The gang's all here
By KAREN SHADE World Scene Writer
07/22/2005
Tulsa World (Final Home Edition), Page S2 of Arts

A funny thing happened on the way to Laughing Matter Improv Reunion Show Improvisational comedy, it seems, has followed Sally Adams off the stage and into her real life. The co-leader for Laughing Matter finds herself in a situation that sounds more like one made up for a game the improv troupe plays out for audiences: You're a member of an improv acting troupe with a one-night only performance in a theater complex. You are also the director of another show that will be premiering that same night at the same time in the same building. Go! She has a plan. "I'm going to run in and do some games with Laughing Matter, and then go out to be at my show," she said.

Dwayne Thompson (left), Jason Watts and Eric Peterson rehearse for the upcoming reunion show. MICHAEL WYKE / Tulsa World

Adams will be winging it running back and forth between "Laughing Matter Improve -- The Reunion Show" in the Charles E. Norman Theatre and Theatre Tulsa's "The Compleat Works of Wllm Shkspr (Abridged)" in the Liddy Doenges Theatre (both in the Tulsa Performing Arts Center), but she's keeping a sense of humor about it.

In improv, anything goes.

Sponsored by Heller Theatre, the troupe has been just the vehicle to give adults permission to let down their guard and play pretend like they did when they were in elementary school.

The troupe has been going for 16 years. Julie Tattershall started the troupe when she returned to Tulsa after living in Chicago where she trained with the companies at the Commons Theater and at Second City.

"We started having reunion shows after I realized a lot of people have gone through the program," said Tattershall, who is now the artistic director at both Heller and Clark theaters.

There have been about 220 players to wander through since it started. People typically stay for about two years and either take a break from improv, give it up or start their own groups.

Among them and slated to be part of Friday's hijinks are Tattershall, Adams, George Nelson, Tony Batchelder, Marshall Gulley and Jason Watts, one of this year's co-leaders with Adams.

Something will be different for this year's show because someone will be missing. The show will be dedicated to Richard Latty, a 12-year member who was very much active in Laughing Matter Improv until his death in February.

Tattershall said although Latty is remembered, the troupe will stay true to what it does best to honor him.

"We want to do it as a celebration, so we're not going to focus on anything sad. Richard had the greatest laugh, and you wanted him in the audience," she said.

Fans of the group's regular shows can expect plenty of unscripted fun.

"There's a game we play called 'people as props,' and there's a human being who performs the role of a prop in every scene, but they don't know what the scene is going to be. We did a performance one time, and all of sudden he (a member) had to become bag pipes. He jumped into this guys arms and had his feet sticking in the air. That really got laughs," Adams said.

Watts said he never thought he was the kind of guy to stand up in front of an audience and wing-it on stage.

"I never thought I was comedic," he said.

But in the three years he's been with the troupe, he said he's found that it doesn't take a great comic talent to be part, only a willingness to laugh at yourself.

"Improv is great therapy, believe it or not, because you'll go into improv and allow yourself to be free to say things and create things that mirror your own life," he said.

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Laughing Matter Improv -- The Reunion Show
When: 8 p.m. Friday
Where: Tulsa Performing Arts Center Charles E. Norman Theatre, Second Street and Cincinnati Avenue
Admission: $7
For more, call the TPAC at 596-7111 or go to www.tulsapac.com