Sankar Venkateswaran is a theatre director from Kerala, India. He studied directing at School of Drama and Fine Arts, University of Calicut, and pursued his post-graduate training at Theatre Training and Research Programme (now Intercultural Theatre Institute), Singapore. In 2007 Sankar founded Theatre Roots & Wings and created works such as Sahyande Makan: The Elephant Project (2008), Shogo Ohta‘s Water Station (2011) and Henrik Ibsen‘s When We Dead Awaken (2012). In 2013 Sankar received the Ibsen Scholarship from Teater Ibsen, Norway, for Tribal Ibsen Project which furthered his work with the indigenous communities in the mountain valley of Attappadi, Kerala. His following works, Criminal Tribes Act (2017) and Indian Rope Trick (2020) reflect the shift in his working context. As a guest director, Sankar directed works such as Anton Chekhov’s Seagull (2011), Maurice Maeterlinck’s Interior (2020) for Ninasam Theatre Institute, India, Urubhangam (2011) for Shinshu University, Japan, Tage der Dunkelheit (2016) and INDIKA (2017) for Munich Volkstheater, and When We Dead Awaken (2018) for Intercultural Theatre Institute. Among his recent works are My Name is Tamizh (2022) in co-production with Theaterfestival Basel and Theater Festival Spielart, IM TOD—In My Time of Dying (2022) with Theaterhaus Jena, and Goodbye and best wishes for your success—a response to Annihilation of Caste (2022) for Kyoto Performing Arts Center.

Alongside his work as a theatre director, Sankar served as the artistic director for the International Theatre Festival of Kerala in 2015 and 2016, the jury member for Zurich Theater Spektakel 2016, and most recently he was the international curation committee member for Theaterfestival Basel 2022.

He lives and works from Sahyande Theatre, a theatre-dwelling he built in Attappadi.

------

Photo by Gabriela Neeb