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University grad student Amy Roeder poses outside of her Milledge Avenue home. The actress is performing in an Atlanta production.

Grad student shines in Atlanta

Actress performs improv

By: KATIE ANDREW

Posted: 9/30/08

There's no business like show business, but University graduate student Amy Roeder knows her journey will be no song and dance.

"I probably should have quit about 10 years ago," the actress from Minnesota said. "But there's really no reason anyone should ever quit."

It's this attitude that has lead her where she is today: a starring role in the Alliance Theatre of Atlanta's production of "Second City: Too Busy to Hate ... Too Hard to Commute." In partnership with Chicago's original "The Second City," the show invites all Atlantans, and anyone who recognizes the hilarity of big city living, to laugh at themselves.

Although Roeder is not from Atlanta, she drew upon her experiences in big cities like Boston, where she found a love of improv theatre.

"[A friend] sent me this e-mail out of the blue telling me that I'd really like improv. I'd never really even considered it before. I happened to find the number of an improv theater in Boston, gave them a call and it turned out they were having their first ever improv audition that weekend," Roeder said. "During the audition I remember sitting there thinking, 'This is what I want to do'."

She went on to perform with that theater, Improv Asylum, for four and a half years. Amy has performed for many highly acclaimed improv theaters around the country, such as Gotham City Improv in New York, but she admits her first was her favorite.

"It was really special being a part of the Improv Asylum in Boston because we started the theater. I was there when it was born, I was there when the owners were begging us to stay and turn it around," Roeder said. "The best part is that all the people I performed with are sort of like my family. I've been to their weddings, held their babies ... We're all still in contact."

Between appearances on HBO's hit improv show "Sketchpad 2," "Late Night with Conan O'Brien," and "Jeopardy!," this multi-dimensional actress also managed to score herself a highly sought-after travel grant to study theater abroad.

"The Tinker Foundation gives out grants through the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Institute to people who are pursuing research in Latin American and Caribbean nations. I got a travel grant to Rio de Janeiro to visit the Center for the Theater of the Oppressed. It was really special."

NOW SHOWING

What: "Second City: Too Busy to Hate ... Too Hard to Commute"
When: Until Oct. 26: Tuesday through Friday at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 2:30 p.m. and 8 p.m., Sundays at 2:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
Where: The Alliance Theatre, Hertz Stage
1280 Peachtree Street, NE
Atlanta, GA 30309
Price: $30
More Information: www.alliancetheatre.org.

Two years ago, Amy Roeder took a look at the University's theater program and decided she wanted to be a Bulldog.

"I was at a place in my life when I was starting to think about grad school again, and [the University] has such a generous assistantship program and a tuition waver for people pursuing their MFA, which is a really rare thing," she said. "I sent in my application and audition thinking nothing was going to come of it because it's a really competitive program, but they like me, thank God. Two weeks after I got married, I had to ask my husband to move to Georgia."

Though Amy's husband Eric Jon Schaefer was not expecting a big move, he decided to become a Bulldog too. Schaefer is currently pursuing his MBA at the Terry College of Business and supports his wife's talent.

"When she performs, you can tell she stops being her and she becomes the character she's portraying," Schaefer said of his wife. "It leaves a really, really deep impression."

Roeder and Schaefer say they are pleased with the educations they're receiving at the University.

"[The UGA Performing Arts Program] is amazing," Roeder said. "We're hoping eventually that we'll get facilities that will match our incredible students and faculty, but the training in unparalleled. What I like about it is there's a lot of room for individuals to customize their focus. Everybody gets to find their special passion within theater and pursue that with a lot of support from the faculty and department."

In "Second City: Too Busy to Hate ... Too Hard to Commute," which opened Sept. 19, Roeder, plus five other masters of improv comedy, provide a side-splitting satirical adaptation of Atlanta living.

"We have some improvisational moments in there which makes it really fun," Roeder said.