The Prom has arrived at Northwestern University, and everyone’s invited.
[Background music from “You Happened” from The Prom begins]
A lively musical, The Prom follows the story of four down-and-out Broadway actors who venture to a small conservative town in Indiana to support Emma Nolan, a high school girl banned from attending prom with her girlfriend. Expecting to boost their own careers, the actors find themselves transformed by the experience as they confront issues of acceptance, love, and self-discovery.
The Prom opened at the Virginia Wadsworth Wirtz Center for the Performing Arts on Friday, November 10th to rave reviews from The Daily and The Evanston Roundtable. There’s no doubt that the show is good. But who are the students that make the show as good as the reviews make it out to be?
YUMI TALLUD: My name is Yumi Tallud and I play Emma Nolan.
Communications Sophomore Yumi Tallud plays a starring role in the show and shared that The Prom was her first time heading a show.
YT: I was never really a theater kid in high school, so sort of navigating the whole, like, theater world and the culture that is like, so ingrained in it is really, like, I don’t know, it just something I’ve been working on.
Communications Freshman and Music Assistant for The Prom Jordan Klein shared that she’s learned a lot from working with the Wirtz team for her first show at Northwestern, and found it extremely different from shows she worked on in high school.
JORDAN KLEIN: Just the idea of having a music team is so different for me. Like when you’re in high school, you have your music director and maybe you have someone else who does something. That was always the way it was for me. And then if you’re doing community theater, again, it’s like the music director and his pit or her pit. And so to come to a place, it’s like, yeah, we have a music team, we have an MD, we have an associate MD, we have three music assistants that it’s foreign to me, but it’s amazing because the product is so much better. There’s so much time and care that’s put into it and therefore it’s going to be better.
The same time and care went into the marketing of the show as well, with Yumi Tallud and Communications senior Piper Jean Bailey as Angie Schworer going onto WGN News to perform the song “Zazz” from the show, a Bob Fosse-esqué number about finding confidence. Jordan Klein played piano for the two as they performed.
JK: So, we did a little press moment on WGN and it lined up that I was the person who was available. So yeah, we went on to the news. It was really amazing. Like my hands were shaking. It was but a great experience. And I don’t know how to describe it. It was just a good time.
[soundbite from ZAZZ on the news, probably some of the piano intro in the beginning]
What sets apart Wirtzs shows from other Northwestern productions like the student coalition – STUCO – is the collaboration between undergraduate students, MFA students, and Wirtz staff members. Cast member and Assistant Choreographer of The Prom Ashley Valent discussed the struggle of finding the balance between being on the creative side of the show as well as being in the cast.
ASHLEY VALENT: Going into this process, I didn’t really know how that was gonna be because I’ve only ever been on one or the other for one show. As a creative member, you know things about the team. You know things about like the vision of the director, and like their opinions of things a lot more closely than you do as a cast member.
But then it’s also this weird balance of like, oh you don’t want to know some of those things because you’re then in the cast and you have to like, be seen… you want to be a part of that camaraderie that the cast has. So it’s like balancing like how do you fit the dynamic of both when you know so much information.
Yumi Tallud emphasized the importance of having student stage manager Morgan Frost in the room of a generally non-student production team, highlighting the distinct role a stage manager plays in Wirtz and STUCO processes.
YT: Morgan Frost was The Prom stage manager. She’s like the best. But I think she, the stage manager in general like has more power in the room because in a Wirtz show t hey also sort of act as the student advocate for the director who’s external. Whereas like in the STUCO process, there’s no external director. They get the whole student life and like stuff like that.
Theater and Classics Sophomore and Ensemble member Sophie Pong also shouted out Morgan Frost.
SOPHIE PONG: Our stage manager, Morgan, is like MVP like she’s like the most organized person ever which is so helpful for us like to have someone who knows like exactly where we’re supposed to be at what time and like what is happening this day It’s just been like very organized in that aspect.
Another difference between Wirtz and STUCO is the length of the show’s runs. Typically, an STUCO show will run for two days before closing. A Wirtz show, however, can run up to two weekends. This means that the cast has to stay on top of the material during the break between weekends. Sophie Pong shared that they have a four-hour brush-up rehearsal on Wednesday before they jump back into five more shows this weekend. Despite the rigorous schedule, Sophie says she’s enjoyed the rehearsal process.
SOPHIE PONG: I’m having honestly like a great time. There are a lot of people in the cast who are just, like, amazingly wonderful and just very nice. We have a lot of fun backstage and d uring the rehearsal process just like hanging out and getting to know each other better. Yeah, it’s really great environment.
[Background music from “You Happened” from The Prom as outro]
“The Prom” will continue its run at the Wirtz Center Thursday, Nov. 16, through Sunday, Nov. 19.
I’m Ella Barnes, reporting for WNUR News.
