Applications Open For Jamie Hawkins-Gaar Memorial Scholarship At Dad's Garage

Applications are open for a scholarship program at Dad's Garage Theatre Company to honor the life and legacy of Jamie Hawkins-Gaar. This memorial scholarship supports the development of diverse improv teams in Atlanta through coaching from professional improvisers at Dad's Garage.

This marks the second year of the unique scholarship program. The winners of the first cycle, Other Side of the Wall, are a bilingual Spanish-English improv troupe. Improv teams that represent Atlanta's diversity-through race, sexuality, gender, nationality, and class-are encouraged to apply. The team of winners will receive twice-monthly coaching sessions from Dad's Garage, for a full year, for free.

Jamie Hawkins-Gaar, for whom the scholarship is named, died in February 2017 from a rare and undiagnosed heart condition. He was 32 years old. A longtime Atlanta resident and good friend of the Dad's Garage family, Hawkins-Gaar was a vivacious creative professional, and screenwriter who developed and directed a considerable library of online sketches that garnered hundreds of thousands of views. He is missed in endless ways, but maybe the thing that's missed most is his wonderful, booming, contagious laugh.

Improv comedy was very much central to Hawkins-Gaar's creative passions, and Dad's Garage is proud to collaborate with his wife, Katie Hawkins-Gaar, to create a scholarship program that continues Jamie's legacy of continually creating awesome work.

The Jamie Hawkins-Gaar Memorial Scholarship is open to improv teams based in Atlanta. Improv teams are groups of like-minded individuals who perform short- or long-form improv geared towards a specific concept or interest. The scholarship will provide one team with twice monthly coaching sessions from Dad's Garage, for a full year, for free.

There is no limit on how many people can be on a team; however, the cohort must stay the same individuals throughout the coaching process. We are especially interested in teams that represent the diversity of race, class, gender, sexuality, etc. reflective of the larger Atlanta community.

Through this scholarship program, Dad's hopes to foster new and diverse creative voices in Atlanta-something Hawkins-Gaar strongly supported.

You can apply to the The Jamie Hawkins-Gaar Memorial Scholarship here, and if you'd like to donate to this fund in honor of Hawkins-Gaar's legacy, please do so here.

Important Dates:

June 15 -- Applications Due

Mid July -- Announcements Made

Late Summer 2019 -- Scholarship Begins

Important Links:

You can apply to the program here,

To donate to this fund in honor of Jamie's legacy, please do so here.

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