Sean Roach and Heather Dyas-Fried are a husband and wife artistic team who both come from performance backgrounds. A trained actor, Mr. Roach has appeared in theatre and television, also hosting and co-producing two TV shows: The Sunny Side Up Show and Noodle and Doodle. For 11 years, he was a member of the Philadelphia-based improv group, Comedy Sports Philly.
Ms. Heather Dyas-Fried studied theatre arts in college and worked with Equalogy, Inc., a touring theatre-for-social-change company, as an actor, activist, artistic director, casting director and a founding member.
But when they moved to the Vineyard in 2017, they had to rethink their approach to performing.
“We couldn’t really do TV anymore, and we have kids so it’s hard to be in a play,” Mr. Roach said. “I’ve always felt like I’ve got to start an improv group here at some point.”
The result of this new direction is TBD Improv Company, bringing its particular brand of humor to the Island since 2023. The troupe has performed 15 shows so far at various locations around the Island, including Barn and Bowl Bistro, Circuit Arts and, beginning this summer, at the Martha’s Vineyard Film Center.
The group hosts a monthly show at the Barn Bowl & Bistro in Oak Bluffs; the next show there is August 14.
Ms. Dyas-Fried grew up coming to the Vineyard during the summers.
“I remember when Wimp was around,” she said, speaking of the Island-based improv group of the 1990’s and 2000’s. “I used to go to those shows and I remember how popular they were. The group ended over 20 years ago, so [there was] a void to be filled.”
In 2019, the couple began searching out perspective members for their new improv company. Whenever they met someone they thought might enjoy performing, they would ask them about improv. Over time, they compiled a list of Vineyarders who used to be actors or expressed interest in improv.
“For four years, I was building this list,” Mr. Roach said.
About a year and a half ago, they were given the opportunity to perform at a local talent show hosted by Circuit Arts at the Grange Hall.
“I heard about [the talent show] and thought this is the universe telling me to do it,” Mr. Roach said.
Their handpicked group began rehearsing together for the show, which was the beginnings of the TBD Improv Company. The segment proved to be such a success that Brooke and Brian Ditchfield of Circuit Arts asked them to start performing full-length shows.
The current troupe of eight company members started meeting for two hours every week to hone their skills as a cohesive team.
“Each company member brings different types of energy” says Ms. Dyas-Fried. “All eight of us have professional theatre backgrounds and different types of experience. It’s really amazing how the group has gelled.”
Each TBD Improv show is hosted by Mr. Roach and structured around a series of games — 10-minute interactive sketches with a mix of different company members performing in each. Every game is completely dependent on audience participation, whether it’s the audience calling out suggestions while the company members are off stage and unable to hear or phrases written on paper and read as a game is played. The key is that it is all completely spontaneous.
“The audience is never seeing the same show twice, because the suggestions from the audience are always different” Mr. Roach said. “There are people who come to almost every show and [they] always see different games.”
Every performance is made up of 10 games that Mr. Roach and Ms. Dyas-Fried choose about a week before the performance, with different company members assigned each game.
“We agonize over making sure that everybody gets an equal amount of stage time,” he said.
In the end though, it’s the audience that completes the performance, becoming, in essence, the ninth member of the troupe.
“With the audience working with the actors back and forth, the energy of the audience feeds us and our energy.” Mr. Roach said. “It’s a real live experience.”
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