Savannah’s eccentric literary variety show, has a lot more to say
Written by ZACHARY HAYES
Photography by MICHAEL SCHALK
ATTENDING A SEERSUCKER LIVE SHOW for the first time is an exercise in shattering expectations from the moment you step foot into Front Porch Improv.
On a Thursday evening last November, there was a barroom buzz to the joint, cozy and welcoming with just a dash of dive to give it that crucial edge. As people filed into the string-lit, mural-covered theater, a sense of camaraderie permeated the space. When the clock struck 7:30 p.m. and the pom-poms had been properly dispersed throughout the crowd, that buzz erupted into a roar as co-hosts Chris Berinato and Megan Ave’Lallemant burst onto the stage through a large paper banner to the triumphant fight song that musical accompanist Brian Dean masterfully plucked from his keyboard just off stage right. This was no typical literary reading. This was “Homecoming,” a fitting theme of the night’s performances as the run-of-show feels more akin to a pep rally for writers.
Seersucker Live has been toying with these exuberant, themed shows since the group first formed back in 2010. Berinato and Dean, along with writer Zach Powers, founded Seersucker Live to provide Savannah’s literary community with a show that would upend the stuffy navel-gazing of traditional readings. As a literary arts nonprofit based in Savannah, the mission is to promote the local literary community through entertaining and accessible reading performances, spotlighting national, regional and local writers, with a special emphasis placed on presenting diverse writers to a diverse audience.
More than a decade later, their formula holds strong: three writers, two hosts, one theme and a drink in each hand. The November “Homecoming” show featured Savannah College of Art and Design alum Halle Hill reading from her debut short story collection “Good Women,” an original stageplay by Jazmine Faries, a 32-year-old woman with Down syndrome, and poems by Midwestern-livestock-farmer-turned-Southern-artist Danèlle Lejeune.
“We’ve gotten a lot of coverage for being fun. But I think what we do well is we’re fun, but we’re serious about uplifting local writers, especially as we’re continuing to reestablish ourselves in the community.
Megan Ave’Lallemant, Seersucker Live co-host
“What we do really is just so unique,” says Berinato. “We get those comments from writers who come on our show from out of town. They say, ‘I’m usually just reading in a bookstore or at a coffee shop or at a church. I’ve never done something like this that’s so entertaining.’”
COVID-19 and Powers stepping down led Seersucker Live to recede into a brief hiatus in 2020, but as the pandemic waned and interest in the show began to sizzle once again, the team behind Seersucker added a few new board members — including the magnificent Ave’Lallemant as the new co-host — and settled into a new home in preparation for their big return.
“Before we took our hiatus, we were kind of a nomadic show,” Berinato says. “Since we’ve come back, we’ve been working with Front Porch Improv and they’ve been incredibly supportive and just amazing to work with. It makes putting on the shows immensely easy. We just have to show up and get on stage for an hour and a half and do our thing, and Front Porch takes care of the rest.”
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As they prepare for a slate of new shows and events in 2024, including their shorter poetry series, “Seersucker Shots,” and their Happy Hour for Writers at Lone Wolf Lounge, the team at Seersucker Live are always looking for new ways to surprise and entice their audience. But there’s much more to the show than the flash and pizzazz: at the end of the day, a deep love and appreciation for literature resonates through every decision on and off-stage.
“We’ve gotten a lot of coverage for being fun,” Ave’Lallemant says. “But I think what we do well is we’re fun, but we’re serious about uplifting local writers, especially as we’re continuing to reestablish ourselves in the community. We’re really interested in bringing together voices that are diverse and that’s something that post-2020 we’ve intentionally set our mission towards. We’ve always been a literary reading with a twist where we don’t take ourselves too seriously. But we are serious about having quality work promoted from the stage.”
