Photo Courtesy of Mickey Benway
Make sure to come support the performers in their upcoming theatre performances!
On Nov. 2, at 7 p.m., the Musical Theatre Senior Showcase was held in the Doty Recital Hall with open entry for anyone who wished to attend. The showcase was simply—as put by director, music director, and pianist Don Kot—“when the seniors do their showcase” after a semester of practicing and years of mastering their skills in theatre. The six performers—Angie Nelson, Jonathan Swannie, Sophie Vanstron, Sean Kuder, Jacquelyn Conlon, and Sara Singer—gave fantastic performances and displayed their dedication and talent amazingly. Their performances will be brought to New York City to be seen in front of Broadway and history professionals in the spring.
Don Kot is a lecturer within the Department for the Performing Arts here at SUNY Geneseo, and with his experience as a professional music director he ensures that the seniors in the Musical Theatre program live up to their fullest potential. Kot also played the role of pianist throughout the performances, providing the accompanying music. Katie Lesuer acted as the choreographer for the performances, working with Kot and the students to ensure the success of the performances.
All six seniors performed together in the first performance of the song “Someday” from The Wedding Singer (2006). The varying vocal ranges of the six were able to bounce off of each other fantastically throughout the song, and they displayed the mixture of hopeful and bittersweet tones from the original song masterfully.
Following the group performance, each of the six seniors displayed their skills on the stage in solo performances. The first student was Angie Nelson, who performed “I’m Not Afraid of Anything” from the 1995 musical Songs for a New World. She performed the song with an air of confidence which easily transferred to those viewing the performance; combined with their extremely smooth voice, the performance displayed their capabilities extremely well.
Jonathan Swannie’s solo performance was next, performing “If She Were Coming Home” from Next Thing You Know (2011). The performance was deeply emotional, and his ability to sing with a breaking voice as if crying relayed the inner conflict of the character from the musical extremely well. This was combined with Swannie’s deeply emotional representation of the character through his body language and facial expressions throughout the performance.
“Nothing Short of Wonderful” from Dogfight (2012) was performed by Sophie Vanstrom next. The performance allowed Vanstrom to display her ability to progress through different tones within a single performance; the song steadily moves from a more relaxed tone to a much more anxious and stressed one as the performance continues. She displayed the change expertfully through the intensity of her voice and her body language as she grew increasingly more intense in her singing throughout the performance.
The next performance was by Sean Kuder as he performed “Along the Way” from Edges (2005). The performance goes from an extremely lighthearted and humorous one to an emotionally provoking depiction of self-doubt when faced with large life changes. They displayed both emotions extremely well, with the audience laughing at the start of the performance and undoubtedly feeling the deep emotions depicted towards the end. He was also extremely good at depicting what it looks like when someone is smiling through pain through his accurate facial expressions and vocal inflections.
Jacquelyn Conlon then performed “Sunday in the Park with George” from Sunday in the Park with George (1983). She performed with an extremely smooth voice despite some of the erratic movements in the song’s choreography. She also sang through a long, extremely fast segment of the song while keeping her voice remarkably stable and not displaying any struggle, showing her preparedness and skill in breath control throughout her performance.
The final solo performance was of “My Heart Was Set on You” composed by Jeff Blumenkrantz and performed by Sara Singer. Throughout the song, Singer periodically mimics the voices of other people, which she is able to do without breaking the flow of the song at all despite the drastic differences in singing voice when compared to that of her own voice. She does an extremely fantastic job of emulating the emotional turmoil of the song, going from a clear tone of hopefulness into one of regret and sorrow, which was very easily felt by those watching.
For the last performance of the showcase, all six performers sang “Pure Imagination/Journey to the Past” from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2013) and Anastasia (2016). The six seniors all got back up onto stage to form a gorgeous harmony as their voices combined perfectly; when combined with their fantastically synced choreography, the performance was absolutely amazing and was met with a standing ovation from the crowd.
If you could not make it to the showcase, but want to watch it, the entire performance is available on the Instagram account for SUNY Geneseo’s Musical Theatre program.
All six performers will be in SUNY Geneseo’s Department of Performing Arts’ rendition of Little Women (2005) next year, from Feb. 3 to 7, and most will be in the performance of Once Upon a Mattress (1959) which is also next year, from Apr. 14 to 18. Make sure to go see the performances if you have the time next semester!