Kevin Gillese, Artistic Director

Kevin came all the way from Canada to join the Dad's Garage team. See, back in Edmonton he was the Artistic Director of Rapid Fire Theatre, a long time lover and sister company of Dad's… wait, that came out wrong, but you get the idea. In January of 2010 he moved to Atlanta to take the helm of the southern craziness that is Dad's Garage (and also to gorge himself on deep-fried Jack Daniels butter).

Kevin is best known as one-half of the improv duo Scratch with which he spent several years touring across Canada, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. You should see some of the superlative things the press said, apparently those guys were really funny or whatever! When not 'Scratching,' Kev was busy appearing in hilariously bad straight-to-DVD Christmas movies (evidently the only reason Hollywood ever visits Canada), cool Canadian films like The Pharmacist, and touring comedy acts like Hip-Hop 4 Dummeez. He even created and toured an autobiographical solo theatre piece called Wisdom Teeth (directed by Canadian theatre darling Chris Craddock). Before all of this, Kevin spent his time a studyin' theatre at the University of Alberta, and comedy writing and performance at Humber College in Toronto. No big deal.

Back home he was named one of The Edmontonian's Sizzling 20 Under 30 for his success as an entertainment biz entrepreneur, and Kevin is really hoping he gets named for something similar down here soon, because tick tock goes the clock on the rest of the twenties, ya know?

Lena Carstens, Managing Director

Lena loves the "business" of making theatre. It's like making sausages. You don't want to see what goes into it, but the result is divine. And you are an important ingredient in making theatre at Dad's whether as an audience member, a volunteer, an artist, or a donor. And speaking of donors, Lena is always happy to take checks payable to Dad's Garage.

Lena joined the Dad's family from the Alliance Theatre where she served as Associate Managing Director through TCG's New Generations: Mentoring the Leaders of Tomorrow grant under the superb tutelage of Managing Director Thomas Pechar. She holds a BFA in theatre stage management from Webster University in St. Louis as well as both an MA in arts administration and MBA from SMU. Lena is overjoyed to apply her education at Dad's and has no plans on getting a third masters degree.

Before moving over to the money side of the theatre, Lena worked as a stage manager with credits that include Broadway and off-Broadway productions. Her production work has included gigs with Roundabout Theatre Company, Manhattan Theatre Club, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Opera Theatre of St. Louis and Hope Summer Repertory Theatre. While in graduate school in Dallas, her management studies included work with the Dallas Theater Center and Dallas Business Committee for the Arts.

Lena is a co-chair for the L.E.A.D. Atlanta Class of 2008 and was a member of the L.E.A.D. Atlanta Class of 2006. She is a finalist for the Power 30 Under 30 in Atlanta Awards and served on the board of Atlanta Nonprofit Professionals and the advisory council of Emerging Arts Leaders of Atlanta. Lena and her handsome husband Josh are getting their feet wet with their greatest achievement of all – becoming parents to baby Chloe.

Linnea Frye, Marketing Director

Linnea graduated with a B.A. in Business Management from Georgia State University, and was lucky enough to land her first grown-up job as the Audience Development Director at Dad’s Garage. After 3 years of working in the Dad’s Garage catacombs with no heat or air, she has since earned a fancier title and subsequently mutated into a super-human species that can sweat out of her eyeballs while writing, designing, and making bad jokes. In her spare time, Linnea enjoys root beer floats, puppies, and speaking in a sarcastic tone. She does not enjoy mustaches.

John Brandt, Patron Services Director

John has been to school way-too-many times and has multiple degrees in Drama (B.A. University of Georgia '98, M.A. Washington University in St. Louis '00) as well as his M.B.A. (Benedictine University '05) John is also happily married and the owner of/servant to an overly large cat-like beast named Sebastien. He has lived and performed in Atlanta, St. Louis, Chicago, New Orleans and other locales too obscure to name. He is a comedy fanatic (specializing in the Italian Commedia dell'Arte improv style) and finds Dad's Garage to be the best thing since white-bread-toast-with-peanut-butter-no-strawberry-preserves-please-and-thank-you.

Dan Triandiflou - Director of Improvisation

Dan is an ensemble improviser at Dad's Garage Theatre Company and a working actor throughout the Southeast. He holds a B.A. from SUNY Albany and has appeared in several films, commercials, and plays. He first came to Dad's over a decade ago when he played The Kid in Sam Shepherd's The Unseen Hand. He has improvised with several Atlanta improvisation groups, including Seven Course Theatre, The Doug Dank Project, and Laughing Matters. He's performed at Improvaganza in Edmonton, the Charleston Comedy Festival, and the Providence Improvfest. Dan directed the original Invasion: Christmas Carol at Dad's Garage Theatre. Hire us for a private event improvisation show and he'll hug you, free of charge.

Amber Nash, Education Director

Amber Nash graduated from Georgia State University with a B.S. in Psychology. For 3 years, she worked as a youth counselor for the State of Georgia with children experiencing emotional and behavioral challenges. Amber has been acting and improvising in Atlanta for 10 years. She is a part of the Improv Ensemble at Dad’s Garage Theatre; fulfilling roles as a performer, teacher, creator and director. Amber works with Laughing Matters as an improviser, actor and team-building facilitator. She works with Young Audiences bringing improv programming to elementary schools, with Kid Komedy, teaching improv to children that learn differently and has also served on the design team for VSA Arts of Georgia’s Summer Institute. She is currently working with Communities in Schools, ARCH program as their lead improv instructor and as a teacher for Creative Circus. Amber has lead workshops at Geva Theatre in Rochester, NY as well as in Gainesville, FL at the Hippodrome State Theatre of Florida and at Georgia Technical Institute. In 2005, Amber spent 2 months in Chicago training with IO. Since becoming the Education Director at Dad’s Garage, she has revamped the class system, developed a Summer Kid’s Camp, serves as the Intern Coordinator and is revitalizing our outreach efforts. Amber is passionate about the role that improv and the arts play in education for both children and adults.

Jamie Warde, Technical Director

Jamie Warde is originally from Buffalo, NY, where he misspent his youth and educational years. At the age of fifteen, he began working in professional theatres on scenery, electric and props crews. Over the next four years, he put in time with every theatre company in Buffalo at every black box and university theatre he could find. After several more seasons working in stage management and production at the regional and touring theatres, he left the northeast to see what the rest of the country had to offer. Two summers in production positions for outdoor drama aside, Atlanta was the first city he settled in. In December of '95, he decided to try something new, free-lancing with the Scenery Shop for Turner Broadcasting System. You probably have seen most of the scenery or anchor desks he built for CNN, TNT, and all the other Turner networks, starting that winter and running through the new millennium. He began working on different facets of production at Dad's Garage Theatre in January of '97, and started the '97-'98 season that autumn as the new Technical Director. Since then, he has had the pleasure of building over 25 different shows on the Mainstage and in the Top Shelf, beginning with the smash hit Cannibal: The Musical and running through our current season's opening show, Say You Love Satan. At present, you can usually find him at the long-awaited new scenery shop around the back of the building at Dad's Garage with a small crew of loyal carpenters, probably making a mess.