Crosstown traffic
Ever since they acted together in a production of the Holocaust play Kindertransport at Appalachian State University, Scott and Sloane Warren have smoothly merged their personal and professional lives. Character actors and members of the Dad's Garage Theatre improv ensemble, the spouses add "playwright" to their list of collaborations with Drove, a world-premiere comedy about car culture – playing at Dad's Garage Theatre's Top Shelf Space from July 27-Aug. 18.
Scott: We used to share one car ...
Sloane: An old 1987 325 BMW with a hand-cranked roof. For many, many years.
Scott: We spent so much time driving it, it was insane. One day I picked Sloane up from work and saw a woman on her cell phone, with a baby in the back seat, running a stop sign. I remember thinking, "What's going on in her mind?" Sloane said we should make a short film where we interview people doing stupid things in their cars, and it evolved into a play. It's about how we spend so much time in our cars, and there's this community of people in the cars around us. You might see the same people commuting every day, or the same kinds of people as you drive.
Sloane: We want Drove to be entirely in cars, to not even show people getting in and out of cars.
Scott: The plan is to develop the script as an ensemble. I suspect that the way we'll convey the different kinds of cars, on stage, will be with the costumes of the drivers.
Sloane: Like a Mercedes will be a Buckhead mom with a short haircut. I think the music will be very important, too. Mashups are very popular now; I can see that we might have one guy having an experience in one car and maybe listening to old Queen, and the guy in the car next to him is listening to hip-hop.
Scott: We all have our own soundtracks when we drive. I think the music will help with the framing and interstitial structure of the show.
Sloane: This is our world – especially in Atlanta, where everyone spends so much time in cars. I've made some major life decisions in cars.
Scott: And they're important places for personal milestones and other things. I can't tell you the number of bad dates I've had in a car. They also can bring out the worst in people, but great things can happen in cars, too. I remember our first conversation about being in love was in a car.
Sloane: That's true. That was 11 years ago.
Scott: Of the two of us, I tend to be the driver, because I'm a little bit of a control freak.
Sloane: A little?
Scott: When I drive, if we're going to Dad's, I usually get in a lane and stay in that lane miles and miles ahead of when we need to. Sloane doesn't do that.
Sloane: I'm a Gemini – I'm not as structured.
Scott: Sloane's kind of a weird driver. I'm not sure how she drives without me saying, "Shit, there's a car!" I'm usually gripping the "Oh shit" bar when she's driving.
Sloane: But which of us has had the most tickets, or been in the most accidents?
Scott: Me. I have bad driving luck. I usually stay within 5-10 mph of the speed limit, and the times when I deviate are when I get caught.
Sloane: I'll say that I have the best parking luck. Wherever I drive, I get a parking space right outside wherever I want to go.
Scott: She really has the parking mojo. If I were to have a superpower, it would be to make traffic lights turn red when I approach them. My biggest fear about Drove is that it'll just feel like an hour in traffic, and people will say, "I do this all day!"
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2007 Summer Guide
From Memorial Day to Labor Day, summers in Atlanta offer up a treasure trove of ideas for people who are either trying to beat, or at least cope with, the heat. That's why we dedicate this year's Summer Guide to the treasures of Atlanta in the summertime. In these pages and online you'll find the best bets of summer movies,...
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Let's play the Treasure Hunt Game!
You may have noticed that around here at Creative Loafing, we like to call our readers "Urban Explorers," and there's no better time to explore Atlanta than during the summer. Which is why we're presenting not only this Summer Guide, but also the theme-friendly Treasure Hunt Game. All you need to do is search around Atlanta and CL's print and...
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Phantom of the Starlight
Shane Morton estimates that 20 percent of his flesh is wrapped in tattoo odes to classic movies: Creature From the Black Lagoon, Godzilla, silent-movie fetish object Lon Chaney. Morton has a living room full of monster-movie fright masks and is probably the only guy on his street of wood-frame bungalows in Scottdale with a freak show in his backyard. He...
By Felicia Feaster
The high notes
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By Mosi Reeves
Voices of Summer: Parker Gispert
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Ride and shine
As he steers the 20-inch rims of his silver 2006 Chevy Impala from Linden Avenue onto downtown Peachtree Street on a recent warm Saturday night, 25-year-old Kris Truitt suddenly finds himself cruising down memory lane. "It used to be an art to riding this shit, man. You know what I'm talkin' 'bout?" says Truitt, pointing out his preferred starting point...
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One night at Chastain
I once almost killed Emmylou Harris. Not that I meant to. In fact, I am, like, totally in love with Emmylou Harris. Not the "Wow, I really love your music" kind of love. It's more like the "Oh my God, can I drink your bathwater?" kind of love that, you know, can be kind of scary. So I really and...
By Scott Freeman
The great(est) outdoors
With a million outdoor options this summer (see the listings), we offer the 10 outdoor options for a summer in and around Atlanta. HIKING -- With 48 miles of parkland, the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area has a trail for hikers at any level. The 3-mile Cochran Fitness Trail is popular and easy enough for beginners; more experienced hikers should...
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Voices of Summer: Peter Jenkins
(as told to Mara Shalhoup)In 1983, about three years into my profession as an arborist, people kept commenting about how much fun I was having, because I was always laughing and joking and was just pleased as punch that I could be climbing for a living. So they started asking if I would take them up in the trees. I...
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Toss up
Besides being the hottest cult sport in Atlanta, ultimate – better known as ultimate Frisbee – appears to be the only one with a sense of humor. "It really is like one big party," says Mira Walker, one of the few women who attend the weekly pickup games Wednesdays on the Georgia Tech turf fields. The Atlanta Flying Disc Club,...
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By Scott Freeman
Out and about
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By Laura McMillan
Voices of Summer: Sarah Petermann
(as told to Laura McMillan) The first year I worked RenFair, I got bit by it. I just thought this is great entertainment; it's improvisational and it's one-on-one with the audience. In my former role as an out-of-work director, Isabella Tearsheet, I would walk around the fair asking people to act a scene with me and then petition the king...
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COMMENTS
RE: Crosstown traffic
Posted by Beth Hodges Owenby on 06.05.07 @ 06:21 PM
Glad to see you are both doing well. Keep it up!!