By AILEEN BURKE
News Editor
On April 19, at 7:30 p.m., the College’s Musical Theatre Workshop gave their end of semester performance called, “Role Reversal.”
The evening of musical theatre was intentionally diverse, as the students were able to choose pieces for themselves that they would not normally be able to perform. Songs in “Role Reversal” came from shows like Chess, Into the Woods, Company, Avenue Q, Reefer Madness, and Joe Iconis’ new Broadway hit Be More Chill. These were all selections made by the students, and they spent the course of the semester working on these pieces with Dr. Lister.
“The students were able to start the semester by picking songs that they normally wouldn’t sing in their career or be cast as,” said Dr. Michael Lister, the professor behind the Role Reversal concert.
The students had a fun time being able to work on these pieces, and changing the traditional staging for these pieces for the cabaret-style performance they presented the night of the performance. According to first year student Donna Emily Mousouroulis the class was “really fun.”
“Everyone was extremely nice and supportive,” said Mousouroulis. “During Role Reversal, I have learned a lot about using creativity with the song, especially when having to change the context of it.”
The intriguing opportunity was not lost on the students. Chances for individual expression like this one are few and far between, but appreciated. Refreshing these standards was something that the students looked forward to doing, and were different from a traditional cabaret experience.
“For me, I’ve been in many cabarets where everyone got to sing the song they’ve always dreamed of doing,” said sophomore music education major Juliana Rivelli. Rivelli sang a challenging Tesori number, Gimme Gimme from Thoroughly Modern Millie. “… singing a song of the opposite gender was never really thought of. Being apart of a cabaret where you could choose any song, without any limitations was truly magical. It was refreshing to hear some of my favorite musical theater pieces revamped and performed by the opposite gender, or by a different person who wouldn’t normally sing that song. It made me believe in the magic of theater again and why we do what we do as actors and actresses.”
It will be interesting to see what the musical theatre workshop does next. Last year, they staged a full musical, and who knows what will come next. There will be a dedicated group of students ready to take on the challenge nonetheless.
“We get up on that stage and make fiction become reality, even if it’s only for a moment, that moment can mean so much,” said Rivelli.
