Join These Theatres Groups In Kolkata To Unleash Your Inner Creative Actor

Koli Kotha in Kolkata is not known to be any regular commercial board, production house, or even a theatre hall. It is a theatre group founded by a bunch of teenage theatre enthusiasts back in 2011 in memory of the great theatre teacher Sri Ramaprasad Banik. They are open to newer theatre enthusiasts joining them and believe that age is just a number. Anyone can do theatre, irrespective of how old they are, given they have the zeal to pursue the same. They are extremely reachable and have recently opened a new franchise named 'The Frames', where they make their own short films and web series. Although their office is open all throughout the week, they conduct workshops only on the weekends.

Timing: 10 AM to 9 PM

Google Rating: 4.4/5

Nandikari is a 64-year-young institution in Kolkata that is known to be at the forefront of the national theatre movement. Since the 1960s, in collaboration with the renowned Satyajit Ray, it has sustained activities in creative arts and theatre to promote this field's diversity, quality, and scale. It has some big names working together, namely Debshankar Halder, Rudraprasad Sengupta, and Sohini Sengupta. Around the year, they organise plays at various theatre halls in Kolkata, provide training to budding actors and organise their annual 10-day theatre festival, widely known by all acting enthusiasts PAN-India. 

Timing: Theatre workshops take place every Monday from 5 PM to 8 PM and every Saturday from 3 PM to 8 PM.

Google Rating: 4.5/5

If you're fond of the Mahabharata and theatre, you'd know the famous act of Mahabharata 2 that Natadha performed in Kolkata in April 2019. Established in 1974 by the talented Shib Mukhopadhyay, it stages plays mainly in Bengali and Sanskrit. A few of the other pioneering plays staged by them include Shakespeare, George Bernard Shaw, and Greek mythology. In the past, they have collaborated with Paschim Bangla Natya Academy for workshops and also had prominent names like Rudraprasad Sengupta as guest mentors for their workshops.

Google Rating: 4.8/5

Bodnaam has been running successfully for the past 10 years as a theatre group. It was born out of a love for acting that a few alumni of the Heritage College of Engineering had and further developed as an independent theatre group. They have lots of young students enrolled who do multiple shows and street plays on topics related to the issues of modern life. Their objective is to preserve and promote the longevity of theatre as an art form in this digitally-savvy world. They put together live crowd-works in various parts of the city while also preparing plays in Gyan Manch. For the same, they conduct rehearsing sessions four days a week. To join, one needs to give auditions, timings for which are posted on their socials.

Timing: 3 PM to 7:30 PM

Google Rating: 5/5

Founded by Usha Ganguli, a glorious name in the field of theatre, Rangakarmee came into being in 1976 with a focus on steering the Hindi theatre space in Kolkata. They have set up plays to raise their voice against the prevailing oppression of Human Rights and the torture imposed on women, children and the elderly. They conduct an Annual Theatre Festival in Samanvay that aims to promote the varied cultural and art forms of India. In addition to that, they conduct frequent performances, workshops, training programmes and seminars with the aim of inspiring people to join theatre. 

Timing: 3 PM to 8 PM

Google Rating: 4.6/5

Padatik was founded by Late Shyamanand Jalan in 1972. It's another well-known theatre group in Kolkata that occasionally performs in Mumbai. So, naturally, their plays are usually in Hindi and English. Not only do they specialise in theatre and group acting, but they also conduct regular dance classes. 

Google Rating: 4.3/5

Hypokrites started as a drama group of Ashutosh College bound by one common thread —theatre. It’s now an independent group and if you join them, it is assured that you will have fun and pick up theatre rudiments. Keep tabs on their Facebook page for the next audition.

Google Rating: 3.9/5

The theatre classes at TCA are curated specially to help kids develop their creativity, critical thinking, self-reflection, clarity of communication, engagement with their communities, and sense of responsibility. Headed by Ramanjit Kaur, an award-winning theatre personality, this is an all-rounded course taken in two batches: a junior batch (5 to 10 years) and a senior batch (11 to 16 years). Both these batches are conducted once a week for one hour each. The plays conducted by them are never scripted from before, rather everything is spontaneous.

Timing: 11 AM to 8 PM

Google Rating: 4.3/5