Nandikar's National Theatre Festival was started in 1984. It is arranged annually in

Kolkata Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...

, India, between 16 and 25 December. Initiated and organized, as the name suggest, by the theatre group Nandikar. The festival is held at the

Academy of Fine Arts, Calcutta The Academy of Fine Arts, in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) is one of the oldest fine arts societies in India. The galleries of the Academy provide a whopping 6,300 square feet of space and has an auditorium, a conference centre, and several import ...

. The stated twin objective for the festival is to facilitate cultural integration in India and providing a forum for exchange of notes among theatre workers from different parts of the country. However, the festival was initially a part of Nandikar's silver jubilee, but due to the good reception the group decided to turn it into an annual event. The festival display productions by leading and ''

avant-garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

'' theatre troupes from all over India and, occasionally, from countries like United States, Sweden, Switzerland,

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

and

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

. Exhibitions and workshops are also arranged in connection with the festival.

References

Theatre in Kolkata Festivals established in 1984 Theatre festivals in India 1984 establishments in West Bengal Annual events in India {{India-theat-stub

See also

References