Looking For A Calamity Of Western Fun? Head To Herndon Artspace

HERNDON, VA -- If you're looking for some cowboy or cowgirl fun and a little improvisational theater to warm up a cold January evening, mosey on over the Herndon Artsphere Saturday for Calamity Improv — The Wild West of Impov Shows.

"Our show is in this Wild West envelope," said Natasha Parnian, managing artistic director, founder and owner of the Dark Horse Theatre Company. "Each of the actors is an archetype character of the Wild West, and they perform as such before the show, in between the improv scenes and after the show."

Calamity Improv is Dark Horse's resident improv troupe. Based in Fauquier County, the troupe performs at 7:30 p.m. on the second Saturday of each month at Herndon Artspace. Tickets are $15 general admission and $10 with a student I.D.

"For those who haven't been to an improv show, everything's made up on the spot based on audience suggestions," Parnian said. "So the show runs 90 minutes and we do multiple themes and games. The show's different every time because we never know what information we will get from the audience each night, so it makes for some really fun, sometimes comedic, totally dramatic improvised theater."

Although the Dark Horse Theatre Company's current home is in Fauquier County, its roots are local. It was founded in July 2009 at a small arts studio in Herndon.

In 2014, Parnian and her husband purchased a home in Fauquier County and she was suddenly inspired to bring theatre to the hinterlands of Virginia.

"There was absolute zero professional theatre out here," she said. "There were no improv groups or anything, so we saw a great opportunity to bring D.C. caliber theatre to a more rural area."

At the same time, working with Artspace created the opportunity for dual residencies for the theatre troupe.

"As a native Restonian, it's important to me to be where my roots are and spend time in Herndon and Reston and entertain those audiences as well," she said.

Calamity Improv's regular monthly shows in Herndon give Parnian an opportunity to renew that connection with the community, albeit with a western slant.

"A lot of our games have a kind of a Wild West twist to them and the actors have these kind of cowboy or cowgirl costumes they come out in," she said. "So it's a lot of fun and it's a little bit of a change from most of the improv shows you see in the area."

Since each performance based on suggestions from the audience, every show is different. But, the troupe plans to continue evolving.

"We have some surprises and we're calling it the Calamity Reboot coming down the line," Parnian said. "That's where we're going restructure the show to use even more of those elements."

As a professional theatre company, Dark Horse also prides itself in bringing serious contemporary dramas to its audiences. At its Fauquier County performance space, it's currently presenting the D.C. area premiere of The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later. Originally staged by the Tectonic Theater Project in New York, it's something of a sequel play to The Laramie Project.

"The Laramie Project play is an investigatory documentary style of the aftermath of the murder of Matthew Shepard in 1998," Parnian said. "So in this play, the company went back 10 years later just to get an update on the town."

Tickets for both Calamity Improv and The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later are available at the door or via the Dark Horse website.