Inside Northwestern’s 2023 Freshman Musical

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HE’S A NERDY FLORIST AND A HOPELESS ROMANTIC. SHE’S STUCK IN AN UNHAPPY RELATIONSHIP WITH A MAD DENTIST. ADD IN A BLOOD-THIRSTY ALIEN PLANT. AND THAT’S THIS YEAR’S FRESHMAN MUSICAL. 

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[Phoebe Wrycha] The freshman musical is an annual production put on all by freshmen at Northwestern University. 

THAT’S PHOEBE WRYCHA, A FIRST-YEAR THEATRE MAJOR AND DIRECTOR OF THIS YEAR’S FRESHMAN MUSICAL, LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS. 

[Emerson Steady] Freshman Musical is kind of this crazy Northwestern tradition. Basically a couple of upperclassmen, like pick the producers from the first-year class to put on a full musical, and then they kind of just have to run with it. 

THAT’S EMERSON STEADY, A FIRST-YEAR THEATRE MAJOR AND MUSIC DIRECTOR. 

[PW] It’s got both theater majors RTVF majors, and voice majors. And any other kind of major, very open, very inclusive. And the purpose of this musical is really to like bond the freshman class to work with people to have a really good time. 

ALTHOUGH PHOEBE AND EMERSON ARE NO STRANGERS TO THEIR RESPECTIVE PRODUCTION ROLES, FOR MANY, FRESHMAN MUSICAL IS A CHANCE TO TRY SOMETHING NEW. 

[Ashley Qiu] The theatre community at Northwestern is really big, right? It’s like a really well-established community. And sometimes I think that can make it a little bit intimidating for freshmen who are new to the campus and who maybe want to be involved, but like don’t exactly know where to go. 

SUCH WAS THE CASE FOR FIRST-YEAR RTVF MAJOR ASHLEY QIU WHO IS CO-PRODUCING THE SHOW.

[AQ] I guess speaking from personal experience, I didn’t do any theater in high school or before, so definitely coming to Northwestern I saw that theater was a really big thing, but I didn’t really know how to get involved. Because I didn’t have any connections or like know much about like how it worked. 

AND FIRST-YEAR COMMUNICATION STUDIES MAJOR JAY JEON WHO IS THE OTHER CO-PRODUCER. 

[Jay Jeon] So when I first came to Northwestern, I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do in terms of theater, because I’ve been a theater kid from like since my high school years, but I wasn’t sure how to continue because like, I was more of the directing side but I want to do it with theater majors. So like looking into like business aspects of theater. 

[AQ] And then like when I saw that they were looking for producers for the freshman musical. I was just like, oh, that seems like really cool to just like, learn more about this thing and like kind of participate in theater in a really like beginner-friendly way. 

TAKING PART IN FRESHMAN MUSICAL CAN ALSO BE A STEPPING STONE FOR MANY STUDENTS HOPING TO PURSUE MORE THEATRE OPPORTUNITIES AT NORTHWESTERN. 

[ES] The Northwestern theater ecosystem is oftentimes just built around you having experience like there’s a lot of opportunities out there but they just require experience. And freshman musical is the perfect place for people to like, break in to having that experience, especially for like directing and music directing. Often those are sophomores often those are just like seniors. 

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THE PROCESS OF PUTTING ON A LARGE SHOW LIKE FRESHMAN MUSICAL ALSO PRESENTS A SET OF UNIQUE AND PERSONAL CHALLENGES IN TERMS OF TIMELINE AND VENUE. 

[ES] I think I mean, this is always going to be a thing with Freshman Musical but the turnaround is just so much faster than any other show because we don’t pick the show until like the start of winter quarter 

EMERSON SAYS THAT MOST OTHER SHOWS GENERALLY PICK THEIR PRODUCTIONS IN THE SPRING QUARTER OF THE PREVIOUS YEAR AND HAVE ALL SUMMER TO PLAN. 

[PW] Harris Hall being Harris Hall.

PHOEBE ALSO REFERS TO THE DIFFICULTIES OF PUTTING ON A SHOW IN A LECTURE SPACE. 

[PW] The stage is very wide. But extremely shallow. So it’s really hard to fit everybody on stage, especially because the freshman musical is supposed to have a large ensemble to include as many people as possible. And the stage just like doesn’t allow for that. And there’s like the podium that has to stay on the stage, which is a big pain in the ass. And we can’t have any professional lights which is really difficult. So it’s definitely been a challenge, trying to work around that and seeing how we can you know, make things have the set come across, have the location come across, have the time of day come across in the most minimal way possible. 

ASHLEY AND JAY ALSO SPEAK TO THE CHALLENGES THAT BEING NEW TO PRODUCING PRESENTED. 

[JJ] I think the biggest challenge that I faced during producing was that I wasn’t even sure what producing entails. So it was more trial and error. And learn as I do things. So it was really confusing at first but I really had a good mentor Rachel and Steven who are producers of last year and I also have Ashley my co-producer. 

[AQ] I think a lot of the challenges just came with, like, learning what goes into the process of creating a show from the ground up, because, in a way like Jay and I kind of had to start the whole process from, you know, finding director finding a music director, and then helping them as they chose the show and then, you know, getting rights for the show. 

SO FAR, TWO WEEKS OUT FROM SHOW DAY, REHEARSALS SEEM TO BE SAILING SMOOTHLY. 

[PW] There’s been so much fantastic collaboration. Everybody involved in this process is so creative and so they really take initiative. Everybody is just so talented like everybody’s at different skill levels, but every single actor shows up to rehearsal ready to work ready to be creative. And put themselves out there. And it’s so fantastic because they make so many amazing choices and I just get to watch and then like throw my thoughts here and there. It’s really, it’s like the vibes are so good. It’s going so well. 

[ES] I mean, it’s actually like, really surprising, honestly, how, how quickly everyone figures everything out, I think. I mean, the common thread is just that everyone involved is like, really, really excited about theater, which includes a lot

of non-theater majors. But everyone is just really excited about theater and especially about the show. 

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THIS YEAR, THE FRESHMAN MUSICAL IS BRINGING THE 1982 HOWARD ASHMAN PRODUCTION LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS TO NORTHWESTERN. 

[PW] I love Little Shop of Horrors. It is in my top five favorite musicals. 

[ES] It’s this like really eclectic mix of music written by Alan Menken, who like later went on to write all of these like Disney films that I think for a lot of us were our childhood. This was before he was writing this crazy horror musical. And it’s got like, a ton of like, 60s music in it. It’s got a lot of like doo-wop just like rock and roll like r&b. All of these styles of music are like worked into it in a way that it a lot of musicals nowadays. 

[AQ] We also thought the vibes of the show were like very freshman musical in a way because it’s pretty silly. It’s kind of like a dark comedy. in a way like there are elements of comedy, but it’s also a little like horror. So it’s like not like a very serious show. But it’s really fun. 

[JJ] Little Shop is so campy and funny 

YET DESPITE ALL THE ELEMENTS OF CAMP THAT MAKE THIS SHOW SO GREAT, LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS IS ALSO GROUNDED IN ITS COMPELLING CHARACTERS. 

[ES] The freshman musical historically has always been like, tried to do like a camp show. It’s a fun one because there are like going to be so many months of camp. But we also like have really been working on finding the light heart of the main characters Audry and Seymour, because they often are played very cartoonish and both like in the acting and in the music, we want to make sure that like they are able to shine through the camera sort of to just brighten it a little bit and like really drive home this message. 

A MESSAGE THAT PHOEBE SAYS MIGHT RESONATE WITH MANY NORTHWESTERN STUDENTS. 

[PW] A lot of the show revolves around greed and getting what you deserve. And you know, as people positioned to have, like fantastic careers have immense success. You know, what are the consequences of success? What is it that you’re entitled to? How far are you willing to go to get what you believe you deserve?

And I think that’s a question that we as freshmen and as students at Northwestern need to ask ourselves. 

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FROM THE PASSIONATE AND CREATIVE FIRST-YEARS BEHIND THIS GOOFY, HEARTFELT PRODUCTION, FRESHMAN MUSICAL EXTENDS A WARM INVITATION TO YOU: 

[PW] Freshman musical. May 12 and 13th. Friday’s show is at 10 pm and Saturday’s shows are at 2 pm and 10 pm 

[ES] 10 o’clocks are going to be crazy. We’ve got two for you. So bring your friends. 

[JJ] Tickets will open Monday of that week, which I think is May 7. Just follow our Freshman Musical Instagram account and you’ll see fun content and like tickets information. 

FOR WNUR NEWS, I’M JESSIE CHEN.