Hari Ramakrishnan, the Brat tamer!

Alert :  a very late post!

I attended Evam’s Theatre workshop on the 11th of November 2017 and had been waiting nearly two decades for this. I had always loved theatre, but kept away from it, what with the host of responsibilities that come from being a full-time working mom. And hey! Did I tell you I completed my MBA when my son Dennu was still in high school? I should mention J was one hell of a supportive guy and the least demanding of all. 

I put my heart and soul into this workshop. Having organized numerous corporate training sessions, I was wondering if I could implement a few tactics during the workshop to make it more vivacious and interesting.

I still remember it clear as day. I walked into a hall full of youngsters, most of them about my son’s age, sitting and chatting away. During my introduction to the group, I confessed how out of place I felt since I was the oldest and instead of walking away from something I had waited so long to pursue, I decided to stay and take it head on.

They were an enthusiastic bunch from diverse fields of work and it took me no time to ease in.  Madhu, an effervescent youngster came up and told me later, “We thought you were a rich babe.” She also gave me the title of “Honorary Millennial” and I wore it proudly throughout. If you’d ever socialized with a millennial you would know how difficult it is to earn that damn title!

Our facilitator was a sweet chap named Pradeep and he told us that the amateurishly scripted plays that we’ll be putting up on the final day as part of the workshop will be reviewed by a director and a group of seniors from EVAM.

We were 18 of us in total and later got divided up into 4 groups. We had to put up plays for this mystery director’s review after which we will be entrusted to him for around a month of rehearsals. We had to put up a paid show for the public as a group and get involved not just in acting, but also in marketing, publicity, promotions, light and sound, booking of the hall, selling the tickets, back stage, costumes, props for each of the plays and what not. It was an awesome experience.

Hari was a serious looking young man (to me), a bit older than Dennu, fair, good-looking feller who kept to himself to begin with. He was succinct and only gave positive feedback after our short plays.

All of us were terrified of him, unanimously. Mother promise – even me.

Hari instructed us that going forward, whoever signed up for the next phase would have to assemble at Wee Bee’s RA Puram at 7.30 pm every day until our show day.  He was truly a man of few words. Very pleasing, but he knew how to put people in their places.

The rehearsals started every day on the dot at Weebee’s. Yes. We started with warm-up exercises which quickly made us realize how out-of-shape we were. If anyone showed up late, that person had to do some extra warming up and he was merciless about it. Yep.

I had to drive 20+ kilometers crisscrossing the city, past some of the deadliest signals. I drove for more than 75 minutes every day, but promptly made it to the rehearsals on most days.

At WeeBees, Hari also introduced us to the Assistant Director for our play, Pavithra Baskaran a very stylish looking, professional young person, giving us an inkling that she had directed a lot of plays. AD, was a confident girl, but would listen to Hari as if he was her master, which he was.

Right from day one we knew Hari was not someone to mess with. We started by reading our scripts aloud, and can you believe when Hari was around we all were quiet, no small talk, and we all actually listened to him. 

He was still the pleasing guy we knew.

Then the roles were assigned to each of us. Every time he demonstrated how to portray a character, there he was effortlessly and convincingly transforming into the character himself. He could be Lalitha one minute and bin Laden the next. Oh yes. We had a character called Bin laden. He could dance, imitate, act and it took us very little time to realize what a dynamite he was.

The rehearsals were getting harder, we sometimes stayed on till 10 or later towards the 3^rd and 4^th week, and by the end of second week, we figured this guy was not only pleasing, he can easily switch to becoming a terrifying ringmaster. A pocket-sized ringmaster.

He spewed some of the nastiest rebukes in front of the group, and uttered some not so holy words in the native language that none of us would dare forget our lines. (We still did, that’s another story!) During the third week he threatened to abandon us but didn’t.

Once I told Hari how in my entire life I had never heard so many expletives as I had in the three to four weeks of Theatre rehearsals.

But he was completely in control of the entire group, making sure we were on time, we did the rehearsals well for the D day, and if we really had a good show day on December 9^th, it is definitely his efforts.

In the final week of rehearsals, every play had to go on without interruption. Even if one actor had a slip up, we had to reenact the whole play from the top, no questions asked. There were some plays that got done, some 8 to 9 times or more.

We decided we’d have the last round of rehearsals at my home. The entire crew stayed over, rehearsed till 1 am and then started again the next morning. One of my neighbor inquired worryingly if there was a fight going on at our house. They’d never heard so much noise coming from our place. A friend who lived close by told me that she could hear us rehearse. We had to throw our voices on the show day at Alliance auditorium because we wouldn’t have microphones and practicing loudly was our only way.

Hari would teach us what to expect on the show day– like audience losing interest if the voice is too low, waiting for the laughter to die down before we go on with the rest of our lines, where to look when the play is going on, the importance of not looking down, utilizing the stage space, how to walk, talk and act confidently.

Hari has been in theatre for more than a decade and has done a play called Yaman VS Woman across the world, 100 times. Yeah you read that right–100 times. And when he directed us, the experience showed. 

He was a fun guy to hang out with if he does not don the hat of a Director. Once he got on that mode, he was one real task master.

If at all, our show “7 tales at 7” was a success, our group Theatre brats owe it to this little fella, who defies his looks and age.