Tagged: BED2MTC

Our Cluster Experience

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This picture was taken of us after the show, showing all of us from the cluster that came to the show. It was a great experience for all of us to come together to support Max and see him do the thing he loves. It was obvious the other actors held the same passion as Max. The fact that we were there to see our friend made the experience that much more incredible. The familial nature of the theatre was amplified due to the fact that one of our very own was up on the stage. Dad’s Garage was an experience that everyone in the downtown area needs to have at one point. It’s quite an unforgettable experience.

Entrance to the Main Stage

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Behind this door was the entrance to the main stage, where there is arena-type seating that holds more people. This is where the official Dad’s Garage troupe performs their shows. Unfortunately, I was not allowed to go down there, but I feel as if the painting of the door itself helps to capture the aesthetic of the space. It is easy to see the matte black walls around the door. The lettering is one of many different fonts that can be found around the room, giving the area a messy, but still put-together feel. To the right of this door, you can see the double doors that lead to the outside of the building.

Wall of People

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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

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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

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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.

Dad’s Garage

Hidden on small one-way streets and out of the way of major roads sits an old church building. From the outside, the building looks like nothing more than just a regular church, likely Baptist or Methodist, save for the large yellow and blue logo on the front. A group of friends and I parked across the street in a gravel parking lot, and all nine of us spilled out of my SUV, excited to get inside. For a little less than a year, this church has been the home of an improv theather called Dad’s Garage. This theatre company has given Atlanta great times and great laughs since its founding in 1995. On this particular Wednesday night, we headed to the theatre for an improv show, featuring our very own Max Kantor.

The entrance to the venue is located at the front of the building, facing the street. The doors had signs on them, one of which read “Use the other door!” and the other stating “This is the other door!”. We walked through the doors and were greeted with chic, matte black walls adorned with various paintings. Straight ahead along the back wall, there was a ticket booth, where a medium height man with an orange hipster beard stood, telling us which line to join. The giant marquee above him read “TICKETS” in bright, yellow lights. To the right of the ticket booth was the concession stand, equipped with snacks and drinks, both with and without alcohol. Turn around, and you’d see the small, intimate seating area surrounding the small stage. There was a long, high standing bar with seats on the right-hand side of the stage, separating the seating area from the line of people waiting to get tickets. That’s where some of the cluster kids and I sat. Directly in front of us were a few tables set up with two chairs at each. Behind the tables were about four or five rows of chairs, separated by a small center aisle. On the left side of the stage, near the rows of chairs, stood an old-school video game, joystick and everything. Also along that wall were two paintings. One was on a white background, using black paint, and it had a giant collage of different people’s faces with different speech bubbles popping up here and there. The other painting was a parody of The Last Supper. Both paintings were comedic in nature, providing the small area with a bit of artistic appeal.

Overall, the venue was very intimate. It was nice to be so close to the stage. This particular stage only held capacity for about 40-45 people, 27 of which were there to support Max. The other actors joked that Max brought his own audience with him. The whole staff and even the audience itself was filled with kind people, seeking good, clean entertainment. The people, the set-back location, and the interesting decorations all contributed to a very comforting feeling. During the improv, the actors required a lot of audience participation, making you feel like you were apart of the Dad’s Garage family. The performance was great, as was the company, making this experience very enjoyable. There are very few theaters like this in the city of Atlanta, let alone one that provides this kind of humorous entertainment. Dad’s Garage provides the area that we all call home with its own, unique source of entertainment and as a result, contributes greatly to the culture of downtown life.

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!