Evam – 2017!!

A year is not just about 365 days in passing. And rather than looking at if the year was productive or unproductive, isn’t it just wise to sit back and have fun? That’s what we intend to so. But still we lets have a look at what 2017 had in store for evam!

January started with the launch of “New Material Nights” from evam Standup Tamasha at Savera Bay 146. This gave a platform to the comics to try out their new content and get a gauge of the audience reactions. The pub shows and the corporate shows count crossed 100 and going on strong across Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Mumbai.

This year also saw the final rounds of Praveen Kumar’s Orthodoxically Me, KK’s 2^nd Decoction and Special solo show of the duo Alex and Baggy – Yogi and the Bear, the finale of this being the UK tour of Praveen and Alex presenting “Orthodoxically Yogi”. We collaborated with The Rotary Club of Adayar and did a charity show to raise funds for Government schools and the show was aptly named “LOL for a Cause” with the artists Anu Menon (Lola Kutty), Rahul Subramanian, Naveen Richard and with Vikash Paul as the host for the evening. Karthik Kumar’s 3^rd solo “Blood Chutney” did its first round of shows in Chennai, Bangalore, UK and US.

The education division of evam, Happy Cow, started its own monthly workshops from evam premises called “Weekend with Happy Cow” and has plans to continue this in the upcoming year too. Happy Cow had a good summer with camps running across schools and playschools in Chennai and Bangalore. And this year saw the launch of coming up with a module in which, Happy Cow started working with schools in directing Annual Day performances and currently working with MSB matriculation, Chennai and Canopo group of schools in Chennai and Cuddalore. They ended the year with a Christmas oriented Story-Telling session for a group of 60 children. Our Live from evam managed the Theatre Festival this year as well and the 12 days of festival was filled with a lot of learnings and memories to take away! We saw some amazing performances in the second edition of “evam’s Theatricals” as well – a collaboration with Stella Maris college for Woman!

Evam Lab – a repertoire of 10 free lance actors were kept busy through the year with performances pan India for both Training Sideways and Brandrama. They were also a part of various workshops (Voice workshop, Method Acting, Improv etc) and we are all set to start the next edition of evam Lab – 2018.

Evam is also so happy to announce that we are launc… Oh wait! Thats for the next year :)

See you all in 2018 folks! Happy New year :)

 

Its Resolution Time

First Rush – each batch on their first show day, would be jittery with a lot of questions on their mind. Will I remember the lines right? Will my play get performed on stage without any mess ups? Will the audience know that I am so nervous? Will my friends make fun of me? Will I ever be able to speak up on stage in front of them all? They all have these questions only until the performance start. Once they go up on stage, everyone performs as a well oiled machine and the show as always ends up on a high note.

Where I am in all this? I am the one who reassures them that people will love them and it’s a moment for their family and friends to feel proud about them and they wont forget their lines and there wont be any mess-ups and that the show will be a success. All this when I am myself a nervous wreck inside and handling a number of things on show day. Keeping in mind the ticket count, having a constant check on the tech set up, checking and rechecking the projector, arranging the certificates, clearing the doubts of the participants – all this add up to my nervousness but still I put on my show day handling face and manage to pull out a good show.

The ones doing First Rush – chooses to do this for various reasons. They would want to start a career in acting, they would want to shrug off the stage fear aspect from their lives, or they would want to try something new for the sake of fun. When they get into this, they realise that the 30 day rehearsals is a world of its own and the bonds that they forge in these 30 days will have the capability of lasting a life time. We have had batches going ahead and forming their own theatre groups, or two or three batches coming together and putting up a show.

The time around new year is where people get into the mindset of fixing resolutions to start something or do something. Keeping that in mind, evam comes up with the resolution batch of First Rush every year. This year its all set to start from Jan 20^th,2018. Register here – http://bit.ly/2AxxTSA

For the Love of Theatre!

Sadhana, a law student and a volunteer at many organisations, likes Korea and Korean people a tad bit more than anybody. Here she is talking about her experiences with evam Live shows.

 

 

 

 

I joined evam as a volunteer in 2015; a timid 18 year old with no experience in theatre or event management. My first assignment was The Hindu Theatre Fest, and I still remember the excitement I felt when I received my green Theatre Fest t-shirt and tag. I was a part of the “In-Venue team”, and Pavi and Thoorika spearheaded all the operations that year. They patiently instructed us on our duties, taught us how to handle “difficult” audiences and prepared us to handle the emergency situations proactively. One of my favourite parts of the drill is “the huddle”. To be honest, at first I despised doing the huddle. The huddle is basically where the entire team forms a circle by linking hands, and the head of operations asks us to think of a happy moment and spread the positive energy around the group. Seems simple enough, right? So why do you think I despised it? …..Simple as it may sound, it is not all that easy to conjure a happy thought. I dreaded the huddle for the entire duration of my first Theatre Fest. But on the last day, we had a pizza party before the huddle, and when Pavi asked us to think of a happy moment, it hit me. The Theatre Fest was my happy thought. The plays I got to watch, the friends I made, the rapport I shared with the rest of the team: these were the things that made me happy.

After the Theatre Fest ended, Thoorika invited me to join Team evam, and I gladly accepted. I later learnt that there are several departments in evam, and I was to be a part of the Live Team which mainly handles EST shows (Stand up comedy shows). Attending stand-up shows is one of the best stress busters ever. My favourite stand-up shows till date are Second Decoction and Alex in Wonderland.

Working with evam has helped me develop my interpersonal skills greatly. I went from being a taciturn person to an outgoing person who can put newcomers at ease. Although I’ve worked in various capacities, my favourite duty is “Tech”. When I handle Tech, I play house music before the show, and get to watch from the best seats in the house. Sitting in front of the audio console makes me feel cool. Heh. Being a K-Pop fan, I often arrive early at the venue just to play K-Pop songs on big speakers. My favourite venue is the Museum Theatre. I watched my first play there. The theatre looks surreal at night, bathed the soft glow of golden lights; it transports you right back to the 19th century when it was built.

Since the shows are usually held in different venues across Chennai, I got to learn a lot of routes, short cuts, bus numbers, and train schedules. In the beginning, I got lost quite a few times on my way to the venue. Thanks to evam, I can now navigate from Velachery to Egmore with no difficulty. Joining evam is one of the best decisions I ever made. I look forward to attending tons of stand-up shows in the future, and probably learn stage lighting some day. Cheers!

Sadhana

Bring your Child to Work!

When we were in schools and colleges, children’s day was just another day – with the exception of chocolates being passed around for everyone. The times have indeed changed. Starting from schools, where the children’s day celebrations happen in an elaborate way, to workplaces and corporate where the HR people go a step beyond and organise an event for the employees to introduce their children to their work environment! But often, there is a question of what can be done for the entire day!

That’s where we step in – evam’s Happy Cow – India’s leading theatre based education house has the perfect solution for this. We have been already working with the children of Mahindra Support staff for the past three years and working with children of that number is an enjoyment in itself. This year we are excited to launch – Children’s Day @ work! An opportunity to bring the child in you and your child, both to your workspace.

“Bring your child to work” would no longer mean packing snacks & lunch for your kids along with their coloring books and story books to keep them engaged when you are shuttling between your work, meetings, call and your kids! We fill their day with performances, workshops & exciting competitions to create a safe and fun experience for them and you! Along with the takeaways that they create by themselves, they would have enough memories and stories to tell everyone about your office.

The day is filled with performances like magic show, puppet show, clown show etc and workshops like puppet/mask making, balloon sculpting etc.

How could you make this happen? Write to your HR/Employee Engagement head with thoorika@evam.in in the CC or share this article with them and ask them to call 9790792115!

The Rush!!

Someone who beats her writer’s block with the mere thought of biriyani, Priyanka Natarajan, here in this blog is talking about her experiences with the last three batches of First Rush – evam’s Beginners Acting Course.

 

 

The one who is afraid of heights, doing bungee jumping; the one who is afraid of water, venturing into the never ending waves in an attempt to overcome the fear; the one who prefers to stick to the daily routine of life, but daring to step out of the shell to try something new. They all experience a rush within them which is more or less the same feeling our First Rushers feel when going on stage in front of an audience after a month long rigorous rehearsal process.

I have been with the last three batches of First Rush and its always a wonder to see how a bunch of people from various aspects in life come together, work and toil for a month to create an evening so memorable for the audience and even more for themselves. An engineer who usually spends 75% of his day on con-calls generally, is seen repeating and rehearsing his lines when stuck in traffic. An entrepreneur who generally closes deals sitting in the confines of his office, is seen going to costume rentals and bargaining costume deals with the shop keeper. All this to put up a show and to end the performance on a high.

For someone like me, who prefers to be backstage doing work, each and every batch of First Rush is a memory indeed. Starting from the two day workshop, where the participants break the ice and get to know each other, to the last day where everyone is having mixed feelings thinking about their performances, thinking about what to do next – everything is so special to witness from a close quarters.

Before each batch, when I go through the participant’s details, I used to wonder how would they gel with each other and come up with a show within a month! How would an engineer, a journalist, a soft-skills trainer, a college student work with the same wavelength or “chemistry” as it is said to be now! But I stand corrected every single time because by the end of the first week, all the First Rushers start working together like a well-oiled machine.

We had our 33^rd batch of First Rushers graduating this month and for this batch we had three of our previous First Rushers write the scripts and thus ended up making this Graduation show even more special. It was almost like a collaborative effort of three First Rush batches.

As it happens every single time , the madness backstage was felt till the show started and the fact that it was a sold out show was another added factor. As promised in the course, it was the participants who took up production, prop sourcing and marketing of the play and they were all happy to see all efforts paying off with a full-house at their first performing night.

This doesn’t stop here. Having a director, who doesn’t stop his work after the show, helps and motivates them in a different way. There are plans to take this to the next level and to start performing regularly! Way to go guys! All the best!

The 34^th batch of First Rush is happening in Chennai on November 11^th and 12^th and here’s the registration link – http://bit.ly/FirstRushNov :) – if you are looking to have this experience sign up!!!

Priyanka Natarajan

New Specials from evam Standup Tamasha!

Last year at evam Stand-up Tamasha, we had two of our young and up-coming comics, Alex and Baggy come together to do a One-by-Two stand-up comedy special called The Yogi & The Bear. With both the comics doing over 45 mins of content each and adding their own unique skills to make it a truly special show, we were able to produce a great tour of the show with over 25 shows across India. Now both of them have solo stand-up specials of their own, which are both doing incredibly well.

We are doing something very similar this year, with the most promising artists from our repertory and are very excited about them. We’ve clubbed together comics with certain similarities and have put together 3 stand-up specials. The main idea of course being that these artists get to showcase more than 40 mins of individual content, while touring with their first stand-up specials and in doing so build an audience of their own, who probably have so far seen them only through online videos.

evam Stand-up Tamasha will be producing tours of these shows over the next few months across our home markets. All of these artists will be bringing their best content to stage, along with some brand new content as well. Look out for these over the upcoming months in these cities. We hope our audiences will share with us the joy of witnessing the future stars of stand-up comedy.

Touring in the next few months across Chennai, Bengaluru & Hyderabad are:

 

Engineering – An art form that sculpted me!

 

Vivek is an engineer who worked with Polaris after his degree in engineering. Later he realized his memes gave better ouput than his coding. So he joined evam to give us a lot of funny memes and wonderful posters for our shows and workshops.

 

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One year as an “In-house” designer at evam. 1500 design creatives, several pixels and pixels of images and data, good and interesting work atmosphere and I still keep pondering over my college days and why I did engineering… Oops.. How engineering did me!

Being a twelfth standard class topper is not an easy task. Pride, greetings, bouquets, phone calls wishing all day long. Besides, so many life issues, suggestions, career confusions and innumerable amounts of holidays that takes you to a whole level of boredom. Completing 12^th standard in a state board medium and passing out with a school first rank is utter chaos.

I was totally confused on what I am going to do after school. A lot of phone calls from friends and relatives made me decide not do what these people advise me to do. Since high school I was interested in media and acting and I’ve always wanted to choose that as my mainstream.

But why would a mother who works as a teacher, allow her son to choose his career at his will? Everyone became an academic consultant when my mom approached them for career advice. Interesting part is even my great-grandmother who only used to drop her kids to school suggested colleges that never existed.

One common goal of my relatives was to make me an engineer like every other cousin in the family. So they ultimately made my parents choose engineering for me. Even though it was an average institution I liked how they chose the college. One of a distant relative of my distant relative was a staff in my college (not a professor but a lab attender). He wanted me to take that college and told my parents he’d take care of me. He became the Godman of my family. Though I hated engineering, I wanted to do mechanical as my mainstream. Sources told “mechanical doesn’t have good career opportunities. Choose Computers or Electronics.” Hence I had to choose electronics.

Four years of engineering filled me with good and bad memories. But I’d say it was totally a different journey (of 60 kms bumpy ride) where I met many new people and learned a lot of life lessons. Finishing my college and choosing arts as career was one of the biggest turning point which transformed me as a guy who could decide what he wanted in life.

I boldly took a move to quit my corporate career and chose arts as a medium to get the meaning of life. I’ll wholeheartedly say arts taught me things that engineering failed to. It taught me the meaning of my existence. It was arts that gave me a different perspective of life. Be it dance, music or cooking, every art form changed me and my perspective about life.

I wouldn’t say it was a cake-walk decision. There were embarrassments, humiliations & hatred thrown at me. Arts prepared me to receive everything as bouquets.

BTW, I wasn’t a school topper.

Vivek Krishnan (AKA) Venkatanathan

Should I send my toddler to “After-school activities”??

John Pradeep, the Dean of Happy Cow, apart from conducting theatre workshops, does biking, balloon-crafting, clowning etc. Basically he manages to stay out of home! When at home, he gets life lessons from his daughter also!

 

 

 

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My daughter (3.5 years old) likes running, jumping, diving and climbing on things at home. Me, being the proud parent wanted to find her strengths. I had a brief talk with a kid’s gym centre coordinator and I told him that I would bring her to one class to see if she is interested. She was watching for some five minutes, then the trainer called and asked her if she can do a cartwheel to which she didn’t even reply, but did 5 cartwheels back to back. The trainer was mighty impressed, gave special attention to her. She was excited to go to the class every day. After an hour of workout, she would be very tired, but in-spite of that would ask if she can stay back and do a little more. I was excited that I have found what her talent is and was looking forward to seeing her being a gymnast on big stages.

Things were going well until the district level competition was announced and the trainer put special efforts to get her to win. She did everything he asked her to do except the back flip. She would try to do it every day, but would do only if the trainer gives a hand. Two weeks away from the competition, the trainer took a stick, stood in front of her and asked her to do a back flip. She did it the next minute. I jumped up in joy but she started crying. The next class, she started grumbling while we were getting ready for gym, started crying while going in the bike and was on the peak of her crying as we neared the Gym. All these while, I have been talking to her about how awesome she is, how we are prepping up for the competition and why she going to the class was important, but in vain. I have done pushing her beyond limits at some instances before and succeeded. The parenting instincts in me told that this was a sure no. I stopped my bike on the road and asked her if she surely didn’t want to go. And she gave me a sure no. I just stood there on the road for 2 minutes just to allow all my “Father of a Gymnast” dreams to shatter, fall down, break into pieces and washed away in tears (Yes I cried). That was my first experience of disappointment as a father. We returned home and she was as usual doing all the activities at home on the bed. I as of now know she just hates going to that Gym, but loves doing Gymnastics. I found another Gym, spoke to the trainer about the past experience and he completely understood. But when I asked her about going to a new Gym, she asked me “What if I again do mistakes?” I just left it there and hoping one day she will ask me to put her in some Gym when she understands how a competition works. She still does all those activities at home.

Things I understood from this experience.

1. It is perfectly fine to send toddlers to after school activities. But pull them out immediately if you find that they don’t like to go to the class.
2. Figure out whether they don’t like the trainer or the centre or the art form or the sport itself.
3. Put them into as many experiences as possible. Let them get a taste of all the art forms and sports. So when they grow up, they will be able to choose whatever they are interested in.

Trust your parenting instincts. But if you ask me, competition and awarding one single prize for a toddler age group is a strict no.

John Pradeep

Directorial Tale!

 

Hari Ramakrishnan, a strict-officer while directing and rehearsals, but the most easily approachable person in the theatre fraternity, has been a part of evam’s First Rush for the last three graduation batches. He is talking about how his experience was with First Rush :)

There are so many things that you may want to try out in your life and one such thing is acting for so many and it is at this point you try to figure out a “go-to” place to fulfil your long pending dream and one such place is FIRST RUSH, an amazing Initiative founded by EVAM.

Many artists who are a part of theatre productions today owe it to the company which has thrived in bringing up creative content, innovative productions and talented actors and setting up standards in the field of art and theatre and trying to break its own records continuously.

I have directed three batches so far and it is one tremendous give and take learning process each day when we meet for rehearsals. As a Director I underwent the experience of understanding the saying “Not all fingers on your hand are the same”. Getting the required output from a particular artist demanded me to adapt new methods as they were different from each other which further gave me an opportunity to explore and expand my abilities.

But what is really beautiful is that, no matter what differences the artists have they slowly start to forge a bond which projects them as a single functioning unit at the end of the 30 day workshop which is one of the best things a director can receive from his team apart from a standing ovation from the audience for the performance.

The first thing I always tell any batch is, “The audience do not pay to watch a amateur performance.” Hence one of the major goals is moulding the artists to a standard of a professional actor or give them the necessary tools to become one over a period of time.

Batch 29
My first batch is always like my first child. They named themselves “ACT-A- AWAYS” and they came up with a performance called “6 Course Meals”. Most of them were still in college , a pretty bunch with a lot of enthusiasm jumping around like crazy balls, making fun, at the same time putting their effort in a playful way contributing to the better output of the play as how we planned it . Putting it in line “You want energy?? We have tons of it”

Batch 32
This gets serious. This batch consisted of mostly working professionals, business men and had a matured way of handling things from the way the moment it started. Once they opened up, I understood that they were not more than 16 years old at heart and mind ;) They chose the name “Starting from Scratch” and their performance was called “5 Finger Fries”. Foodies I say! When it came to the execution of instructions they were on the top of their game. It was more like “work while work and play while play” but both at the extreme ends. There were times we were chased out of restaurants for being the notorious guests… in simple words “KIDS IN ADULT’S CLOTHES”.

Batch 33 (Current Batch)
Teasing each other is in their daily agenda and they aptly call themselves “The Stage Roaches” and their performance which is coming up on October 7th is named as “5 Shades of Something”. It’s about 2 weeks I have been with them and from what I have seen they come up with small surprises every now and then when it comes to displaying their acting skills. They have their own unique skill set on stage and they know how to use it at the right time and right quantity with measured quality. Looking forward for more surprises from them :) Catch them performing next month on the 7th :) For tickets : https://in.bookmyshow.com/plays/five-shades-of-something/ET00061653

 

Hari Ramakrishnan

Because the best things happen unexpectedly!

An IT employee by profession, Sanjana Annu was a part of The Hindu Theatre Festival 2017 Live evam team. In this blog she is talking about her experience at the three day festival.

 

 

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Who said surprises come in small packages only. For me, it was a big fat event starting from 24^th Aug to 26^th August. Little did I know, how much was in store for me during those three days of my life when I first decided to be a part of this. It is rightly said that “From a tiny spark may burst a mighty flame”.

It all started when a friend of mine asked if I was interested to be a part of this. My response was quite impulsive. I did not even give a second thought about it considering all the stuff he had been telling about this fest as he was part of this from a very long time. I was more than excited. But as they said don’t settle for the spark but wait for the wild fire, I decided to keep calm because, it’s going to be LEGEND wait for it DARY!

There was no looking back after that. We had been called a day before the event starts to break the ice and get some insights about how the whole event is going to be. That evening was the perfect trailer for the entire event. Diversity was bolded and also italicized because each one present there had a creative uniqueness in them (which I rarely get to see) and you know what was the one common thing in all of them? Yes, the DURACELL battery wala energy. The moment you look at a person, you feel the same energy within you. Oh! Wait! Isnt this exactly what my Physics Professor explained ? Energy is always around you, it just transforms into different forms. On a second thought, I now started liking physics. My professor would be happy hearing it from me.

On the first day, we were called quite early to the venue as there were lot of work that had to be done and do our best that we can and finish everything on time. As soon as I reached the venue, I went around the entire building, entering into different doors, finding new pathways, peeping through all the windows just as I usually do at a new place to satisfy my curiosity. It makes me more connected to the place. As I entered the back stage, I was gaping at all the works that was done on the stage, probably it was the first time I was doing back stage work for a big act after my school days. Right from cleaning the stage, fixing the back drop, arranging the props, setting the mikes, getting the green room works done and many more of this. Trust me, one cannot  differentiate who was actually leading the event and who were the volunteers, because each and everyone was working with total commitment.

And the best part, nobody would have been more happier than my mom when she got to know that I had lifted the water cans, moved out some heavy wood stuff and surprisingly did some stitching too for the props. All thanks to the event, now my mom wants me to attend such events regularly and do these activities at home too so that I would get over my laziness.

And now when all the work got completed, we all gathered and had a briefing by our Event Head about the roles and responsibilities during the show time. After the briefing, we had an evam huddle, where each one of us would hold each others hands, close our eyes and think about the best memories in our lives which would give us the positive energy to do our best. For me, it is synonymous to RED BULL. Yes,this doesn’t give you wings, but gives you the energy that can make you fly too.

After the huddle, we had a shout out to EVAM followed by a group picture and then we were all back to our positions waiting for the people to arrive. Those 2 hours of showtime was a different experience. I got to meet a lot of people, some haughty women as well (which is an experience of its own) and also helping them out with their seats, giving them a brief about the play and also getting an opportunity to talk about the work we were doing and strangely I was also appreciated for the smile I had during the entire show. I was happy because at least somebody did not consider me a mad man (which happens always) for smiling all the time.

There were many such wow moments during the entire event which would be very close to my heart. An old lady gave me more insights about theatre and also blessed me just for getting her a chair to sit. The old watchman told many strange stories about the venue and also smiled at me every time I crossed him. I guess even my manager at work wouldn’t have been so happy to see me everyday. Last but not the least the Mallu power. Not one or two but we had five Mallus (malayalis) which was an added reason for my excitement.

I cannot end this without describing the Plays that we saw. “Black with equal” was like a complete buffet meal, it had it all. “Barf” was one of its kind with an emotional touch. This was something to which I got more connected to, especially for the message that it gave on belief over powering the truth. “Khwaab sa” gave me a trance feeling with their mind numbing performance. I was awestruck with the perfection aimed and the precision with which each and every act was carried out in all the plays. Probably my words wouldn’t do justice to the feeling that it gave.

On the whole, I can say it was nothing short of a roller coaster ride in the land of dreams. It wouldn’t have been possible without each and every person in the team. Starting from Nihar to introducing me to this, Aditya for making me a part of this and Vasanth, Thoorika and Pavithra for being the best energy filled leads and the entire team for giving me such a memorable experience.

You all are an extended family now!

Now I know why they call it a Fest or rather a Festival, something which we look forward to every year, to meet, have fun and create a lot more memories. Looking forward for more such meets and definitely the 2018 fest!

Signing off, all I can say is embrace the unknown and you will see life surprising you everyday!

Sanjana Annu