SANSAPTAK - A regional language Theatre Group in Delhi

• SANSAPTAK INTRODUCTION
• We took the Road less traveled by and that has made all the difference.
• SANSAPTAK is one of the leading regional language Theatre Group in Delhi (India). Our aim is to present quality theater to a discerning audience, on varied themes that reflect topical concerns. The group was established in 1992 by some like-minded friends and got itself registered under Societies Registration Act 1860. The group is functioning from its registered address G-1276, first floor, Chittaranjan Park, New Delhi- 110 019, India and is carrying out its cultural activities from places wherever available within the vicinity of Chittaranjan Park in Delhi.
• SANSAPTAK, meaning "do or die", sources its name from the legendary warrior force in Mahabharata and we believe an apt name for a group of dynamic individuals from various walks of life, committed to group theatre. What makes SANSAPTAK different from other groups is that we have a 'playwright and director-in-residence'. All our productions are based on either original scripts penned by Torit Mitra or trans-creations or interpretations of major dramatic works from other regional and foreign languages. Apart from theatricals, another core activity that SANSAPTAK pursue is organizing and conducting theater workshops, symposiums and seminars for students and theatre lovers and critics in Delhi and other parts of the country. In a short span of 15 years we have staged more than 27 plays and 190 productions in various part of country. SANSAPTAK is a voluntary organization which runs on “No Profit” motive. We do not sell tickets, entry is through invitations only.

• OBJECTIVES
• To promote development of Performing Arts of BANGLA Theatre in Delhi in consonance with the existing social conditions with a view to improve the same.
• To foster scientific understanding of linguistic and cultural system, and improve strong cultural awareness.
• To diffuse scientific knowledge relating to economic and cultural system and institutions with reference to natural and social process in general and performing arts in particular.
• To inculcate in its member and younger generation a sense of responsibility and involvement through group activities to promote understanding and fraternity amongst the members and to raise their level of artistic sense with reference to social consciousness and concern.

• Official Address : G-1276, First Floor, Chittaranjan Park, New Delhi – 110 019, India
• Tel: 011-2627 6755, 4052 4013, 91-9818652224
• E-mail id: sansaptak.theatre@gmail.com, sansaptak_agroupfortheatre@rediffmail.com,
• s92ns@yahoo.com
• Website : www.geocities.com/sansaptak2002

• THEATRE
• Since 1992 the group's Playwright/ Director, Artist Members and Organizers have been shouldering the weight of the name SANSAPTAK and achieved the desired goal in contemporary scenario of Socio-Eco-Political atmosphere. SANSAPTAK is credited with over 190 night’s performance of more than 27 plays, penned by it’s in- house playwright and director Torit Mitra, at various auditoriums of Delhi, Bhopal and Kolkata.
• From 1992 to 1999 the playwright wrote plays based on urban social problems, with psychological role-plays. The group experimented and produced plays of social realism and middle class crisis. All the plays were well accepted and acclaimed by our audience and critics. The plays are UTTARADHIKAR, BINIDRA, AROKTO SHOMOY, NIJO BASH BHOMMEY, ANIK and DHUASH.
• During the year 1999, Sansaptak took up a project to search for a much liberated and universal subject, levied with Indian artistic and cultural ethos. Inspired by Sham Sheppard’s ‘Buried Child’, they soared to the lands of their roots, West Bengal, in search of a language required for the interpretation of the play. After weeks of rigorous research and discussion, Torit Mitra wrote Garvaj (The womb), a very powerful and a highly successful play. This play started SANSAPTAK’s journey producing much stronger plays with intensive reading, research and methodical rehearsal procedures. In years to come, the Group adopted newer methods of actors training program. For each play SANSAPTAK uses different methodology, needed for the particular subject, going through extensive study and method orientation, which resulted in successful plays like BOHUBRIHEE, NIDAN, ATMADAHO, HANYAMAN, RETURN OF GODOT, SHAHJAHAN (BLACK AND WHITE) and WWW.ANTESHTI.COM, painted on much broader canvas. Mega-productions were also produced like JAGOR, DAKSHINAPATH, MACBETH-MACBETH, UPASHALYA and DEVANAMPIYA. Another mega-production ZAWAL-E-AZIM has been scheduled for March 2008.
• With the sincere efforts and the burning passion for theatre within each and every member of the Group, it received many awards and recognitions in the field of theatre. Since 1992-2007, the Group has been restricted only to Bengali Theatre, to reach out for a much wider audience and portray the richness of the subject areas covered in SANSAPTAK’s plays the Group is proud to present its maiden Hindi venture, HARI BHARI KHWAISH, with the co-sponsorship of Sahitya Kala Parishad, which has been scheduled for the month of August 2007, the translation of the original play, Upashalya in Bengali, scripted and directed by Torit Mitra, and also performed at several occasions. The script has been jointly translated in Hindi by Dipankar Khan and Sreemoyee Dasgupta.
• ACHIEVEMENTS, HONORS AND RECOGNITION IN THEATRE
• * For the first time Amateur Group like ours experimented on minimalism and performed plays namely Chandrabidhouto, Sitar Nirbashan, Hanyaman, Canvasse Kankaboti and Shahjahan (Black and White) in a Studio at Shilpi Bhawan, C. R. Park for two months every Sunday under the banner of Sunday Theatre. For the first time a Bengali Theatre Group has produced its Multi-lingual drama by all its young artists, and staged the play Return of Godot, which created a sensation among the audience and media as well.
• In Delhi our group has placed its name first to experiment with solo reading theatre Katha Koumodi and produced four plays namely Chandrabidhouto, Aaba Othobaa Ekti Nidoya Sankater Galpo, Sankat & Thikana in different venues and even in people's drawing rooms and terraces.
• In the year 2000 the group bagged nine best awards out of eleven in the One Act Drama Competition organized by New Delhi Kalibari for the play Arokto Shomoy. Smt. Sobha Sen, renounced actress of Kolkata, was among the judges who showered praises on SANSAPTAK and bracketed SANSAPTAK’s performance with that of the groups of Kolkata. In 2002, it bagged all six best awards for script, production, actor, costume, make-up and set for the plays Canvasse Kankaboti, Sitar Nirbashan and Return of Godot respectively and Best Actress Award and Second Best Production for the play Janmantor in 2003. SANSAPTAK also received wide coverage in electronic and print media.
• The National School of Drama, New Delhi, India, invited the group to perform Jagor in their Week-end Theatre in 2002 and performed Dakshinapath in NSD’s prestigious International Drama Festival (5th Bharat Rang Mahotsav) in 2003. The playwright, Sh. Torit Mitra, was honoured by eminent theatre personality and director, Sh. Prasanna, by presenting a plaque on behalf of National School of Drama.
• In the year 2004, the group was invited to participate in a Theatre Festival organized by Chittaranjan Memorial Bhawan, C.R.Park, where it performed Katha Kaumodi “Thikana”, a Reading Theatre and two solo productions Sporsho and Janmantor. The play Atmadaho was staged in front of selected audience of NSD for selection in the Bharat Rang Mahotsav 2005.
• In the year 2005 SANSAPTAK performed Macbeth-Macbeth experimented by our playwright on Shakespeare’s Macbeth, which was also put on show at Academy of Fine Arts along with two solo performances of Janmantor and Sporsho and a full-length play Bohubrihee. Mega-production, Upashalya (The Dumping Ground) was staged at B.C.Pal Auditorium which bagged huge applause from the audience.
• The group was invited by National School of Drama to perform its most promising play Atmadaho in their Week-end Theatre at Sammukh in July 2005. SANSAPTAK also was invited at Legends of India in the month of November 2005 to perform Atmadaho along with Girish Karnad’s play “The Broken Images” and NSD’s “Ghasiram Kotwal”.
• Repeat shows of Atmadaho, Hanyaman and Upashalya were staged at Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata, in December 2005. Prominent writer of Kolkata, Sh. Shamik Bandhapadhaya, was our Chief Guest of Honor who witnessed Upashalya at Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata. SANSAPTAK was invited by Sohan Theatre Group to perform Atmadaho at Bijon Theatre, Kolkata in their Annual Theatre Festival in 2005, and has also performed on invitations by Sanglap (Kolkata) and Bhopal in the year 1996.
• Playwright of the group received Gunijon Sambardhana (Eminent Citizen Honor) by Chittaranjan Park Community in the year 2005 for being the only prolific contemporary writer in Delhi for promoting progressive developments in Bangla Language, through his stories, poetry and contemporary plays.
• Our new mega-production Devanampiya (The Fall of the Mauryan Empire) was staged in the year 2006 at The Little Theatre Group, Copernicus Marg, New Delhi. Repeat shows were performed at B. C. Pal Auditorium, Chittaranjan Park. The auditoriums went house-full all the four days. The play was highly appraised and applauded by the audience for its success.
• The year 2006 being the death centennial year of the Great Norwegian Dramatist and Poet, Sir Henrik Johan Ibsen, to pay our humble homage to the person who has been a source of immense inspiration to our Group, SANSAPTAK decided to host an event, aptly titled Elegance of Ibsen, a festival of Plays, Seminar and Exhibition, in collaboration with The Royal Norwegian Embassy. Elegance of Ibsen was inaugurated by his Excellency, Mr. Jon Westborg, Ambassador , extraordinary plenipotentiary of Royal Embassy, which included a Seminar on Ibsen on 15th November 2006 at India International Centre, performances of two Bengali plays, Anik and Bohubrihee (trans-creation of Ibsen’s Little Eyolf and The Master Builder respectively) on 17th and 18th November 2006, at Sri Ram Centre Auditorium, Exhibition (display on Ibsen’s life and works) 17th and 18th November 2006 at Sri Ram Centre Foyer and bringing out biographical calendars on Ibsen for the year 2007 distributed not only in India but also abroad. The festival was an instant grand success not only from the people’s point of view, but also to the theatre lovers and critics. The records of the Festival have been placed in the archival database of www.ibsen.net, which is in close association with Centre for Ibsen Studies, Oslo.
• SANSAPTAK was invited by Aneek Theatre Group to participate with the play Devanampiya, in the Ganga-Jamuna International Theatre Festival 2006-07, under the sponsorship of the Eastern Zonal Cultural Centre, in Kolkata, in the month of December 2006. SANSAPTAK was proud and highly obliged to perform another show of Devanampiya in the Bharatendu Rang Matohsav 2007, by Shaitya Kala Parishad, a cultural body in Delhi administration. The festival was organized for the performances of the best plays staged during the year 2006-07 in Delhi. Anik was performed at the newly formed Muktadhara Auditorium, on the invitation of Bengal Association Festival at the Bahir Banga Utsav in the month of April 2007.
• Sansaptak is proud to present its first Hindi venture with the co-sponsorship of Sahitya Kala Parishad, Hari Bhari Khwahish, which has been scheduled for the month of August 2007.
• Anik, Bohubrihee and Devanampiya are going to be staged at Academy of Fine Arts in Kolkata, in December 2007.
• A new mega-production, Zawal-e-Azim (The Great Fall), a play based on the historical records of the Mughal Empire, it is the portrayal of a historical tragedy. The play tries to analyze the deliberate reasons behind the fall of the Mughal Empire. This new mega-production is on the verge of completion and is going to be staged in the year 2008.
• Sansaptak is recognized and has been receiving patronage from Department of Culture, Govt. of India, Sangeet Natak Academy and Sahitya Kala Parishad, without which our success would have been a distant dream. Sansaptak is also empaneled with Indian Council for Cultural Relations since 2007.