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On 15th January, 2026, Professor Justin McCarthy, Director of Performing Arts at Ashoka University, shared new policies for booking the Black Box theatre. The new policy allows each production one day of rehearsal, with a maximum of six days per semester that the theatre can be booked. These changes follow the wear and tear that the theatre experienced in the past semester due to an increased volume of productions, and to make the space more equally accessible to all. The rev

On 13 and 14 April, an undergraduate English thesis was performed in the form of a play. Under the guidance of Professor Mandakini Dubey, Suhaani Gala (UG’26) staged a production of Julie Jensen’s Last Lists of My Mad Mother

On 22nd March, 2026, the Black Box was covered— chairs, corners, floors and all— with viewers eager to be transported to sunny Kalokairi, curious to see what flavour the student production at Ashoka University would add to one of the most popular musicals, Mamma Mia.

On December 3rd, 2025 Jorge Rivera Herrans released a snippet of “Pride of Troy”, one of the many themed songs that will make it to his new album, Ilium, a musical adaptation of the Trojan War. It will be another Greek retelling of a tale heard time and again, only now with the wit, music, and contemporary tongue Herrans offers with his pieces. Given the success of his EPIC: The Musical, it is only fair that expectations run high, and for the right reasons. Herrans’ famed EPI

Pratyush Mishra (UG’27), an aspiring filmmaker who enjoys singing and acting, was inspired by films such as Black Swan (2010), Phantom Thread (2017), and Whiplash (2014) when he wrote the play Hum Nachte Kyun Hain? (“Why do we dance?”). “I had always wanted to write a story about an artist, how they feel for their art, and why they do their art.”

From the moment that I was let into the Black Box, it was clear that this Bernarda Alba was built on subtraction.

Ashoka’s first choice-driven play, titled ‘Out of Time’ has two meanings. “You are out of time because the period of time is repeating, but you’re also out of time because at the end of the play, one of the two characters passes away, or stops existing in that same plane of existence,” says Aritra Mukhopadhyay (UG2023), the director and writer of the play.

There’s a tangible buzz around campus on the evening of April 10 — although it’s not your average Thursday night at Ashoka. It is the opening night of School of Rock, an adaptation of the 2003 Richard Linklater film, a comedy starring Jack Black as Dewey Finn, a struggling musician who poses as a substitute teacher to win the Battle of the Bands.

Indian Ocean performing in Ashoka University | Photo courtesy: Arish Azmat There is something about an Indian Ocean concert that feels...

Ahead of Vistaar's 2025 iteration of Battle of the Bands, Tanisha Pandey (UG'28) reports on the deteriorating state of Ashoka's Music Room.