No Pressure Improv's Improv and Sketch Open Stage is a platform to showcase or experiment your Improv and sketch skills to a public audience.

This edition of the open stage is open for performance, only for women, NB (Non-binary) and transmasc persons. Audience tickets are available for all.

-----

The idea of the Improv Open Stage is to platform and provide a low stake environment for improvisers of all skill levels be it amateur or expert, to perform or experiment with the craft in front of an audience - Which we at No Pressure Improv believe is an important step in a performer's journey.

The event has two sections:

• The first, an improv jam where improvisers - from beginner to expert can perform led by a jam-master
• The second, a featured act performed by improvisers, musicians, poets, storytellers etc. who:

A. Have been practicing their craft for a while OR

B. Are debuting or crafting a new and/or experimental format OR

C. Are experts at their craft and are showcasing what they do

------

No Pressure Improv is a Bengaluru and Thane based Improv Community.

We do two in-person jams a week and one online jam, bi-weekly. We also host Improv Movie Nights, Improv Open Mics, Quiz & Gamenights, Writer-Improviser Jams, Improv masterclasses and professional shows.

We aim to keep it fun and relaxed. No pressure!

https://linktr.ee/nopressureimprov

-----

About the performers:

Psychologist by day. Artist by twilight. Asleep by midnight.

Shweta Bhat has been many things in her short life - software professional, teacher, writer, psychologist, theatre artist, improviser and poet. She prefers to be a Jill of some trades and a Mistress of some. Above all, she believes in doing everything out of love.

Shweta is a counsellor, trainer and consultant at SASHA (Support Against Sexual Harassment) Shweta has also been the host and editor of Voice – The SASHA PoSHcast, a monthly podcast dealing with topics around the theme of sexual harassment prevention and gender equity.

Shweta loves mediums which engage one’s child-like curiosity and imagination, especially improv and playback theatre. She performs and facilitates improv jams with No Pressure Improv. Her love affair with the world of improvised theatre began in 2016, and she has previously been a performer with various groups including Improv Comedy Bangalore, The Adamant Eves and Yours Truly Theatre. She is currently also a performer of playback theatre with citylamps.

Outside of improv and playback, Shweta and has also worked as a writer and performer in the Kannada theatre production Amma Makkalu Ellinda Barthave (Mother, Where Do Babies Come From?) as part of the Gender Bender festival 2020. She also forms one half of the semi-improvised duo The Words and Feelings Show.

Shweta likes to use storytelling, poetry and theatre to throw light on issues that plague us within and without

----

& then... is an improv duo by Laxmi and Abhi which was previously named them

Laxmi is a Playback Theatre performer and has been improvising for a decade in and around Bangalore, India. She performed with The Adamant Eves (India’s first all-female improv company) and is a co-founder of Citylamps Playback Theatre.

A graduate of Interdisciplinary Humanities from the Manipal Centre for Philosophy and Humanities, she has facilitated spontaneous theatre-based processes and training since 2014. Her training modules focus on the theatre-based answers for making a work environment more suitable to work and play and for encouraging creativity and critical thinking in young learners.

Additionally, she is currently working on tools to recognize and maintain various manners of tension in an improv scene and cultivate constructive curiosity. Her teachings are heavily inspired by her experience in Playback theatre, critical thinking and improvisational theatre. She has taught online classes at The Nursery, Improv Comedy Bangalore, Liverpool Improv Comedy and The Hideout Theatre.

Abhishek Desai is the founder of No Pressure Improv and formerly the co- founder of Improv Comedy Bangalore or ICB. He has been imporvising since 2016 & has performed across India and internationally, most notably at the 20th edition of the Chicago Improv Festival

and at Second City, Chicago.

Abhishek has been a part of the organizing team of the first 2 editions of the international, Bengaluru Improv Festival. His vision is to make improv as popular as (If not more popular than) movies in namma Ooru, Bengaluru!

------