Dad’s Garage transforms people, communities, and perspectives through laughter.
Dad's Garage is an award-winning nonprofit theatre founded in 1995.
We perform improv comedy, scripted shows, original works, and musicals almost every week of the year at our Ezzard Street home in Atlanta's historic Old Fourth Ward, as well as in public events and festivals across the continent. In total, we produce over 400 shows a yearas well as host special events, improv and performance classes, camps for kids and teens, and even corporate workshops. We also love to perform as part of partnerships with our community to make the world a brighter, funnier place!
Tim Stoltenberg addresses a Dad’s Garage audience.
Photo by Casey Gardner Ford.
We’ve established ourselves as a “gateway drug to the arts,” and are dedicated to building a new generation of artists and arts patrons.
Dad's Garage serves a younger demographic not typically supported by traditional arts organizations through our unique, accessible programming and comedy-based philosophy to performance.
From left to right: Dad’s Garage founders Joseph Lindbergh, Jed Broitman, John Gregorio, George Faughnan, Sean Daniels, and instrumental former ensemble member Chris Blair.
Photo by Casey Gardner Ford.
Our History
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Dad's Garage nurtures new artists early in their careers and is a launch pad for creative success. By saying "Yes, and..." to emerging creative voices, we give them the support necessary to succeed in the arts.
Our performers, designers, and other creative professionals are leaders in their fields on a national level, particularly film, television, and theatre. You may have seen or heard them in Archer, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Too Many Cooks, and Selma. Our ensemble members are usual suspects at the Atlanta Fringe Festival, Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival, and some very fancy film festivals!
Most of the shows we produce are created entirely in-house by our artistic ensemble, and the work incubated here goes on to other theatres. While nearly everyone in the artistic group at Dad’s Garage is an improv comic, our artists also write, direct, design, and perform in our scripted shows.
We support the creation of new and experimental works that travel around the country and transform the careers of their creators, but we also support young artists outside of our ensemble and conservatory.
Through our youth workshops, children’s shows, and summer camps, we kick-start a love for theatre and improv at an early age. We build confidence, resiliency, and teamwork in a positive and uplifting environment for young performers. We love to give class clowns throughout the metro area a renewed sense of purpose, and to bring shy students out of their shells.
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Until 2013, Dad’s Garage was a long-term resident in a rented building on Elizabeth Street in Atlanta’s Inman Park, but we lost our original home to a mixed-use development. The following two years became among the finest in our history: we overcame the challenges of rebuilding by leveraging relationships across the community and developing a plan of action to establish a new home.
We partnered with another local theatre, 7 Stages, for temporary performance space. We raised over a million dollars from a mix of private foundations, corporations, and more than 1,200 donors in 28 states and six countries. Then, we secured our new “forever home,” a former church in Atlanta’s Old Fourth Ward. We worked with experts who donated their time and services to develop a renovation design.
After all that, we completed the project on time and on budget, and our new Ezzard Street location opened its doors in December 2015. We’ve been here ever since.
About Our Shows
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Improv theatre is the backbone of Dad’s Garage’s reputation, and our ensemble represents Dad’s Garage in improv performances and festivals all over the world!
If you don’t know what improv is, here’s how it works: the audience gives us a little inspiration in the form of suggestions, and we use your them to create entirely new, cohesive stories! Each performance is singular and unique thanks to audience input.
Our most well-known improv-based shows include:
B.R.A.W.L.!
Movie of the Weak
We perform our signature brand of off-the-cuff improvised fun almost every week of the year at price points that ensure everyone can enjoy an evening of levity and fun. This includes free shows, too!
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In addition to improv, Dad’s Garage does “real” theatre, too—meaning, we do scripted plays and musicals. While we have been known to put on existing plays originating from outside our theatre, we’re the world-premiere venue for tons of hilarious original shows created by our company members.
Our original scripted productions include:
Hot Jambalaya (Suzi Bass Award-nominated)
Super Villain Monologues series
Black Nerd (Suzi Bass Award winner!)
Wicket (the Star Wars Parody Musical)
U Up?
Griefers
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Our original sketch shows are created and performed by the ensemble and conservatory members seen onstage—the cast is chosen not only based on performance ability, but writing ability.
Other Dad’s Garage sketch productions include:
Photo by Casey Gardner Ford.
About Our Business
Being a nonprofit doesn’t mean we don’t have to generate money—it just means all the money goes back to the mission.
Our Ezzard Street home was a $2.9 million project (for which we raised $1.25 million), and we are in dire need of an expansion to house classes and administration!
We have seven full-time staff members, we work with at least 70 paid artists annually, and our annual operating budget is around $2 million.