The Mainstage Improv Troupe is reshaping its future after the absence of its original president. The troupe is in a transition period with new leadership.
The original president of the unofficial group, Sean Murphy, an acting major, is currently absent this semester because of an internship. Murphy and other founding members are collaborating with junior communication studies major Paul Dahman, the new president, to decide the direction of the unofficial campus group.
The group has started the process of becoming an official group by choosing communications professor Jeffrey Demas as the troupe’s adviser. The group considered becoming an official group in the past but decided that it was in their best interest to establish themselves before achieving that goal. Demas was chosen due to his experience with improvisation. He was a stand-up comedian in Los Angeles, so he was an obvious choice.
Throughout fall semester, Dahman worked closely with Murphy to ready himself for the upcoming role as president of the group.
Before the seniors were away on internships, founding members held auditions and call-backs were completed early in order to advance a smooth transition for the new additions. Now the process of becoming an official student organization is continuing with the five new members.
On March 1, Mainstage Improv Troupe was invited by The Ohio State University to perform at The Tides of March, an improv festival held at OSU. The troupe accepted the opportunity to perform onstage at the festival with troupes from OSU, New York, Missouri and Illinois.
The festival was an opportunity for different schools to demonstrate their tactics and styles of performing. It was also a chance for the troupe to apply what they learned and liked from those performances when they return to their school’s stage.
“It was a great chance to see what other schools are doing across the country, what professional troupes are doing and what they suggest that we can bring back here to Otterbein to make our performance experience or viewing experience much better,” Dahman said.
Dahman hopes that nothing for the group changes other than being recognized as an official Otterbein student organization. “We want to continue to be a fun group of people who perform for free,” Dahman said. “We just want to have fun, have the opportunity to perform and give people the chance to come watch.”
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