The energy was raucous Friday night as the main stage house nearly filled its 206-seat capacity at Dad’s Garage to celebrate the improv theatre’s “Dirty 30” birthday party with a through-the-eras TheatreSports competition.
For the uninitiated, TheatreSports is fast-paced, competitive improvised comedy. Teams of improvisers exhaust themselves through breathless rounds of improv games, each different from the last.
In one round, improvisers might take purses from audience members and build a sketch around items they pull from the bags. In another, two actors could be challenged to join shoulders and speak as one character.
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
For each game, audience members participate by calling out suggestions for the sketch’s setting or topic. On Friday, few needed coaxing.
The audience, a good mix of returning fans and newbies, was hollering suggestions and belting out lyrics to sing-along traditions.
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Dad’s Garage has become known for its TheatreSports format, which the company has been hosting for three decades since its founding. The garage was originally launched by a group of college buddies from Florida State University in 1995.
Back then, the theatre was in a cruddy warehouse in Inman Park rented for $2,500 a month and furnished with thrift store couches. The space had no AC, a tin roof that made hearing a challenge when it rained and bathrooms that often malfunctioned.
Now housed in a two-story converted Old Fourth Ward church with multiple stages to host cabaret shows downstairs, and full-production shows upstairs, Dad’s has come up a few notches.
“I think it’s just such a big deal that we’ve made it to 30 years because a lot of arts institutions, especially in the arts and culture climate right now, do not make it this far,” said Katie Pelkey, managing director for Dad’s Garage.
“It is a testament not only to the sort of resilience of Dad’s as a business, but also just to the Dad’s community at large who continues to show up, even in the 95-degree weather in this hot auditorium and pack it.”
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
For Friday night’s festivities, Dad’s Garage brought back performers from multiple eras to compete. Four teams made up of players from the company’s first five years, the 2000s, 2010s, 2020s and some ensemble cast assembled to face off.
Sydney Ellis took her seat behind her electric keyboard ready to elevate the night’s show with sound effects. Jon Carr, the theatre company’s current co-artistic director and night’s show host, took his spot behind a podium mic to moderate The Games.
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
A panel of judges made up of four (later five) of Dad’s Garage’s original founders filed onto the stage wearing judicial robes and faux-serious frowns, holding scorecards numbered 1-5 to rank performers and brandishing shiny, squeaking bike horns they could use to kill a comedy sketch if it got too boring.
Carr announced the team members, old and new. Notable on stage was Amber Nash, the actor made famous as the voice of Pam Poovey on FX’s “Archer” who largely got her start at Dad’s Garage and met her husband, Kevin Gillese, at Dad’s Garage. Gillese served as the theatre’s artistic director for nearly 10 years from 2010 to 2019.
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
The founders and cast came from near and far to celebrate. Founder Sean Daniels, who is based out of Sarasota, Florida, is premiering his autobiographical recovery comedy “The White Chip” in London’s West End.
Jed Broitman, another founder, drove up with his wife and daughter from Orlando. While his family had already moved back to Florida when Broitman’s daughter Ola was born, she remembers driving up to Atlanta twice a year to see the show. Up until Friday though, she had never seen her dad on stage.
“This is my first night watching him in action participating with the theater,” she said Friday. “It feels very much like a family that I never was necessarily involved in myself, but that both of my parents really cultivated … it’s special to be here and see that it’s still running after 30 years.”
Maged Roushdi, one of the improvisers on stage Friday, was thrilled to see the founders there.
“Getting to see the founders and people from all eras show up was amazing,” said Roushdi — who has been coming to the theatre since 2008, became a rookie performer in 2016 and joined the ensemble cast in 2019.
“It’s weird that I can be at a place for so long and still feel like a new guy comparatively. That’s kind of special for any company, but I think even more special for a theatrical company — one that has a history and a way of passing down the art form time over time.”
Ed Morgan, another competitor in TheatreSports, started taking classes at Dad’s Garage in 2005, joined the company in 2007 and has never left. He said the birthday celebration was a cool time to reflect.
“It’s easy to forget about all that time that has passed and all the things we have done,” he said. “Especially since improv is a thing that there’s nothing to show for it after the show. It just sort of disappears. Usually, we’re in such a rush to get things done and move on to the next that we never get time to reflect. It’s really amazing to have a weekend where we get a chance to recognize all of the work we’ve done for 30 years.”
After the show, the crowd, founders and performers gathered on the first floor to eat cupcakes, drink festive drinks and cheers to three decades of laughter and community.
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