STUDENT LIFE
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hile many students spend their J-Term in Boyer, science labs and art studios, there are others who spend their days in dance classes, building sets and rehearsing. These are the students who spend three intensive weeks in the halls of Climenhaga, getting ready for the J-Term musical. This year, they are rehearsing for The Boy Friend by Sandy Wilson, a romantic imitation of 1920s shows.
With nearly half the preparation time the cast and crew get during the normal semester, during J-term each day is a challenge to be ready in time for the opening show.
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PHOTOS BY AMELIA MARKEY
“It’s kind of like controlled chaos,” says Daniel Inouye, associate professor of Theatre Arts and director of The Boy Friend. “You have students singing in one moment, dancing in another, working on staging and blocking in a third. All of those students are rotating between those three things constantly during the day.”
During the regular semesters, other classes and homework assignments often require everyone to divide their time and energy. This three-week schedule, though tight, allows the cast and crew to experience a special focus on the musical.
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BY CHARMAINE LIM
“We want to put on a good show,” says Hannah Arnold, senior musical theater major and female lead. “And since we know we only have a limited amount of time to do it, we push ourselves to get everything done.”
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James Lim, junior musical theater major and male lead, says, “One thing that I realized working on a production during J-Term [is] it’s just so much easier to focus on what we need to do for the production.” The Department of Theatre and Dance purposely chose to use J-Term as a time to show students what it would be like to work on a production in the professional world. Having six to seven weeks of rehearsal in the normal semester is a luxury, unlike the real-life expectations of being able to perform a production in an average of three weeks. “It gives our students the chance to have a little bit more of a professional experience,” says Inouye. To make this possible, the planning process for the J-Term musical often begins months in advance, before the spring semester is even in sight.
Tymberley Whitesel, scenery and lighting designer and chair of the department of Theatre and Dance, tries to have a solid idea and design concept by the end of the fall semester. She then spends her Christmas break finalizing details, drafting designs and figuring out how the set will be built. Once the designs are ready, they are sent to Melissa Mendez, the technical director for the department of Theatre and Dance. “I figure out how we’re constructing everything in terms of material and method,” says Mendez. “For the most part, I’m the one that kind of figures out how it all gets put together, and then communicating that to whoever is working the shop.” The collaboration allows everyone to create a production that tells an immersive story to the audience. Students who are part of the tech crew get to see their choices come to life in paint colors and