The year was 2003. Cheerful Sunil Vishnu was dressed as the pope, while suave Karthik Kumar was bare-chested, clad in a toga. Set to dramatic music, the then 25-year-old founders of Evam walked around Landmark, giving out flyers to thoroughly bewildered customers. “Come for our play,” they said. “Come celebrate theatre.” People, needless to say, were intrigued.
“It was the first time theatre was reaching out and making itself attractive to young people. Otherwise, it was seen as an elite and intimidating space where people said arty things,” says Karthik. When the duo started 12 years ago, the theatre scene in the city was much smaller, and the audience, mostly older. Karthik and Sunil wanted to change that. They wanted theatre to be fun. So, they innovated.
They came up with dramatic and catchy promotion tactics, which worked as crowd pullers. They created databases of their audience and connected with them beyond the play. They largely performed comedies, which hooked a younger audience, because, they figured “it was people like us who would watch us”.
Their shows became an interactive place for audiences to hang out — they offered installation art, photo booths, music and, most importantly, a socialising space. While costumed characters bellowed ‘Always look on the bright side of life’ to announce that the gates were open before An Idiot for Dinner , they celebrated an audience member’s birthday on stage, complete with cake and candles, following Barefoot In The Park . “We didn’t just want people to come watch a play and go; we wanted them to have an unforgettable experience,” says Sunil.
The men from MICA loved theatre, but looked at it as a product to sell, and sell it they did, all the while looking for a profitable way to do so. Just banking on stage plays, they soon realised, was not a sustainable growth model. Evam became a corporate arts management company, and along the way, they started First Rush for amateur actors (2006), Sideways Trainings for corporates (2007), Stand-up Tamasha for some comic relief (2010) and Happy Cow for children (2012).
While Evam was spreading its wings and growing, the audiences too were finding different ways to experience theatre. Each year, the company takes in volunteers, predominantly, college students. They are given training to manage the different aspects of theatre — productions, hospitality, audience management, marketing. The pizza parties, movie evenings and pocket money that comes with it are only added bonuses. “The energy that they bring is great for us, because we are in that space where we constantly work with youngsters,” says Pavithra Ramaswamy, COO of Evam.
Pavithra, one of the earliest recruits of the company, was herself a volunteer with Evam when she was in college. Pavithra, like Karthik and Sunil, has a background in management. She, however, does not go on stage. “We broke the norm which said that you need to be interested in acting to join a theatre company. All our current employees are trained in the management of arts, to make a living out of theatre,” says Pavithra.
That is not to say their employees, who are largely in their 20s and 30s, are not artistic. Rabhinder Kannan does stand-up comedy, John Pradeep mimes, Cinthoorika Dinesh indulges in photography and T.M. Karthik dabbles in films. Yet, Evam works the way any corporate does. There are timings. There are annual appraisals. There are even two working Saturdays every month. And as a rule, all their employees, regardless of their role, have to be a part of a First Rush workshop. Because, explains Karthik, “If they don’t get the feeling of going on stage and being part of a production, they won’t understand the core of the organisation: theatre.”
Evam currently has around 100 volunteers across three Indian cities, and 14 employees handling operations in Chennai and Bangalore. And apart from that, there are actors, stand-up comedians and theatre facilitators associated with the company.
Since 2003, Evam’s approach to live entertainment has created a community of audience who is not only excited to watch, but also be involved in theatre.
