Theatrescapes: Experiencing Rasas

The Indian theatre of the last three decades (1980-2013) gets immortalized with Shobha Deepak Singh’s photographs. Shobha’s art of photographing captures the wide spectrum of the modern India theatre with imperative movements anchored by Progressive Artists’ Group, National School of Drama (NSD), and other independent theatre organizations. If theatre is an art of ‘single-shot’ then Shobha’s photographs justly frame the genres of performance with an eye of precision and finesse. The stalwarts of Indian theatre: Ebrahim Alkazi, Amal Allana, Shabana Azmi, Manohar Singh, Kusum Haider, Naseeruddin Shah, Alyque Padamsee, Ratan Thiyam, Neelam Mansingh Choudhary Seema Biswas, Nadeera Babbar bring multiple dimension of theatre under her lens. Theatrescapes is not a simple attempt to historically archive the socio-cultural repository i.e. India theatre but an innovative act to re-narrate the intricate history of theatre for posterity.

Shobha Deepak Singh

In 1969 Shobha Deepak Singh bought a Nikon and captured Shriram Bhartiya Kala Kendra’s productions. She focused on the spot of action, and the result were a wonderful set of images.