ज्ञानं सेवा च कौशलम्

Jñānaṃ Sevā ca Kauśalam

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CIRS Theatre

Prologue CIRS Theatre

Every Student, On the Stage.

A dancer in red and gold at the centre of a many-armed tableau
A many-armed tableau, Anand Utsav 2025.

For over three decades CIRS has been a whirlpool of theatrical activity — and the stage is not kept for a drama club. Every class, every house and the whole school take their turn on it.

Every year the school churns out actors whose qualities are learnt on the stage and blossom into daily life. Confidence, expression and creativity find no limits here. Every novice aspires to the honourable title of ‘actor’, and theatre is always treated as sacred.

Programmes are put up to bring messages from our texts, stories from our students, and to celebrate the art of expression itself — with the concepts, the scripts and the acting done almost entirely by the students, on the stage and off it.

Programme Three ways to take the stage

The Programme

The whole school, the four houses and every class of twenty-five: each has its own turn in front of an audience.

  1. Anand UtsavThe whole school2025 · Maryada Purushottham
  2. MasqueradesThe four houses, four evenings23–26 November 2025
  3. Class PresentationsEvery class25 recordings, 2015–2026
A palace hall filling the stage: a king on a carved throne, courtiers in bright costume and guards in black around him
A student in a yellow dhoti alone in a pool of light on a dark stage, both arms raised

Act I The whole school · Annual cultural programme

Anand Utsav

2025 · Maryada Purushottham

The palace, across the whole stage7 October 2025

Anand Utsav is the school’s annual celebration, when parents come to campus — and its evening programme is the theatrical highlight of the year, for guests and students alike. The entire student body joins forces to put up a show to be remembered, with the concepts, the scripts and the acting done almost completely by the students, on the stage and off it.

Evening
7 October 2025, the second day
Production
Maryada Purushottham
On stage
The whole school

Watch the production 67:36 (plays in a window on this page)

Two crowned figures on gilded thrones before a painted palace wall, a young actor before them
A court, on gilded thrones
An ensemble in bright dhotis dancing before a sunset backdrop
An ensemble at sunset
Two students in green dhotis grappling before a painted blue mountain
A struggle before the mountain

Other years of Anand Utsav on the school’s channel

Intermission

Four houses. Four evenings. One stage.

Act II The four houses

Masquerades

Four evenings. Four houses. Hundreds of students stoking the fire of theatre. Every house comes together to put up an hour-long play — fantasy or mystery, satire or thriller — and every eye in CIRS is hooked to the stage for every single second.

Houses
Four
Evenings
One for each house
Each play
About an hour
An actor in white skull face paint under orange light, hands open
Vishwamitra House, El Diablo, 2025

The four-house playbill

Masquerade 2025 · 23–26 November

Four productions and 59 photographs from the school’s archive. Choose a house, or step through every photograph in order.

  1. Valmiki Melora 23 November 2025 · 15 photographs
  2. Vasistha Vantara 24 November 2025 · 14 photographs
  3. Vishwamitra El Diablo 25 November 2025 · 15 photographs
  4. Vyasa Ivysherin 26 November 2025 · 15 photographs
The company dancing across the stage before a candy-land backdrop, a lead in a red coat and top hat among them
Valmiki House · Masquerade 2025 · 23 November

Valmiki House: Melora

15 photographs · The company, dancing across the candy land

Watch the trailer 1:17 (plays in a window on this page)

The full recording of this production is not on the school’s channel.

Valmiki15 photographs

View photographs 14
  • An actor in a red coat and top hat before shelves of jars
    Red coat and top hat
  • An actor in a red coat and top hat, arm out, before a pink candy-land backdrop
    In the candy land
  • Two actors on a sofa before a white-and-peach backdrop, one in a red coat holding a cane
    On the sofa
  • Two actors on a bed in a room set with yellow shelves and soft toys
    A room with yellow shelves
  • An actor in body paint standing before a projected lightning storm and a broken hut
    Before the storm
  • An actor in a grey suit speaking into a microphone beside a neon sign
    Beside the neon sign
  • An actor in red swirling body paint, arms spread, against a dark backdrop
    Red body paint
  • A figure crawling in silhouette before a projected desert and a ruined hut
    In silhouette
  • Actors in a factory set, one in a red coat seated with a cane
    In the factory
  • Actors before a swirling pink tunnel projected behind them
    The pink tunnel
  • Dancers before a neon sign reading The Amazing Violet
    The Amazing Violet
  • A lone actor in a striped shirt beside a projected landscape of chocolate and candy canes
    The chocolate landscape
  • Two actors after the show, one in swirling body paint, one in a red coat and top hat
    After the show
  • A figure in a red coat and top hat before a painted poster reading Melora
    The Melora poster
Earlier Valmiki seasons on YouTube 8
Next II. Vasistha · Vantara
A performer in purple with glowing patterns, arms held out under violet light
Vasistha House · Masquerade 2025 · 24 November

Vasistha House: Vantara

14 photographs · Under violet light

Watch the trailer 1:58 (plays in a window on this page) Second trailer 1:05 (plays in a window on this page)

The full recording of this production is not on the school’s channel.

Vasistha14 photographs

View photographs 13
  • An actor in tiger body paint under blue light
    The tiger
  • A figure in dark body paint cradling a bundle in red cloth before a blue forest
    In the blue forest
  • Three actors made up as wolves, crouching in green light
    The wolves
  • An actor in tiger body paint roaring, head thrown back
    The roar
  • The actor in the bear costume and a boy in a forest clearing lit by shafts of light
    The clearing
  • An actor in a bear costume, arms raised, among painted jungle children before a ruined temple set
    The bear, and the jungle around him
  • A boy and the actor in the bear costume talking in shafts of light through a forest
    In the sunbeams
  • A performer in black holding up a flaming torch prop before the temple set
    The torch
  • The cast gathered around a boy lying on the stage
    Gathered around him
  • Three figures in silhouette holding hands before bare trees
    In silhouette
  • Actors in costume and body paint beside a glowing green tree
    The glowing tree
  • A painted banner of jungle leaves reading Vantara along the front of the stage
    The banner
  • The company after the show, still in face paint and costume
    The company
Earlier Vasistha seasons on YouTube 8
Next III. Vishwamitra · El Diablo
An actor in skull face paint with red-painted hands, arms spread, before a wooden wall hung with shields
Vishwamitra House · Masquerade 2025 · 25 November

Vishwamitra House: El Diablo

15 photographs · Skull paint, arms spread

Watch the trailer 1:31 (plays in a window on this page)

The full recording of this production is not on the school’s channel.

Vishwamitra15 photographs

View photographs 14
  • A performer lit green beside a painted skeleton figure
    Green light and a painted figure
  • An actor in skull face paint in a green set strung with cobwebs
    The cobweb set
  • Two performers side by side, one with flowers in her hair
    Flowers in her hair
  • An actor made up with grey hair, leaning on a stick in the dark
    Grey hair and a walking stick
  • The company across a blue courtyard set
    The company in the courtyard
  • Two performers among giant painted leaves, one with flowers in her hair
    Among the leaves
  • A boy playing a guitar at a stall beneath a hand-painted sign
    A guitar at the stall
  • One actor climbing onto another's back beside a wall of hanging plates
    The wall of plates
  • An actor holding another, in skull face paint, from behind
    Held from behind
  • An actor tied with pink rope before a blue cavern backdrop
    Tied in the cavern
  • A performer in a satin dress dancing, one arm raised
    Mid-dance
  • A performer in an orange satin dress, one hand on her hip
    In orange
  • An actor in a purple waistcoat with arms spread
    The purple waistcoat
  • Two performers facing each other in warm light
    Face to face
Earlier Vishwamitra seasons on YouTube 9
Next IV. Vyasa · Ivysherin
The company in a line before red-and-white striped curtains, beneath a sign reading Circus
Vyasa House · Masquerade 2025 · 26 November

Vyasa House: Ivysherin

15 photographs · Under the circus sign

Watch the trailer 2:10 (plays in a window on this page)

The full recording of this production is not on the school’s channel.

Vyasa15 photographs

View photographs 14
  • A figure in a shaggy cloak holding a skull-topped staff, lit green and gold
    The skull-topped staff
  • An actor in a fringed waistcoat seated before a board reading Wanted
    The Wanted board
  • Backstage: a student painting cracks onto a cast member's face
    Backstage, in make-up
  • An actor playing a violin before a giant playing card
    A violin and a playing card
  • The ensemble dancing under blue light around an actor raising a staff
    The ensemble
  • An actor in a waistcoat with a fist raised beside a younger actor in a bow tie, bunting above
    Beneath the bunting
  • A performer in a leather jacket, arms spread, before striped curtains
    Arms spread before the curtains
  • An actor with a bass guitar between two others before striped curtains
    The bass guitar
  • An actor holding a violin and a boy on a porch set at night
    On the porch
  • Two boys talking on a lawn before a wooden fence
    By the fence
  • Two actors clasped together under blue light before striped curtains
    Under blue light
  • An actor kneeling over another who lies on the floor, before striped curtains
    Kneeling over him
  • A performer in clown face paint lifted high by others
    Lifted high
  • An actor in a red coat, arm raised, among dancers under purple light
    The red coat
Earlier Vyasa seasons on YouTube 9
Next Act III · Class Presentations

Act III Every class

Class Presentations

Every class of twenty-five gets the opportunity to put up a theatrical presentation in the school assembly once a year. Engaging every student through acting, dance, tech and lighting, theatre here is not limited to drama clubs but brings every pupil into its embrace. This is where prodigies are born.

Recorded and published by the school on its YouTube channel. Each class is named as its video names it, and each year is the year the video was uploaded.

2026

2025

Earlier years, 2015–2019 19

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

The class presentation playlist (opens YouTube in a new tab) All videos on the CIRS channel (opens YouTube in a new tab)

The programme is not finished

The archive is still growing.

  • Photographs.
  • Production titles.
  • Recordings.

This page shows what the school’s photograph archive and its YouTube channel could confirm: the Anand Utsav evening of 2025, the four Masquerades of 2025 and the class presentations published since 2015. The full recordings of the 2025 Masquerades, photographs from earlier seasons, and the titles and casts of earlier productions are all still missing.

If you have them, send them to the school with the year, the house or class, and the name of the production, so that they can be added here.

Write to info@cirschool.org

The cast crowded together on the stage at the close, petals on the floor
Everyone on the stage at the close, Anand Utsav 2025.

Curtain call

The stage never really empties.

Every class takes its turn in the school assembly once a year.

Art, Culture & Music

More from the stage and the studio.

The journey continues at CIRS

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