Performing and Visual Arts

Professor Deepan Sivaraman, a scenography postgraduate from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London, is a theatre director, scenographer, dramaturge, curator, and educator. He is the founding Artistic Director of Oxygen Theatre Company based in Kerala and Performance Studies Collective based in Delhi.

Professor Sivaraman taught theatre-making and scenography at various art institutions such as Wimbledon College of Art and Central Saints Martins College of Art and Design in London, Summer Academy of Art in Venice, National School of Drama in Delhi, and Sarojini Naidu School of Arts and Communication at Hyderabad University. Professor Sivaraman worked as an Associate Professor for 12 years at the School of Culture and Creative Expressions, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar University in Delhi. He also served as the Dean of the School during 2018-2022. 

During the last 25 years of his theatre career, he has designed and directed more than 70 theatre productions for various companies and academic institutions in India and Europe. Some of his notable works have been performed in several theatre festivals worldwide, including Avignon, Alameda, Edinburgh, Krakow, Wuzhen, Prithvi, International Theatre Festival of Kerala (ITFOK), Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards (META), and Bharat Rang Mahotsav.

He was awarded the Charles Wallace India Trust Scholarship (2003), The Kerala Sangeet Nataka Academy Award (2012), the CNN News 18 Malayali of the Year Award (2018), Kanal Vayala Puraskaram (2017), Bishnu Basu Smriti Samman West Bengal (2019), and Mahindra Excellence National Theatre Awards in 2010 and 2018.

Professor Sivaraman's works represented Indian scenography at the Prague Quadrennial in 2011. He served as the Artistic Director/Curator of the International Theatre Festival of Kerala in the 2013 and 2023 editions. His notable directorial works are KhasakkinteIthihasam (2015), Lord of the Flies (1997), Kamala (2002), Spinal Cord (2009), Peer Gynt (2010,2023), Dark Things (2018), The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (2016), Nationalism Project (2017), and Ubu Roi (2012,2023).

Professor Sivaraman's notable scenography works are Verdigris (2000), Siddartha (2003), Talatum (2017), Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (2012), Virasat (2014), NaleWali Ladki (2018), Daughters Opera (2019), Bitter Fruit (2017), Naked Voices (2018), and Hayavadana (2023). The 21st Century Performance Reader by Routledge (2021) discusses Professor Sivaraman's work in a separate chapter as a director who contributed substantially to the language of theatre. He is the only Indian director invited to direct at the Moscow Theatre of Nations.