Adishakti Laboratory for Theatre Arts Research

Adishakti Laboratory for Theatre Arts and Research is a site on the outskirts of Pondicherry, and a performing arts company engaged in creating performances, researching genres and disciplines and creating processes and performance methodologies.

Adishakti was created in 1981 as a theatre company in Mumbai. Adishakti is more than a contemporary performing arts company – they are a theatre arts research laboratory, and as such, conduct extensive and ongoing research into the craft of theatre, as well as into performance methodology in general.

The team comprises of writers, directors, actors, musicians, dancers, and performers of various art forms. Their findings are disseminated to a diverse community of artistes, academicians, writers, architects, and others through workshops, seminars, residencies, and masterclasses. They also host retreats and sabbaticals that reach across cultures, geography, concerns, and genres, and thus engage with many visitors to their campus, who come from all over the world and from a variety of disciplines and backgrounds.

These activities reflect their primary concern: the creation of new knowledge towards new creativity, by bridging different times, spaces and disciplines.