Trip the Light Fantastic

Melissa King’s introduction to college theater came in the form of signs, posted around campus, advertising auditions. “I never did theater in high school,” the senior recalls. But the signs caught her eye, and a mere week into her Rice career, she landed the role of Eliza Doolittle, the cockney lead in Hanszen College’s fall 2002 production of My Fair Lady.

My Fair Lady was far from the only college show getting off the ground that August, and King was far from the only one trying out. Almost every residential college puts on one show each year, sometimes more, and behind these productions lie stories that are unscripted and improvised. From securing the rights to the script to building the set, every aspect of a production is attacked in less than eight weeks by students who already are busy simply being students. These productions are put on with small budgets and performed in converted college commons to an audience of friends seen daily and people never met.

WSome colleges produce musicals, others plays. Some of the scripts are student written, others are famous. Students at Baker College have pulled together a Shakespeare work every spring—with one exception—since 1970. BakerShake, as it is known, has become one of Baker’s proudest traditions, permeating its culture to such an extent that the Bard’s portrait now stands permanent watch over the college commons.

No matter how big or small a show is, making it a reality is an incredibly intense experience, and the first time around, no one really knows what kind of commitment—in both time and emotion—they are making. There are rehearsals almost every weeknight for half a semester, and for many people, scratching out enough time between class, study, and sleep can sometimes become the most challenging part of a production.

By the end, no matter how they got involved or what they were expecting, everyone is doing more than they bargained for.

—By James Sulak

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