This story was originally published by ArtsATL.
The best holidays include surprises. Unexpected twists in your yuletide routine can add an enchanting moment to same-old celebrations. On stage at two Atlanta theaters, holiday improv shows have placed a wacky spin upon standard seasonal entertainment.
Running at Dad’s Garage Theatre through Dec. 30, “Invasion: Christmas Carol” takes the standard Scrooge script and adds a different surprise guest character every time, such as football pro Travis Kelce or the Spice Girls — unknown to the improvisers in the mix until it unravels the traditional tale onstage. This year’s Ebenezer is played by Avery Sharpe.
Also until Dec. 30, Horizon Theatre is hosting the return of “Y’allmark Christmas,” an improvised holiday movie co-production with Dad’s Garage. In “Y’allmark,” director and storyteller Topher Payne, writer of actual Hallmark films such as “Broadcasting Christmas” and “A Gift to Remember,” attempts to create a two-act play onstage with cable channel romance flavor, using a team of improvisers and a special guest performer.
Credit: Lisa Adler
Credit: Lisa Adler
In both shows, plenty of zaniness ensues.
Sharpe and Payne recently sat down for a roundtable discussion with ArtsATL to explore why improv works so well with standard holiday fare.
Q: Do you two know each other?
Topher Payne: We’ve met, but we haven’t had a chance to take a vacation together. Hopefully soon.
Avery Sharpe: Yeah. Absolutely. That would be great. [Laughs.]
Credit: Lisa Adler
Credit: Lisa Adler
Q: How are you aware of each other?
Sharpe: Because we run in the same circles and, of course, Topher Payne is the man! You know his name! But we never have gotten to work together like that because we’re always doing something.
Payne: Which we can only safely assume means that people are trying to keep us apart. They’re literally keeping us busy at separate theaters.
Q: Avery, though this is your first time playing Scrooge, you appeared in “Invasion” for the past two years playing Bob Cratchit and Jacob Marley. How do they go about transforming someone as youthful and handsome as you into someone as ornery and mean as Ebenezer Scrooge?
Sharpe: Well, lots of makeup, which is actually very fun for me. I don’t usually wear makeup in the productions I tend to do. So this has been very cool, just to be old and crotchety-looking. But the mean and ornery personality is actually deep within me. I just try to slay that monster every day.
Q: Why does improv work so well for holiday shows?
Sharpe: Improv keeps everything fresh. A lot of times during the holidays, we find ourselves doing the same traditions and rituals because . . . that’s just what we do. And I think improv is so present. Everything is so in-the-moment, it really revitalizes the magic we tend to experience in the season. I think, in a lot of ways, everything has become this pageantry without joy, where we go, ‘Everything’s happy! Everything’s great! My life’s falling apart, but ‘tis the season!’ Improv, by its nature, is actually magic. So when you infuse that into heartwarming, heartfelt, true and great storytelling, it naturally goes hand in hand.
Payne: One of the things at “Y’allmark” we tell the guest stars every night when they come in is, “Please do not leave the stage.” Because the audience getting to see you have the idea, where your moment of discovery is in full view, and then you’re scrambling for a costume change and a prop — whatever necessary to fulfill the inspiration — it’s part of the joy of the experience. They anticipate a level of polish, but the level of polish is in the approach, not the execution. They want to know that you’re not being half-assed about it. And once they have confidence in the storytellers, the messiness of the storytelling is part of the joy of the experience.
Q: One surprise character at “Invasion” this year was the Unsinkable Molly Brown, who was featured in the movie “Titanic.” How was that?
Sharpe: So, that was opening night, and it was a special moment. I love the movie — I’ve watched “Titanic” more times than I maybe should, so it was really cool to have that experience personally. It was surprising to dive into storytelling in a way that parallels the story that got me into acting in the first place.
Payne: What do you do if an invader shows up and you don’t get the reference?
Sharpe: That’s the beautiful thing about this show and the brilliance of it. Because it’s about the heart. It’s not about the references. It’s about what the connection is between these two people. So when we go into the past and Scrooge is watching himself, we’re figuring out how Scrooge and the Invader know each other — why they were important to each other. And, you know, the stories can go in so many different directions. It becomes less about the references and more about the heart of what’s underneath the references.
Credit: Lisa Adler
Credit: Lisa Adler
Q: Are other members of the cast there to help or provide support?
Sharpe: 100 percent. If I don’t know the reference, someone among the six of us will and vice versa. On “Titanic” night, I was on it with the references.
[”Invasion: Christmas Carol” has been running at Dad’s Garage for over a decade. “Y’allmark” began its life as a short-form improv show at Dad’s Garage, developed by actor and improviser Amber Nash.]
Sharpe: Topher, how did “Y’allmark” come to be? I know that you write for Hallmark.
Payne: There are a lot of improv troupes around the country who do some variation of goofing on Hallmark. And Amber picked up on that and started to think about what the Dad’s Garage spin on the formula would be because it’s ridiculously popular with a TV-viewing populace. She had the notion of having a real Hallmark writer telling the story as our gimmick. So she came to me with that.
We started building the idea, and we just tested it out at Dad’s as a late-night show. We figured out what it was as we were doing it. And the turning point for the show, when we realized what made ours unique, is that we’re trying really hard to get it right. The audience satisfaction and delight comes from my sincere attempt as the narrator and the cast really trying their best to make a Hallmark movie.
Then there are the characters within the characters, where we wondered, “What is the want of each individual improviser?” Amber is always an apple-polisher, always trying to make the narrator happy. When Kevin Gillese does it, his character is always trying to do it his way, which is sometimes in alignment with the narrator, and we have glorious victory. And there’s times where it’s a tense negotiation.
The delight of it is exactly what you were saying — focusing on the relationships that are happening onstage and selling the audience on the story of the ensemble creating the story.
Sharpe: So cool.
Payne: It’s really neat because, even when it’s badly behaved, it’s very good-hearted. Our goal each night is to make the audience root for the couple. When we get to that final moment when snow begins to fall and the couple goes in for the kiss, if we get a sincere “aww” from the audience, that’s our barometer for success in storytelling.
Sharpe: That’s the beauty of having improvised moments within a truly grounded story, especially one heartfelt and with heightened emotions. The juxtaposition between the comedy and the sweet moments makes individual moments better. That’s why I love “Christmas Carol” as well. When we try to tell a true “Christmas Carol,” and then you throw the wackiness of the invader in there, we get laughs. We get “awws.” We get tears. I love when people after the show tell me they cried three times. Laughter is a given — it’s harder to earn those “awws.”
Payne: With Horizon last year, a good segment of our audience was attending their first improv show. Their only experience with it might have been watching “Whose Line Is It Anyway,” and their notion of improv was very game-based and short-form. The magic trick of creating a two-act story spontaneously caused so much discovery and delight in the audience being introduced to a new form of storytelling.
Sharpe: Magic!
Payne: Magic.
THEATER PREVIEW
“Invasion Christmas Carol.” Presented by Dad’s Garage Theatre. Through Dec. 30. 569 Ezzard St. $35-$56. 404-523-3141, dadsgarage.com
“Y’allmark Christmas.” Co-presented at Horizon Theatre with Dad’s Garage. Through Dec. 30. 1083 Austin Ave. $30. 404-584-7450, horizontheatre.com.
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Benjamin Carr, a member of the American Theatre Critics Association, is an arts journalist and critic who has contributed to ArtsATL since 2019. His plays have been produced at the Vineyard Theatre in Manhattan as part of the Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival and at the Center for Puppetry Arts. His novel, Impacted, was published by The Story Plant in 2021.
Credit: ArtsATL
Credit: ArtsATL
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