"I am disturbed... I am in love... I am NOT satisfied... I am accident prone... I am an alcoholic": These and other bold statements can be found on flyers all over Grounds, advertising the Spectrum Theatre's latest project. The production, "Voices of the Class," is an innovative creation aimed at bringing life to the admissions essays submitted by current first-year students.
Third-year College student Steven Shepard got the idea from a friend at Amherst College, where "Voices of the Class" is performed annually and attendance by freshmen is obligatory. Shepard said he believes the project "gives upperclassmen a chance to experience the perspective of the first-year class." The play is a collection of monologues based on the essays students sent in with their University admissions applications.
Shepard said he was pleased that "the cast gets to work with creative, yet anonymous, minds."
He and co-directors Sadira Furlow and Stacey McCowan held auditions for the cast in April. The auditions required a creative performance of a monologue and a sample essay. They were looking for creativity, humor and artistic ability. Nine students of varying years, majors and backgrounds were selected for the cast.
Working with the Office of Admission, Spectrum obtained 100 essays. In April, after cutting that number in half, the directors sent each cast member home for the summer with copies of the essays, and the cast returned to the University with ideas about which ones to use in the show.
The selection criteria for the essays were just as important as for the cast: The writing had to be creative and the collection of pieces needed to cover a broad range of styles and emotions. Some are funny, others are dramatic and still others deal with quirky issues such as obsessive lust for TV dinners, but all should have mass appeal.
The authors of the original 100 essays were notified of Spectrum's possession of their work and were asked to sign waivers if they wished to allow Spectrum freedom to rewrite, revise and perform their essays. Twenty-eight will be performed in their original form, but six or seven essays have been altered in some way.
All writers of the essays are anonymous to Spectrum and will not be revealed to the audience unless they wish to do so themselves.
"I wish something like this had been around when I was a first year. This year's class can recognize their essay in a skit and know that they aren't alone. It's not just them," said Ryan Clardy, third-year drama major and cast member.
Furlow has similar plans for the project: Her goal is to unify the University, reminding upperclassmen of their first-year days and narrowing the gap between the first-year class and the rest of the school.
"We're all different, but we're really all the same," she said.
She added that she hopes to develop this solidarity by keeping the production as simple as possible. The performers will wear all black and use just a few props to stress the fundamental similarity and unity of the characters -- the first-year class and the entire student body. The sets and lighting are also simple, making the actors and the essays the central focus of the production.
The Spectrum troupe, which just began rehearsing in late August, is working full-time in preparation. Even when rehearsing for long hours every day, however, they are fresh and energetic. Cast members bring individual flavor to the roles they portray, promising an eclectic and highly entertaining product.
The written words of first-year applicants finally have a forum beyond Miller Hall, and viewers are sure to relate to the show, recognizing themselves in the characters or finding some familiar emotion in the prose.
"Voices of the Class" opens at Old Cabell Hall Thursday, Sept. 9 at 8:15 p.m., and will continue at the same time Friday and Saturday.
Read More
The best albums of 2014
By Noah Zeidman | December 4, 2014Across genres, it has been a pretty great year in music.
Top 10 movies of 2014
December 4, 2014This has been an excellent year for film, offering everything from gripping blockbusters to innovative personal films.
Iggy Azalea is “Reclassified”
December 4, 2014It has become common practice among music artists to repackage their albums in an effort to simultaneously boost single sales and dish out new content by slightly renaming the album or slapping “Deluxe” onto the title.
