In recent years, communities have adopted countless creative ways to spread awareness about vaccines, from celebrity endorsements to cash incentives and more. But one Atlanta-based nonprofit is taking center stage on the matter.
Since 1995, Dad's Garage, a comedy and improv theater, has been putting on award-winning plays that reel in about 30,000 folks each year. Now they're using their platform to talk to their community about the COVID-19 vaccine.
In this style of the show, a community health expert will share their stories with the audience, and then performers respond to them by making new improvised scenes.
The newest project of these veterans of improv comedy involves a series of improv shows in partnership with local health officials and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to get out a pro-vaccine message. The shows are led by a "community champion," such as a doctor or a healthcare worker, who shares their life experience and work in public health. The improvisers go on to use those stories as fuel for their improv scenes. They hope to create a show that's funny and light while also instilling the importance of getting vaccinated.
"A community champion is someone who's active in that community who can use their experience and knowledge to help support the well-being of the community," Tim Stoltenberg, Dad's Garage artistic director, told
