Amal Allana
Theatre director, costume designer and teacher, Amal Allana’s life-long engagement with the arts has yielded a body of work that is as committed to the principles of aesthetics as it is linked to everyday social reality. A meticulous observer of the human condition, she combines a compassionate understanding of individual psychology with a world-view that enables her to reflect her post-colonial condition, making hers an intercultural vision that transcends narrow definitions of culture and nationality.Amal Allana is currently Chairperson of the National School of Drama, New Delhi, since 2005, as well as Head of Acting at The Dramatic Art & Design Academy and Artistic Director of Theatre & Television Associates, New Delhi. A graduate of the National School of Drama, this was followed by a two- year apprenticeship at the Berliner Ensemble and other theatres in Germany. Thereafter Amal received the prestigious Homi Bhabha Fellowship to study and compare the performing traditions of Japan and India. She was appointed Head of the Department of Indian Theatre, Punjab University, and Chandigarh, 1977.

Along with her husband, Nissar Allana, she has established three theatre companies in Mumbai and Delhi, combining her creative pursuits with the idea of educating a public into a critical appreciation of contemporary Indian theatre. In 2000, Nissar and Amal Allana established DADA, a small theatre school and cultural institution.

Amal Allana has directed over 60 plays for the stage both contemporary Indian as well as from the western canon, several plays, serials and documentaries for television, designed costumes for stage and film, curated exhibitions on Indian Theatre, researched and written on theatre. Recipient of the prestigious Sangeet Natak Acadamy Award among a host of others, both national and international, Amal Allana’s contribution to contemporary theatre practice in India is well known.
Amal Allana’s productions have been showcased at major festivals across India, as well as internationally. Her last 3 productions, which form a trilogy, include: Erendira & Her Heartless Grandmother, based on a short story by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Nati Binodini, based on the autobiography of the 19th Century Indian stage actress, Binodini and Metropolis, based on Ibsen’s 3 plays, Rosmersholm, Hedda Gabler and A Doll’s House.