4 CULTURE
TUESDAY, APRIL 17, 2018
RIGAZIKM@MIAMIOH.EDU
All That Jazz: Two nights of classic tunes MUSIC
JULIA ARWINE STAFF WRITER
Jazz was in the air last week as two consecutive concerts proved that America’s most syncopated sensation is alive and well in Oxford. On Thursday night in Miami’s Hall Auditorium, MU Jazz Ensemble put on their final performance of the semester. By the time the music began, half of the ground floor seats were filled by students, family members and jazz enthusiasts alike. Student Alex Bronston’s reasons for attending were threefold. “I came to support my friend,” he said. “And I’m a music major, so I need to collect recital credits. Also, I just like jazz.” Twenty musicians performed nine songs as part of the Jazz Ensemble, playing trumpet, trombone, guitar, piano, bass, drums, percussion and all three types of saxophone — alto, tenor and baritone. The songs of choice were lively and classic, including hits by jazz greats Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn. The swinging style of the big band invoked a bygone era; with eyes closed, it wasn’t difficult to imagine the music pouring out of a smoky, blue-lit club in 1920s L.A. or New York. With the start of each piece, the lights on stage shifted to a different cool shade of purple, magenta, blue or red. Occasionally, they would catch on the shiny surface of a saxophone or guitar, reflecting sun-like spots of light onto the audience. Although the student performers are amateurs in their art, they dressed like professionals in all black, and played with passion and without noticeable mistake. Soloists stood during their appointed moments to take charge of the song, improvising each piece to make it different than it had ever been played before. Each solo was followed by a short burst of applause from the audience. Improvisation is a key part of any jazz performance. Overall, Director Jeremy Long estimated that about half of the night’s show was improvised.
THE REHUGNANT QUARTET PERFORMS AT THE OXFORD COMMUNITY ARTS CENTER. SEBASTIAN NEUFUSS THE MIAMI STUDENT
“I thought it went really well,” Long said. “Leading up to the performance, students are always stressed about certain parts and putting this all together, but, usually in the end, everything comes together. I felt great about it.” On Friday, in the Victorian-style North Parlor of the Oxford Community Arts Center, a different sort of group played to a different sort of crowd. Rehugnant Jazz Quartet performed as part of the center’s Second Friday event, a celebration of local art that occurs on the second Friday of every month. The four middle-aged men who compose the band played without frills; they adhered to no dress code and sat on whatever was on hand — a chair, stools, even one of their speakers. There was no brass in this group. Ralph Jones played guitar, Ian Borg was on drums, Kerry Jordan strummed bass and David Palmer manned the keyboard. The atmosphere was intimate and informal. Rehugnant launched into their warm up tunes without ceremony, playing
a full song before the show even officially began. They asked the gradually growing audience for help with their sound check.
The swinging style of the big band invoked a bygone era; with eyes closed, it wasn’t difficult to imagine the music pouring out of a smoky, blue-lit club in 1920s L.A. or New York. “Turn up the guitar,” an audience member suggested, and Jones obliged as the quartet began their set in earnest. Before long, most of the fifty-some seats were filled. People listened intently, nodding their heads and tapping their feet in time. The sun set outside the tall windows as Rehugnant made the wooden floorboards hum. The quartet has only been
together for about a year and a half, with some of the members changing, but the ease with which they played reflected decades of experience on each member’s part. There was no conductor and — despite Palmer’s title as band leader — no single person dominated the songs. The members took their cues from each other through glances and slight head nods. It was often difficult to tell how much of each song they were reading off the sheet music in front of them and how much was improvisation. Despite the limitations of only four instruments, the group proved versatile in their style. They played original compositions alongside transformative covers by groups such as Earth, Wind and Fire and The Beatles. For a couple songs, Jones even provided singing accompaniment. “The easiest table for our music is jazz fusion,” Palmer said. “More than one person has commented on how diverse our music is — from old jazz standards to newer jam band music to new
standards created by covering and arranging old rock and funk songs.” More than once, the audience began to applaud before the song was even finished, each final flourish followed by exclamations of “Wow!” and “Oh, lovely!” The attention of a rapt audience made it a special night for Rehugnant. “[The show] was a rich one for us,” Palmer said. “We know what it’s like to travel an hour or more, play our guts out and to end the night playing to the bartender, the sound person and the door person, and to go home with $10 in our pockets…Oxford is a great town, full of deep thinkers, people who are passionate about examining and exploring life in all of its richness and tragedy.” Palmer would love to see more of the jazz/jam-band scene in Oxford, and encourages anyone interested in such a scene to get in touch with him at rehugnant@ gmail.com. arwinejk@miamioh.edu
Creating Dwayne: My experience originating a role in a student production THEATRE
MICHAEL SMITH
THE MIAMI STUDENT
“Hey, are you auditioning for ‘Octets?’” I got this question from all the theatre kids towards the end of last semester. During the time of department auditions, a lot of students — myself included — were curious about the “Octets” audition poster we saw hanging around campus. It was a different performance opportunity, one that was outside the theatre department production season. “Octets” is a show written, composed and directed by Miami Students. While some students turn their nose up at the idea of a student production, I was particularly intrigued by this opportunity. Auditions for “Octets” were coming up at the end of November, but no one really knew what it was about. There was no full script to read, no cast recording to listen to, just an audition flyer and a link to a brief description of the show, including character bios and audition information. Why not? There’s honestly nothing to lose, was the mindset I developed as auditions approached. So I went for it. I auditioned. I prepared the song “Too Darn Hot” from “Kiss Me Kate,” sang some scales with the pianist and did a cold reading. Next thing I know, I got a callback. They wanted to see more of me. It was for a small role, but it was a chance to sell myself again. I went to callbacks where we danced, sang and read for different characters. I
experimented, had lots of laughs and a ton of fun in the process. And that evening, I got the phone call. Some people dream of originating a stage role in their career, whether in a Broadway musical or with a theatre company in Los Angeles. But here I was, only four previous musical productions under my belt, presented with the opportunity to originate the role of Dwayne in “Octets: A New Musical.” I found this to be an exciting, once-ina-lifetime opportunity, but I started to worry about what was in store having not read the full script, not knowing much about the music and not knowing how worthwhile a student production would be. My worries and doubts were proven wrong. Getting into the routine of rehearsals was somewhat rough. The lead character, Clay, has a line about “busting his ass with nineteen hardcore credit hours,” and I was quite literally experiencing that. Finding time to commit myself to everything I was involved in — juggling twenty credit hours, choir, an a cappella group, my school work and auditions for summer work — on top of this musical was difficult. And the fact that I was the first to portray the role of Dwayne scared me. Dwayne is the average jock, a social butterfly, who always knows what to say at the right time. I am the opposite of him. This character challenged me to step out of my comfort zone as an actor, but I always worried: Am I doing this character justice? Am I embodying what the playwright had in mind when writing this character?
With this concern came a lot of character work. Establishing a middle and last name, age, job or hobbies, interests, personality type and relationships with the other characters helped me along the journey of becoming Dwayne. Creating Dwayne’s background wasn’t challenging, but not having someone explicitly telling me whether my interpretations were right or wrong left me anxious. “Octets” itself is an ensemble heavy show, so each character, no matter how big or small, drives the plot in some fashion. So much work went into learning the music, the choreography and the blocking that the closer we got to show week, the more I just wanted to get it over with. We had our good rehearsals, but we also had our fair share of bad rehearsals. At some points in the process, I saw the potential for a great show, but there were many times where I was so discouraged that I wanted to quit. The Thursday rehearsal before show week, by the time we had finished learning all of the music, choreography and blocking, we were doing full runs. Right from the start of our run, I knew it wasn’t going to be our best. With a reality check form the director, we picked up our energy for the second act, but overall our performance was disappointing, causing me to doubt if we’d have a good show by opening night. All of my doubts subsided by our opening night performance, the world premiere of “Octets: A New Musical.” All of our time, energy and efforts throughout the rehearsal process were going to finally pay off. Having the opportunity to perform an original student work in front of four sold out crowds, to originate
a role in such an early stage in my theatre career, to make art with such a talented group of students is an experience I wouldn’t trade for anything. This project made me realize the power in optimism and community. We had our highs and lows throughout the process, but we all kept going. The playwright and director, Austin Lamewona, was vulnerable enough to take his three year project idea and turn it into a reality, not knowing what the outcome would be. He saw potential in his work, in me and in the entirety of the cast. We all made sacrifices, we all faced challenges, but we collectively overcame them in the process. And most importantly, we all put on a damn good show. And the audience feedback was overwhelmingly positive: “It wasn’t what I was expecting, but in a good way.” “It blew my socks off. It was vibrant and somewhat representative of today’s campus culture. I think this show could make it big someday.” “It was refreshing to see a show about young people that wasn’t very clearly written and designed by older people. One of my favorite things was seeing my friends in a show that was so authentic in nature, and conveyed mental health and interpersonal conflict in a realistic way.” “This production was very professional in every aspect.” Being a part of this project made me realize my love for what I do, and I am glad to have gone through the journey with an extraordinary group of people. smithd21@miamioh.edu