- Amy Winn
- Emily Reily Russell
A native Atlantan, Russell started college at Georgia Southern University, where she met WWT founder David Webster. When he expressed interest in starting a theater company, she moved to Little Five Points and finished her degree at Georgia State University.
WWT patrons span the gamut from the heavily tattooed to the archconservative.
“Since we started in 1996, the show has gained so much momentum through the city’s awareness and our talents and hard work. ... We’re not having to bark on the corner to bring people in.”
She says that a sense of comedy cannot be learned, but improv skills and tools can.
“I love improv because it scares the bejesus out of me. It scares me to death every single time before I walk onstage. It’s such a wild ride to be on — like surfing, you ride the wave and see where it takes you!”
Russell says there’s a general opinion that women aren’t funny and she feels some duty to get out there and prove the naysayers wrong.
“My very first Mainstage performance, I was playing a cheerleader and I was doing a ‘herky’ [jump] ... forgetting that I was wearing steel-toed boots. I came down and tore my [anterior cruciate ligament], causing about $16,000 damage to my knee. But I finished the scene!”
Russell assures us that she is much more exquisitely beautiful than her photograph. All of them.
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