Chennai's Performing Arts Community Unites for Groundbreaking Festival

On November 7, 2025, Chennai's performing arts community is set to kick off a fortnight-long celebration of theatre, dialogue, and shared discovery. The Community Festival 2025, curated by theatre practitioner Craig Lobo, is running until November 14 at Medai, The Stage in Alwarpet.

Lobo explains that the festival is built on three core ideas: curiosity, collaboration, and courage. The aim is to create an open, reflective space for artists and audiences to explore the craft together. "This is not just about performances," he says. "It is about the conversations that follow, between directors, actors, technicians and the audience, about what we just experienced together."

Each of the three curated evenings will feature an intimate performance followed by a post-show dialogue that encourages discussion and reflection. The lineup includes improv showcases, satirical sketches, interactive theatre, and physical comedy by local groups such as Theatre Nisha, Kael Theatre, and Koothadi Collectives.

Lobo adds that since this is the first edition, the organizers wanted to start small, inclusive, and honest, to gauge if Chennai's arts community is ready to build a culture of open dialogue around the performing arts.