2026 | International Festival of Theatre Schools (IFTS)
International Festival of Theatre Schools (IFTS) 2026
16–22 January 2026 | School of Drama and Fine Arts, University of Calicut, Thrissur
The International Festival of Theatre Schools (IFTS) held its fourth edition from January 16 to 22, 2026. It was organised and hosted by the School of Drama and Fine Arts, University of Calicut, Thrissur.
The International Festival of Theatre Schools 2026 (IFTS 2026) emerged as a unique confluence of pedagogy, performance, and healing. Held under the theme “Carnival of pedagogy: Theatre and Health,” the festival aimed to reimagine the pedagogical potential of the performing arts marked by physical vulnerability, mental distress, social fragmentation, and ecological uncertainty. The term “carnival” evokes a space of playful inversion and embodied freedom, where hierarchies collapse, binaries dissolve, and new forms of knowledge emerge through celebration, ritual, and corporeal expression. In this spirit, IFTS 2026 offered a gathering where global theatre schools, practitioners, scholars, healers, and communities met to rediscover theatre as both pedagogical praxis and an agent of health, care, and community restoration.
School of Drama and Fine Arts, University of Calicut, established in 1977 is a premier institution in India for academic training in drama and theatre. The institution offers Bachelor of Theatre Arts (BTA), Master of Theatre Arts (MTA), Masters in Music (MA Music) and MPhil/PhD.