The Big Little University Rising
James Hayden Rodriguez ’11 (Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting) made his Broadway debut as Luke in “The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical” on Wednesday, Oct. 16. He is also playing the role of Ares during the musical’s 16-week Broadway reprisal following its successful Off-Broadway run and first national tour, which he was in as well. Visit www.jameshaydenrodriguez.com to learn more about Rodriguez.
Photo by Jeremy Daniel
Cassie Rathie ’20 (Bachelor of Arts in Acting) studied at the University of Winchester in Winchester, England, during her spring 2019 semester. Shenandoah University and the University of Winchester are members of the International Student Exchange Program (ISEP), a global network of 300 universities who partner together and allow students to study for a full semester or year at other member campuses abroad. By working closely with their academic advisors and the education abroad advisor, students can take advantage of the opportunities to take general education and major classes taught in English abroad and to receive credit at their home institution. Learn more about Rathie’s experience in England in the Q&A below.
A: I wanted to study abroad before coming to college, but, as an acting major, I thought it was impossible with our very strict schedules and requirements. When I discovered that a graduate from the conservatory studied abroad, I knew I couldn’t pass up the opportunity. The University of Winchester seemed like the best option because I was not required to speak a different language and performing students from the University of Winchester have studied here, so I knew they would be flexible with finding classes that would best transfer over.
A: Traveling. We were not allowed to take more than four classes and those classes were once a week for three hours, which it made it very easy to travel. Plus, it’s very cheap to travel in Europe. During the semester I spent a weekend in Ireland and a week in Greece. I also traveled all over England. Then, once the semester ended, I spent a month in Europe traveling to Italy, Germany and the Netherlands.
A: Believe it or not, England is very different from the states. There are a few similarities but the culture, class schedules, and policies are completely different. Shenandoah prepared me for this in a few ways. My home is Orlando, Florida, so coming to a school 13 hours away got me used to living on my own, and away from my family. If I wasn’t so comfortable living on my own, I don’t think I would have been able to live in another country for that long.
A: I would absolutely recommend studying abroad to every college student. It opens your eyes to what life is like in different parts of the world. Plus, it transforms you into someone you never thought you could be. The only thing I would recommend is that if you do study abroad, I suggest you do so before the spring semester of your junior year. That way you have enough time to make up credits/classes you may have missed while gone. Studying abroad is not like traveling. I have traveled my whole life, to tons of different places, but nothing compares to living in a different part of the world.
A: This experience made me grow so much as a person and as a performer. Before I left for England, I felt lost in my craft and now, coming back, I feel stronger and wiser. I found my voice. People always say studying abroad changes your life and, as cliché as it is, it truly does. You come back with an abundance of outside knowledge. It’s an experience of a lifetime that you should not pass up.
Want to learn more about studying abroad? Visit su.edu/education-abroad.
The Theatre Division welcomed filmmakers and actors Amy Nostbakken and Norah Sadava of the Toronto-based Quote Unquote Collective for a discussion with acting and film students. Nostbakken and Sadava are playwrights turned actors turned screenwriters whose film “Mouthpiece” was featured during the Lost Weekend XII Film Festival at the Alamo Drafthouse Winchester on Friday, Sept. 20.
Several freshman acting majors have been cast in upcoming productions at Shenandoah Conservatory. Nicholas Villacorte ’23 and Nathaniel Wright ’23 will be featured in Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” from Thursday, Nov. 14, through Sunday, Nov.17, in Ohrstrom-Bryant Theatre. Maxwell Castellano ’23 and Kennedi Roland ’23 will be featured in the student-run group Shut Up! It’s Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.” Visit www.facebook.com/Shut-Up-Its-Shakespeare-174485375995579 to learn more about the student group.
Pictured from left to right: Nicholas Villacorte, Nathaniel Wright, Maxwell Castellano and Kennedi Roland
Shenandoah University is pleased to announce the U.S. university premiere of the musical “Something Rotten!” The Tony Award-winning musical opened on Broadway in 2015 and has already completed two major tours.
“Something Rotten!” opens at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 3, in Ohrstrom-Bryant Theatre on the main campus of Shenandoah University. Additional performances are at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 4, and Saturday, Oct. 5, and at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 6.
The most recent tour, which concluded in Seoul, South Korea, featured two Shenandoah University alumni (Emma Benson and Zachary Bigelow, both B.F.A. in Musical Theatre, ’18). This marks the second major university premiere of a Broadway musical by Shenandoah Conservatory in recent years. In 2014, the university premiered Green Day’s “American Idiot.”
“Something Rotten!” is an original musical comedy with a book by John O’Farrell and Karey Kirkpatrick, and music and lyrics by Karey and Wayne Kirkpatrick. The musical is set in 1595 England and tells the story of the Bottom brothers, Nick and Nigel. The brothers are struggling to find success in the theatrical world dominated by the “rock star” William Shakespeare. When a fortune teller predicts that the future of theatre will include acting, dancing, and singing all at once, the brothers set out to write the world’s first musical.
Time Out New York called the production “Broadway’s funniest, splashiest, slap-happiest musical comedy in at least 400 years,” and the Associated Press called it “easily the funniest thing to arrive on Broadway since ‘The Book of Mormon.’”
The production at Shenandoah Conservatory is guided by a team of faculty who are also Broadway veterans, including Charles B. Levitin Chair in Musical Theater and Assistant Professor of Theatre Kevin Covert (“Memphis,” “Spamalot,” “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying”) as director; Associate Professor of Theatre and Visiting Musical Director Patrick Brady (“Young Frankenstein,” “The Producers,” “Fosse”) as music director; and Visiting Assistant Professor of Dance Shylo Martinez, M.F.A.,(“Wicked,” “Movin’ Out”) as choreographer.
Also lending their talents are Associate Professor of Theatre – Scenic and Lighting Design William Pierson, M.F.A. (scenic designer); Associate Professor of Theatre – Costume Design Jennifer Flitton Adams, M.F.A. (costume designer); and Assistant Professor of Theatre – Lighting Design Andrew Carson, M.F.A., (lighting designer).
In addition, students will have the opportunity to work with Steve Bebout, associate director of the Broadway production and director of the most recent national tour, during his residency on Shenandoah’s campus.
“We are thrilled to be the first venue to present this show after its Broadway and National Tour runs,” said Covert, who directs the conservatory’s musical theatre program. “Premieres like this go hand-in-hand with the industry-focused, contemporary training our musical theatre students are receiving at Shenandoah. The opportunity for them to work with industry professionals like Steve is exactly the type of real-world experience they need to be successful in this career.”
For tickets, visit conservatoryperforms.org or call the Shenandoah University Box Office at (540) 665-4569. Ohrstrom-Bryant Theatre is the university’s 630-seat performing arts venue featuring a proscenium stage.
From May 25 through June 7, 16 theatre students traveled to England for the London Theatre and History GEL trip with Assistant Dean for Student Learning and Associate Professor of Theatre Carolyn Coulson, Ph.D. and Director of Acting and Associate Professor of Theatre Scott Hudson, M.F.A. The trip introduced students to the theatre and history of London and the United Kingdom. Group performance highlights featured a gender-fluid production of “Henry V” at Shakespeare’s Globe, “As You Like It” at the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford, “Death of a Salesman” at the Young Vic, and six new plays, some of which stretched the boundaries of traditional dramatic forms and used technology in interesting ways. The group also visited several historical sites such as Hampton Court Palace, Windsor Castle, Oxford and many of London’s great museums.
The Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting class of 2019 presents “Toxic” at 7 p.m. on Monday, May 6, in Glaize Studio Theatre. This event is free to attend, but please note graphic themes and language are present in this show. Five years after a student opened fire with automatic weapons at an exclusive private high school, killing several students and a beloved teacher, a group of survivors gathers for the first time, in the very classroom in which the attack reached its horrifying climax, to share the lasting scars each bears and to discuss what, if anything, can be done to curb the escalation of gun violence in America. While acknowledging the failure of civility in American political discourse, the students engage in a spirited debate that takes them from solitary anger to communal grief, and learn that true healing begins with listening – and a simple touch.
Shenandoah University is home to the nation’s top college comedy improv team. Shenandoah’s improv group, The Loaf, beat out 127 other teams to win the College Improv Tournament on Saturday, April 6, at the CSz Theater Chicago in Chicago.
The Loaf includes acting majors Marissa Chaffee ’19, Meredith McClure ’20, Emma Norville ’19, Stanley Payne ’19 and Patrick Prunty ’21, and musical theatre majors Brandon Cameron ’22, Josh Cody ’20, Brenna Conroy ’20, Erik Daughterman ’22, Dorian Davis ’20, Reilly Lincavicks ’20, Kyle Mangold ’19 and Sami Weathersby ’20.
“We’re a family, and we love and support each other,” said Norville, the troupe’s president. “When we’re improvising, we’re all on the same page in a sort of hive-mind style. We have a wide variety of talents and energies that work together to benefit the group. Each person has their own unique style and ability to add into the mix. We have so much fun together, and I think that when we have fun, the audience has fun too. We’re also an entirely self-taught team. We didn’t realize how unique that was until we got to the finals and heard the other teams talk about how they have coaches and practice eight hours a week. Our busy conservatory schedules won’t allow us to practice that much, but we’re driven by our passion and desire to be better improvisers, and we put in the work when we’re together.”
The team’s victory at a regional competition in Baltimore led to its appearance at the national tournament, which Norville and other team members said felt less like a competition and more like a celebration of improv.
“We had a solid set for our final match, and we all left the stage feeling proud of what we did,” Norville said. “We opened our set with an improvised song and then had the verses of the song inform our scenes. Throughout the scenes, we sprinkled in two more songs with guitar and piano accompaniment. We ended our set by tying all our scenes together with a final reprise of our opening song. The set was tight and cohesive and the songs were catchy and fun. When we heard our name announced as the first-place champions, we were absolutely elated and proud of what we accomplished.”
“I think I’m still in shock,” Payne said of his reaction to the victory.
“I think I pulled a muscle,” Mangold added.
“It was incredible,” Payne said.
And they did spend about an hour walking around Chicago afterward, saying to themselves, “We are the number-one college improv team in America,” Payne said.
The musical improv form used at the competition is one that The Loaf started doing about two years ago, and soon realized it had a knack for it, she said. “So when we competed this year, we made sure to play to our strengths and show off what we can do.”
While the troupe is all about presenting comedy, it’s about far more than performance for its members. Norville said that when she was in high school, she loved improv, but was too scared to perform. Instead, she managed the improv team. She decided to audition for The Loaf after a troupe member said to her at a party, “‘Hey, you’re funny. You should audition.’”
Group member Payne added that when he arrived at Shenandoah, he was a scared, timid artist. But, being part of The Loaf gave him the confidence he needed to throw himself into his art. Payne said improv has improved his ability to listen, both on stage and in his off-stage life. Such a development can be seen as a logical outgrowth of the improv process, since, as Mangold said, improv asks participants to pay attention to and react to their scene partner while having fun.
Payne, who did some improv in high school and took an improv class in his first semester at Shenandoah, first encountered The Loaf in high school when it performed during a festival he attended at Shenandoah. “It just looked like they were having so much fun,” he said.
He, like several other members of The Loaf, were fans of the improv comedy television show, “Whose Line Is It, Anyway?” growing up. That includes Cody, who saw The Loaf rehearsing and doing a “weird dance” outside during his freshman year. He said he remembers thinking, “This looks like ‘Whose Line.’” Once the troupe let him hop into the practice, he thought, “I really like this.”
Troupe members were attracted by the fun of the form, which persisted throughout their tenure. The group is a close one that shows support for its members. Sometimes, they laugh so much that they cry, Mangold said. And, Payne said whenever he’s had a terrible day, he knows he’ll smile when he goes to rehearsal.
“It’s created a lot of good memories with good friends,” Cody said.
It has also honed skills that members will carry with them into their post-graduation careers. Norville plans to move to Chicago to pursue comedy writing and performance. Mangold is moving to New York City and hopes to take classes with the famed improv group, Upright Citizens Brigade. Payne, who plays guitar as part of The Loaf’s musical improv, is moving to Nashville after graduation to pursue songwriting and acting.
In all, The Loaf has four members graduating this year who will need to be replaced this fall with new faces. The group usually includes 10 to 13 members, and when it’s at 13, the group forms a baker’s dozen.
Norville said she expects the future Loaf to “keep on learning and growing together as improvisers and continue to be solid competitors in future competitions. Outside of the competition, we put on shows about once a month, hold open rehearsals for anyone who’s interested to come play with us, and we’ve started hosting stand-up nights to provide a safe/supportive space to allow people to try out that medium of comedy. The open rehearsals and stand-up nights are things that I implemented during my presidency as part of my own personal goal to do more comedy outreach. I think that there aren’t a ton of opportunities to try out comedy at Shenandoah, and I wanted to make sure people outside of the Loaf could get the chance to learn and grow as comedians as well. It is my hope that The Loaf will continue to be the facilitators of these comedy opportunities for the Shenandoah community.”
