Uma Katju

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Uma Katju is an actor, performer and theatre-maker from Delhi, India. Her practice and training are multi-disciplinary, traversing theatre, dance and music. Her artistic works are largely devised, improvisatory and collaborative in nature. In 2022, she created and performed Chickens, a play exploring the relationship between human and non-human animals, with collaborator Momo Ghosh. The show received the Goethe Institut-New Delhi's Refunction Theatre Grant.

As a performer, Uma works in multiple capacities: actor, musician, and dancer. Her recent acting work includes Don Juan Comes Back from the War (Mumbai, 2023) directed by Rehaan Engineer; Daughters Opera (Delhi, 2020) by Anuradha Kapur and Tammy Brennan; and Rakshas (Bangalore, 2019), by the Tadpole Repertory. Her film work includes director Mira Nair's A Suitable Boy on the BBC and Netflix. She also performed and produced the play Dust. (Bangalore, 2019), for Across The River Collective, an initiative that brought together ITI alumni and faculty, directed by Beto Ruiz. Between 2016-20 Uma worked as a musician and vocalist on The Pallavi Series by Chowk Productions in Singapore, designing live music and sound for the Odissi choreographies. This experience inspired her to learn Odissi dance, and in 2023 she worked as a dancer/performer in Limbo: Few Last Words (Singapore) by Chowk Productions.

Since 2018, Uma has been teaching extensively, bringing together vocal and physical practices from her traditional and contemporary training. In 2023, she was the movement and voice instructor on Avalanche, a final-year production at the National School of Drama (NSD), Delhi. In June 2023, she designed and facilitated a self-directed research workshop for the Kattaikkuttu Repertory in Tamil Nadu, India. Between 2018-22, she was a visiting faculty at Ashoka University’s Performing Arts Department. She also teaches independent workshops and classes.

 

Read her Q&A here 

Contact Uma

 

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Recent work: 
1. Actor, Don Juan Comes Back from the War (2023) Mumbai
2. Actor, Daughters Opera (2020) Delhi
3. Actor, Rakshas (2019), Tadpole Repertory, Bangalore
4. Actor, A Suitable Boy (film, released in 2020)
5. Producer & Performer, Dust. (2019) Across The River Collective, Bangalore
6. Musician and Vocalist, The Pallavi Series (2016–2020) Chowk Productions, Singapore
7. Performer, Limbo: Few Last Words (2023) Chowk Productions, Singapore

 

Last updated: 30 January 2024

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