Past the Pencil Factory buildings, right across the street looms a large, ultilitarian-looking concrete building. Out front, there is a large metal sculpture that hides a massive staircase behind. The station is extremely large in nature, and the architecture looks like it was built in the 1950s. On the opposite end of the station is a large, colorful mural. At the time I went there was no one present (besides my roommate and myself). The emptiness and the dated look of the building contributed to a very eerie, abandoned feeling.
Category: Artifacts
Walter’s
Pencil Factory Flats and Shops
The old pencil factory on Decatur street has transformed into an active residential and commercial area. Shops and restaurants line the streetfronts, offering everything from Indian food to small boutiques. Located on top of these shops are five stories of apartments and flats, vacated by a lot of students and young adults. The renovation of the factory allowed for a once nearly abandoned area to become active once again.
Decatur Street Pedestrian Bridge
A shot of Decatur Street as it passes through Georgia State University. The pedestrian bridge crosses over the busy street to allow students to get from class to class safely. Students can be found using the bridge at any given point of the day, given that it connects all the major classroom buildings to one another via the Plaza.
Decatur Street Sign
This sign shows where Decatur Street and Peachtree Center Avenue intersect. This intersection is right in the middle of Georgia State University campus where thousands of students cross everyday. The street is often busy with both vehicle and foot traffic. Around the corner here are the Arts and Humanities building, Kell Hall, and Langdale Hall. Surprisingly, many people frequent these street that do not necessarily belong to the Georgia State community. Much of the vehicle traffic consists of people simply passing through the campus to or from work.
Wall of People
This area of the venue is to the direct left of the stage. This is where the pianist sat and played during the show. The wall behind has paintings of many different people on it, adding artwork to the room. The style of portrait is similar to that of graphic novels, adding a kind of aesthetic to the room. I wasn’t able to find out if the people on the walls had any significance to Dad’s Garage, but I assume they are comedians of some sort.
First Game of the Night
The first game of the night was a game called “Categories”, where the audience provided a category, and the actors had to name things from that category without repeating or hesitating. This first one was alcoholic beverages, and it’s obvious that Max’s knowledge is limited in this field. At the end, the audience shouts “Die!” at Max to signal that he said something that wasn’t actually a part of that category. This game was great to start with to warm up the audience for the kind of participation necessary for the shows held at Dad’s Garage.
The Stage
This was the view of the small stage from the bar where I sat for the show. You can see a portion of the table to the left and the seats up front where the cast sat when they weren’t performing. To the left of the stage was where a man sat, playing the keyboard. He was responsible for providing music during downtime between scenes and for the impromptu musical scenes as well. You can see from this photo that the stage is very small, and can only hold a few people at one time.
Dad’s Garage Theatre Company’s New Home
Dad’s Garage has been in existence since 1995. Originally residing in the neighborhood of Inman Park, the actors stayed there for 18 years. Since its eviction in 2013, Dad’s Garage was temporarily located at the 7 Stages venue until the middle of summer 2015 when they were lucky enough to find this old church building that was formerly Atlanta Metropolitan Christian Church. Located on Ezzard Street, Dad’s Garage is now found its permanent home not too far from our very own Georgia State campus. It’s just a few turns off of Edgewood, and it takes no longer than five minutes to get there from campus if you have a good navigator (which I did not). The presence of such a theatre so close to campus brings comedic entertainment to the downtown area, where comedy theatres aren’t very prevalent.
Skeleton Mom
This video is a part of one of the scenes performed that night. The object of the game was that when the director, Terry, rang the bell and said “that sounds like a song”, the actor then had to improvise a song on the spot. Max entered the scene and said “I’m skeleton mom” and was then forced to make a song about it. He made up a rap on the spot, which illicited a lot of howling laughter from those of us in the audience!