Senior Showcase- my final theatrical hoorah!

2 weekends ago I acted in my last play at Hopkins. Our Arts Certificate Senior Showcase went up, and it was a great success. 

Last Spring, in my Junior year, I submitted my application for my Arts Certificate in Theater. To receive the arts certificate, you have to have participated significantly in one of 5 areas of arts (Music, Theater, Dance, Fine/Visual Arts, or Digital Media) for at least 6 semesters at Hopkins. Then, you have to complete a culminating final project in your area to actually be awarded the certificate.

I applied for the theater certificate, and 3 of my friends (Mitch Frank, Liz Eldridge, and Julie Sihilling) did too, so we decided to band together to present a showcase of plays. Wanna know something awesome? When I auditioned for the Freshman One Acts when I first arrived at Hopkins, I was cast in Tom Stoppard’s “15 Minute Hamlet”. Some of the other cast members included….Liz Eldridge, Julie Sihilling, and Mitch Frank. We’ve traveled together, acting in plays each other have written (I was in a Mitch Frank play my 2nd production of college, right after Hamlet), acting with each other (I was with both Liz and Julie for JHUT’s productions of “The Marriage of Bette and Boo”, “Returning”, and “Twelfth Night”) and directing each other (I directed Liz and Mitch in a selection from “Mrs. Warren’s Profession” for my Directing Seminar) ever since, so it was really nice to be able to do my culminating final project with them.

The play I directed was actually written by Mitch. It’s called “Midway Family Singing”, and it was based on and inspired by a type of music called “Shape Note singing”, which is a traditional kind of sacred music that was popular in the Southern United States in the 1800s into the early 20th century. Here’s an example of the kind of music we’re talking about:

So, for my play, I had to teach 4 actors how to sing together in a quartet. Most of our rehearsals were music based, and I got to unleash my inner band director on them, including the classic “make a comment during the count off” technique:

…“One, together and, louder, GO”
“One, two, three, four, don’t, forget the, repeat, GO”

It was a really fun experience, and hearing the quartet sing these crazy pieces together, bringing to life this old form of music- it was awesome.

I directed Midway Family Singing, but I also acted in “Rooster Versus”, another Mitch Frank play which was adapted from the poems and letters of Marianne Moore and Elizabeth Bishop. It chronicles a poem “Roosters”, written by Elizabeth Bishop, which was re-written by Marianne Moore, who was a much more famous and well-established poet and author than Elizabeth was. It then tracks Elizabeth’s ensuing feelings towards the Moores. I played Mary Warner Moore, Marianne Moore’s mother and the general narrator/clarifier in the play. One of my favorite things about the play was the staging of the poems. Mitch designed it so that sections written by Elizabeth and revised by Marianne which were similar were said at the same time by the 2 different characters, and that paragraphs of utter difference were the only ones said separately. There were 2 similar but different poems happening at once, and it sounded really cool.

Us four seniors applied for an “Arts Innovation Grant” to fund our Senior Showcase, which we got. That was HUGE for us. We had a really generous budget to buy costumes, props, the rights for various plays, print posters, and buy 17 dozen cupcakes from Charm City Cupcakes for our reception. The Arts Innovation Grant is a new-ish program which was a result of the Homewood Arts Task Force, a group which did an intensive survey of the arts at Homewood and proposed a number of recommendations to improve the permeability of the arts at Hopkins.

One of their primary recommendations was to sponsor a grant which would allow students to pursue new ideas in the arts; ideas which would combine art forms, departments, and the Hopkins and Baltimore theater communities. Our idea for a showcase combing the Writing Department (which Mitch and Liz are a part of, and who both wrote plays for the Showcase) and the Theater department (which we all 4 are part of) was appreciated by the grant committee, and so our showcase had everything it needed to succeed. We never had to sacrifice what we wanted to see on stage based on the fact that we couldn’t afford it. It was such a wonderful feeling, and not one that you feel in the arts too often, so I’m really grateful that Hopkins has such a program in place.

One of the coolest parts of the Senior Showcase was the poster, made by the amazingly talented Emily Wisnowski (who was also the Stage Manager for the Showcase). Check it out:

Why is this poster so cool, you ask? It just looks like a Victorian drawing. Then, look closer at their faces, and check out this photo the 4 directors took before the plays went up:

 

Yes, we've been immortalized. I know you're jealous.

This is such a bittersweet entry, because now I've acted in my last production at Hopkins. I don't know when the next time I'll be acting ... how scary! Though, I did run into one of my former acting professors the other day and he told me that if I'm in the NY area to let him know: "You never know when I'm going to need actors for something I'm directing". So, here's to hoping I get a job near NY!

Comments

[JHU_Kate]

I think the correlation between the poster and photo is quite cool. :)