Founded on 26 September,1987, the Paschimbanga Natya Akademi, a wing of the Department of Information and Cultural Affairs, Government of West Bengal, is committed to supporting theatre activity in the state in all possible ways, developing skills and expertise, documenting and archiving the theatre history of the state, disseminating information and theoretical and historical understanding, and promoting and projecting significant creativity in the field. The Akademi is managed by a body of distinguished directors, actors, designers, composers, playwrights and critics nominated by the Government, which funds all the activities of the Akademi.

Theatre Training The Akademi holds a series of theatre workshops throughout the year, offering comprehensive and rigorous training in body language, voice modulation, elocution and intonation, acting, rhythm and music, mime, stagecraft, illumination, costume, make-up, playwriting, theatre management etc. Production-oriented workshops take the trainees through the entire exercise of producing/performing a play. The training camps and workshops have been conducted by a faculty of distinguished theatre personalities from the state and beyond, including the late B.V. Karanth, H.Kanhailal and Dr. Mohan Agashe.

Theatre Festivals While the annual Natya Mela brings together 75-100 of the best productions of the year, both full length and short, proscenium and off- proscenium at the Rabindra Sadan-Nandan Complex once a year, along with talks, seminars, screenings, play reading etc, the Akademi also holds festivals of Bangla and Hindi plays in the major cities of India, as also in the district towns of the state. The Akademi has also held more special interest festivals focusing on theatre for children, theatre by women directors, street theatre, puppet theatre. The Akademi collaborated with the National School of Drama in 2007 in holding the Kolkata satellite session of the ninth Bharat Rang Mahotsav, a prestigious international theatre festival. For the last two years it has collaborated with Happenings, a Kolkata-based body in organizing a national festival of new performative works based on Rabindranath Tagore, featuring premieres by Habib Tanvir, K N Panikkar, M K Raina, H Kanhailal, Chetan Datar, Rajagopal and Hanne de Bruin, Suman Mukhopadhyay and Koushik Sen.

Productions The Akademi, in its endeavours to offer model productions of the classics, has commissioned major directors like the late Utpal Dutt, Bibhas Chakrabarty and Ashok Mukhopadhyay to produce on its behalf Chaitali Rater Swapna (from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream ), Bolidaan by Grishchandra Ghosh, and Chirakumar Sabha by Rabindranath Tagore respectively.

Publication The Akademi publishes the annual Natya Akademi Patrika in Bengali, featuring academic essays, obituaries, texts of lectures, playscripts, archival reprints, reports etc. Biographies of Jogesh Chowdhury, Monoranjan Bhattacharya, Kumar Ray, Khaled Chowdhury, Tulsi Lahiri etc. albums on Kolkata's Theatres, Girishchandra Ghosh and Bijan Bhattacharya; selected plays by several playwrights; historical surveys/overviews of Bengali theatre--feature in the Akademi's list of publications.

Archives and Library The Akademi has a small collection of 36 video interviews with eminent theatre personalities, video recordings of 16 outstanding productions, and a collection of still photographs covering old and contemporary productions, theatre forms, theatre training etc. The library yet to be opened in its new building has already received gifts of books from several theatre buffs and scholars, including Debnarayan Gupta, Prashanta Chakrabarty of Bardhaman. The Akademi welcomes more such gifts of private collections of rare theatre books.

Seminars, Public Lectures Over the years the Akademi has held several seminars on different aspects of Indian theatre and public lectures including the two annual memorial lectures to commemorate the late Sombhu Mitra and the Late Utpal Dutt. Speakers have included Utpal Dutt, Habib Tanvir, Dina Pathak, K.N. Panikkar, G.P. Deshpande, Prasanna, Sulbha Despande, Sumit Sarkar, M.K. Raina, Amal Allana, B.V. Karanth, H.S. Shivaprakash, Ratan Thiyam, Pabitra Sarkar, Bhaskar Chandavarkar, Satyadev Dubey, Mohit Chattopadhyay, Samik Bandyopadhyay, Rudra Prasad Sengupta, Bibhas Chakraborty, Manoj Mitra, Arun Mukhopadhyay and Sisir kumar Das, Asoke Mukhopadhyay. All these events have been recorded and listening and viewing facilities are available.

Collaborative ventures The Akademi has collaborated with universities and several organizations in joint projects including workshops, Seminars, Lectures etc. often under the aegis of its Natyacharcha Prasar Prakalpa.

Grants and Awards The annual Natya Akademi Awards for Production Playwriting, Acting, Direction, Stagecraft and Design and Music and the lifetime achievement awards -- the Dinabandhu Puraskar and the Girish Puraskar -- are the most prestigious theatre awards in the state. Besides these awards, there are several grants available for new productions, special projects, theatre workers in indigent circumstances etc.

Natya Bhavan The Natya Bhavan inaugurated on 6 March, 2007, houses the Akademi's offices, along with a Conference Room, an Auditorium and several facilities.