A Greenville improv comedy troupe talks and listens to the homeless in its performances

Mike Ellis | The Greenville News

Corporate accountant Julia Turlington swings her arms, puffs out her cheeks and becomes a Thanksgiving parade balloon.

Stamping across the stage as a balloon is how she gives back to the community, performing about once a month on stage with an improvisation comedy-like group of people who take prompts from the homeless and from people with homes.

Along with four other actors and a moderator, Turlington retells the stories right back to audience members. Everyone bursts out laughing, but there are also prompts that lead to prayers and sad stories with no punchlines.

That's what makes it different than improv comedy, said Mary Leigh Biggers, another performer.

"You have to be true to their story," she said, "They're willing to give their story, and we have to tell it right."

The performances are quick, most of the vignettes only a minute or two, but they pack a personal punch. The audience member always gets the last word since they're asked if that was their story.

In improv comedy, actors need only the faintest attachment to real life. One-percent true is plenty enough, Biggers said.

For the Playback Cafe improv troupe, the story has to remain true to real life because the goal is to honor the truth and respect the stories the audience tells.

Director and moderator Dale Savidge said people who are homeless often say their biggest problem, more than hunger and cold, is invisibility.

People don't listen to their stories, don't accept them as people, and if left unchecked, that isolation and invisibility can become worse, said Savidge, a North Greenville University drama professor.

The plays are performed monthly at Triune Mercy Center, and there is a seasonal engagement at the Greenville Rescue Mission this year, sponsored by Grace Presbyterian Church.

The Triune crowd includes people who are homeless and people who are recovering from addiction as well as people who don't have those problems and come for the show. Both groups pitch out ideas as Savidge gives suggestions — "What are you thankful for" and "Has anyone set a turkey on fire?"

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Victoria Greene started laughing and talked about how her family won't be having Thanksgiving at her home this year. Last year, in a three-way family turkey competition, a turkey caught fire in her oven and she poured water in the over to try to stop it.

Greene insisted it was simply overcooked, not burned.

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The audience groans and laughs along as the story is told, and again when the actors perform it, partly their own words and partly with Greene's exact phrases.

Greene started laughing so much she buried her face in her sweatshirt.

Israel Jackson talked about when he was released from jail and found Jesus Christ, who sent him to fetch some love. It's since been Jackson's mission in life to find love and to share the love.

For Jackson, the actors gave a praise chorus. That's when one by one each of the actors repeated a single line inspired by Jackson's story as they built up to a crescendo with the last actor.

Hearing his story performed back is powerful, Jackson said. A room full of people listened to what he had to say.

That's not usually what happens, he said.

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Some school children from Buncombe United Methodist Church came. Two of them posited stories about being busted carrying food through security lines.

"That's going to go on your permanent record," Savidge joked.

Carli Gaughf said she moved to Greenville to be involved in the larger theater program, Applied Theater Center. Telling stories from people who are homeless is one of the most personal forms of acting, she said.

"When people feel safe enough to feel vulnerable enough to share, that's when you really love what you do," Gaughf said.

Turlington helped to launch this several years ago when she kept feeling a tug toward volunteering to do a drama ministry. She had been ignoring that tug. She finally went to the Rev. Deb Richardson Moore, pastor at Triune Mercy Center in Greenville. Turlington was sure Moore would brush her off and Turlington would have satisfied herself with the attempt.

But Moore said yes, and it was time to get to work.

It took several shots.

In the first attempts, using actors who were homeless, it was hard enough to get actors to show up for theater rehearsals if the actors have homes, regular schedules and reliable transportation.

A Christmas pageant was finally pulled off, but one of the shepherds was in jail.

Then Turlington stumbled in the Playback Cafe's style of theater, with Savidge as her expert in the improvisational format that is performed all over the world.

It avoids any problems with scheduling, with reading and memorizing lines and still lets everyone get personally involved in theater, Turlington said.

"We're shouting that we hear you," she said.

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There's no hidden messages or trying to teach anyone life lessons, Turlington said. It's all about listening, taking the stories of the homeless as seriously as Shakespeare.

And the stories are true, said John Fuller, the self-proclaimed number one fan of the Playback Cafe.

His story this time was about a too sweet sweet tea and the actor all winced as they pretended to drink it.

Fuller asked for prayers from the actors. He's facing the possibility of back surgery on top of a number of other health problems.

Fuller has been with the Triune Mercy Center for around 18 years, helping others and being helped and he counts himself as the No. 1 fan of the actors.

"They always have hugs, and they pray for me all the time," Fuller said.