Remembering the journey...

In a bid to remember their past and focus on their present, Atelier, the premier Delhi-based theatre group showcased their journey through performance photographs, posters, promotional material at an exhibition in the City recently. 

The exhibition was inaugurated by eminent Punjabi playwright Dr Swarajbir who is a leading contemporary Indian playwright. Kuljeet Singh, the curator of the exhibition and creative director of Atelier Theatre also announced the group’s next 10-year roadmap while emphasising on the need for promoting regional theatre and its production. He also announced the project of taking up one theatre production each year in Punjabi language. 

As the name suggests, Atelier is an expression of ‘movement’ and ‘space’. It fundamentally creates space for all sorts of expressions, primarily in arts. Be it theatre and performing arts or visual arts and cinema, Atelier is very clear about its ideals: Equality, innovation and concern.

Till date, the group has managed to create what many thousands only aspired for. Atelier has a full-fledged theatre repertory for rehearsing and performing, an ‘Atelier Kidz’ programme and Bachpan, children’s theatre festival for schools. ‘ACT’, Asia’s biggest youth theatre week for college students and the independent theatre-studio too is a much awaited event.

At Atelier, they have devised and designed workshops on creative teaching and creative learning, incorporating drama and theatre-in-education techniques. The workshops have been an eye-opener for more than a thousand teachers and students from across 700 schools in and around Delhi.

The theatre group is also into devising interactive short plays for teachers and students which delve into various subjects like learning, creativity, self-knowledge and communication. 

Talking to Metrolife, Kuljeet, shared, “It is a great feeling to have completed a decade and we hope to complete many more years too. You know, it has been a pattern in Delhi that theatre groups shut down after five years. The first three years are good, the fourth year they struggle and in the fifth year they close shop because of various reasons, including capital. But, we are fortunate enough to reach this level. So, this exhibition was just a remembrance of all those moments which led to this historic moment of our theatre group.”