IRT at Home: INDYPROV with Props Artisan Rachelle Martin

​In addition to Rachelle Martin's job as Props Artisan at the IRT, she is also the Artistic Director of the nonprofit local comedy group INDYPROV! Read on to see how she's being creative with this group during this time at home.



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Like the IRT, our work culminates in front of large crowds of people. We perform in venues all around town, offer classes and corporate training, and rehearse once a week. Needless to say, all of that is sidelined now. So I've been working with my fellow directors, board members, and troupe members to keep our spirits high and our crowd still engaged.

For the last couple weeks of March, I issued a Director Challenge to a different member each day that they must complete and share on social media. I challenged members to write and perform limericks, have a rap battle where your opponent chooses the subject of your rap, to recreate famous movie scenes using household items, we even had a Quarantine Halloween Costume Contest!

​It's been challenging to shift from such an interactive audience experience to the medium of social media and video content, but my friends in the group are overwhelmingly creative and knocking the whole thing out of the park. We hold weekly Happy Hours where we answer questions and talk about comedy, and we've continued the social media challenges. We can't wait until we can reunite and perform in front of audiences again. Until then, we're making the best of it and exploring different ways to be creative in this strange time. 

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