The Blackburn Music and Theatre Department’s spring variety show was held Thursday, April 20, through Sunday, April 23. The spring musical was originally intended to be a rendition of “Once Upon a Mattress,” however after limited student interest it was replaced with a variety show designed to display the student actors’ individual and group talents. “Whenever I heard that [theater professor Carolyn Conover and theater adjunct Andrea Swift Hanlon] were going to lock themselves in their offices and write this show, I had complete confidence in them,” said junior psychology major Rob Wingerter. “I have an image of both of them as ravenous street dogs who are going to get anything done that they want.”
Conover, who was part of the duo that wrote and directed the variety show, said, “It was very exciting. The best part is sitting in the audience and watching them catch on. Whenever they hear an intro or hear the beginning of a song it’s really cool to see them say, “Oooh I get it,” and see that ripple through the crowd.” The audience did catch on.
The variety show had a minimal crowd on Thursday night but the remaining performances saw almost all of the seats filled. On the second night of the performance Conover said, “ We are definitely improving and I think crowd size has to do with this. The first night was pretty sparse, but tonight we had a lot of seats filled with people of different age ranges.”
Even though the show went well, it wasn’t without challenges. There were over 400 costume pieces. Costumers were stationed backstage to help with dressing and undressing and to get actors back out on stage as soon as possible.
Senior theater major Lisa Knight discussed the quick changes after the show. “Some of them are chaotic; the one between Dirty Dancing and Breakfast Club is really hard because we are all changing on the same side of the stage. We have four costumers and five of us on stage. Everyone is trying to change on stage at exactly the same time and it’s just crazy,” said Knight. “A lot of layers,” added Wingerter.