30 years of laughs with Whole World Improv

Its unassuming gravel parking lot does little to prepare visitors for the bustle of Whole World Improv . Full of industrial lights, blaring speakers, and a packed bar, the lounge is a warm-up for the cozy, embedded black box-style theater. Stage doors open, the host runs on, and with a few props and prompts from the audience, the show is on the road.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of Midtown’s Whole World Improv Theatre, started by a group of friends who found themselves in the same workshop at Out Proud Theatre on Bennett Street. Although not all of them had formally studied acting, they built a rapport and realized they had hysterical chemistry—but no space to express it. Under the guidance of David Webster, a seasoned troupe actor and Whole World’s original artistic director, the group rented a small dance studio in Decatur to practice their skills.

“We all caught the bug,” says Emily Reily Russell, Whole World’s managing director and one of the founding members of the theater. “In that first workshop, we were hilarious together.”

In 1994, the group performed small comedic plays at Eddie’s Attic in Decatur before making their way to Midtown. There, they performed at Louie’s Pool Hall, which had been converted from an old grocery store. “We used old walk-in coolers as dressing rooms,” Russell said. Over the course of a year, the group amassed a substantial following, and had secured their physical location at Spring Street by 1995.

Photograph courtesy of Whole World Improv

Today, the troupe performs four shows a week: two “Classic” shows full of games and improv segments, a longform “After Dark” show, and Saturday productions inspired by “novels,” character-driven storylines with a central theme. But the work they’re proudest of, says Chip Powell, a founding member and the current artistic director, happens backstage before the shows begin. Four years after it was founded, the theater launched a six-month program hosting acting classes, which Russell soon expanded to programs for kids and teens. It’s served as a way for Whole World to make a meaningful impact—they work with the Arthur Blank Center for Stuttering Education and Kate’s Club, an organization that helps children dealing with grief, to teach kids improv techniques.

“Kids are already on board,” she said. “You don’t have to tell them to suspend their disbelief. They’re ready to pretend and go there and believe and commit.”

Actors at Whole World tend to stay there for years—if not decades—because of the theater’s apprenticeship program, which forms a pipeline from acting classes to eventually becoming a main cast member for the recurring shows. “For new folks that we bring into the chaos, they have to acclimate to it,” Powell says. As they work together, performers learn to read each other’s minds, while also knowing exactly how to keep fellow cast members on their toes.

Russell recalls her favorite memory from the theater—in one scene, she had to “give birth” to another actor. “To my shock, horror and surprise, and the audiences as well, and everybody in the cast, we got to see him do the evolution from a newborn child to an adult over the course of three minutes,” she said.

Powell and Russell translated their onstage skills of pivoting and improvising to real life, especially when the theater went through a yearlong shutdown during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. They taught themselves how to apply for grants and licenses to maintain the theater’s success and have continued to foray into different avenues. The group created comedy bits for TV, working with Castle Rock Entertainment and Turner South, and launched a web show and podcast, where Powell and cast member John Mihalik discuss—through characters, interviews, and games—what truly makes improv great. But their original Classic weekend show remains the company’s most successful. “It’s our bread and butter,” Powell says.

To celebrate their 30th anniversary, Whole World is doing spoofs of beloved films from 1994 throughout the summer for their Saturday night specials. The group has taken on Pulp Fiction , The Shawshank Redemption , and Forrest Gump. Recently, they performed How the West Was Improvised , a take on the 1994 Olsen Twins western, where the cast and audience worked together to solve a silly egg-themed mystery on a makeshift farm. On October 11 and 12, the cast will put on two special anniversary shows, with special guest appearances from Whole World’s alumni.

Russell hopes to find a new home for the theater soon, as they’re outgrowing their current space. She wants to stay in Midtown, and plans to start a capital campaign soon to fund the transition.

“One of the gifts that Whole World has had for 30 years is that you step in the front door and you’ve just come into a party,” she says. “This relationship is going back and forth between the audience and the cast, and it’s all about joy and bringing laughter. And that is what is needed in this world—improv and comedy are medicine to our community.”

The post 30 years of laughs with Whole World Improv appeared first on Atlanta Magazine .