IISU Theatrical Society, COSDTheatre studies, ICG-IISU Alumnae Association - Bandhan andRotary Club Jaipur- Gurukul are organising a talk series onTheatre. This talk session was the fifth session overall in this seriesand first of the year 2021. The session started with the welcome notedelievered by Dr. Aditi R.Khandelwal and was furthermoderated by Ms Jyoti Sharma, an Alumni of IISU and President-The IISU Theatrical Society 2017-18. She introduced Mr. Kuljeet Singh to the audience. An actor, director, producer, professor, curator, sir is also the founder and creative director of Atelier Theatre (2004), a Delhi based Theatre company. His vast experience of performance includes several theatre productions under the direction of M.K. Raina, Avtar Sahni, Surendra Sharma, Roysten Abel, Anna-Helena McLean and V.K.Sharma. He has also acted in Shonali Bose’s National Award winning film Amu and Margarita With A Straw, Imtiaz Ali’s Rockstar and Sharad Nigam’s Interval. He has directed over a dozen productions for college students and more than 50 theatre plays for different schools in Delhi, Rajasthan, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh. His flagship programme-LEARNING THROUGH THEATREis extremely popular in various schools.

Main objective of talk was How crucial is the role of text & reading in peforming? What career opportunities theatre provides us with and how does one find their centre in the world that’s constantly changing, while pursuing something as fickle and uncertain as theatre. This particular session was designed to answer these questions.

Known for his restrained performance in films like Margarita With A Straw and Amu, his recent works include Sunit Sinha’s Ranj and Amazon Prime’s Web series Breathe-2, directed by Mayank Sharma. His upcoming film is Udham, directed by Shoojit Sircar.

After the introduction Ms Jyoti asked him about how has his journey through the years been, donning multiple hats and such vivid roles. He shared how he hails from a family with no background in theatre and It was only as a student at the Delhi University, where he was pursuing Bachelor of Arts in English Literature, that his journey with theatre started. One of his professors, Prof. Zafar Malik encouraged him to join the university theatre team backstage. And it was there that he “fell in love with the smell of the stage, the dark of the auditorium and the silence in the backstage”, as he quotes. Singh was offered professorship at the university in 2007, soon after his graduation and he kept doing theatre alongside teaching till 2017.Though he was constantly advised against leaving a full time, secure job of professorship, he decided to take the leap of faith and he left teaching and dedicated himself full time to theatre and performing arts. 

Mr. Singh also spoke about the endless creative channels and career options that theatre provides today. He shared his personal and professional experiences from the pandemic, especially how his theatre group’s travelling and performing plans were stalledyet personally how he found so much time to read, reflect and watch movies he couldn’t before. He spoke about how being away from stage for so long and returning back just now could make the young artists feel insecure but they need to combat their every apprehension with the right attitude and confidence.

Ms. VritikaDhabhai, an alumni of the IISU and an active member of the IISU Theatrical Society then took over the session and asked him about his favourite texts, writers and the role of reading in performing. Mr. Singh spoke at length how instrumental reading is in theatre and shared his list of favourite books and writers. Singh also gave an account of his association with the IISU family that dates long back, delighted over the fact that students here are provided with formal training in theatre.

At the end there was a Q&A session in which students asked their questions to Mr.Kuljeet and He answered them with his great zeal and insight.