We are…
A collective of theatre practitioners founded in 2009, committed to producing and promoting new and inventive work in New Delhi.
The Tadpole Repertory is a collective of actors, writers, directors, musicians and designers based in New Delhi. We present original theatrical work on subjects that we think are relevant and compelling to us and to contemporary audiences. Our work often frames the collisions between the mundane and the strange, our attention focusing on the small, subtle, slippery details that compose human life. Our next production will After All, in November-December 2024 in New Delhi.
Tadpole’s practice of work tackles both the material aspects of theatre and the complexity of dramaturgy: our fundamental tools as storytellers. Most of us are self-trained and have, in developing our pedagogy, worked hard to create a vocabulary and a manner of discourse that demystifies the craft of theatre for others. Over the past fifteen years, we have attempted to develop and extend a workable and generous framework for what it means to be making work of the stage, whether as an actor, writer or director. We have done this through workshops and other teaching formats with people of all ages, specifically through our education initiative The Looking Glass Project.
The founding members of the repertory — Neel Chaudhuri, Kriti Pant and Bikram Ghosh — previously worked together under The First City Theatre Foundation between 2006 and 2009. Tadpole's first independent production was Taramandal (2010), which won winner of the Hindu MetroPlus Playwright Award. Our subsequent work includes a bi-lingual production of William Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale, Still and Still Moving (winner of two META Awards), NDLS, a long-running variety sketch show about life in Delhi, and This Will Only Take Several Minutes, a collaboration with the theatre collective HANCHU-YUEI from Tokyo. Our most recent stage projects are Quicksand (2017), PlastiCity (2018), and Rakshas (2018). During the coronavirus pandemic Tadpole worked on two projects – Speaking in Tongues, a collective of five short films for the Oddbird Foundation and Meridian, an interactive audio piece for mobile phones.
Our work has travelled across India to festivals in Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Chennai, Chandigarh, Thrissur and Hyderabad. We have also performed in Dublin and Tokyo and our work has featured as part of the IndiaScene project in Paris, France. And yet our heart and the bulk of our work sits in New Delhi, where we continue to be part of a wider network of independent theatre-makers and companies, making work that is relevant, lively and moving.
Our team at present:
Neel Chaudhuri | co-founder, director, writer | recorder of humans, feeler of feelings
Kriti Pant | co-founder, actor, singer, facilitator| keeper of all things neat and tidy
Krittika Bhattacharjee | writer, actor | operations and nit-picking
Pooja Anna Pant | actor, poet, singer-songwriter, educator | weirdness supervisor
Anushrut Ramakrishnan Agarwal | writer, poet, actor | long-distance lover
A small glimpse into some of our work:
Video: Watch The City (2020) | For Oddbird Theatre and Foundation’s Quarantine Video Project
Trailer: Rakshas (2018)
Testimonial: The Winter’s Tale (2013):
Trailer: A Brief History of The Pantomimes (2011)
Ripples in other ponds?
Find us here
On instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tadpolerepertory/?hl=en
On facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tadpolerep
On youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TadpoleRepertory
In a galaxy long, long ago: https://tadpoletheatre.wordpress.com/
