About us
Samahaara is one of the most popular and largest theatre groups in India. In the last decade, we have covered a vast body of theatre work including productions, workshops, theatre festivals and collaborations across the world. The most important contribution we pride ourselves on is creating original plays and performing them to packed houses.
Samahaara plays a key role in promoting local talent via our theatre festivals (Hyderabad Theatre Festival 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and Dramaybaaz – a festival of solo plays).
Actor training is one of our specializations and a priority, as we believe well-trained actors lead to better quality theatre productions. Samahaara’s Weekend Theatre Workshops, workshops for corporates, schools, colleges and Film Acting Courses have created a pool of highly trained and dedicated actors. Some of the best acting talent in Hyderabad come from our workshops and plays.
Now, with 35 Play productions, over 70 Theatre Workshops, 5 Theatre Festivals, casting for Films and creating our brand of Stand-up Comedy, Samahaara has become one of the most active theatre groups in India making theatre happen 365 days of the year. We at Samahaara thank our many patrons, audiences, sponsors, press and supporters for making all this possible and being with us on this extraordinary journey.
70
Workshops
35
Play Productions
5
Theatre Festivals
Founders
Rathna Shekar Reddy
Founder, President
Anjali Parvati Koda
Playwright, Co-Founder
Rathna Shekar Reddy
Founder, President
The young theatre practitioner has been relentlessly working for years to bring theatre to young people of India and bring young Hyderabadis closer to Theatre. The master-mind behind Samahaara, along with co-founder Anjali Parvati Koda, Rathna Shekar has been catalyst in making Theatre “cool” in the twin cities. By associating with several schools and colleges, performing plays within the premises of institutions and corporates, conducting numerous workshops, many of them free, producing and directing numerous plays and by getting new audiences to theatre, he has been quietly responsible for what can only be called Theatre Revolution in the city for the last few years. He has been the first person to associate himself and his group with other theatre groups, has mentored several new theatre groups and youngsters by giving them support of every kind and most importantly, created a platform for those who became interested in theatre.
Older theatre practitioners in the city marvel at his focus and determination to create a Theatre Culture in the city. He achieved this by encouraging young directors by producing plays, pioneering the concept of employing fulltime actors for theatre in Hyderabad and by bringing in innovative ways of reaching theatre audiences. He also has been instrumental in bringing Corporate Sponsorship for the theatre festivals in a big way, conducting theatre workshops in collaboration with international theatre personalities like David Zinder (Israel), Stu Denison (UK), Mike Daisey (US, in associating with the US Consulate General Hyderabad).
Rathna Shekar has directed twelve plays and has acted in several Telugu movies, short films, commercials and corporate films. He has also been on the direction department of Walt Disney’s production, Anaganaga O Dheerudu. He has an MBA, an MPA (Gold Medalist) from University of Hyderabad and has been trained as an actor & director at the prestigious Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute, New York. With constant and consistent efforts, Samahaara is now proud to say that theatre in Hyderabad by the city folk is not sporadic nor does it lack in quality and experimentation. It is still an on-going process, but we can safely say, we are presently witnessing history happening right here, right now, with visionaries like Rathna Shekar Reddy leading from the front.
Anjali Parvati Koda
Playwright, Co-Founder
Anjali Parvati Koda is a playwright and Co-founder of Samahaara. Her first play Purushotham-He, the victim of Spiders and Pressure Cookers, written when she was 18, was a critical success. Her second play, Dominic Wesley, performed first in Feb 2011 has been cited as “a modern fable”, and a landmark English play in Hyderabad’s history. She also has written Gregor Samsa, a stage adaptation of Franz Kafka’s novella “Metamorphosis” and is currently working on her fourth play. She also co-wrote an adaptation of William Seebring’s The Original Last Wish Baby, titled The Last Wish Baby. She has a Mass Communications degree and a MA in English literature. She has assisted in several ad films, television serials, one documentary and a movie.