Ram Gopal Bajaj, India 

(Theater director, theater and film actor, academician, former director of the National School of Drama, Delhi)

After all the evolutionary stories, we know only one thing for sure, which could be summarized as follows: all life forms tend to survive for eternity. If this is possible, life tends to invade time and space, to become immortal. In this process, life forms mutilate and self-destruct on a universal level. However, we must limit our deliberation to the survival of humanity and its emancipation from the caveman, who was engaged in hunting in the Stone Age, to the Space Age that we now live in. Are we now more attentive? More sensitive? More joyful? More loving towards the nature of which we are a product?

From the beginning of man until today, the performing arts (dance, music, acting/theater) have developed the instrument of language, consisting of vowels and consonants. Synthesized, vowels express feelings or emotions, and through consonants we express our thoughts/knowledge. The latter in particular have led to the development of mathematics, geometry, weapons and, more recently, the computer. There is no turning back. In order to survive in this technologically advanced atmosphere, we must express our feelings through theater, emancipating them, purifying them from everything banal, from anger, greed and malice.

Mass media, science and technology have made us as powerful as demons. That is why today it is not the form of theatre that is in crisis, but the content, what it transmits. We must attract today's man, in order to save the planet and, implicitly, "theatre". On a pragmatic level, the art of the actor and the performances In Play must be accessible from an early age, to be included in primary education. Thus, future generations will be more sensitive, more generous with life and nature. We use language in this way, through theater, we can educate people to be more respectful of the Earth and other planets. Moreover, theater will become very important for life and survival; it will give power to both the actor and the spectator, without them threatening each other, in this cosmic era set under the sign of closeness, of living together.

I salute theater and remain confident that changes will be made starting from the very grassroots, at the rural and urban levels. Together we educate the world from an early age, to shape, through the language of theater, future generations.

Translation: Ligia Soare

Biography – Ram Gopal Bajaj, India

Born in 1940 in Darbhanga, India, Ram Gopal Bajaj is a successful and award-winning actor, director, writer and a valued educator in the field of theatre.

After graduating from Bihar University in 1960, he continued his studies at the National School of Dramatic Arts in 1965 – an institution with which he later became synonymous – where he majored in acting. After graduation, Bajaj became a faculty member at the same National School of Dramatic Arts, where he honed his theories of theatre education. In the meantime, he became the university's principal and a lecturer. He also taught at Punjabi University, University of Hyderabad and the prestigious Modern School New Delhi.

After training in theatre education, Bajaj became one of the founding members of "Dishantar", a group of theatre professionals founded in 1967, a platform that allowed him to fully develop his acting career. His early performances, both in Indian and international plays, were a real success. Later, he established himself as a director, putting into practice much of what he had accumulated as an actor.

Since the beginning of his career, Bajaj has acted in 36 plays and directed another 45. He has deservedly won awards in both disciplines, such as: National Award for Indian Imaginative Theatre, granted by National Press of India for theater directing in 1992, and Best Actor Award at the Film Festival Dadasaheb Phalke in 2017. He has translated and adapted 19 plays from different languages into Hindi, and is renowned for his unique style of poetry recitation.

For his immense contribution to the field of theatre, Ram Gopal Bajaj received the Padma Shri awarded by the President of India in 2003. He was also awarded lifetime achievement awards in 2015, 2016, and in 2017 he received Hindi Academy Natak Samman for his outstanding contribution to the canon of Hindi language and literature. He is still active as an actor, director and writer for theatre and cinema.