Gaurav Singh Nijjer (1994, New Delhi) is a theatre-maker, creative technologist and designer from New Delhi, India whose artistic works explore technology and media in live performance. He brings together his experience in design, digital cultures and data to explore new ways of engaging audiences, in the theatre, at home and elsewhere.
He is one-half of the Delhi-based theatre collective Kaivalya Plays and works as a freelance artist with artist collectives in India, United Kingdom and Europe. He recently completed the German Chancellor Fellowship where he conducted a 12-month arts research project on digital theatre and hybrid performances with the Berlin-based Rimini Protokoll. Gaurav studied at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London as a Chevening Scholar. His recent artistic works include ABSURDO (2023), Mining Hate (2023), Climateprov (2023), Trust Me, It’s a Forward (2023) The Amazing Flabby Breasted Virgin & Other Sordid Tales (2022) and Lifeline 99 99 (2021). As a creative technologist, his work often brings live audio, coding, live camera and video, digital platforms, APIs, automations and other digital technologies and tools onto the stage. He has previously received the Parivartan Artistic Research grant for AI in Indian Theatre, the AI to Amplify Fellowship by Goethe Institut, the Stage Jame #4 grant by Schaubude Berlin, the Befantastic AI Arts Fellowship, C3: Creativity, Codes and Community and other grants to support his work in technology in theatre.
As an arts manager, Gaurav is the General Manager at Kaivalya Plays, an Indian performing arts organization known for their work in applied improvisation and adaptation of foreign-language texts. Here, Gaurav co-created the Theatre Management Fellowship, a unique training initiative that focuses on the strategic management and creative administration of theatre. Under Kaivalya Plays, Gaurav also directed Lifeline 99 99 (2021) and Luz Negra (2020), devised Aguebao (2019) and performed in Unravel (2018). He is also the Communications & Community Manager at The Nursery Theatre, a London-based improvisational theatre company with students, performers and audiences spread out across the world. He also reviews theatre and art experiences for the UK-based platform North West End UK.
As an actor and director, Gaurav is a performer and founding member of The Living Room Collective and El Clavileno, the latter being India’s only Spanish language theatre group. He previously worked at one of the oldest and most prominent cultural institutions in Delhi, the Little Theatre Group (LTG) Auditorium as a consultant, overseeing their marketing operations and curating programs for their new black box studio, The Blank Canvas. His acting credits include Yasmine Reza’s Art, Manav Kaul’s Peele Scooter Waala Aadmi, Kristo Sagor’s Threesome Without Simone and Jorge Luis Borges’ Funes The Memorious, among other work in Hindi, English, and Spanish. He has previously directed plays like Alvaro Leal’s Luz Negra, Badal Sircar’s Juloos and Footnotes, inspired by Yasmine Reza’s Art. He has performed at festivals like ReConnect (2020), Old World Theatre Festival (2019), AlmagroOFF Classical Theatre Festival (2019), Thespo (2017) and has received recognition at numerous educational institutions with the collegiate theatre society Fourth Wall Productions.
As a freelance marketer, Gaurav has worked with brands like Atlan, SocialCops, Josh Talks, Parallel, FreshMenu, among others, in various capacities and occasionally offers marketing, digital and creative consulting services. He has an undergraduate degree in Management Studies from Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies (SSCBS), University of Delhi with a specialization in marketing (Class of 2016).