MCTVCollaborateswithPlayers for9to5:AfterHours

Sophomore Billy Walker brought an idea to Manhattan College’s student-run television station MCTV to produce a three-episode collaboration with MC’s Players for their upcoming performance of “9 to 5”, their spring musical. Walker is only in his second year as a communication student and already has produced a three-episode series with the help of his cast and crew.

“I’m the marketing chair for players and I wanted to do something different,” Walker explained. “I don’t really remember where the idea first came from, but I’ve always wanted to get involved with MCTV because now I’m taking studio television production, which is a communication class for media production concentrations.”

Walker explained to the Quadrangle his process of the different productions that aired on Youtube throughout the months of March and April of this year.

“For the first episode, I wanted to start with the three leading ladies Olivia Bailey, Gina Ricardo and Jenna Leonard,” Walker explained. “This whole story of “9 to 5,” really circles around their three characters, and I really wanted to get them out there first before hitting the stage. I even had Olivia sing a song from the show. The second one was more be- hind-the-scenes people like stage managers, to just really show that you don’t just have to be an actor or be on stage to be in Players. And then the last one is the ensemble just to show the talent that shines even if you aren’t playing a lead role.”

Walker explained his strategy behind this angle as a marketing approach for his club.

“It creates different ways to get the word out for our productions besides just putting up posters or posting on Instagram. I hope future marketing chairs or whoever is part of Players continue this right. I’ll try to continue it for the next two years. But after me, it’s up to them.”

CJ Cotza is a senior exercise science major with a double minor in biology and theater who plays an ensemble member, and a character he does not expect the audience to be rooting for.

“I play Dick, who is Judy Bernly’s husband or ex-husband depending on how he’s feeling that day,” Cotza said. “He’s a cheater, liar, and absolutely lives up to his name. He is just the worst and it’s a blast to get to play him. That’s one thing about my acting style is I love to play characters that are unlike me. So I always go for a villain type of role. And then, on the other hand, I am also a featured ensemble member so I’m in almost every dance number. It is just so much fun to go from acting to then heavy dancing.”

Cotza explained to the

Quadrangle how he and Walker were able to take the bond they have created working on stage together and bring it in front of the cameras to create something different.

“I think that this is really going to be a phenomenal way to promote not only this production, but also future productions and really get the word out there to a more vast environment of students. I mean, we can promote it all we want on the players’ social media pages but with that only people that follow the performing arts groups will know about it. This kind of goes out to a much wider group of people.”Cotza explained.

MCTV has helped not only communication majors but others as well who have a passion for working the camera or behind the scenes.

MCTV is the Manhattan

College student-run TV club.” Bart said. “It’s a really great club that’s open to every major, but it can especially help if you’re a media production concentration because we always say it’s like extra help outside of class in the studio learning on our own time. I think I speak for a lot of people when I say it’s really helped improve my time as a media production student in all those types of aspects.”

Kirk explained that MCTV saw a decline due to the pandemic, and saw a major shift this semester with the collaboration.

“Numbers were definitely a struggle after [the pandemic] but with these new collabs, there are more people in the studio than I have seen in a while. I hope the enthusiasm and the numbers keep going up so more people consider collaborating with MCTV.” Kirk said.

The duo Bart and Kirk told the Quad how much they loved working with Players and hope next year more collaborations with different organizations on campus happen.

“MCTV has had an amazing time with Players,” Bart commented in a response to Kirk. “It’s been so fun to produce a show like this. It’s always great to get content out there and I think we really hit the jackpot with working with amazing people, especially Billy who’s brought in some really talented people which has brought a lot to MCTV and players too. We are just so happy to have helped produce this.”

Sign up to work with MCTV by emailing them at mctv@ manhattan.edu and look out for the review of 9 to 5 from the Quadrangle as well. New members for both are always welcomed.