Out Front’s ‘Survive’ improv show involves elements, contestants from hit reality TV game

Carrying a torch for the show since a pandemic binge-watch, comedian and producer Brett Schultz has turned his fandom for the CBS reality show Survivor into a live improvised stage play.

Survive: The Improvised Play, on stage at Out Front Theatre August 21 and August 22, features a team of improvisers creating a work on the spot based upon audience suggestions. 

The play can be set anywhere and follow its own story path, like at a nursing home or a luxury resort. But, as with the TV show, there are unexpected twists, turns, tribes and alliances, as devised by Schultz. And at the end of the night, one character will find themself killed.

“It’s a two-act narrative play that’s fully improvised, and each actor will play one character throughout the entire show,” Schultz said. “The play starts with the actors being divided into tribes. So this is either a group of three or two. The actors do not know how big their tribes are going to be, but they start the play with this group of people. So the first beat of scenes is you’re only doing scenes with your tribe, just like how it happens on Survivor.”

The format of the show borrows many other aspects of the game show, including Schultz in a Jeff Probst-style hosting role.

“Eventually, there are tribe swaps,” he said. “So I’ll come in and I’ll say drop your buffs. We’re pulling new tribes. So that allows for these characters that have started as friends are now going to get out and form new relationships with other characters in the play. This leads to a merge where now all the characters can play together.”

As an added bonus, each improv show also will feature a former cast member of the TV show to provide stories and suggestions throughout the night alongside Schultz. Special guest stars this weekend will be Davie Rickenbacker from Survivor: David vs. Goliath and Star Toomey from Survivor 48. But the show should appeal to a wide audience, as it features veteran talents like Amber Nash, Eve Krueger, Mark Kendall, Jordan Patrick, Tim Stoltenberg, Tom Rittenhouse and Madeline Evans.

Combining improv with the pop culture juggernaut that is Survivor is one of the many ways Schultz has tried to integrate aspects of the game into his life.

“I found the show during the pandemic, and I just kind of had this natural draw to it that I couldn’t explain,” he said. “Since then, I’ve been in a lot of therapy, and I’ve found it’s even vulnerable to talk about my love for this. I’ve never been so addicted to something. I’ve never had such a kind of embarrassing parasocial relationship with people as I have through this show. But what I’ve realized is that what inspires me is people come onto this show, and the only way that they win is if they unapologetically be themselves and use relationships and push people out of their way to get what they want to reach their aligned goal.”

The improv show emerged from his love of the TV show. 

“Part of this is I’ve been wanting to play Survivor for four years,” he said. “I’ve applied every year. I started getting really upset with the CBS casting team because they weren’t paying me any attention. And I realized, oh, I can’t really let CBS run my emotions. So how can I start playing Survivor in my life? So I taught myself how to make fire from a flint and taught myself how to go camping. And then between those two shows, I was like, oh, I think I could play the social game by working with players on an improv show.”

Originally produced at other locations like Lore Atlanta, Schultz said Out Front is an ideal home for Survive; the very traits you use on the show are the traits members of the LGBTQ community grew up cultivating.

“Out Front is right because they give me space to create the living room I want to create,” he said. “With that, being a queer theater is really awesome. It’s a bonus for this show because Survivor is so gay. It is so queer coded. It is about people trying to read social dynamics and understand how to navigate through their world. And that is a gay person’s experience.”

Where and When

Survive: The Improvised Play is at Out Front Theatre August 21 and August 22. Tickets are $35.
999 Brady Ave. NW.

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Benjamin Carr is an ArtsATL editor-at-large who has contributed to the publication since 2019 and is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association, the Dramatists Guild, the Atlanta Press Club and the Horror Writers Association. His writing has been featured in podcasts for iHeartMedia, onstage as part of the Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival and online in The Guardian. His debut novel, Impacted, was published by The Story Plant.