen’s Club have travelled to several prestigious theatre festivals around the country including the NSD Theatre Festival, Hindu Metroplus Theatre Festival, NCPA Centre Stage, and Ranga Shankara Theatre Festival, amongst others. Sheena is also producer and performer in Patchworks Ensemble’s third creation, Fly by Night, based on the phenomenon of “evaporating people” in Japan. Her latest production, Shikaar opened in August of 2019 and will have an extended run in November of this same year. Produced by Gaysi Family, Sheena has also directed the show Pinky Promise for their 10-year anniversary celebration. She was a performer and writer on the show Where I Stand curated by the G5A Foundation for Contemporary Culture and The Scottish Storytelling Centre, Edinburgh. The show premiered in 2018 at The G5A Foundation, Mumbai and then travelled to The Scottish Storytelling Centre in Edinburgh. After the show, she was invited to conduct a Master Class with the students of the Master’s Script Writing course at the University of Glasgow. Apart from this, Sheena is also a drama facilitator at the Drama School Mumbai (DSM) where she teaches improvisation and devising. She is also the strand head of the Theatre Making Laboratory at the DSM. Sheena has spent a great deal of time with co-director Puja Sarup exploring ideas of solo storytelling. Together they have developed modules which they now take into classrooms and offices around Mumbai. She has conducted training with Axis Bank, Piramal, Kotak Mahindra Bank, BNP Paribas, HUL, and S.P Jain School of Global Management. She has created independent workshop modules for working professional and non-actors. She has been associated with Vice Media as a host of their Vice Talks Films.

Joy Sengupta has trained in Theatre & Acting from Living Theatre Academy under the directorship Mr EBRAHIM ALKAZI (founder director of NSD). He was also mentored by some of the finest visionary's & practitioners of Art of Theatre, namely HABIB TANVEER, SAFDAR HASHMI, M K RAINA, BARRY JOHN etc before turning Professional & working with LILLETE DUBEY, FEROZ KHAN, RAHUL D' CUNAH, KK RAINA etc....He received the MAHINDRA EXCELLECE AWARD IN THEATRE for essaying the character of MK GANDHI in the play SAMMY & has performed extensively in prestigious venues worldwide from WEST END London to OFF BROADWAY New York to NADA in Sydney & in prestigious EDINBURGH FRINGE festival. Currently performing 3 epic plays -- DEVIKA RANI, LADIES SANGEET & The long running classic DANCE LIKE A MAN. He made his Cinematic DEBUT in the National Award-Winning film HAZAR CHAURASI KI MA & received V SHANTARAM AWARD in acting for it. He has since acted in 40 odd films in Hindi, English & Bengali, including commercial films like HATE STORY (in Hindi), international films like BHOPAL.. A PRAYER FOR RAIN (in English), Art house films like BILO THE DEMON (Bengali-- best actor nomination at NYC film fest). He has also done over 25 tele films & 5 web series including Sacred games2 for Netflix & Made in Heaven for Amazon, besides featuring in 50 advertirments. He was a Teacher of THEATRE IN EDUCATION in schools & Teaches Creative Communication & Liberal Arts in Colleges. He had worked as a political Journalist & is a passionate Cultural Activist.

As a writer Nikhil Katara initiated his journey in the year 2011, with his own production titled “The Unveiling”, a science fiction drama. It won much appreciation for its scientism and philosophical themes. The play opened at the ‘Kala Ghoda Arts Festival’ and had an initial run of ten shows. To strengthen critical thinking, he studied a Masters in Arts program in Philosophy at the Mumbai university with optionals in Kant, Greek Hellinistic Philosophy, Feminism, Logic and Existentialism. He also worked at Entertainment Bay, where he wrote a short play for ‘Pidilite’ that traveled to Delhi and Indore. He participated in the “Hard Places” young writers’ workshop by Rage productions where his play “In The Moment” won a critique by Mercury theatre (London) director Dave Norton. He conducts a reading club where writers, philosophers and directors in the city of Mumbai critique contemporary, original and classic plays on a weekly basis. He has written book reviews and opinion articles in the One India One People magazine and is also working on his first novel. He was associated with the Free Press Journal for a few years during which he wrote book reviews for the newspaper. He wrote the play “Yatagarasu” which opened at the Prithvi theatre in June 2016 and then traveled to Chennai and Bengaluru for the ‘Hindu Fest’. He also is a consultant facilitator at J’s Academy, a novel performing arts institute for young performers. He has worked with the Indian Navy on Navy Night 2019, and has recently collaborated with the Playpen performing arts trust to bring to the stage letters written by Subhas Chandra Bose and Sarat Chandra Bose during the Indian Independence Struggle. He has directed 18 performances of Readings in the Shed from its inception in April 2018. After completing her MA in Advertising & Marketing from University of Leeds (UK) in 2001, Himali Kothari returned to India and worked as a freelance marketing consultant for a brief period. A just-for-fun enrolment in a Creative Writing Workshop reacquainted her with her childhood hobby of writing and propelled her into writing as a full-time profession. She has written on travel, business & finance, food, lifeatyle, design & architecture and general interest topics for print magazines and online portals. She has also donned the role of researcher and creative editor for non-fiction books. When she is not writing, she is talking about it in her creative writing workshop at Xavier’s Institute of Communication, Mumbai. She has developed a Writing Skills Lab for educational and corporate organisations to enable them to develop writing as a core skill amongst their personnel. What she treasures most about writing, is the opportunity to express herself without any interruptions. She has recently collaborated with the Playpen performing arts trust to bring to the stage letters written by Subhas Chandra Bose and Sarat Chandra Bose during the Indian Independence Struggle.

Sonal Kharade is a passionate and innovative costume designer who has worked in over 50 productions including films, commercials, television shows, web series and dance productions. Sonal, has gained her expertise working over 8 years designing costumes for actors, dancers, theatre personalities. She is known for her grounded sense of aesthetics, thoughtfully applied across a diverse spectrum, her on-ground network and prompt implementation. This makes her a rare combination of adventurous and experimental but also a solid, reliable team leader. The New York Times described the ‘blood-red anarkali’ designed by Sonal and worn by Kathak dancer Sanjukta Wagh as "the most ravishing outfit of evening" at The Battery Dance Festival held in New York in 2015. Sonal has successfully executed challenging projects like the National Award-winning film produced by Priyanka Chopra ‘Ventilator’ where she designed costumes for all 120 characters featured in the film. She has long standing collaboration with the Drama School, Mumbai and the Beej Foundation for performing arts for their annual performances.