Born out of India's most senior theatre company - Theatre Group, Thespo is a theatre festival held every December. Apart from the plays, Thespo features numerous stand-up routines, monologues, poetry readings, live bands, film screenings, platform performances and workshops.

Thespis, the Greek poet was the pioneer in the art of using spoken dialogue in an age when dramatic language was made of choruses and verses. He is considered the father of modern drama and his followers have since been called Thespians. It was only appropriate to name the pioneering festival for Youth Theatre, 'Thespo'.

Thespo '99
Thespo's first avatar was in December 1999 as a one-act play competition with an awards presentation. Ruia College's 'Saadia' reigned supreme, in spite of stiff competition from 15 other plays. The Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Deryck Jeffereis.

Thespo 2000
Thespo 2000 featured four full-length plays from across Mumbai. 61 colleges and more than 15 entries led to four days of quality youth theatre. The Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to the late Pearl Padamsee and photographer Madhu Gadkari.

Thespo 3 (2001)
Classics from Brecht and Chekhov, adaptations from both films and novels, and some pieces of new writing composed Thespo III. For the first time Thespo expanded beyond Bombay to embrace the city of Bangalore which staged its first. Subsequently, the winning teams from Bangalore performed at Thespo III in Bombay notably winning a Thespo for Best Actor. The Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Gerson da Cunha for his contribution as an actor.

Thespo 4 (2002)
Thespo 4 moved the venue from a proscenium (Sophia Bhabha Hall) to the black box (NCPA Experimental Theatre), while the Bangalore edition continued to gain critical acclaim. Workshops in playwriting by Ramu Ramanathan, Critiquing Theatre by Shanta Gokhale, among others, provided aspiring thespians an opportunity to interact and acquire in-depth technical know-how about the theatre. The Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to theatre director Alyque Padamsee.

Thespo 5 (2003)
For the first time ever, Thespo made the trip to New Delhi - and invited plays from there, while plays from Mumbai traveled to participate in Thespo Bangalore. Thespo's fifth year was a three-city and four-language 11-day extravaganza, with the Lifetime Achievement Award being presented to actor Zohra Segal.

Thespo 6 (2004)
Thespo Delhi was born as a three-day fest. Bangalore grew to six days and moved to Ranga Shankara. Thespo became a three-week festival spread over three cities. Plays were in English, Hindi, Marathi, Marwari and Kannada. All in all 26 plays (12 full length & 14 short plays) were performed. Workshops were held in design, Sanskrit theatre and many other disciplines.

Thespo 7 (2005)
In an attempt to cover allied arts, the Thespo Poster Design Competition was created to give young art directors the opportunity to design posters for theatre productions. Training was taken to a new level with 'Work It Out' - a series of mentoring workshops where the performing groups got to interact with a professional director and writer over two days. The Lifetime Achievement Award was presented posthumously to Hosi Vasunia for his dedication to the theatre as an actor and producer. The festival was held over 12 days in Bombay and Bangalore.

Thespo 8 (2006)
Thespo spread its wings by conducting some of its pre-festival activities in cities such as Mysore, Chennai, Kolkota, Hyderabad, Delhi and Ahmedabad, in addition to its regular homes of Bombay and Bangalore. The festival featured five plays from these two cities. The Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Girish Karnad for playwriting.

Thespo 9 (2007)
Thespo 9 saw the initiation of Radio Plays and Documentary on Theatre. The national involvement came with a short play from Delhi and a full length play from Bangalore. The workshops included Master Puppeteer Dadi Padumjee from Delhi and Ahmedabadi director Saumya Joshi. The Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Pratap Sharma for his contribution as a playwright and actor.

Thespo X (2008)
This year 55 plays came from 8 cities in 2 countries (Bombay, Bangalore, Pune, Delhi, Calcutta, Varanasi, Kanpur, New York) in 5 languages. Collaboration with the IIT Kanpur cultural festival also helped Thespo see plays from Delhi, Kanpur, Patiala, Lucknow, Allahabad and Gaziabad. Other workshops include an introduction to theatre lighting by Arghya Lahiri, Grips Theatre by Mohan Agashe, workshop on expression through body movements by Sanjukta Wagh, Problem Solving by Akash Khurana, Panorama of French Theatre by Sarah Doignon and Ensemble for Earth workshop by Hartman D'souza. There will also be screening of Theatre Documentaries and Films, and an exhibition of Theatre Photography.

Thespo X will also include a 15-day Workshop by UK theatre professionals Sophie Larsmon and Jack Holloway; a workshop with specially abled participants by Danielle Baker of Pekhamshed. The Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to Sam Kerawalla.