Anupama Chandrasekhar is an Indian playwright born and based in Chennai. She is best known for her play ''The Father and the Assassin'', which earned her a nomination for the

Evening Standard Theatre Awards The ''Evening Standard'' Theatre Awards, established in 1955, are the oldest theatrical awards ceremony in the United Kingdom. They are presented annually for outstanding achievements in London Theatre, and are organised by the ''Evening Standar ...

for Best Play and was a finalist for the

Susan Smith Blackburn Prize The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize established in 1978, is the largest and oldest playwriting prize for women+ writing for English-speaking theatre. Named for Susan Smith Blackburn (1935–1977), alumna of Smith College, who died of breast cancer. W ...

Career

Chandrasekhar's plays have been staged at leading venues in India, Europe, Canada, and the US. She was the National Theatre, London's first international playwright-in-residence from 2016 to 2017, and was formerly a journalist with the

Hindu Business Line ''Business Line'' or ''The Hindu Business Line'' is an Indian business newspaper published by Kasturi & Sons, the publishers of the newspaper ''The Hindu'' located in Chennai, India. The newspaper covers priority industry verticals, such as Agri ...

. Her play ''Free Outgoing'', directed by

Indhu Rubasingham Indhu Rubasingham, , is a British theatre director and the current artistic director of the Kiln Theatre (formerly the Tricycle Theatre) in Kilburn, London. Early life Born in Sheffield to Tamil parents from Sri Lanka in 1970, Rubasingham was ...

premiered at the

Royal Court Theatre The Royal Court Theatre, at different times known as the Court Theatre, the New Chelsea Theatre, and the Belgravia Theatre, is a non-commercial West End theatre in Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England ...

in London in 2007. It was revived at the Royal Court's main theatre in Summer 2008 and travelled to the Traverse Theatre for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival the same year.Macmillan, Joyce
It’s Still A Man’s World
''Scotsman'', 11 August 2008. Chandrasekhar was a runner up for the

Evening Standard Theatre Award The ''Evening Standard'' Theatre Awards, established in 1955, are the oldest theatrical awards ceremony in the United Kingdom. They are presented annually for outstanding achievements in London Theatre, and are organised by the ''Evening Standa ...

’s Charles Wintour Prize for Most Promising Playwright in 2008.Jury, Louise
Donmar Dominates the London Stage at the ES Theatre Awards
''Evening Standard'', 24 November 2008. She was also shortlisted for the

John Whiting Award Between 1965 and 2010, the John Whiting Award (from 2007 renamed the Peter Wolff Trust Supports the John Whiting Award) was awarded annually to a British or Commonwealth playwright who, in the opinion of a consortium of UK theatres, showed a new ...

and the

for ''Free Outgoing''. The play has also been staged by the

Nightwood Theatre Nightwood Theatre is Canada's oldest professional women's theatre and is based in Toronto. It was founded in 1979 by Cynthia Grant, Kim Renders, Mary Vingoe, and Maureen White and was originally a collective. Though it was not the founders' ori ...

in Toronto. The play was staged in India by Crea-Shakti and directed by

Mahesh Dattani Mahesh Dattani (born 7 August 1958) is an Indian director, actor, playwright and writer. He wrote such plays as ''Final Solutions'', ''Dance Like a Man'', ''Bravely Fought the Queen'', ''On a Muggy Night in Mumbai'', ''Tara'', ''Thirty Days in ...

in 2015 and had its American premiere, directed by Snehal Desai and produced by Boom Arts, in Portland, Oregon in 2016. Her next play, ''Disconnect'', directed by Indhu Rubasingham, also premiered at the Royal Court Theatre. ''Disconnect'' has been translated and staged in German and Czech languages and had its American and West Coast premieres in 2013 at Chicago's

Victory Gardens Theater Victory Gardens Theater is a theater company in Chicago, Illinois dedicated to the development and production of new plays and playwrights. The theater company was founded in 1974 when eight Chicago artists, Cecil O'Neal, Warren Casey, Stuart Go ...

and the

San Jose Repertory Theatre The San Jose Repertory Theatre (a.k.a. San Jose Rep) was the first resident professional theatre company in San Jose, California. It was founded in 1980 by James P. Reber. In 2008, after the demise of the American Musical Theatre of San Jose, th ...

respectively. Her play for children, ''

The Snow Queen "The Snow Queen" ( da, Snedronningen) is an original fairy tale by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen. It was first published 21 December 1844 in '' New Fairy Tales. First Volume. Second Collection'' (''Nye Eventyr. Første Bind. Anden Samli ...

'', an Indian adaptation of the Hans Christian Andersen story, written under commission to the

Unicorn Theatre The Unicorn Theatre is a children's theatre in the London Borough of Southwark, in England. It is a custom-built, RIBA Award–winning building on Tooley Street, which opened in 2005. The theatre was designed by Keith Williams, built by Arup ...

in London, opened for Christmas in December 2011. The play, directed by Rosamunde Hutt, was a tremendous box office success.Muthalaly, Shonali
50 Shows and Still Going Strong
''The Hindu'', 2 August 2012. A remount of the production, produced by the Trestle Theatre, UK, opened the Chennai Metroplus Theatre Festival in 2012 and has toured several cities in India and the UK. Her subsequent play, ''When the Crows Visit'', inspired by Ibsen's '' Ghosts'' and tackling the issue of sexual violence and patriarchy in India, opened at the

Kiln Theatre The Kiln Theatre (formerly the Tricycle Theatre) is a theatre located in Kilburn, London, Kilburn, in the London Borough of Brent, England. Since 1980, the theatre has presented a wide range of plays reflecting the cultural diversity of the ar ...

in Autumn 2019. Directed by

, the play was a response to India's horrific

2012 Delhi gang rape The 2012 Delhi gang rape and murder, commonly known as the Nirbhaya case, involved a rape and fatal assault that occurred on 16 December 2012 in Munirka, a neighbourhood in South West Delhi. The incident took place when Jyoti Singh, a 22-yea ...

and other crimes against women. In June 2021, the National Theatre announced that it would stage Chandrasekher's new work ''The Father and the Assassin'' in its Olivier Theatre in May 2022, a work about the radicalised, devout follower of Gandhi who eventually became his killer. Her other plays include Acid, originally produced by QTP, Mumbai and later by the Madras Players in 2007 (which she directed), and Closer Apart, produced by Theatre Nisha – Chennai. Her screenplay adaptation of Free Outgoing was a finalist for the Sundance International Screenwriters’ Lab, Utah. She is the screenplay writer for a short film Kitchen Tales directed by Jane Moriarty and completed in 2020-21. Her short story Wings of Vedanthangal was the Asia winner of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize in 2006. She won a Charles Wallace Trust of India (CWIT) fellowship to the Royal Court Theatre's International Playwrights Programme in 2000. She was the CWIT Writing Fellow at the University of Chichester in 2015.http://www.mumbaitheatreguide.com/dramas/interviews/anupama-chandrashekar-interview.asp

Selected plays

#''When the Crows Visit'' # ''The Snow Queen'' #''Disconnect'' #''Free Outgoing'' #''Acid''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chandrasekhar, Anupama Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Indian women dramatists and playwrights Indian women journalists English-language writers from India Writers from Chennai Women writers from Tamil Nadu 21st-century Indian dramatists and playwrights 21st-century Indian women writers 21st-century Indian writers The Hindu journalists Journalists from Tamil Nadu Dramatists and playwrights from Tamil Nadu