Girls Girls Girls

Girls Girls Girls
Years Active	1998, 2003 - Present
Cast	Various

Girls Girls Girls is an all-female musical-improv troupe.

Summary

Girls Girls Girls is Austin's longest-running all-female musical-improv troupe. The Gals of GGG create full-length improvised musicals from a single audience suggestion. In other words using the talent of real live musicians, GGG makes up all of the songs, dances, characters, and stories to create one complete, blow-your-socks-off improvised musical.

History

In 1998, Austin TheatreSports was founded with male and female members. The Girls of today started as a lab show of female members of Austin Theatresports. Goddess Improviser Rebecca Stockley came to Austin to teach a workshop and while visiting, she gave the girls in the troupe some essential advice for having an all girl improv troupe: never, under no circumstances, let the boys come. The girls in the troupe first put up a lab show under the name "Rock Star Girls Galactica 3000". Original members included troupe founder Amy McCurdy, Kacey Samiee, Chelsea Gilman, Lauren Zinn, Kari Malek, and Shana Merlin.

The girls started out with a mix of longform and short form. Shows included a wheel with names of improv games on it that you could spin to choose what was performed next. Also there were buckets onstage with suggestions in them. The girls even invented their own longform format called "Telephone." The show included an opening number which featured a choreographed dance to Bel Biv Devoe’s "Poison." They gave themselves rock-star aliases for the show as well such as "Casiopia", "Zelda Moonbeam", and "Chelsea Gilman". But as improv troupes do, this one lost momentum. No shows were scheduled no rehearsals held for over a year.

Thankfully, Amy McCurdy boldly decided to remount the show not as a part of We Could Be Heroes, but as its own troupe, called "Girls Girls Girls". The opening numbers were so much fun and went over so well, that the girls got together and decided they wanted to do improvised musical theatre. New members were added including Andrea Young, Shelly Miller Bosse, Monique Daviau, and Katy Shea and the Girls as we know it today had begun. In 2003, the Girls decided to become an improv collective and work together to manage the troupe. In 2004 they added new members Tara White and Annette Jurcevic and began performing regularly at Arts on Real Theatre. In 2005, the Girls grew even bigger with the addition of Kimberly Tortorrici, Jennifer Cargill, Julie Gillis, and Caitlin Sweetlamb. They also added a new format, GGG Beneath The Music, an improvised parody of VH1's Behind the Music.

Formats

A typical GGG show is a longform musical narrative. But for several runs, the troupe has tweaked that format in various ways:

• Boys of Summer: in this show, a male improvisor guests with the troupe.
• GGGlee: this format was inspired by Glee. In each performance, a different group guest-starred as a rival school. The guests were:
  • The Puppet Improv Project.
  • "Smoooooth", an ad hoc boy band consisting of Asaf Ronen, Craig Kotfas, Jason Vines, and Michael Thomas.
  • The Dancy Street D'Orchestra.
• Jersey Shorez: this format was inspired by the TV show Jersey Shore.
• Stage Door: this was a 'backstage musical' format.

Former Cast Members

• Amy McCurdy
• Andrea Young
• Annette Jurcevic
• Chelsea Gilman
• Erin Molson
• Jennifer Cargill
• Julie Gillis
• Kacey Samiee
• Karen Jane DeWitt
• Kari Malek
• Katy Shea
• Kimberly Tortorrici
• Lauren Buck
• Mo Daviau
• Shelly Miller Bosse
• Tara White

Former Musicians

• Nathan Aloysius
• Michael Brockman
• Pat Buchta
• Jon Guyton
• Jason Laney
• John Ratliff
• Robby...

Local Festivals

• Out of Bounds Comedy Festival - Headlining troupe 2007
• Wafflefest
• Frontera Fest - Best of Week: 2005, 2007 & 2008.
• The Improvised Play Festival
• The Hideout Improv Marathon
• The Ladies Are Funny Festival - Festival founders, producers and headliners.

Other Festivals

• Dallas Comedy Festival
• Hawaii Improvaganza
• Twin Cities Improv festival
• Seattle Festival of Improvised Theater
• Dirty South Improv Festival
• Black Box Improv Fest
• New York Musical Improv Festival
• Big Sexy Weekend of Improv - Dallas

Awards

• Austin Chronicle award for Best Improv Troupe
• 2012 B. Iden Payne Rudy Kloptic Award for Outstanding Improvised Theater
• Austin Improv Collective Award for Hardest Working Troupe.

Current Personnel

Cast

• Aden Kirschner
• Amy Averett
• Caitlin Sweetlamb
• Cynthia Oelkers
• Kimberly Cox
• Megan Flynn
• Sarah Marie Curry
• Shana Merlin

Musicians

• Joseph Robert Dailey
• Joel Love
• David Rosenbaum
• Ammon Taylor

Crew

• Sara Farr

Media

(Note that there are additional Girls Girls Girls videos in the Boys of Summer media section.)

Videos

• Video of their 6/1/12 show for The 43-Hour Improv Marathon.
• Video of their 6/2/12 show.
• Video of the first fifteen minutes of their 6/22/13 show, part of The 43-Hour Improv Marathon.

Photos

• Photoset by Roy Moore of their 4/3/10 performance in The Saturday Night Special.
• Photoset by Roy Moore of their 5/8/10 performance at The Ladies Are Funny Festival.
• Photoset by Michael Yew that includes their 6/4/10 performance at The 41-Hour Improv Marathon.
• Photoset by Michael Yew that includes their 9/11/10 performance.
• Photoset by Peter Rogers of their 2/5/11 performance in The Saturday Night Special.
• Photoset by Michael Yew that includes their 3/4/11 "GGGlee" performance at The City Theater.
• Photoset by Michael Yew that includes their 5/6/11 performance in The Ladies Are Funny Festival.
• Photoset by Michael Yew that includes their 6/4/11 show in The 42-Hour Improv Marathon.
• Photoset by Roy Moore that includes their 6/4/11 show at The Saturday Night Special.
• Photoset by Steve Rogers of their 7/2/11 show at The Saturday Night Special. ("Graceland")
• Photoset by Steve Rogers of their 12/3/11 performance in The Saturday Night Special.
• Photoset by Peter Rogers of their 2/1/12 performance in The Threefer.
• Photoset by Peter Rogers of their 2/4/12 performance in The Saturday Night Special.
• Photoset by Roy Moore that includes their 1/7/12 performance in The Saturday Night Special.
• Photoset by Michael Yew of their 4/27/12 performance with Laura Hall
• Photoset by Steve Rogers of the 5/5/12 show which they shared with Confidence Men.
• Photoset by Kevin Miller of a 5/23/12 improv jam they hosted.
• Photoset by Michael Yew that includes their 6/1/12 performance in The 43-Hour Improv Marathon.
• Photoset by Claudio Fox that includes their 7/7/12 performance in The Saturday Night Special.
• Photoset by Steve Rogers of their 7/21/12 performance of Boys of Summer, featuring guest boy Clay Towery.
• Photoset by Claudio Fox of their 9/1/12 performance in The 2012 Out of Bounds Comedy Festival.
• Photoset by Michael Yew which includes their 11/10/12 performance at Wafflefest.
• Photoset by Michael Yew which includes their 12/8/12 performance in The Saturday Night Special.
  • Another photoset by Claudio Fox of the same show.
• Photoset by Claudio Fox that includes their 10/25/13 performance with Mister Morbid's Moonlight Movie Mayhem Madness Massacre.
• Photoset by Michael Yew which includes their 1/13/13 performance in the Merlin Works grand opening.
  • Another photoset by Claudio Fox of the same event.
• Photoset by Claudio Fox that includes their 2/9/13 performance in The Triple Scoop.
• Photoset by Michael Yew of their 4/5/13 "Stage Door" performance.
  • Another photoset by Claudio Fox of the same show.

More Information

• The troupe's web page.
• Interview with cast members Aden Kirschner and Shana Merlin on The Theft Forum.