First-Years to Produce Musical

Nearly 60 first-year students have begun planning a class musical, led by four students who met in the First-Year Arts Program during orientation week.

The musical will be written, produced and directed by first-year students. The group, advised by Alan P. Symonds '69, technical director for college theater programming, has received the support of the Freshman Dean's Office and has held two organizational meetings.

The student coordinators, Peter G. Chan, Michelle Chen, Jessica Hammer and Dara Horn, conceived the project during the First-Year Arts Program (FAP), Horn said. FAP, directed by Symonds, began this year.

"One of the things we learned in FAP is that we are our own best resource," Horn said. "Even though there are a million student groups here, things were much more competitive and things that were creative were on an individual basis. We missed the cooperative part of it."

After consulting with Symonds and Associate Dean of Freshmen W.C. Burriss Young '55, the students organized an initial meeting which drew over 60 first-years to the Canaday common room, Horn said. "We were worried no one would show up," Horn recalled.

At a second meeting last Thursday, students broke into groups to begin writing scenes of the musical. The show is premised on setting the location of Shakespeare's plays Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet and Julius Coesar at Harvard.

"The characters meet each other and a variety of ridiculous things happen," she said, adding that the plot involves an ambitious pre-med student and a conspiracy to over-throw President Neil L. Rudenstine.

Dan J. Benjamin '99, who will be writing scenes of the script with a small group of first-years, said he thinks the idea is fantastic. "Shakespeare is something a lot of Harvard students can relate to and have had exposure to, so literary allusions will be familiar to most of the audience," he said.

"The plays that were chosen pose a great opportunity to poke fun at Harvard life," Benjamin added. "It's a really great idea, and it could be a big success.

Symonds, who advises many theater groups on campus, said that he hopes the first-years get to "do what they want to do."

"It's the kind of group I would really like to nurture and help," he said. "I'll throw in an artistic opinion if asked, but they have so many ideas that they won't have a need for new ideas from me."

Symonds said that last year a group of first-years calling themselves "The Observatory" produced a play in a room at the Union, but that the group was smaller and not musically-oriented.

"This is certainly the most organized and directed thing I've seen and that I remember," he said. "There's a lot of energy running around in the freshman class."

Horn said the group is currently applying for performance spaces and hopes the musical will be performed during ArtsFirst week in April.

The students plan to apply to the Undergraduate Council for a grant in the spring

Symonds said that last year a group of first-years calling themselves "The Observatory" produced a play in a room at the Union, but that the group was smaller and not musically-oriented.

"This is certainly the most organized and directed thing I've seen and that I remember," he said. "There's a lot of energy running around in the freshman class."

Horn said the group is currently applying for performance spaces and hopes the musical will be performed during ArtsFirst week in April.

The students plan to apply to the Undergraduate Council for a grant in the spring