Over 45 schools from across India took part in the semi-finals of the 33rd Annual Inter-School Drama at the Satyajit Ray Auditorium, ICCR, Kolkata, from 9 to 13 September 2013.
The nine finalist schools are:
- G D Birla Centre for Education, Kolkata
- Kolkata GOALZ Police School, Kolkata
- Modern High School for Girls, Kolkata
- Union Chapel School, Kolkata
- PSBB Learning Leadership Academy, Bengaluru
- Bright Day School, Vasna Unit, Vadodara
- St Marks Sr. Secondary School, Meera Bagh, Delhi
- DPS Rohini, Delhi
- St Mary’s English Medium School, Udipi
These nine schools will now compete for the National Finals which will be held on 8 December 2013 at South City International School, Kolkata. Applications in the form of scripts and synopses were received from over 180 schools from across the country for a place in the semi-finals.
Music director Kaushik Datta, theatre person Shuktara Lal and dancer and arts producer Paramita Saha were the judges.
The 33rd Annual Inter-School Drama Festival is collaboration between the British Council and the Manchester Metropolitan University and is supported by the Kolkata Municipal Development Authority, Indian Oil Corporation Ltd, Bloomsbury India, Hotel Hindustan International, Education for All Trust, SaReGaMa and the RP Sanjiv Goenka Group and South City International School.
The school drama festival has been one of British Council’s foremost theatre projects for over 30 years. With this project, the British Council enabled a strong concept of theatre workshop and performance amongst schools in India. The project allowed students to write/direct/perform their own plays, thereby promoting a sense of teamwork and originality. Several young luminaries in the field of acting from Bollywood or the performing arts, including Konkona Sen Sharma, have had their first brush with acting from this project which they acknowledge in leading forums.