Katie Pfotzer | Echo
This weekend, Lyric Theatre will present a show unlike any other on Taylor's campus.
Called "Musical Theater and Opera Scenes," this free event is a collection of 17 scenes sampled from musicals and operas starring your favorite musical theater students. The event will take place on Friday and Saturday, April 5 and 6 at 7:30 p.m. in the recital hall.
The performers believe this show is unique in many ways.
"We get to showcase a bunch of people in our department and everybody gets an opportunity to perform a song that they love and to do something new," freshman Hannah Embree said.
Some highlights of the performance will be "Wash That Man" from "South Pacific," "Marry that Man Today" from "Guys and Dolls" and "Coffee in a Cardboard Cup" from "70, Girls, 70."
This last number is highly anticipated by faculty because it will be accompanied by a tap dance number, something that has not been included in any Taylor production in the season so far.
The songs were chosen by Conor Angell, associate professor of music, and Patricia Robertson, professor of music.
"We have heard the students audition for us in the past for musicals," Angell said. "We took into account what we knew about our student performers and their abilities, and we chose pieces that would challenge them to continue their growth."
According to performers, these considerations were astonishingly accurate.
Freshman Bailey Miles reported that she has in fact performed her song, "Paris Original" from "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying," on stage before.
Senior Ty Kinter was also previously in a production of "Spamalot" and will be performing "The Song That Goes Like This," a unanimously hilarious and well-done rendition of the "Monty Python" song according to the cast.
There is even a story of a song never sung.
"My freshman year of high school, I was in the chorus of 'You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown,'" senior Lauren Vock said. "I remember watching the girl who played Lucy and thinking 'You're so cool.' As a senior in college to be performing this song, it feels like it's come full circle because I am singing 'My New Philosophy' from the musical."
As her last production on the Taylor stage before her senior recital the following weekend, this is a bittersweet time for Vock and others graduating.
However, there is another upside.
"Some of my best friends are in the department and we have never gotten the opportunity to do a one-on-one scene together," Vock said. "Having this opportunity to make art and collaborate with people has been fun."
Though there is no cohesive story told through the scenes, the actors still feel like it is worthwhile to attend.
Not only are many students' friends featured heavily in the show, but it is also free.
"There is nothing stopping people from coming when it is free," senior Bradley Jensen said. "And no, there is not a story to it. But that is even more fun because there are as many stories as there are songs."
