Press & Media

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6 Tips From the Improv Stage You Can Apply to Your Business

The entrepreneurial journey is ripe with experiences that make you uncomfortable and, at times, even embarrassed. If this is you, here's something to try: Bring your team (or just yourself) to an improv comedy class. Seriously! I’ve taken a couple of these, and each time I walk away, I recognize some key correlations between the improv stage and my business.



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Tara Ochs on 'Selma' and Crafting a Successful Acting Career in Atlanta

Actor Tara Ochs is a frequent and inspired performer at Dad’s Garage Theatre, Atlanta’s precursor to SNL and kin to Chicago’s Second City, temporarily housed at Little Five Points’ 7 Stages Theatre. You may have caught Tara in past productions of Dad’s “Spoon the Musical,” “Invasion Christmas Carol,” and “Durang Durang,” but her most notable role to date is as civil rights activist Viola Liuzzo in 2014’s “Selma.” We spoke with Tara about what she learned from that role, and how she’s managed to carve out a successful acting career in the Southeast.

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BWW Interview: David Eck, Jordan Mann from THANKSKILLING THE MUSICAL Get Stuffed and Personal

Based on the film of the same name, ThanksKilling the Musical is about five college students heading home for Thanksgiving break as they cross paths with a killer turkey possessed by an ancient Indian curse. Horror, hilarity, and sodomy ensue as the teens try to stop the homicidal bird from killing them all.

I got on the phone with the show's producer David Eck and lyricist Jordan Mann to discuss their creative process, and what excited them about mounting the show in Atlanta at Dad's Garage Theatre Company. Unbeknownst to them, I was mouthing down a turkey sandwich as I asked them the hard hitting questions.
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Dad’s Garage is reborn with a new theater in Old Fourth Ward

On New Year’s Eve, a church on Ezzard Street hosted a service like never before as improv performers from Dad’s Garage graced the stage at the former worship hall, now the permanent home of the 20-year-old theater company.
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Preview: “Woman of the Year” accepts the challenge of role reversal and gender tom-foolery

When Woman of the Year opens at Dad’s Garage Theatre Company tonight (through March 12), the scripted comedy will challenge some deeply entrenched notions of what constitutes ladylike and gentlemanly behavior.

The show is comprised of 21 sketches, following the chronology of a calendar year, with an emphasis on pitfalls and foibles around holidays like Valentine’s Day, April Fool’s Day and Independence Day. Viewers can expect to see a variety of scripted sketches from satirical and absurdist to musical and social commentary — all from the perspective of the women at Dad’s Garage.
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Dad’s Garage Theatre wins $100,000 grant, stands behind bacon

Dad’s Garage Theatre, which has aligned its mission with subversive comedy and bacon, received validation Tuesday when it announced a $100,000 grant from the Community Foundation for a Greater Atlanta.

The grant will be delivered over a two year period and will help to cover the theater’s million-dollar yearly operating costs. “It’s an incredible level of support for our organization,” said the theater’s development director Stephen Barwick.

The theater won a $75,000 “managing for excellence” award earlier this year, also from the Community Foundation, a group, Barwick said, that has been “a tremendous supporter of Dad’s Garage Theatre.”

It has been a tumultuous period of change for the non-profit theater group. Homeless since it moved out of its Inman Park theater in 2013, the improvisational troupe has been putting on performances at 7 Stages in Little Five Points and at other locales, though not at its usual blistering pace of 300 shows a year.
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No joke: Dad’s Garage nominated for design award

Call it divine intervention: Atlanta comedy club Dad's Garage has made the finalist list for the Urban Land Institute's Atlanta annual design awards.

The recognition comes for the group's new venue — the reincarnation of a former church in Old Fourth Ward. The renovation, completed by Pimsler Hoss Architects, transformed the standard sanctuary into a house of hilarity.
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New webseries finds Archer’s Amber Nash struggling with murders, cops, and Bigfoot

Weird things are a-brewing in the park in new webseries Hart Of America; weird, funny things. Starring Amber Nash (voice of Pam “holy shitsnacks” Poovey on Archer), the 10 episode series finds a tough as nails, quipping detective stumble upon a murder before soon finding there’s more to the case. Each episode is only six minutes or so, put out by Dad’s Garage Theatre in Atlanta, and each has Nash adopting multiple personas in telling the tale of “love of family, love of nature, love of a rapidly sexual nature.”
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Dad's Garage Theatre Faces Existential Crisis

The comedians over at Dad’s Garage are being a bit more serious.

This comes on the heels of the success of their annual fundraiser, Baconfest. The theater brought in around $85,000.

That is coming just four months after they settled into their new home in the Old Fourth Ward. The 21-year-old improv theater company lost their Inman Park space in 2013 and had taken up temporary residence at 7 Stages Theater in Little 5 Points.
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Imagine (Dungeons and) Dragons

Dungeons and Dragons is a cornerstone of nerd-dom. In the tabletop game, participants role-play as elves, dwarves, wizards and more, slaying dragons, exploring foreign lands and fighting creatures who have less than noble intentions under the careful eye of a dungeon master.

“Tabletop role-playing games are escapism,” Improvised Dungeons and Dragons cast member Travis Sharp tells CL. “They’re a good way for friends to sit down and make up stories.”

In Improvised Dungeons and Dragons, Dad’s Garage Theatre Company capitalizes on the storytelling skills at the heart of both D&D and improv comedy.