One of my favorite classes I’ve been taking this semester is a Broadway class, which offers a perspective on history through plays and musicals.  Our teacher selected productions that are on stage in Raleigh this year, so we’ve been able to see so much live theater–which has been a great addition to the shows I’ve seen at DPAC as a Showstopper.

I’d never heard of reader’s theatre before this class, but I love it. We’re assigned roles to read aloud and the result is always very entertaining. We read aloud the first act of the particularly line-heavy shows before we see them, and it’s one of my favorite parts of class. I love getting to read with my friends, and acting with only my voice instead of using blocking. 

Earlier this semester, one of our writing assignments was to enter our own one-act plays for a local competition. For my play, I decided to retell the myth of Pallas Athena, and how she earned that epithet. My play didn’t win, but I’m much more comfortable with writing dialogue, and I can definitely appreciate even more the work that goes into writing a play. 

In the past month or so, we’ve seen community theatre productions of My Fair Lady, 1776, The Importance of Being Ernest, and The Prom for our class, and by far my favorite was My Fair Lady. 

As much as I love The Importance of Being Earnest, this specific production was not my favorite… perhaps because they chose to set the show in the early 2000s, instead of 1895, when it was originally written and performed.

1776 was by far the worst show I’ve ever seen, through no fault of the director. In my humble opinion, the writing for the show was atrocious, and the songs made absolutely no sense. There was hardly any continuity in the whole show, and it was genuinely difficult to watch. However, My Fair Lady was excellent. The cast was small but they all did a great job–even my dad, who isn’t a big fan of musical theatre, really enjoyed the show!

In our final month of the class, we have two shows left: The Great Gatsby and Hamilton. I’m so excited to have the opportunity to study these shows–and I’m especially looking forward to the Roaring 20’s told through the lens of The Great Gatsby.