Kuljeet Singh

Known for his restrained performance in films like Margarita With A Straw & Amu, Kuljeet is the founder & Creative Director of Atelier Theatre, a Delhi-based theatre group. Besides his teaching profession in the department of English, University of Delhi, he is practicing theatre since his college days and his interest lies in Performance and Film Studies. His M. Phil dissertation thesis is on the history of theatre on the campus of the University of Delhi since 1924 from the works of St. Stephen’s The Shakespeare Society. He is presently working on his doctoral thesis, which is a continuation of the same area. He is also on the panel of the Macmillan Publishing House. His vast experience of performing includes several theatre productions under the direction of M.K. Raina, Avtar Sahni, Surendra Sharma, Roysten Abel, Anna-Helena McLean and VK Sharma, as well as acting in Shonali Bose’s National Award-winning film AMU, Imtiaz Ali’s ROCKSTAR and Sharad Nigam’s INTERVAL. Recipient of Junior fellowship in Theatre (Ministry of Culture, GOI), YUVA Puruskar (Sahitya Kala Parishad, Government of Delhi) and YCE – Young Creative Entrepreneur Award (British Council, India), Kuljeet has adapted and directed more than a dozen full length productions for Atelier Theatre: Self scripted Goodbye Blue Sky, Barrie Keeffe’ SUS, Jean Anouilh’s Antigone, Manu Bhandari’s Mahabhoj, Neil Simon’s Laughter On The 23rd Floor & Rumors (as “Khusar Phusar”), Edward Albee’s The Zoo Story, Badal Sircar’s Baaki Itihas and Saari Raat and of late Ramu Ramanathan’s Collaborators . His magnum opus Goodbye Blue Sky was awarded by Sahitya Kala Parishad in 2006 and has been performed in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkatta. He has also directed half a dozen productions for college students and more than 20 one-act plays for different schools in Delhi, Rajasthan, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh. He is a faculty in Theatre and Dramatic Arts with schools of repute, and is instrumental in developing and implementing methodologies of teaching and effective incorporation of specific elements of drama in the classroom. He has conceptualized and designed seven Campus Theatre festivals in the past successfully. These theatre festivals are meticulously designed to foster theatre activities in the Campus of the University of Delhi. Since 2007, with 10 episodes, this festival has invited 500 performances from different college groups, each photographed and documented. Moreover, Kuljeet is the sole resource who has collected, collated, catalogued and organized Campus Theatre Tradition in the last decade. Besides, his brainchild Performing Series is an annual feature of Atelier Theatre, which looks at the works of Indian authors/playwrights in entirety. After Performing Series on Tagore in 2011, and Badal Sircar in 2012 (performed Baaki Itihas & Saari Raat in August 2012), Atelier Repertory completed a series on the works of Ramu Ramanathan in 2013 and is gearing up for series on Girish Karnad in 2015. Of late he directed Project Antigone & Kujh Afsaney in Punjabi language and plans to create a corpus of substantial work in Punjabi language. Edited Shudrak’s Mrichhakatikam for the honors course in English Literature of the University of Delhi, Kuljeet is compiling a collection of poems entitled Then & When; writing a book From Page To Stage along with acting in Seekh Kabab, a play by Atelier Repertory Company & a film Manmarzian by Sameer Sharma (of Love Shuv Chicken Khurana fame) . He is writing on Theatre and Performing Arts for Journals and web portals. He is also the Chief Editor-in-chief of Theatrewallahs, the monthly newsletter of Atelier. He is a faculty in Theatre and Dramatic Arts with schools of repute, and is instrumental in developing and implementing methodologies of teaching and effective incorporation of specific elements of drama in the classroom. He has conceptualized and designed three Theatre festivals in the past. In his personal capacity as a socially responsible citizen, he dedicates a substantial part of his time to social work specifically for the benefit of street children and rag pickers. Kuljeet Singh is known worldwide for Margarita with a Straw (2014). Category:Living people Category:Year of birth missing (living people)