DEC
12 2013
FEATURE
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‘Ukulele!’ celebrates variety
A sword dancer, a juggler and a ballerina take the stage together at a “Ukulele!” rehearsal. Talent-based auditions made it easy for students outside the department to participate in the show. Photos by Marlena Sloss
Students display unique talents by Isabel Mills Staff Reporter
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ave you ever wanted to see a sword dancer, a group of clowns, ukulele players and a ballerina on stage at the same time? If so, the Harper Joy Theatre variety show “Ukulele!,” which will run from Thursday, Dec. 12 until Sunday, Dec. 15, is the perfect performance for you. The show is a little different than your average play — it gives students the opportunity to showcase their talents instead of memorizing lines for specific characters. First-year Haley Forrester will be performing a dance called “Raksal Sayf,” which is translated from Arabic as “dance of the scimitar.” A scimitar is a curved sword. Forrester began learning this sword dance from her mom when she was about eight years old, and she got to hold her first sword when she was in sixth grade. “I feel so blessed that my mom started doing this because it’s a cool way to connect, and I don’t think [it’s] very typical,” said Forrester. Forrester and her mom connect through a variety of other kinds of dances as well. She compared telling people that she dances to telling people that she speaks a foreign language — you have to be more specific. “I’ve never done what people think of as traditional dance. I’ve done Middle Eastern dance, sword dance, basket dance, Charleston, lindy hop, Bollywood bhangra and hoop dance,” said Forrester. Although this will be the first time Forrester has showcased her sword dance in a performance setting, she has performed basket dance with her mom’s troop and bhangra style dance with a troop from her hometown in Eugene, Ore. Forrester will be sharing the stage with a few other performers. “In [our] performance of ‘Ukulele!,’ it’s not just me on stage — it’s also a juggler and a ballerina. We have to coordinate a little bit, especially because I have a weapon on stage,” said Forrester. One of the jugglers in the show will be sophomore Travis Wheeler. Wheeler, who is currently president of Whitman Col-
lege’s juggling club, dabbles in juggling balls, clubs and rings. “[The club] started last year in North Hall with the realization that my neighbor also juggled, that juggling is awesome and that we could make a club and extend said love of juggling to others,” said Wheeler. Unlike Forrester, who is involved in theatre, Wheeler’s style is most aptly named “casual improvisation.” Despite his lack of experience, he is looking forward to “Ukulele!” “I definitely enjoy juggling. Performing can be fun, but also stressful. It really depends. But I’m really excited for this show because of all the work that’s gone into it and because all of the acts are really cool. Definitely worth your while,” said Wheeler. Another performer will be senior theatre major Nasko Atanasov, who will be showcasing a unique dance as well. “I’ve always wanted to have my very own dance performance at Whitman doing the kind of dance I love, which is heavily influenced and inspired by the revolutionary movement Michael Jackson developed way ahead of his time. It has a lot of robotic themes as well as a certain fluidity to contrast the staccato of the machine,” said Atanasov. Nasko is excited about the fact that “Ukulele!” allowed him to give such a unique performance. “While I am dancing, there are people who play [‘The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy’] from ‘The Nutcracker’ on an amplified, electric ukulele, creating an entirely different world from the rest of the play. But this is what is so great about this show. You never know what to expect because we haven’t done anything like it before,” said Atanasov. The individual contribution required for this show allows people not involved in theatre to showcase their talents in a unique environment. “I hope the way that ‘Ukulele!’ is helping bring other people into the theatre department will encourage more students to participate. It’s a really fun thing even if you don’t consider yourself an actor. I think it’s great that Whitman offers these opportunities to try your hand at something new and be involved in a creative way,” said Forrester.
Untraditional form creates opportunities, challenges by Serena runyan Staff Reporter
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utting together a variety show has proven challenging for the “Ukulele!” team, but the myriad of personal talents onstage make for a joyful performance. Assistant Professor of Theatre Jessica Cerullo created the themes and story line for “Ukulele!” Using inspiration from Vaudeville and other variety show formats, the theatre department created the roles and direction of the show. “There is an overarching dreamscape which is the story,” said Cerullo. “I had certain roles in mind. If people fit those roles, they’re in the show, [and] if they didn’t, they’re not in the show.” Students were selected to participate in the show based on their auditions. Once they were cast, Cerullo and others worked collaboratively with the cast to create different acts. The nature of the casting process means the show does not have the same sort of linear plot that a regular play would. “There’s a lot of nonverbal scenes and a lot of music,” said Cerullo. This has given a new challenge to the tech crew backstage. “Since there is no script, many of the cues are physical or from gestures from the actors,” said senior Melanie Medina, master of sound for the production. “That’s not uncommon for regular plays, but there are usually more cues that go off of lines that the actors say, and there’s none of that in this show. Our stage manager, Wendy, has become super adept at following the actions onstage, reading the written cues and telling the crew exactly when to go all at
once, which is very impressive.” To tie the acts together, different elements of the show weave throughout the performance. “There’s seven clowns who sew all the acts together,” said Cerullo. “Ms. Variety is sort of the centerpiece of the play. It’s a story about a woman who’s really tired and doesn’t want to do anything anymore ... and then she gets a ukulele,” said Cerullo. Ms. Variety, played by junior Emily Krause, is a character who reappears throughout the play. “I think [Cerullo] wanted something of a through line, or something that the audience could follow,” said Krause. “Rehearsals have been a matter of refining the acts that we have. It’s about refining and letting go of some ideas that don’t come together, to make something that doesn’t have to be linear but comes together under one overarching theme.” Putting together a variety show has been a different experience for Cerullo from other plays. “I know the least about the act that’s being presented,” said Cerullo. “When we do a play, I’ve researched that play; I have a real wealth of knowledge around the play. When two jugglers come in, I don’t know how to juggle ... I have to learn basically from the performer this whole language about their art form.” They also have a much bigger and more varied cast than usual. “It’s a big cast,” said Krause. “We have 30 performers on stage ... It’s a lot of people to coordinate, so it’s been a big struggle sometimes, but it’s also been fun to work out how to take all these people who have done a lot of theater and people who haven’t done any at all and bring everyone into the same place and get everyone on the same page.”
For people working behind the scenes, the large number of actors makes it more difficult than usual to coordinate the set. “Because there are so many acts that are all quite different from one another, tech is much more complicated than usual. Coordinating curtain pulls, lights, sound, actors and set pieces has been quite the challenge,” said Medina. The large cast also means performers don’t have to make as big of a time commitment to the show as they would for a regular production. Cerullo had student’s busy schedules in mind when she proposed doing a variety show. She hoped that by decreasing the time commitment, she could encourage students who don’t typically perform to audition. “I wanted to do a piece that would reach out to performers who would not otherwise be involved in a production,” said Cerullo. “I was also keenly aware that the show would go up right to the end of the semester, and I wanted people to be able to do the show without making what is often a really big commitment.” The variety show format has allowed the large cast of “Ukulele!” to showcase talents they already have, which makes the show easier to create and the performance engaging. “I wanted to make a show also that was people doing things that they wanted to do,” said Cerullo. “I think there are some serious moments in the piece, but it comes from a place of joy.” This was a desire to produce a more uplifting show during a stressful time of the semester. “I think the show in general came out of a desire to give the students something different at this time of year,” said Krause.