The five-day Naat Utsav, curated by Shiromani playwright Kewal Dhaliwal, will commence on July 1 in Amritsar, presenting plays developed during a month-long residential theatre workshop. The festival, organized by Manch-Rangmanch and Virsa Vihar Society, will run from July 1 to July 5.
Workshop and Festival Details
The month-long residential summer workshop, an annual feature of Amritsar's theatre calendar, runs from early June to early July. It provides intensive training for young theatre practitioners from Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and other states. The workshop culminates in the five-day festival, which is entirely run by these young artists, both as performers and production team members.
Eminent Alumni and Productions
The festival will feature productions directed, designed, and mentored by several eminent alumni of the National School of Drama (NSD), New Delhi, including Partho Banerjee, Pritpal Rupana, and Gulzar Kabir Khan. Kewal Dhaliwal, a distinguished NSD alumnus and president of the Punjab Sangeet Natak Akademi, is the founder of Manch-Rangmanch.
According to Dhaliwal, “The theatre workshop invites students from Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and other states for theatre education. The plays prepared by the students during this one-month continuous theatre workshop will be presented as part of the five-day theatre festival from July 1 to July 5 at Virsa Vihar and Preet Nagar. The student artists are involved either in the production team or as performers, and the festival is entirely run by these young theatre practitioners.”
Plays and Schedule
The festival will present plays inspired by or adapted from literary and dramatic classics such as ‘Oedipus’, Bhisham Sahni’s ‘Muavze’, Dr Sawarajbor’s ‘Tu Bulhe Wangu Bol’, and acclaimed Punjabi productions including ‘Kudesan’, written by the late playwright Jatinder Brar and directed by Kewal Dhaliwal.
All plays will be staged daily at 6:30 pm at the Kartar Singh Duggal Auditorium, with free entry and no tickets or passes required. The concluding performance on July 5 will be held at Preet Nagar.
