Odd Couple Cut Python, Our Iceberg is melting !!!
Life after the MBA is not necessarily just work, work, and more work. Some have made the resolve and taken the time out to find a healthier work-life balance. Shankar Ramachandran (MBA 2003-2005) found his ‘beyond office hours’ calling in theater. An enthusiastic member of Chennai based theatre group “Evam” Shankar found himself in Mumbai recently, interacting with the likes of Naina Lal Kidwai and John Kotter – all because of a play he was part of Who says play doesn’t pay!
All the world is a stage and men mere actors on it…..these famous lines of Shakespeare from his play “As you Like it” became a reality to me for the past 1 and a half years. Though of course the world did not become a stage, some of the cities sure did.
It was one of those regular days in office when an email popped up in my inbox from this popular English theatre group in Chennai called Evam. Curious to know what it said I quickly opened the mail and read through the content. It was an advertisement inviting youngsters for an acting work shop. I was quite excited to read that because I always wanted to do some thing apart from work. But the fact that there would be an audition for selction into the workshop sort of made me nervous. The time constraints, managing both work and workshop etc also made me have second thoughts of going for the audition. Nevertheless I decided to give it a shot.
There was one paragraph of monologue that was given to us to enact the way we wanted. At the audition there were lot of youngsters mostly from college and some from school (I almost felt like a granddad amidst them ). It was fun to watch each of them perform with the sense of confidence and raw energy which I presume I did not have as a student. When my turn came I went and did what ever came to my mind and honestly the performance of those before me gave me a confidence boost. This was followed by a couple of questions from Sunil and Karthik the founders of Evam Entertainment Company. MBAs from MICA by qualification, both of them gave up their corporate jobs and founded this company with an aim of providing fun and entertainment.
In a couple of days I got a phone call informing I had got selected for the workshop. Now the workshop was fun. It was about letting go of all our inhibition and preconceived notions (we have quite a bit of it) about ourselves. We were made to jump, scream, crawl, cry and laugh. I almost felt I was shuttling between two generations. That is during the day I was this consultant meeting up with clients, putting up a face of intelligent maturity while in the evening at the workshop I become cranky (forced to) and jumped around with other boys and girls. The workshop focused on various aspects of theatre such as body movements, voice modulation, space management, emotions, expressions etc.
The workshop culminated in a production called “THE CUT”, a play by Ed Monk. The play had a unique concept of Play within a play within a play (confused, aren’t you, don’t bother. The audience themselves were at the end of the show )
The first day of the show I was thrilled to perform on the stage to an audience of around 600. We had around 10 shows over 3 weekends. There was a joy and satisfaction that we derived while the audience roared with laughter and had fun at the shows. Then when they come back stage and patted your backs saying it was good, it is quite a fulfilling experience.
After ‘CUT’ I was part of a couple of more productions like ‘Python Hysteria’ (Adaptation of the Monty Python Series), ‘Odd Couple’ by Niel Simon (my favorite) and the latest being Our Iceberg is melting by John Kotter. Our Ice berg is melting was a big budget production and unique in its conception.
This was part of Economic Times launch of a new product called ET Theatre. ET theatre is a unique concept where they plan to adapt various management fables into plays targetting a corporate audience. So Evam was invited to adapt the popular book of Dr. John Kotter (Change Management Guru) ‘Our Iceberg is melting’ into a play.
The story set in Antartica, narrates how a colony of Emperor Penguins adapts to change, a change of their homes when the iceberg they are living on starts melting. The play was Indianised to a great extend with inclusion of Circuit of Munnabhai fame, Bhangda and even an item number as they call it and remember all this we did as penguins and dressed like one.
The audience at Mumbai Hilton where this show was premiered comprised of top management of companies and the author himself. I also had got a chance to interact with Ms. Nainalal Kidwai, CEO of HSBC bank. A down to earth lady, she impressed the crowd with her elegance and eloquence.
Bringing theatre or the lessons learnt from it, into the corporate board rooms is quite a novel idea that ET launched. But the success of the venture only time will prove. Now if you thought that doing plays was all fun, enjoyment and getting compliments from audience, there is a flip side to it too. The early morning and late night rehearsals, the weekend travel, landing back on Monday morning and rushing to office etc are just some of them. But along with these challenges it definitely is a lot of fun and a great stress reliever not only for the actors but also the audience.
(Now for those of you who are wondering what the title means, it is just names of plays I was part of :-)
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