Rajneesh Bhisth

Theatre    New Delhi

Rajneesh Bisht is an actor, a writer, a mentor and a director. He has conducted workshops with slum/street/school children, college students and different organizations all over India with objectives like personality development integration, developing qualities like confidence, sense of responsibility and self-analysis. He has worked as an actor/teacher in T.I.E (Theatre in Education Company) of the National School of Drama. He has also acted and directed many plays for theatre in the education company of National School of Drama which include The Ghost in different languages uncluding Hindi, English, Bodo, Himachali, Punjabi, Eidgaah (inspired by Munshi Premchands story), 'Long Live Kalu Dada', 'Run Run Run .... Stall Number One', 'Ek Parinda Hai Sharminda', Kunbe Mein Hullad', ' The Phase...and the Faces, Dhai Chal Aur', Chandni Raat Ka Jashn...Ek Dardnaak Comedy and Joseph Sarai Ke Jugnu. He has conducted training workshops for actors for award-winning films like 'Dance of the Wind' directed by Rajan Khosa, 'Holy Smoke' (starring Kate Winslet) directed by Jane Campion (Oscar winner director for film 'Piano'). He has acted in more than 25 plays with well-reputed directors and participated in many theatre festivals all over India. He designed and devised a special participatory program "History of Theatre" for children of NSD -TIE. He has worked with reputed Filmmakers, Theatre personalities, Activists like Tripurari Sharma, Robin Das, Barry John, Abdul Lateef Khatana, Dr. Mohan Aghashe, Maya Rao, Aasha Singh, Jyoti Bose, D.R. Ankur, Srirang Godbole, Rajan Khosa, Jane Champian, etc. in different theatre productions and workshops. He worked as a Consultant Coordinator in [Theatre- in-Education] of the National School of Drama for a year. He was a faculty at RIRO Acting Studio, Mumbai Guest faculty, Whistling Woods International where his key role was to conceptualize and design special modules for the Production Department which incorporated the nuances of Theatre in Education techniques. He wrote the dialogues, lyrics [with band Parikarma] and conducted actors training for critically acclaimed & much-awarded movie Manjunath [an NFDC and Viacom 18 film], Scriptwriter for Arre Diwano Mujhe Pehchano for Contiloe films and conducted programs for special children at Yashodham Vidyalaya Goregoan [East]. For 3 years he worked as a consultant at Rajiv Gandhi Foundation. His role was to integrate the concept of Theater in Education in classroom processes to make learning more exploratory and a joyful experience. The responsibility included working in close coordination with the transformed school program to conceptualize and implement various processes at Wonderoom- the Library and Educational Lab. He designed programs like- I Wonder an open platform for children to express themselves through allied arts. He also designed the Storytelling Festival - an open platform for children and professional storytellers where up to more than 50 stories have been told, Writers Birthday - here children not only celebrate legendary writers birthdays but also perform their literary work. Children of Wonderoom have already celebrated the birthday of Munshi Premchand and Ruskin Bond. He has formed the Adoos - Padoos Club [drama team of Wonderoom, which regularly performs plays by children]. Expresso Club is a program of drama in the education process where the main objective is self-expression. Children have written their experiences, original stories, poems, collages, artworks, comic strips, drama, etc in this process. For 7 years he worked as the Head of HOPE [Humanistic, Optimistic Public Education) program of the Foundation. He has conducted many workshops for teachers, social workers from various parts of India. Some of his work includes - Theatre in the education lesson plan, Theatre festivals - Orrisa Anant Mahapatra, Khwaja Ahmad Abbas, MK Raina on Gandhi, Film festivals, Lecture series, Summer Camps in more than 7 states and 20 centers, Mahatma Se Gandhi, 1000 puppet shows all over India, Theatre in education workshops, Workshops on Happiness, Education, Graffiti Art for teachers and children, Storytelling and Dastangoi festivals, Directed plays Bharat Ek Khoj [Part 1 to 3 ] of 7 hours to make children aware of the history and philosophy of India, Par Hamme Khelna Hai, Premchand Ki Khahaniya and many more. During Lockdown, he worked as a guest faculty in the National School of Drama [Theatre in Education wing] as a mentor of diploma students to explore online processes in summer camps. He conducted 3 online monthly theatre workshops for the National School of Drama. He also conducted online Talk shows and Educational Zoom Sessions weekly on Munshi Premchand, Mahatma Gandhi, Shobhna Narayan, Pt Jawaharlal Nehru, Ruskin Bond, Discovery of India, Dr. CV Raman, Teachers day, Independence Day [Rang- e- Azadi], Storytelling, Poetry, Story, Manglesh Dabral Tribute, Constitution Day and Drama processes.