They say laughter is the best medicine so consider Dadeville Performing Arts Center your new pharmacy.
Tom’s Foolery Improv Comedy Troupe is making its return to DPAC and this time with a larger cast. These four new members, Michaela Fryer, Ryan Gibson, Emily Haga and Emma Knott, joined the improv group over the summer and Dadeville will be their debut performance.
Fryer started improv in high school as an offshoot of her hometown’s community theater group. She later took a hiatus from theater to complete her master’s and undergraduate degree. Recently she has reconnected with this outlet.
Her first venture was Auburn Area Community Theatre’s “The Game's Afoot,” where she and the other new members got acquainted with improv comedy troupe’s producer Thomas Maple. After creating connections during the play’s production, the four knew they wanted to join the improv troupe.
“I have noticed the biggest challenge isn’t necessarily getting on stage and performing,” Fryer said of improv. “It’s getting involved and meshing with a new group of people.”
Luckily, this troupe has been a lot of fun and easy to work with. She said you can’t force being funny or connections, but those things have come naturally with the existing members and the new members.
By day, Fryer is a speech language pathologist with her own private practice and does autism evaluations for local pediatricians. At the upcoming improv comedy performance, she will be the moderator for the improv games that make up the performance acts.
New member Emily Haga said this is her first time with improv, but she has been with theater for a bit longer. She said she was pretty shy in high school and joined Auburn Area Community Theatre to branch out.
During the day she works at the Auburn University’s Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art, and she enjoys having this outlet to perform comedy with others.
“I’m nervous, but I trust everybody that we are with,” Haga said going into this first performance. “We are all going to have fun.”
Haga said one important thing about this troupe for her is not only do the members get a good laugh, but the audience as well. Life can be hard sometimes and having a place to be present and laugh is needed.
New member Emma Knott will be coming in from Florida to join the troupe at this upcoming Dadeville performance. While she started taking improv classes around high school, she joined this improv comedy troupe at the same time as the others.
Knott said after sitting in on a practice she knew she needed to join. Right now, Knott is working at Disney World and will return to Auburn full time this January.
“I’m excited to experience it,” Knott said of the Dadeville performance, “because our practices have been amazing.”
New member Ryan Gibson said he has always had an interest in improv. He started theater in high school and undergrad and he credits it for one of the reasons he came out of his shell. Like Fryer, Gibson took a break during his graduate degree and residency.
Gibson recently got back into theater through AACT and later joined this improv comedy troupe. Gibson said even though it’s improv, the troupe still rehearses but the rehearsals are different than a play rehearsal would be with memorizing lines and getting into characters. Its rehearsal focuses on how to interact with each other and read each other through ever-changing scenarios.
“The reason I keep coming back is it’s just really enjoyable and we get to truly be ourselves,” Gibson said. “A lot of times we have to put on that professional hat, but here we can really be ourselves and have also cultivated some powerful friendships that show in the way we act with each other, how we are comfortable with each other, and it comes out in our comedy, I think at least.”
Outside of theater, Gibson works as a faculty member with Auburn University's Veterinary College and owns his own neurology consultation business.
The improv comedy troupe will be in town Nov. 9 at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $10 in advance, $15 at the door and kids are free.
For more information or to reserve a ticket, visit dadevilleperformingartscenter.com.
