World Theatre Day Address 2026

I recall the story of the Dalai Lama being asked if he would like to be born again despite the fact that the world will not get better. He answered ‘if I could be useful, then I would like to be born again’.

In a violent culture attracted by fame and success the notion of usefulness is radical. Can art be useful? Art sometimes I feel is an extravagant and exquisite waste of time and a world complete by itself, yet the irony is that art is useful in a deep and enduring way. The poet Joseph Brondsky describes art as the oxygen that might arrive when the last breath has been expended.

We are living in very particular times that demand a specific kind of response. No matter how many obstacles we encounter, political, financial or spiritual, the one thing we cannot afford is inaction due to despair. Manufactured certainty is the order of the day. And yet the concept of an open society is based on the fact that nobody is in possession of the ultimate truth. When one is in touch with complexity it is impossible to be certain.

I joined the National School of Drama without the awareness of what “drama” meant. Ebrahim Alkazi defined for me an aesthetic for theatre and a work ethic. The single most far reaching impact that he made on me was to make me realise that working in the theatre was not like joining a hobby class. He introduced me to theatre as a profession which required as much seriousness, labour and commitment as one would need to become a doctor or a lawyer.

BV Karanth, with whom I worked in Bharat Bhavan Bhopal, created an articulation of the evolving role of a director, of his search to produce a theatre that could express the complexities of contemporary realities, taking into consideration training tools that had local origins, vernacular moorings and regional sensibilities. These two varied approaches to theatre produced a certain alchemy. With no premeditated design or plan to put these two trainings together, it turned out they served to counterbalance one with the other.

“What is that one moment that alters your life?” is a question I ask myself. Is it the people I met or the details of experiences that touched my life and changed me? I suppose what I am today as a person and a director is a mixture of what I have seen, heard, smelt, experienced, eaten, remembered and forgotten. It’s all stored within me and spills out in my work space. All of these experiences combined with my training are what I struggled to understand as an artist and I understood them only through experiencing them in the rehearsal space with other artists.

For me theatre has been a place where I can see the world with different eyes, where truths can be tested, a disturbing and exciting space, fueling dreams and provoking fundamental questions about our lives. But a small question constantly nags me. Do I really matter? Does my work matter? Did I somewhat add value to what already exists?

I work in the theatre because it helps me articulate my daily life, challenges me, helps me take decisions, teaches me how to reject and be part of a community.

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Neelam Man Singh Chowdhry is an Indian theatre artist based in Chandigarh. She was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 2003 the Padma Shri Award in 2011. She is serving as a Professor Emeritus at Panjab University.