The Dinner Theatre Rejects may need to change its name.

Rejection is increasingly unfamiliar for the improv troupe, which is celebrating its seventh anniversary this month with six events.

The troupe was at Liebe Wein in Salem last weekend. This Friday DTR performs at Akron Civic Theatre’s Wild Oscar’s, followed by Funny Farm Comedy Club at Margarita King in Niles on Aug. 16, the official 7th anniversary show at its home base at Cedars West End in Youngstown on Aug. 25, a performance with Hart’s School of Performing Arts at Kent State University at Trumbull in Champion on Aug. 30 and an improv workshop at Hopewell Theatre in Youngstown on Aug. 31.

“We knew we wanted to do something pretty big for the seventh anniversary, lucky number seven,” said Paul Dahman, one of the group’s founders.

DTR has played all of those venues before, but never in the same month. And it’s a busier schedule than Dahman and John Morris imagined when the troupe started.

Dahman fell in love with improv through the theater games he learned from his middle school teacher Candace Cleland, and he helped start an improv troupe when he was a student at Otterbein College. For Morris, the sketch comedy of “Saturday Night Live” was his first passion. But like many folks from Generation X and younger, both Dahman and Morris cited a love for “Whose Line Is It Anyway?,” the improv comedy show hosted by Drew Carey that debuted in 1998.

“It was a revelation to me that people could do an entire show completely made up on the spot,” Morris said. “Once I saw ‘Whose Line,’ it was kind of mind blowing that there were people out there that were doing that and had that type of skill. It was amazing to me.

“Even with this group, we started off as sketch comedy initially, and the improv was kind of a buffer in between sketches. But writing is hard and memorizing is even harder. It’s important for us to give the folks what they wanted, and the improv really landed with the audience, so we just rolled with it.”

DTR will do some pre-written material for special event shows like its Halloween and Christmas performances, but nearly every other gig is created on the spot from suggestions that come from the audience.

“The audience is right there with you,” Morris said. “They’re giving you suggestions throughout the night or jumping up on stage with you, so the show can depend just as much on the audience as it can on the improvisers on stage …They’re a huge part of what we do. We can’t hit the go button without the suggestion from them, so it’s all about drawing in the crowd and helping them be a part of what we do.

The troupe currently features 13 members: Aloe Banks-Weetman, Amy Winner, Brian Berlin, David Leach, Frank Carsone, Jeanine Rees, Josh Terlecki, Kage Coven, McKenna Lago, Roz Blystone, and Sydney Campbell, Morris and Dahman.

Five to seven performers is the sweet spot for an improv show, Morris said. DTR often has a little more, which gives performers a break and also allows for people to handle non-performing tasks, such as selling merchandise. Who performs on any given night depends upon schedules and availability.

Many of DTRs members also do local theater, and Dahman said improv made him a better actor.

“Somebody’s going to drop a line somewhere, we’re going to maybe get off a little bit, and we’re going to have to get back on track,” Dahman said. “That’s just human nature, and having improv as a background, I usually can help navigate a scene. I’ve got the outline in my head and know what characters need to get where, and it’s just made me a better performer in the community as a whole.”

Morris added, “It’s just a better creative outlet because you can be more creative than doing scripted work. You’re bound by the script. You’re bound by the director’s expectations and all those sorts of things. Here, we just roll out the ball of play, and we’re only limited by our own creativity and the suggestions we get from the audience.”

DTR does improv workshops at Hopewell Theatre and it has had auditions a couple of times in the past, but most of its members came to the troupe through word of mouth.

Having a large cast of performers has allowed the group to grow to its current level and perhaps grow more.

When asked how much bigger Dinner Theatre Rejects could get with eryone’s day jobs and other responsibilities, there is a long pause.

“That’s a good question,” Dahman said, and Morris added, “Neither of us wanted to answer that one.”

“That’s why having a larger group works,” Dahman continued. “Not everybody has to be at every commitment. Right now John or myself is at each of those, so we don’t both have to be there … This year has really taken off. We’re getting our name out to some wider audiences, not just Youngstown, but Akron, Pittsburgh and Cleveland.”

Morris jumped in, ‘I don’t think we know where that limit is, but I’d like to find out.”

Coming up

Dinner Theatre Rejects will do the following shows in August to celebrate its seventh anniversary:

Friday — Wild Oscar’s at Akron Civic Theatre, 182 S. Main St, Akron, $10 (akroncivic.com)

Aug. 16 — Funny Farm Comedy Club at Margarita King, 1201 Youngstown Warren Road, Niles, at 8 p.m., $20 (funnyfarm

comedyclub.com)

Aug. 25 — 7th anniversary show and celebration at Cedars West End, 706 Steel St., Youngstown ($10 at the door)

Aug. 30 — Improv show with Hart’s School of Performing Arts at Kent State University at Trumbull Theatre, 4314 Mahoning Ave. NW, Champion, at 7:30 p.m. ($12 adults and $8 children at the door)

Aug. 31 — Improv Workshop at Hopewell Theatre, 702 Mahoning Ave., Youngstown, from 10 a.m. to noon ($25)

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