Good grief! Rabbits have invaded the Jones Great Room.
No, wait. They’re just freshmen.
In an effort to strengthen class unity and to allow younger students to have greater participation in NU theater, about 40 freshmen are producing, directing and starring in the Broadway musical “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown.”
Communication freshmen Eugenio Vargas, Kaitlin Fine and Jack Schlesinger came up with the idea to have an all-freshman musical after they heard about a similar production that took place two years ago.
Schlesinger, the show’s director, said they wanted to use the show to work together with other freshmen.
“We thought it would be cool to have something that we can do as a class,” he said. “We will have something to look back on as seniors.”
Schlesinger said he wanted to do “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” because he always enjoyed the comic strip “Peanuts” when he was younger. He said he has not directed a play before but easily adapted to the position.
“This cast is phenomenal, and they are making my job too easy,” he said. “Since we are all peers, we can connect with each other on a different level than just director and actor. We are all friends.”
Although he is also interested in performance, directing gave Schlesinger a better appreciation for directors, he said.
“It is always good to see from the other perspective so you know why the director may ask you to do certain things,” he said.
Music freshman Will Selnick, who plays Charlie Brown, said the play was a collaborative effort.
“We are all new to this, so it is a learning process,” he said. “The director gives us guidelines, but we work together to develop our characters.”
Selnick said he liked that the play is an ensemble piece.
“There is no real star, but we all get to shine through,” he said.
Fine, the show’s producer, said they recruited freshmen who were not performing in other shows.
“We have a lot of talent in our class,” she said. “There were not many musicals in the Spring Quarter. We had a lot of good people who were not cast, and we wanted to showcase their talents.”
Although Jones Residential College paid for the rights to the show, the students still had to raise a significant amount of money, Fine said. She said students involved in the show wrote letters to friends and family asking for donations.
“We had a low-ball figure of what we might need to put on this show,” she said. “However, the response was amazing and we got much above that figure.”
Fine also said the student theater community has been supportive of their endeavor. She said Arts Alliance, in which she is a freshman representative, let them build props at their garage.
“It started out as a bunch of people sitting around and saying, ‘Let’s do a show,’ and now it is happening,” she said. “It is amazing to see it all come together.”
Tickets are $5 and can be purchased at the door. Performances take place Thursday, April 20, at 8 p.m. and Friday, April 21, and Saturday, April 22, at 8 and 11 p.m. All performances will be in the Jones Great Room.
Communication freshman Annie Middleton, who plays one of three Woodstocks in the play, said they practice about four hours daily. She said she is confident the efforts will pay off.
“(Being in a play) definitely adds a load, but it is worth it,” she said. “On opening night, we will all say, ‘Thank God for all the work we put into it.'”
Reach Ketul Patel at [email protected].
