Open Stage serves as open forum for actors
Ligia Abreu
Issue date: 1/26/05 Section: News
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The last few minutes before a show are always somewhat hectic.
As freshman Libby Moore attempted to heal her sore throat in preparation for her first solo, Kristine Holda curled her hair (and burnt herself with the iron), Paten Hughes checked the mirror one last time before going on stage, MC Joe Harouni joked around with the crew, and sophomore Sheryl Silvers knit-to calm her nerves.
That was the Lenfest Center Green Room crowd during opening night of the first annual Undergraduate Open Stage.
With 17 performers and 20 different acts, the show was a welcome setting for seasoned actors and theater neophytes alike.
"It's great that the Theatre Department offers a venue for people to show off their strengths...You never have people like Wheeler Sparks onstage," said Harouni.
As the actors, singers and dancers prepared backstage, the Johnson Theater filled with a surprisingly large audience. A full house of students and faculty mingled as they waited for the first monologue, a performance of the opening chorus of Shakespeare's "Henry V" by senior Vicky Stanham.
The pieces in the open stage ranged, as Harouni himself put it, from the sublime to the ridiculous.
From the hilarious song "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park" by Stanham and Kristine Holda and Lisa Zevorich's duet performance of "What is this Feeling?" from "Wicked," to Julian Ledford's inspired voice and Wheeler Sparks' original songs, the show ran the gamut from side-splitting to tear-jerking.
Libby Moore's monologue, "Suicide," was one of the latter. Moore's choice to play a woman who has recently attempted to kill herself was not a coincidence.
"I really identify with those feelings because I've been there," said Moore. "I've been that down and come out the other side. It feels good to identify that much with a character and it's just a healthy way of expressing that emotion."
Other performers used the open stage as a way to try out new material and different roles than they had performed in the past.
As freshman Libby Moore attempted to heal her sore throat in preparation for her first solo, Kristine Holda curled her hair (and burnt herself with the iron), Paten Hughes checked the mirror one last time before going on stage, MC Joe Harouni joked around with the crew, and sophomore Sheryl Silvers knit-to calm her nerves.
That was the Lenfest Center Green Room crowd during opening night of the first annual Undergraduate Open Stage.
With 17 performers and 20 different acts, the show was a welcome setting for seasoned actors and theater neophytes alike.
"It's great that the Theatre Department offers a venue for people to show off their strengths...You never have people like Wheeler Sparks onstage," said Harouni.
As the actors, singers and dancers prepared backstage, the Johnson Theater filled with a surprisingly large audience. A full house of students and faculty mingled as they waited for the first monologue, a performance of the opening chorus of Shakespeare's "Henry V" by senior Vicky Stanham.
The pieces in the open stage ranged, as Harouni himself put it, from the sublime to the ridiculous.
From the hilarious song "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park" by Stanham and Kristine Holda and Lisa Zevorich's duet performance of "What is this Feeling?" from "Wicked," to Julian Ledford's inspired voice and Wheeler Sparks' original songs, the show ran the gamut from side-splitting to tear-jerking.
Libby Moore's monologue, "Suicide," was one of the latter. Moore's choice to play a woman who has recently attempted to kill herself was not a coincidence.
"I really identify with those feelings because I've been there," said Moore. "I've been that down and come out the other side. It feels good to identify that much with a character and it's just a healthy way of expressing that emotion."
Other performers used the open stage as a way to try out new material and different roles than they had performed in the past.