National School of Drama

The National School of Drama (NSD)-one of the foremost theatre institutions in the world and the only one of its kind in India was set up by Sangeet Natak Akademi in 1959. Later in 1975, it became an autonomous organization, totally financed by the Department of Culture. The objective of the NSD is to train students in all aspects of theatre, including theatre history, production, scene design, costume design, lighting, make-up, etc. The training course at NSD is of three years duration. The eligible applicants for admission to the course are screened through two stages. The Diploma of NSD is recognized by the Association of Indian Universities as equivalent to M.A. Degree for appointment as teachers in colleges/universities and for purposes of registration for PhD. The School has a performing wing, a Repertory Company to establish professional theatre and regular experimental work. The NSD has promoted children’s theatre.

It(renamed as Sanskar Rang Toli) was founded in 1989 and has been actively involved in the production of plays for children, organizing summer theatre workshops in the schools of Delhi and also promoting children’s theatre through Saturday Club. Since 1998, the School has organized National Theatre Festival for Children christened ‘Jashne Bachpan’ every year. The first-ever NationalTheatre Festival christened was held from March 18 to April 14, 1999, to commemorate the 50th year of India’s Independence has been made an annual feature. A short-term teaching and training programme titled ‘Extension Programme’ was started in 1978, under which, the school organizes workshops in collaboration with the local theatre groups/artists and these programmes are invariably held in the local languages.

The workshops could be broadly divided into three categories, production-oriented workshops, production-oriented children's workshops and teaching and training programmes in Theatre. the school has a Regional Research Centre at Bengaluru to cater to the theatrical needs of the four southern states and Puducherry. The School also publishes textbooks on theatre and also arranges for translation of important books theatre from English into Hindi.