Things turn ‘dramatic’ at IIM-Bangalore

MBA students at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIM-B) are being graded on their ability to act, direct, write and stage plays on the campus. For the first time, post-graduate programme (PGP) students were offered a unique elective course titled, ‘Exploring organisational processes through the medium of theatre’.

The 10-week course is conducted by Vijjay Nair, a city-based theatre personality and writer. The students get to learn essential management lessons on role playing, team work and innovation through the medium of theatre.

“Managers have to do some amount of role playing at several stages of their careers. They need to understand the concept of innovation. In theatre, the director has to mobilise the cast and crew and make them feel passionate about what they are doing. Here, we are always innovating. We have to cut budgets for costumes and settings at times and still need to stage a good play,” said Vijjay Nair. Nair, by his own confession, was a management professional who veered into theatre.

The elective has been offered since 2005 for the students of Post-Graduate Programme in Software Enterprise Management (PGSEM). This year, it is open to all PGP students. Overall, 26 students took the elective —- from PGP and 11 from PGSEM.
For a few, this course helped revive a passion for theatre. “It was like coming full circle for me. During my admission interview, I was quizzed a lot on my interest in theatre. I had mentioned in my statement of purpose that I had directed a play in college. Now I have to stage a play to complete this course,” said Vernon Fernandez, a PGP student at the IIM-B.

During the course, the students get to read through plays of Mahesh Dattani and Girish Karnad. They are also required to discuss, interpret and review them. Students are graded on this, and at the end of term, there will be tests in which students will be asked to script, direct and act in their own plays. “Nearly 50% of their grades are determined on the plays they stage at the end of the course,” Nair added. 

The students staged three short plays titled, The Loophole, And The Blind Shall See and Power Play, after completing their course on February 21.