Kaivalya Plays

Varoon P. Anand relocated to India in 2009 and, after connecting with artists through the Short+Sweet Festival in Delhi, established Kaivalya Plays in 2012. By 2014 the company had formed CueLess Improv, which became a training ground for a generation of Delhi improvisers and spawned several subsequent groups. In 2018, Kaivalya Plays received the Goethe-Institut Refunction theatre grant to create Unravel, an improvised performance exploring mental health staged in India and the United Kingdom. The company became an associated member of the International Theatresports Institute (ITI) and in April 2021 launched the India Improv Ensemble featuring performers from multiple Indian cities. Kaivalya Plays also developed PunjabiProv, an improv jam in the Punjabi language in collaboration with Laal Button.

Kaivalya Plays draws on Anand's background in Panama's Theatre Guild of Ancon tradition, grounding its work in physical theatre, backstage craft, and Theatresports competitive formats alongside applied improv. The name Kaivalya, referencing a form of enlightenment through self-reliance, and the use of Plays as a verb reflect the company's philosophy of learning-through-doing. The company occupies an unusual position in Indian improv by integrating short-form performance, applied mental health work, competitive TheatreSports structures, and multilingual programming within a single organisation.