MURFREESBORO — Shakespeare
first cut them out in little stars, and a quartet of American theater
geniuses modernized the young lovers' story into a musical that lit up Broadway
nearly four centuries later.
Now MTSU Theatre students want audiences to feel the hope and heartache
of Maria, Tony and their friends in a full-scale MTSU Arts production of the
Broadway classic "West Side Story" that runs April 20-24 in Tucker
Theatre.
"This show is special for us because of where America is right now,"
says senior Sadie Katie Hampton, a Knoxville, Tennessee, resident and stage
manager for the musical. "We’re doing our best, with all of the
craziness going on in the world today, to show a story.
“We’ve done big shows here, but this is grand and it’s very serious and
real and relevant. Every rehearsal I walk into, I’m immersed in this new world.”
Performances are set
Wednesday-Saturday, April 20-23, at 7:30 each evening, and one matinee is
planned at 2 p.m. Sunday, April 24.
Tickets are
available at http://www.showclix.com/events/18277.
General admission tickets are $15 each and $10 for K-12 students, and MTSU
students, faculty and staff with valid IDs will be admitted free.
The 1957 musical updated "Romeo and Juliet," won two Tony
Awards and a Grammy and is regularly revived on Broadway. The 1961 film version
of “West Side Story” won 10 Academy Awards. Its songs by Leonard Bernstein and
Stephen Sondheim — “Somewhere,” “America,” “Tonight,” “I Feel Pretty” —
are classics, as is its iconic Jerome Robbins choreography of the battling,
finger-snapping Jets and Sharks.
But with film-version lyrics like "Life is all right in America/If
you're all white in America" and blunt depictions of racism, immigration,
gang violence, futile deaths and authority figures passing the buck in both the
stage and film musicals, the MTSU cast agrees that "West Side Story"
is, unfortunately, just as timely almost 60 years later.
“While this show has a lot of spectacle to it, a lot of fun numbers, a
lot of interesting and amazing things to see, I hope people will walk away from
it and realize that there is a lot of hurt and pain in this world,” explains
Knoxville freshman theatre major Brianna Smart, the show’s bright-eyed female
lead, Maria. “We as human beings cause it to each other for the most ridiculous
reasons.
“If we can have 10 people walk away each night thinking, ‘Hey, this story
had a message,’ then I think we’ve done a good job. … We as a cast are
particularly focusing on the story and the importance of understanding where
everyone has come from, and the battles they’ve faced, and not facing one
another with prejudice but with love and respect.”
The MTSU production features a full orchestra and 38-member cast plus a
crew that brings the total involved to nearly 80 people.
It’s the Department of Theatre and Dance’s largest musical production
since the record-setting four-night run of "Les Misérables" in fall 2013 and is being led
by the same pair: director Kristi Shamburger, a theatre professor, and musical director
Raphael Bundage, a professor of vocal performance in MTSU's School of Music.
The department’s
dance program is playing a role in “West Side Story,” too, with choreography
help from assistant professor Marsha Barsky. A complete cast list is available
at http://ow.ly/10pO3e.
“We've not really run into any unexpected challenges as there are always
elements to overcome in every production,” Shamburger said, “but we are learning to navigate
our set; the show is quite physical with a considerable amount of stage combat,
dance and climbing!
“We have a fantastic cast that has been such a joy to work with too.
They are always ready to ‘rev us off,’ as the script says. I hope
audiences will join us on this worthwhile journey, because it’s full
of excitement, fun and emotion.”
Murfreesboro junior Collin Peterson, a vocal performance and music
education major who’s already sung and acted on local stages as well as at
Hinton Hall and Tucker Theatre, says he soon realized, in rehearsing as Tony,
something key about the show.
“There’s a big message toward the end [where] I’m speaking to ‘Doc,’ and
I say, ‘Even if it only lasts from one night to the next, it’s worth the
world.’
“That’s the love that Tony and Maria get to
share for that small amount of time,” he explains, “and I think that’s
important to remember, for all of us.”
For more information
about the show, visit http://www.mtsuarts.com
or call 615-494-8810.
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