Communication Prof. Rives Collins said he was on leave in Italy when he got a call from Communication Prof. Tommy Rapley, asking him if he’d perform in the Waa-Mu Show, Northwestern’s student-written musical.
Collins will take the Cahn Auditorium stage alongside student cast members in seven showings of the NU-themed musical “Arch Madness,” running Friday to May 11.
“You can’t believe how kind the students are to the grandpa in the company,” Collins said. “They whisper my lines to me. They take care of me in 1,000 different ways.”
Celebrating its 94th anniversary this year, the Waa-Mu Show is NU’s oldest theatrical tradition. This upcoming iteration boasts four mini musicals all depicting canonical NU experiences to celebrate the show’s near-centennial.
“Tess Times Two” depicts an interaction between an overcommitted Northwestern student and her younger self. The comedy horror “Barb-Eek!” follows a similarly overwhelmed aspiring journalist.
“Treble in the Air” uses NU’s a cappella scene to depict parental pressures. And the McCormick-focused piece “Robot Revolution,” which features a robot and a villainous Willie the Wiredcat, shows a student trying to find their path.
Some school wide inside jokes never change. Collins, who narrates the show as “the spirit of the arch,” Archie Weber, said through a song from the musical, he learned about Reza’s Restaurant’s popularity as a late-night hangout.
He said it reminded him of “To the Memories,” a 1951 song that concludes every Waa-Mu show, and the line, “Those happy nights out West, on the nights before a test.”
“The closest bar to campus was in Skokie, and we know that they’re referring to those happy times out west,” he said. “Reza’s, being an integral part of Northwestern culture, (is) essentially making the same joke.”
Communication senior Rachel Weintraub plays Melody, an a cappella group music director in “Treble in the Air.” She also music directed for the NU a cappella group Freshman Fifteen and said her fellow castmate, also a Freshman Fifteen member, recognized her onstage conducting mannerisms.
This show marks Weintraub’s fourth time participating in Waa-Mu. She has previously worked as a writer and performer.
“You get to see these people in the hall and be like, ‘Oh my God. You wrote this. You’re so cool,’” Weintraub said. “You’re all just normal people trying to make cool art.”
Waa-Mu cast members partake in the other shows as well as ensemble members, she said. So when she’s not playing Melody, she said she’s operating red-winged blackbird puppets and “dive-bombing” actors.
Communication junior Veronica Gonzalez has been on the attack’s receiving end, both in real life and in the show. In “Barb-Eek!,” she plays Barbara, an overwhelmed journalism student who experiences a “plastic world” where everything appears perfect at first, she said.
“I’ve been able to make Barbara feel more like me and bring myself into the role,” Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez and Weintraub both said a highlight of the rehearsal process was a surprise for the cast.
During a rehearsal for “Barb-Eek!,” singer-songwriter and Waa-Mu alumna Heather Headley (Communication ’97) walked into Cahn Auditorium with Crumbl Cookies, Weintraub said. Gonzalez said she started crying when Headley sang “To the Memories.”
“She talked to us about finding your irons, which she said she found in Waa-Mu,” Weintraub said. “Your irons are people that will work just as hard as you will. You push against each other and keep pressing until you make fire. When you do, that’s something you keep alive.”
U.S. Air Force Bands staff arranger and composer Ben Roberts (Bienen ’21) and former Waa-Mu composer Dan Lipton (Bienen ’97) also visited, working with the show’s music team.
Most of this year’s outreach focuses on alumni engagement. The Waa-Museum will display Waa-Mu artifacts in the Cahn lobby, and an alumni reunion will take place at 10:30 p.m. Saturday at Five & Dime, according to the Waa-Mu Instagram.
Soon, graduating seniors like Weintraub will join these alums.
Co-music director and Weinberg senior Avery Powers has worked on Waa-Mu since her freshman year. Her NU experience inspired “Tess Times Two,” which Powers wrote and managed.
Joining NU as an applied math major, Powers said she initially thought she would be too busy for Waa-Mu.
“Now it’s my entire life,” she said.
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