Comrades in Arts

Fake facial hair is just part of the fun for Twinhead Theatre players (from top left): Krista Carothers (B.A. '05), Eli Banks (B.A. '12), Cherry DelRosario (B.A. '13), Molly Shepherd (B.A. '07), Diana Brown (B.A. '07) and James Yates (B.A. '11)

However many hats the cast members of Twinhead Theatre might find themselves wearing onstage, chances are, they wear even more behind the scenes.

"Everybody kind of pitches in where they can," says director/writer/actor/marketer Diana Brown, a GSU alumna (B.A. '07) who has been with the self-described "fringe" theater company since it started in 2003.

That's when she and six other comrades in arts - all Georgia State students - joined forces to "push the boundaries of traditional theater with unique multimedia productions."

Even today, all but one of the company's 11 core collaborators have a Georgia State connection, says actor/writer/director/choreographer/fundraiser Molly Shepherd (B.A. '07), also a founding member.

Like all Twinhead players, Shepherd and Brown have other means of support. Their efforts for the nonprofit theater are strictly a labor of love.

And while the company may not have a permanent home, Shepherd says, it has found its niche. "We see where we stand with our audience, and we're like, OK, they want us to be funny and crazy," she says. "Our audience is pretty much made up of people who do not go to theater ... but it's not hard to get them to our shows."

Most Twinhead productions - they average about three a year - include a lot of fake blood ("We don't skimp!" says Brown) and combine music, dance, film and theater, usually in the form of comedy sketches unified by a theme.

Twinhead's first feature-length film, "Loaded Guns: The Movie," has had two showings at Atlanta's Plaza Theatre, and they are in the process of adapting their interactive play, "Choose Your Adventure," to a video series for their website.

Looking forward, Twinhead Theatre is partnering with the Little Five Points Business Association to spearhead Atlanta's first fringe theater festival, shooting for spring 2012.

"They're nationwide, and Atlanta is this huge gap," Brown says. "It's basically just to show the city the art that's happening all around us and then to show the world what's happening right here," she adds, pointing out with some satisfaction that the script for "The King's Speech," which won four 2010 Academy Awards including Best Picture, was discovered at a fringe theater in London.