Course & Performing Ensemble: Long Form Improvisational Theatre

Kaivalya Plays invites you to 

LONGFORM IMPROVISATIONAL THEATRE

Course & Performing Ensemble

A weekend course for improvisers with experience to learn long-form improv formats and join a regular performance team.

🗓️ Begins Sunday July 7

⏰ Runs 9:30am-11:30am on Sundays (July 7, 14, 21, 28)

📍 Sanskriti Kala Kendra, Aya Nagar, South Delhi 

🎟️ INR 4999/- per participant. Get 20% off on booking on or before 15th June 2024 by purchasing the available Early Bird ticket.

ABOUT THE COURSE

Become part of a newly formed improv ensemble! In this 4-week immersive workshop, you'll train rigorously in long-form improvisation with the primary objective of creating Kaivalya Plays' next improv troupe ready to hit the stage. Through exercises focused on spontaneous storytelling, scene work, and cooperative creativity, you'll forge an exciting collaborative bond with your fellow performers. The workshop builds up to a debut long-form improv show in the 5th week, with the goal of continuing performances as an official touring ensemble after. Whether improv is new to you or you're a veteran player, get ready to join creative forces and embark on the thrilling journey of longform improvisation as a unified team.

Over four dynamic sessions, participants will:

• Explore advanced techniques and narrative structures in long-form improvisation.
• Develop the ability to create compelling, sustained performances.
• Collaborate with like-minded improvisers in a supportive environment.
• Transition from practice to performance, culminating in regular ensemble shows.

Note: This course is ideal for those with prior improv experience looking to expand their repertoire and perform regularly

ABOUT THE FACILITATOR

Varoon P. Anand is Delhi’s most experienced Improv trainer and performer. Beginning his career at the renowned Theatre Guild of Ancón in Panama, he served on the Board of Governors and as Director of Productions in 2008. In Delhi, Varoon began teaching Improv in 2012 through Kaivalya Plays and in 2014 formed CueLess Improv, the capital’s most renowned team of short-form improv performers. His multi-disciplinary training includes improv training from Danielle Scott, Shawn Kinley, Elana Fishbein and Lacy Alana; clowning from Ashwath Bhatt, Gardzienice physical theatre techniques under Anna Helena McLean, mentorship in Classical Theatre by Ignacio García, and Forum theatre training from React UK. In 2018, in collaboration with the Goethe Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan and medical practitioners, Varoon created Unravel, an interactive show exploring the therapeutic effects of improvisational theatre. In 2018, Varoon was selected for the Gender Bender festival by Goethe Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Bangalore. In 2019, Varoon directed and produced Marta la piadosa the first ever Indian selection for the world’s largest classical theatre festival, el festival de Almagro in Spain in collaboration with the Instituto Cervantes Nueva Delhi, the Embassy of Spain and the ICCR. In 2019, Varoon co-founded the HEADSPACE programme in collaboration with Oddbird Theatre & Foundation that offered improv for mental health workshops open to anyone. As of 2024, Varoon has trained more than 600 performers in spontaneous improvisation, facilitated workshops for over 2000 people in improvisation for mental wellness and collaborated with institutions like Embassy of Spain, the Embassy of Argentina, Embassy of Ecuador, Embassy of the Netherlands, India Habitat Centre, Little Theatre Group (LTG) Repertory, the Goethe Institut, Danish Cultural Institute, American Centre New Delhi, Oddbird Theatre & Foundation amongst others. He continues to explore new ways to present and teach the techniques of improv, along with his other specialties.​ 

ABOUT KAIVALYA PLAYS

Kaivalya Plays is a performing arts and production company led by Varoon P. Anand as its Artistic Director and Gaurav Singh Nijjer as its General Manager. Since 2012, they have worked consistently, been very noisy, and built transcultural associations across India and the world. Their artistic work includes original, devised theatre performances which are multilingual, interactive and hybrid, use technology and media on stage as well as are built using techniques of improvisational, documentary and physical theatre. Their work includes live performances, education and training, community arts programs, producing guest performances, and more. Improvisational theatre is the cornerstone of Kaivalya’s artistic practice, which they apply to arts programs focused on artistic development, language learning, mental health and wellbeing, gender and representation, and multicultural performances, among other areas. They have received multiple artistic commissions and grants, such as EU MediaFutures Artist for Media grant, Goethe Institut’s Refunction and Gender Bender grants, amongst others. Their recent artistic work includes ABSURDO (2023), Mining Hate (2023), Ollantay (2022), Lifeline 99 99 (2021), Luz Negra (2020) How To Disappear Completely and Never be Found (2020), Unravel (2019), amongst others. Most recently, they received the Creativity Pioneers Fund 2023 from the Moleskine Foundation.