The Dramatics Society of Lady Shri Ram College aims to create awareness about theatre and its various aspects in young enthusiastic students of the college by bringing together people who are interested in the performing arts on a common platform.
Working tirelessly for the last 60 years to become one of the best college theatre groups, our productions are a result of intensive discussions and debates put together beautifully by our creative members. The society tries to address various social causes by understanding the dynamics and nuances of the world around us, by observing the grassroot issues closely and at other times, by imagining and creating a utopian world order as an alternative. All this, through the medium of theatre.
LSR Dramatics Society has its main events (Nukkad, the street play event and Yavnika, the stage play event) during the annual cultural fest of the college, Tarang, which marks the grand beginning of the ‘Delhi University Theatre Circuit Season.
We have had the opportunity to work with many established directors, such as AnamikaHaksar and Arvind Gaur, and we hope to continue working with established names to help us direct our energies positively towards the field. This, we seek to achieve through fortnightly workshops arranged by the Society, which in turn, would lead to selection for working in college productions.
Dram(atic) Soc(iety) is the largest society in the college and one of the most active as well. It creates the space to learn, to embrace yourself, to make lasting friendships and to experience people at their creative best.
The Society actively takes part in inter-college festivals in and around Delhi. We practice forms such as street-theatre, spoofs and stage plays. During any given year, within college, we perform on Orientation Day, Independence Day, Teachers’ Day, Graduation Day, Inter-college theatre competition at Tarang etc.
Staff Advisors
Convener: Kanika Ahuja
Co-Convener: Prabha Rani, Vijayant Kumar Singh
In a sense, the tenure of 2022-2023 was pioneering for LSR Dramatics Society for it witnessed the offline functioning of the society after what seemed to be an interminable era of online productions. On the 15th of September, 2022, LSR Dramatics Society collaborated with NSS for their flagship event, ‘Kala’ which aims at providing education to disenfranchised children. The skit centered around the growing importance of environmentalism. The stage production entitled, ‘Caged Sparrow’ was an adaptation of ‘Silence! The Court is in Session’, which has been penned down by the eminent Indian Extra Curricular Activities playwright, Vijay Tendulkar. The stage production partook in the prelims for Mood Indigo, IIT Bombay’s fest. The stage production team also cleared the prelims for the theatre competition of Shakespeare Society, St. Stephen’s College. Finally, the stage production was taken to IIT Delhi’s fest, Rendezvous, wherein it won the third prize. Furthermore, Sharmishta Das, a second-year student of Political Science, won the award of ‘Best Actress’ for her performance as Ismat Benare. Concomitantly, the Nukkad Natak for this tenure was centered around the theme of communalism. It was performed at IIT Kanpur’s fest, Antaragni and Symbiosis’ Fest Symaroh. LSR Dramatics Society collaborated with Kutumb Foundation and The American Embassy and performed a dramatized reading of ‘Embracing a Gay Identity by Wilfrid R. Koponen’, at the American Centre which was followed by a panel discussion on the same. In order to forge better relations in the Delhi College Theatre Circuit (DCTC), Shri Ram College for Commerce arranged for an inter-dram meeting, inviting 10 members from the dramatics society of each college. LSR Dramatics Society attended this meet on the 18th of October, 2022 and had a fulfilling time engaging in multifarious theatrical activities.
In order to publicize Tarang, the college’s cultural festival which occurred between 24th – 26th March, 2023, LSR Dramatics Society conducted a PreTarang event titled, ‘Art Booth’ on the 2nd of March, 2023. On the 25th of March, 2023, LSR Dramatics Society hosted its flagship event, ‘Yavnika’ which is a competition for stage plays. On the 26th of March, 2023, ‘Nukkad Natak’, the street play competition was conducted. The Organizing Committee of LSR Dramatics Society for Tarang 2023 helped in raising sponsorships, worked on publicity, logistical matters, and so forth. As a result of such conscientious work, society was able to host more than 50 Dramatics societies. All in all, LSR Dramatics Society hopes to propagate information regarding crucial matters through the various productions it takes up through the course of the year. LSR Dramatics Society also collaborated with the equality cell of Lady Shri Ram College for Women namely, REACH for their annual fest Parwaaz. The production taken up was a dramatized reading of excerpts from Preeti Monga’s autobiography, “Flight Without Sight”. Dramsoc was honoured to host the Author, Preeti Monga herself to witness the play and Geroge Abraham, Social Entrepreneur, Inspirational Speaker, and a Disability Activist. LSR Dramatics Society hopes to employ the artform of theatre in order to disseminate knowledge and spread awareness in this world regarding a wide gamut of conundrums. Theatre has been, is, and will be a medium of resistance and change for centuries to come and our society endeavours to uphold this ethos!
The Dramatics Society has had a fruitful session this year. Working on numerous productions, organizing workshops and collaborations with different departments and societies were undertaken with great vigor. The past year compelled a shift to the online mode but that did not hinder the efforts all members put in. The society members made an audio play , ‘No Exit,’ by Satre and also screened it in association with the English Literary Association. Two short films were produced online: ‘Epilogue,’ which was an original script and ‘The Tell Tale Heart,’ by Edgar Allan Poe. The society also made a short film ‘ Leher’, the premise of which was mental health, for a screening organized by PSYCHOLOGS magazine. It was also screened by the Psychology department of LSR. The society in collaboration with Kutumb Foundation and the American Center worked on an audio-video production adapted from ‘The Perks of Being a Wallflower’ by Stephen Chbosky.
Sessions centered around stage and street productions, music, lights and sound were conducted online to train the members about the field and extent of ‘drama as an art’. In addition to the aforementioned screenings, the society also held a script-reading session in collaboration with the Hindi and Sanskrit departments.
With the offline transition, the Dramatics Society resumed offline productions- one street and one stage. The stage production was titled ‘Intimacy’ and was presented during the college’s intra-cultural fest ‘Umang.’ It was also performed at ‘Athelia,’ the annual fest of the Philosophy Department. The Street Production 2021-22, centered around body-shaming, was performed in the college’s intra-cultural fest ‘Umang’. The team performed at several public places like INA, Rajiv Chowk and Lajpat Nagar and multiple inter-college competitions of colleges like Ramanujan and VIPS. This production also got selected to be performed at IIT Delhi wherein they were amongst the top 13 teams out of the 250 teams participating and also won the award for best director in IIT Delhi.
The society members participated in Aarambh. This was an inter-college 2 day workshop for all Delhi-based theater societies, wherein the second years went for training to the societies of other colleges. According to their allocation, the third years of the societies conducted fun and eventful sessions for the members of other colleges that were allocated to them. All of the participants learnt a great deal through this experience. The society also attended events outside the college which included the various performances that were held at different colleges of the Delhi University circuit taking insights for various social causes and to also acquaint the second years with the offline zeal of dramatics society. The society functioned with maximum vivaciousness in online mode as well as in offline mode, sailing through the various hurdles that came in their way, always trying their best to ensure learning and exploring multiple forms of theater inside and outside the society.
