The holiday season has arrived, and University Theater has put together a beautiful display of love for the holidays with the first Holiday Cabaret.
The evening will be a showcase of all of the hard work, skill and creativity the students of the YSU Theater Department — as the sole creators of the show — have.
Michele Lepore-Hagan, director of performing arts, has been helping the students put the show together and said she is excited to see the turnout from the community this weekend.
“This is an unusual event that we are doing. We have never done a show like this before,” Lepore-Hagan said.
Kelly Sullivan, the president of Alpha Psi Omega, is responsible for putting the show together and overseeing the students’ selected performances.
Sullivan said she wanted this show to have families leaving the theater with a warm and fuzzy feeling, much like the feelings she experiences around her family during the holiday season. She also wanted to make sure that students were completely involved with the creation of the show.
“One of the main things we were looking forward to is that we let students sign up for the pieces they wanted to do, and then we did a process of elimination from there,” Sullivan said.
The show is not geared toward a certain religion or holiday, and will not be geared toward a certain audience; it was made for all age groups and cultures to enjoy.
“Most of the pieces are all holiday themed. We have some classics like ‘White Christmas’ and ‘Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep,’” Sullivan said.
The interesting part about this show is that it does not only involve singing and dancing, but students also act out skits and other types of performances.
“We have a reading of ‘Twas the Night before Christmas,’ and two short 15-minute plays. One is called ‘The Elf Rebellion,’ which is a cute little show about Santa’s elves going on strike,” Sullivan said.
Professors Nancy Andersen Wolfgang and Matthew Mazuroski are overseeing the show. Wolfgang has helped students in the musical aspect of the show, while Mazuroski has helped with the scenes.
“There was some minor tweaking, but the students prepared everything for themselves,” Sullivan said.
The Holiday Cabaret will be performed at 5:30 pm and again at 7:30 pm in the Spotlight Theater in Bliss Hall on Friday. Tickets for the general public will be $8 and $5 for children, students and senior citizens.
“Our main goal of the show is to have some quality, holiday family fun, and my hope is that everyone walks away with the experience ready for Christmas, warm with holiday spirit. That’s all I want,” Sullivan said.
