23 Facts About Raj Bisaria

Raj Bisaria was an Indian director, producer, actor and educationalist, described by the Press Trust of India as "the father of the modern theatre in North India".

Raj Bisaria founded Theatre Arts Workshop in 1966, and Bhartendu Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1975 and the repertory company of Bhartendu Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1980.

Raj Bisaria blended artistic concepts of the East and the West, and the traditional and the modern.

Raj Bisaria was educated at Colvin Taluqdars' College and Lucknow University, Lucknow, and retired as a senior professor of English Literature from Lucknow University.

In 1969, Bisaria married the Kiran Kuchawan; the couple have a daughter, Rajina.

Four years later, Raj Bisaria founded the Theatre Arts Workshop in 1966 and Bhartendu Academy of Dramatic Arts, Government of Uttar Pradesh, in 1975, and the repertory company of BNA in 1981.

Raj Bisaria was the first man from Uttar Pradesh to have been awarded a Padma Shree for work in modern theatre and his contribution towards the growth of theatre in India.

Raj Bisaria was removed as the honorary director of Bhartendu Academy of Dramatic Arts, and he was assaulted twice, first in 1988 and then in 1995.

Raj Bisaria died after a battle with throat cancer on 16 February 2024, at the age of 88.

External theatre training for Raj Bisaria included an invitation by the British Council, London, to visit the UK and train at the British Drama League as a producer, drama instructor, and adjudicator, in 1969.

Raj Bisaria was a stage director with a grounding in both the western classics and contemporary dramatic works.

Raj Bisaria tried to ensure that the dramatic and performing arts conform to a professional discipline and communicate through a new aesthetic medium.

Raj Bisaria's plays are concerned with men-women relationships and social issues of special concern to him.

Raj Bisaria encouraged folk theatre in the Uttar Pradesh local genre known as the Nautanki.

Raj Bisaria played leading roles in at least two dozen plays in English and Hindi, such as:.

Raj Bisaria was interested as an actor, director and theatre teacher in the system of Konstantin Stanislavski and Bertolt Brecht.

The Russian theatre practitioner provided the core of Raj Bisaria's directing and pedagogy in contemporary Indian theatre.

Raj Bisaria started his venture in English language with Shakespeare's Othello in 1966, Christopher Fry's poetic play A Phoenix too Frequent and Eugene Ionesco's absurd play The Lesson in 1967.

In 1967 a significant advance was made when Raj Bisaria decided to produce and direct Jean-Paul Sartre's existential In Camera, Edna St Vincent Millay's Aria Da Capo and Ronald Duncan's translation of 12th century classic Abelard and Heloise in a three-bill presentation, in November, 1967.

Raj Bisaria was aware from the very beginning that any worthwhile theatre activity had to find its moorings in Hindi and other Indian languages.

Raj Bisaria sought the co-operation of the then existing theatre groups to realize his plans to establish a bilingual theatre in Lucknow.

Raj Bisaria even brought the production rights of Mohan Rakesh's well known play, Adhe-Adhure, which he could not stage for want of a suitable cast.

Raj Bisaria worked again as, director of the academy as well as the director of its Repertory Company from 1989 to 1992,1995 to 1997.