The young artistes of Centerstage have always entertained the audience with their quick wit and humour.
Fans of their show ‘The Improv’ are in for a treat as the team promises to put up the wittiest extravaganza on November 19.
Besides, they have created the symbol of ‘The Improv’ — ‘The Other Finger’, which is basically the ring finger and stands for happiness. The campaign is already gathering momentum on social media and the team will use it in all its shows from now on.
“We want the show to be larger than life and have put together a team of 30 interns to promote happiness. So when we were coming up with new ideas to make it bigger and better, we thought of this campaign,” explains Pooja Sampath, executive producer, Centerstage.
“With all the sad happenings in society, we thought why not start a campaign that stands for happiness? The middle finger is always used for frustration and anger. So why not have a symbol of positivity?” she adds.
Saad Khan, the founder of Centerstage, says, the idea came about in a meeting. “When I was doing engineering, although I used to do theatre, it was still a struggle. So I wanted to provide a platform to the young interns, who are a huge part of this show. When we held a meeting, a few of them started talking about how ‘heart’ is the symbol of EDM. From there, the conversation moved on to the middle finger, which is considered obscene almost everywhere in the world. So we thought why not use another finger to symbolise happiness,” he notes.
“We realised that except the ring finger, every finger is symbolic of something or the other. So we thought of using it as a symbol of happiness and will be asking the audience to do the same during our show too,” he adds.
The team promises that the show will have them at their wittiest best. “It will be entertaining from start to finish. We also have a lot of giveaways like how Ellen DeGeneres and Oprah Winfrey have on their shows,” laughs Pooja while Saad adds, “It’s not just an ‘improv’ show, it’s ‘The Improv’. We have trademarked it and apart from our usual rounds, we have also added two new rounds. It’s different from shows like ‘Whose Line Is It Anyway’ and ‘Improv-A-Ganza’.”
The artistes have been practising hard for the show. “Though a person needs quick wit to be a part of our team, we need to nurture them in other aspects like camaraderie and understanding a person’s strengths and weaknesses etc,” sums up Saad.
Produced by Maaz Khan and hosted by Saad, the show will have six crazily spontaneous actors — Siddhanth Sundar, RJ Danish Sait, Richa Kapoor, Sal Yusuf, Sumukhi Suresh and Paveen Raj.
Catch ‘The Improv’ live at Chowdiah Memorial Hall on November 19. Tickets for the show are available on www.bookmyshow.com. Call 9880445430/9980027744 for details.