Laughter’

By Matthew Terrell

Editor’s Note: Dad’s Garage Theatre Company’s communications director and former INtown intern Matthew Terrell talked to the improv group’s new artistic director, Jon Carr, about his vision for the future and how Dad’s has adjusted during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

You are brand new to the role of Artistic Director of Dad’s Garage, but you’ve been involved with the theatre for a long time. Tell us a bit about what your goals for the organization were when you stepped into your new job earlier this year.

I’ve been a part of Dad’s Garage for 15-plus years and I love this theatre. As I stepped into this role it was important to me that I not just bring new ideas but preserve what made me fall in love with Dad’s in the first place. So, it was not about coming in and changing everything but “Yes And-ing” the work that Kevin Gillese, former Artistic Director, had already done. Dad’s has always been an “artist first” theatre because we give people opportunities to work on and produce projects that they would never get to pursue at any other theatre. Because of this, there are tons of artists that got their start or really developed their craft at Dads. One of my big goals has been to take what we’ve already been doing over the past 25 years and become intentional about it. For example, Dads has always produced the majority of our plays in house giving a number of playwrights (including myself) a chance to have their work produced for the first time. Coming into the new job, one of the first things I did was create a structured development process for new work. Now our artists not only get a chance to have their work produced, but they also learn a process of creating new work that will allow them to continue to produce shows at any other theatre in the country. My goal is to give opportunities and use those opportunities to grow artists and eventually become a theatre that sends amazing artists into the world.

In March, things changed very quickly for all of us—including Dad’s Garage. Your theatre responded by quickly launching an online entertainment platform at Twitch.tv/dadsgarageatl … how did you pull that off so quickly? Why was it important for you to move to online entertainment?

Our theatre is truly a family. Our performers, crews, and staff literally see each other every week, because if they are not cast in a play then they are still doing improv shows. When we shut down, this was the first time we were not able to work together in years. Fortunately, our marketing director Chelsea Steverson had experience working with Twitch and was able to set us up very quickly. We all were looking to do something as a family, so when this opportunity came up our folks jumped on it. We were able to have the channel up and running in no time. It was important to move online because scripted plays and improv is what we do, but it is not who we are. Our mission is to transform people, communities, and perspectives through laughter. It just so happens that improv and scripted work is the way we do that. So, when the pandemic took away our improv shows, it did not change our mission. We wanted to get online because we believe in our mission and want to continue to use laughter to impact our community. We took a “Yes And” approach to the problem and built something good out of a bad situation

Your improvisers are leading a bunch of shows on the Twitch channel. Can you tell us about some of them, and what we can expect to see when we tune in? Also, does it cost money?

All our shows are free! It was important for us to remove as many barriers as possible for people to get our content. We make it easy for people to donate to the theatre and our artists but it is not required in order to enjoy our shows. Our improvisers have put some really fun and creative shows together. Jayme Alilaw is an improviser at Dads but also an amazing Opera singer. So, she has a show where she sings funny operatic songs and incorporates singing lessons as well. There is Peyton Fromage - Available for Booking! Improviser Karen Cassady does a hilarious character named Peyton Fromage, think Carrot Top meets SNL’s Pat. She does ridiculous comedy routines in hopes of someone booking her for their birthday party. Improviser Whitteny Milsap has tons of animals in her home. So, every week she takes us on a tour, introduces some of her awesome critters and does commentary of their own ridiculous behavior.

What about kids programming? Do you have kids programming on your Twitch

channel, and what does it look like?

We are scheduling kids programming Monday-Friday from noon-1 p.m. on our Twitch channel. One the first pieces of feedback we got from our Twitch shows was that people wanted content for their kids. We have a couple of shows designed just for the little ones. Uncle Grandpa’s Hoo-Dilly Storytime show is a classic Dads show we’ve done live for many years. It’s improvised stories and puppets.

Class Is In Session is led by Kirsten King and takes our teen improvisers and gives them a chance to show what they’ve been learning in our youth programs and summer camps. RoJoLo’s Storytime is a series of silly stunts and funny stories.

You’ve been broadcasting recordings of popular shows from your archives. Can you tell us a bit about that, and what we can expect coming up? How have viewers responded to this?

Every Friday and Saturday at 8pm we stream recordings of classic Dad’s Garage plays. This time slot is when we normally would have big shows happening at our theatre, so we wanted to keep that our “primetime slot.” The unique thing about Dad’s is that we write and produce our own plays, so we have a catalog of amazing shows from the past 25 years. We stream them on Twitch which has a chat component, so it has been amazing to watch the shows and see audience members talk about their personal experiences with the show and how it has impacted them. It creates a cool performance and conversation experience.

What have been the biggest challenges of going virtual for Dad’s Garage? What have been your biggest successes?

The biggest challenge has been learning something new so fast. Because we transitioned so quickly, many of our crew and performers had to learn on the fly about Twitch and how it works. It’s created a lot of challenges but because we have an institutional improv mindset everyone has been willing to be flexible and dealt with any challenge we’ve faced. Our biggest success has been maintaining a connection with our audience. We had our last live show on a Friday and our first streaming show that following Monday. The flexibility of our performers and the commitment to our mission allowed us to not miss a beat and bring some muchneeded laughter to Atlanta.

How are you supporting your performers who may be unemployed at this time? What all is Dad’s Garage doing to help local artists?

As I’ve said before, we are a family and it is important to us that we continue to support our artists through this time. We do that in a number of ways. Our artists are still able to make money through running Twitch shows and our (now online) improv classes. We started an emergency fund for our performers so we can get money to our artists that need it the most. Lara Smith, our Managing Director, has been working extremely hard to make sure we are taking advantage of all the new government grants and loan programs in order to keep money coming to our people. We also have an incredible board and supporters that have worked with us to keep everyone up to date on the funds and programs our artists can take advantage of.

Tell us about “Jon Pets the Dog” … what’s that about?

I recently moved in with my girlfriend who has a dog, and I’m pretty new to being a dog dad. When I did my first video introducing our Twitch channel with my dog I missed the fact that he was getting antsy and really wanted someone to pet him. I was surprised when a large portion of the feedback about our new digital offering was about how badly people wanted me to just pet my dog. So, we leaned into it. We have a donation goal of 10k that we are pretty close to reaching. If we finally get there, I will finally pet my dog on camera (I do pet my dog in normal life).

When life returns to normal—whatever normal will look like—what is the first thing you are going to do?

An improv show followed by a drink with friends at the Little Five Points Yacht Club.