Dad's Garage Theatre

Founding (1995)

Chris Blair, Marc Cram, Sean Daniels, George Faughnan, John Gregorio, David Keeton, Joseph Limbaugh, Matt Stanton, and Matt Young, all graduates of Florida State University, co-founded Dad's Garage in Atlanta, opening their first show, 'Fun with Science,' on 23 June 1995. The co-founders selected Atlanta in part because of the economic activity they anticipated around the 1996 Summer Olympics.

Inman Park Years (1995–2013)

Dad's Garage operated from Elizabeth Street in Atlanta's Inman Park neighbourhood for nearly two decades, developing a programme of improv comedy, scripted shows, original works, and musicals, and building a local following as one of Atlanta's primary alternative theatre companies.

Old Fourth Ward (2015–present)

In December 2015, Dad's Garage opened its current home at 569 Ezzard Street in the Old Fourth Ward neighbourhood, a new purpose-built space that enabled the company to expand its programme to more than 400 shows per year and 30,000 annual attendees.

Dad's Garage programmes improv comedy alongside scripted productions, original works, and musicals, functioning as a broadly-engaged comedy and alternative theatre company rather than a form-specific improv institution. The company's origins in a group of FSU graduates arriving in Atlanta with no pre-existing connection to the local theatre establishment gave it an outsider energy that has remained part of its institutional character.

Dad's Garage Theatre presents TheatreSports, its longest-running improv show and the only Keith Johnstone-licensed TheatreSports production in the southeastern United States, in which competing improv teams are scored by audience applause and an annual January tournament runs across three weeks of Friday and Saturday performances. The theater's Improv X-Change (IXC) format showcases visiting guest ensembles alongside the resident company. Write Club is a monthly competitive live literature event in which writers argue opposing themes in timed bouts judged by audience response. Only Improv in the Building is an ensemble show staged as an improvised true crime podcast. The Primrose Friends LIVE! is a recurring children's theatrical production. Dad's After Dark is the theater's late-night rotating jam and experimental performance series, and the Maestro Improv Series structures individual-elimination competition among improvisers across a season.

Dad's Garage Theatre was founded on June 23, 1995 by nine graduates of Florida State University who relocated to Atlanta in anticipation of economic momentum surrounding the 1996 Summer Olympics. The company launched at a venue on Elizabeth Street in the Inman Park neighborhood and remained there for nearly two decades before outgrowing the space. In December 2015 Dad's Garage moved to a purpose-built home at 569 Ezzard Street in the Old Fourth Ward, a historic Atlanta neighborhood, significantly expanding its production capacity. The theater now presents more than 400 shows annually and draws more than 30,000 visitors per year, operating as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with adult and youth education programs, a conservatory track, community nights every Tuesday, and diversity scholarships. George Faughnan is among the founding members documented in the theater's thirty-year history.

Dad's Garage occupies a central position in the Atlanta comedy ecosystem as the city's anchor improv and sketch institution, one that has operated continuously for three decades and shaped multiple generations of local performers. The theater's international recognition through the TheatreSports network links it to a global licensed improv performance community. Its community programming model, including free weekly events and accessibility initiatives such as ASL interpretation, distinguishes it from commercially oriented comedy venues. No specific alumni have been broadly documented with major film or television credits originating from Dad's Garage, though the theater's alumni community remains a primary feeder for Atlanta's professional comedy and performance industry.