Columbia Musical Theatre Society

Party Worth Crashing

Rebecca Feuerstein — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 02:45:50 +0000

Party Worth Crashing

Jeremy

Alex L….

Light in the Piazza

Rebecca Feuerstein — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 02:43:05 +0000

Light in the Piazza

Urinetown is set in a distant future, when the world’s water supply has fallen dangerously low. To combat this side-effect of overpopulation, the government has teamed up with the monopolistic corporation, the Urine Good Company (or UGC), to maintain Public Amenities, the mandated alternative to the now banned private toilets. Having to pay to pee has the poor counting their pennies daily, as new UGC fee hikes threaten their livelihood. The growing tension between the corporation and the poor explodes in this musical satire, that keeps you laughing as it takes you in directions you never expected, all towards the mysterious Urinetown.

Urinetown played November 18-20, 2010 in the Lerner Hall Black Box.

Playbill

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Cast and Crew

Cast

Eleanor Bray (BC ’14) as Little Becky Two Shoes/Mrs. Millennium
Reni Calister (BC ’11) as Officer Lockstock
John Goodwin (CC ’12) as Hot Blades Harry/Mr. McQueen/Old Man Strong
Cody Haefner (CC ’12) as Robby the Stockfish/UGC Executive
Evan Johnston (CC ’12) as Officer Barrell/Dr. Billeaux
Rebekah Lowin (CC ’14) as Hope
Alexis Nedd (CC ’13) as Josephine Strong/UGC Executive
Spencer Oberman (GS ’12) as Soupy Sue/Cladwell’s Secretary
Ben Russell (CC ’13) as Cladwell
Jill Schackner (BC’ 11) as Little Sally
Ricky Schweitzer (CC ’11) as Bobby
Emily Wallen (BC ’11) as Pennywise
Andrew Wright (CC ’14) as Fipp/Tiny Tom

Creative Team

Director: Hillary Kritt (BC ’12)
Producer: Will Hughes (CC ’13)
Producer: Fiona Georgakis (CC ’13)
Musical Director: Alex Hare (CC ’13)
Choreographer: Marly Faherty (BC ’12)
Art Director: Stephen Davan (CC ’12)
Stage Manager: Jordana Moser (BC ’14)
Rehersal Pianist: Solomon Hoffman (CC ’14)
Sound Design: Michael Hsu (CC ’12)
Light Design: Justin Nardecchia (Lerner Tech)
Prop Design: Lila Neiswanger (CC ’12)
Costume Design: Rolando Rodriguez(CC ’12)

Band

Mitchell Feinberg (CC ’13) on Keyboard 1
Solomon Hoffman (CC ’14) on Reed
Shira Laucharoen (CC ’12) on Keyboard 2
Aaron Silberstein (NYU ’12) on Drums

Run Crew

Lizzy Feldman (BC ’14), Jon Hill (CC ’11) , Molli Jackson, Sara Lederman (BC ’13), Amelia Lembeck (BC ’14), Emily Nagel (CC ‘ 11), Rolando Rodriguez (CC ’12) and Remy Zaken (CC ’12)

Media

Production Photos
[[Show as slideshow]]
Photos courtesy of Wilson Ho.

Press

Bwog’s review of Urinetown can be found here.

An Afternoon of Arts

Rebecca Feuerstein — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 05:09:56 +0000

An Afternoon Of Arts:

A conversation with New York’s top theatre professionals

The Columbia University student theatre community welcomed a group of fantastic theatre professionals who have given their afternoons to speak to us about their work. The panel included:

Donna McKechnie (1976 Tony Award Best Actress in a Musical – A Chorus Line)
John Tracy Egan (Broadway’s Jekyll And Hyde and the Producers)
David Paul (Assistant Director of Broadway’s Master Class, Director of Barnard’s Eurydice)
Kait Kerrigan (Lyricist Unauthorized Biography of Samantha Brown)
Lauren Molina (Broadway’s Sweeny Todd, Rock of Ages)
Barbara Whitman (Producer of Broadway’s Red, Hamlet, Next To Normal)
Chris Minnick (Company Manager of The Williamstown Theatre Festival)
and
Nikka Graff Lanzarone (Broadway’s Women On The Verge of A Nervous Breakdown).

The event, held November 12, 2012 in the Diana Event Oval, was cosponsored by: Columbia Musical Theatre Society, Columbia University Players, and Columbia University Performing Arts League.

Program

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Rodger and Hammerstein’s Cinderella

Rebecca Feuerstein — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 04:52:49 +0000

Rodger and Hammerstein’s Cinderella

Cinderella is one of the best loved musicals the world over. It tells the timeless story of a seemingly impossible romance and reminds audiences that it is the “zanies and fools” who overstep the “sensible rules” to allow their dreams to come true.

Rodger and Hammerstein’s Cinderella plays April 25th, 2009 in Roone Arledge Auditorium in Lerner Hall.

Media

Production Photos
[[Show as slideshow]]

Unfortunately CMTS does not have any additional information regarding our 2008-2009 season’s production of Rodger and Hammerstein’s Cinderella. If you have any information, including a playbill, pictures or perspective, let us know at cmts@columbia.edu.

Little Shop of Horrors

Rebecca Feuerstein — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 04:49:47 +0000

Little Shop of Horrors

An excerpt from the Director’s Note:

It’s a tricky dilemma–how do you stage a piece of theatre that has been produced countles.§.times before? I’m not attempting to say that Little Shop of Horror~”is Shakespeare or: the Greeks, but it has been done a lot. A LOT This famWarity oft~n leads to a pressure to take the piece and rework it. Wheit I first decided to direct Little Shop (or LSOH), people kept asking me what I was going to do with it. I would say, “I’m doing LSOH” and they would repeat, “Yes, but what are you going to do with it?” Over the years, there has seemed to be an underlying competition between productions of this show· how lifelike and spectacular can the plant be? How thick and cartoonlsh can Audrey’s accent become? How much like the movie musical can this piece of theatre be? What we wanted to accomplish with this production was the exact opposite–from the start, our team has set out to return to the heart of the story. The performers have been extremely supportive of this idea and plunged into intense work with the script and score, finding the emotion of each individual moment and working to develop something at least partially “real” within an environment that seems in many ways absurd.
I have been incredibly lucky to work with both a cast and creative team in which each member is unbelievably creative, responsible, and passionate about his or her individual position. With their support, my focus has been able to rest solely on storytelling, finding the core aspects of LSOH. I truly believe that not every restaging of a theatrical work has to approach it frorn a new angle (although sometimes it does fantastically). It is the main job of any production to tell the story in the best way possible and this is what we have worked towards. Now I ask of you, the audience, the same thing that I have continually asked of the production team and cast: put aside your ideas of what this piece should be and allow yourselves simply to watch, engage, and enjoy For those of you who already know LSOH, I hope you fall in love all over again as I have. For fIrst-timers, you’re in for a treat. Thank you to everyone who has contributed to this production. It has been a oncein-a-lifetime collaboration for me and I have been affected and inspired by all of your brilliance. Enjoy the show and thank you for your support.
–Emily Kaplan

Little Shop of Horrors played in the Spring 2009 season in Lerner Black Box.

Playbill

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Cast and Crew

Cast

Sarah Dooley (BC ’11) as Audrey
Justin Grace (CC ’10) as Mr. Mushnik
Tobin Mitnick (CC ’10) as Orin Scrivello
Eva Peskin (BC ’09) as Chiffon
Sophie Ragir (BC ’11) as Ronnette
Michael Seaman (SEAS ’10) as Audrey II (Manipulation)
Austin Smith (CC ’10) as Wino #1 and Audrey II (Voice)
Connor Spahn (CC ’10) as Costumer, Mr. Bernstein, Mrs. Luce, Skip Snip and Patrick Martin
Jenny Vallancourt (BC ’11) as Crystal
Benjamin Velez (CC ’10) as Seymour Krelborn

Creative Team and Crew

Director: Emily Kaplan (BC ’11)
Assistant Director: Rebecca Victor (CC ’12)
Producer: Erin Byrne (BC ’09)f
Assistant Producer: Hillary Kritt (BC ’12)
Art Direction and Set Design: Caroline Englander (BC ’10) and Heather Englander (BC ’10)
Musical Directors: Melanie Michel (BC ’09) and Caroline Ott (BC ’09)
Choreographers: Gilli Messer (BC ’10) and Alex Shaw
Technical Director: Jimmy Fry (CC ’09)
Stage Manager: Leslie Skalak (BC ’09)
Assistant Stage Manager: Caroline Gleason (BC ’12) and Sarah Probber (BC ’12)
Light Designer: Bill Sheehan
Light Board: Edwin Mercedes
Sound Design: Joel Kennedy
Costume Design: Madeline Compagnon (CC ’10) and Ope Omojola (CC ’12)
Make-Up Design: Sydney Kump (BC ‘10)
Props Design: Emily Cheesman (BC ’10)

Band

Joseph Michael Barakat (SEAS ’12) on Guitar
Matt Star (CC ’12) on Bass

Media

Production Photos

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Press

The Spectator wrote a preview of Little Shop that can be found here.

Pippin

Rebecca Feuerstein — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 04:21:33 +0000

Pippin

An excerpt from the Director’s Note:

“Tell me one last thing,” said Harry. “1s this real? Or has this been happening inside my head?” Dumbledore beamed at him… “Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?”
–Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J.I<:. Rowling
It is truly fitting that the Harry Potter series ended the same year that I chose to direct Pippin. This July, on a balmy night at Borders, I stood 10 years after my first encounter with the Boy Who Lived and was forced to accept something seemingly simple: that I was 10 years older. Perhaps it is trite, but the end of my Hogwarts adventures plunged me into a panic like Harry and his friends, I was growing up.
After a summer haunted by this Hogwarts fueled epiphany, I found myself here, face to face with Pippin, the tale of the quintessential lost youth. Standing at the helm of 30 other searching youths, I realized just how much Pippin there is in all of us -we are all students standing here, staring at the future and thinking, “now what?”
Yet, while this view of the Pippin seemed obvious, I was faced with a new challenge: Pippin is not a perfect musical. There are plot holes and peculiar moments that necessitate a stretch of our reality-planted minds. Yet, beyond ali of the existential quandaries one can dwelI on with Pippin, there rests a story about a boy who has grown up and must figure out what’s next. We ali can relate, even if our own journey’s lack musical accompaniment and dancing Players -life’s not easy, but it can be a hell of a ride.

Pippin played during the Fall 2007 season.

Playbill

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Cast and Crew

Cast

Danaya Almenares-Mesa (CC ’10) in the Ensemble
Lauren Berger (BC ’11) as Fastrada
Yonatan Gebeyehu (CC ’11) as the Leading Player
Rae Grosz (GS ’11)as Theo
Claire Halberstadt (BC ’09) as Ensemble/Dance Captain
Michelle Hutt (CC ’09) as Leading Player
Kurt Kanazawa (CC ’11) in the Ensemble
Emily Kaplan (CC ’11) as Berthe
Gabe Miner (GS/JTS ’08) as Charlemagne
Max Pensack (CC ’11) as Lewis
Ricky Schwitzer (CC ’11) as Pippin
Olivia Whelan as (BC ’08) Catherine
Wei Alex Xin (SEAS ’08) in the Ensemble

Creative Team and Crew

Director and Set Designer: Molly Braverman (CC ’09)
Producer: Michael Leibring (CC ’09)
Producer: Kate Stahl (BC ’09)
Assistant Producer: Rachel Blatt (BC ’10)
Musical Director: Melanie Michel (BC ’09)
Cheoreographer: Bryan Hobgood (SEAS ’09)
Assistant Cheoreographer: Kayte Steffey-Bernstein (BC ’09)
Stage Manager: Darcy Zacharias (CC ’10)
Technical Director/Sound Designer: Will Schuessler (SEAS ’09)
Assistant Technical Director/ Master Carpenter: Shaina Graboyes (SEAS ’09)
Lighting Designer/Costume Designer: Quinn Whitaker (BC ’10)
Lighting Crew: Hilary Ford
Master Electrician: C. Clara Patterson
Co-Props Master: Hannah Backman (BC ’11)
Co-Props Master: Cayle R. Pietras
Props Crew: Mikhaela Mahoney
Scenic Artist: Leah Goodman
Scenic Crew: Jonathan Jager, Mary Kohlman, C. Clara Patterson and Cayle Pietras
Publicity/Program Designer: Caitlyn McGinn (BC ’11)
Photographer: Avery McCarthy
Box Office Manager: Christopher Leyton

Orchestra

David Carl on Piano #1
Diana Hsu on Guitar
Jonny Maimon on Drurns
Katherine Hicks on Piano #2
Kurt Kanazawa on Reed
Nick Cummins on Bass
Wei Alex Xin on Violin

Media

Production Photos

[[Show as slideshow]]

Love Could Drive a Person Crazy: A Musical Revue

Rebecca Feuerstein — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 03:38:02 +0000

Love Could Drive a Person Crazy: A Musical Revue

A Note from the Production Team:

It seems like every song in the world is about love in some form or another. Love can inspire us, change our lives, or, sometimes, drive us crazy. But love is never pure in form. It is always complicated by myriad other emotions: fear, regret, self-doubt, arrogance, lust, even hate. It seAppeems counterintuitive that such an intense emotion bears a striking resemblance to its opposite, yet the two can be difficult to differentiate. This show explores love and hate in all their varied forms, through different musical styles, from slow, sweeping ballads to frenetic pre-marital jitters, to powerful soulfullaments. Each song illuminates a different aspect of the intense emotions someone can feel for another person.
With this show, we wanted to create an opportunity for people who have not been able to work on a Columbia musical before. We have theatre students and engineers, Broadway veterans and performers who have never been in a musical before. All of them bring a unique perspective to their songs and characters.
We invite you to use these perspectives to make your own. 1s love the reason for living or just not worth the trouble? A necessity or an inconvenience? A cause of hope or doom? Or maybe it’s some of alI these things at once. You decide.

Love Could Drive a Person Crazy played during the Spring 2008 season.

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Playbill

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Cast and Crew

Cast

Danaya Almenares-Mesa (CC ’10)
Rick Betita (SEAS ’10)
Heather Duckworth
Yonatan Gebeyehu
Claire Halberstadt
Emily Kaplan (BC ’11)
Gabe Miner
Aaron Rotenberg (GS/JTS ’09)
Ricky Schweitzer
Sasha Thompson (CC ‘ 09)
Emily Wallen (BC ’11)
Anna Weinstein

*Appears courtesy of Actors Equity Association

Creative Team

Director: Bryan Hobgood
Director: Alessandra Hirsch (BC ’08)
Producer: Michael Leibring
Producer: Darcy Zacharias
Asst. Producer/Stage Manager: Rachel Weiss
Lighting Designer: Katherine Trendacosta
Sound Designer: Will Schuessler (SEAS ’09)

Band

Katherine Hicks on Piano
Kevin Hsieh (CC ’11) on Bass
Daniel Miranda (SEAS ’10) on Drums
Allison Oldfather (BC ’08) on Violin

Press

The Columbia Spectator wrote a preview for Love Could Drive a Person Crazy which can be found here.

A New Brain

Rebecca Feuerstein — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 03:17:35 +0000

A New Brain

The Director’s Note:

First of all. thank you for coming to the show. because if you are reading this. you are most likely sitting in the audience. unless you just picked up a program from the floor outside the theater (in which case-thanks for picking up trashl) . But seriously your support is imperative for student theatre, and this production couldn’t exist without you .
From the beginning of this process. even before our proposal packet was completed, the production team knew that this was going to be a very different experience. and that was exactly what we were hoping for We agreed that, above all. we wanted this experience to be one of growth and experimentation. both for the actors and those of us who were working behind the scenes. We wanted to work on a production that was based on positivity on the freedom to take risks. and on constant dialogue between those involved. My greatest fear was that the actors would feel uncomfortable sharing their ideas about the staging, the songs, and the show in general. Thankfully our actors were not only talented, but incredibly wise. witty and insightful, and thus a constant discourse about character and theme occurred. They are the most understanding, forgiving people I have ever met. and because of this compassion. we were all able to do the most important thing that creators of theatre can do: play. This shared enjoyment allowed us to experiment with theatrical forms that were new to many of us: a peninsular stage, movement that is not based entirely on natural interaction, but instead blocking that reflects the themes of the songs and entire show, and ambiguity in time. place, and intention. Plus, not many shows feature brain tumors or giant frogs, so that was new.
I don’t want to use this space to tell you what to take away from the show. Songs, dances, emotions all have the ability to affect people in different ways and I have no desire to take the individuality out of interpretation. Furthermore, to simply come out and say what the show “means’ would render our intentionally ambiguous production pointless. My only hope is that you each take away something. I hope that. like our production team and actors, you too will be able to put aside for one night what you previously believed to be the definition of theatre . If you can open yourself up to strange scenarios, quirky characters. and optimism. I believe you will be affected by “A New Brain” And you already paid for the ticket so, I mean, what do you have to lose?
Enjoy the show
Emily Kaplan

A New Brain played during the Spring 2008 season in the Lerner Hall Black Box.

Playbill

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Cast and Crew

Cast

Ross Ramone as Gordon Michael Schwinn
Giselle Gastell as A Homeless Lady
Danaya Almenares-Mesa as Rhoda
Lauren Schaffel as Waitress/Nancy D.
Kurt Kanazawa as Mr. Bungee
Gabe Miner as Dr. Jafar Berensteiner
Alex Harris-Hertel as The Minister
Jonathon Grant* as Roger Delli-Bovi
Olivia Whelan as Mimi Schwinn

*Appeared courtesy of Actors Equity Association.

Creative Team

Director: Emily Kaplan (BC ’11)
Musical Director: Ricky Schweitzer
Producer: Rachel Karp (CC ’10)
Producer: Rachel Blatt
Choreographer: Claire Halberstadt (BC)
Art Director: Sasha Stewart

The Production Team

Assistant Producer: Jenny Johnson
Stage Manager: Darcy Zacharias
Technical Director: Shaina Graboyes (SEAS ’09)

The Band

Ricky Schweitzer on Piano
David Carl on Keyboard
Dan Miranda on Drums

The Design Team

Set Designer: Casey Hayes
Lighting Design: Andrew Balmer (CC ’10)
Assistant Lighting Design: Olivia Tandon
Sound Design: Will Schuessler
Props Master: Cayle R. Pietras (CC ’09)
Costume Designer: Hilary Baboukis (CC ’11)
Assistant Costume Design: Naomi Schachner
Scenic Crew: C. Clara Patterson
Costume Crew: Marina Moskalenko

Press

As part of their Theaterhop series Bwog wrote a review of The New Brain. It can be found here.

Zanna Don’t!

Rebecca Feuerstein — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 02:51:35 +0000

Zanna Don’t!

Unfortunately CMTS does not have any information regarding our 2006-2007 season’s production of Zanna Don’t!. If you have any information, including a playbill, pictures or perspective, let us know at cmts@columbia.edu.

Zanna Don’t! played during CMTS’s 2006-2007 season.

Media

Production Photos
[[Show as slideshow]]

Merrily We Roll Along

Rebecca Feuerstein — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 02:20:58 +0000

Unfortunately CMTS does not have any information regarding our 2006-2007 season’s production of Merrily We Roll Along. If you have any information, including a playbill, pictures or perspective, let us know at cmts@columbia.edu.

Columbia Musical Theatre Society

Party Worth Crashing

Light in the Piazza

Light in the Piazza

Urinetown played November 18-20, 2010 in the Lerner Hall Black Box.

Playbill

Cast and Crew

Cast

Creative Team

Band

Run Crew

Media

Production Photos

Press

An Afternoon of Arts

An Afternoon Of Arts:

A conversation with New York’s top theatre professionals

Program

Rodger and Hammerstein’s Cinderella

Rodger and Hammerstein’s Cinderella

Media

Production Photos

Little Shop of Horrors

Little Shop of Horrors

An excerpt from the Director’s Note:

Little Shop of Horrors played in the Spring 2009 season in Lerner Black Box.

Playbill

Cast and Crew

Cast

Creative Team and Crew

Band

Media

Production Photos

picture-1

Press

Pippin

Pippin

An excerpt from the Director’s Note:

Pippin played during the Fall 2007 season.

Playbill

Cast and Crew

Cast

Creative Team and Crew

Orchestra

Media

Production Photos

Love Could Drive a Person Crazy: A Musical Revue

Love Could Drive a Person Crazy: A Musical Revue

A Note from the Production Team:

Love Could Drive a Person Crazy played during the Spring 2008 season.

Playbill

Cast and Crew

Cast

Creative Team

Band

Press

A New Brain

A New Brain

The Director’s Note:

A New Brain played during the Spring 2008 season in the Lerner Hall Black Box.

Playbill

Cast and Crew

Cast

Creative Team

The Production Team

The Band

The Design Team

Press

Zanna Don’t!

Zanna Don’t!

Unfortunately CMTS does not have any information regarding our 2006-2007 season’s production of Zanna Don’t!. If you have any information, including a playbill, pictures or perspective, let us know at cmts@columbia.edu.

Zanna Don’t! played during CMTS’s 2006-2007 season.

Media

Production Photos

Merrily We Roll Along