Harleen Kohli in conversation with Neelam Mansingh Chowdhry - Theatre of Joy

Theatre director Dr. Neelam Mansingh Chowdhry treats inherited texts with imagination to create fables for our times. (Indian Express).

Dr. Neelam Man Singh Chowdhry has a Masters degree in the History of Arts as well as a diploma from the National School of Drama. In 1979, she moved to Bhopal and was attached to The Rang Mandal, a theatre repertory attached to the Multi-arts Complex, Bharat Bhavan. In 1984, she moved to Chandigarh where she set up her own theatre company, The Company. Alongside being the Artistic Director of The Company, she has also been teaching in the Department of Indian Theatre, Panjab University, where she also served as the Chairperson. Her well-known plays include Kitchen Katha, The Suit, Yerma, Nagamandala, The Mad Woman of Chaillot, Little Eyolf, Bitter Fruit, Nakes Voices, Gumm Hai, Black Box, and her most recent Girish Karnad's 'Hayavadana' , to name a few.

Dr. Chowdhry is the recipient of several prestigious awards, including the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (2003) and the Padma Shri (2011). She is presently Professor Emeritus at the Panjab University.

The COMPANY was established in 1983 in Chandigarh. Led by it’s Artistic Director, Neelam Mansingh Chowdhry, it has earned renown for creating a theatre that fuses sources material from Western classics with a performance style grounded in an earthy Punjabi aesthetic. It’s productions are characterized by the use of spare props – sticks, fire, rice, washing poles – which evoke the ambiance of an Indian village, and incorporates music, ritualistic elements and the presentation of poetic images that communicate as strongly as words.
Among its many performers are a group of traditional Naqqals, who have had a long tradition of performers. Traditionally the Naqqals have a vast repertoire of traditional songs and ballads and a formidable capacity to improvise on, and lampoon, any whatever situation they are put in.

"In trying to revive in the traditional
performer an interest in his own
dramatic roots. The Company
combines traditional and urban
performers. Working closely with a
group of ten Naqqals (female
impersonators) we managed to
collect from the vast fund of their
experience and memory, a rich,
intricate and complex pattern of
hidden skills, texts, musical scores
and patterns of movement which
extended the meaning of their
stories.

“We encouraged the Naqqals to
recollect various aspects of their
heritage while helping them retain
their traditional skills.”

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