Student Blog: Student-Run Cabaret

Being back on campus for the last semester of my senior year is such a surreal experience that I am excited about, but also dreading. Being a student is the best job I have had so I am soaking up every moment I can until May.

In the meanwhile, I am the president of our student-run club called Cabaret. Cabaret is under the umbrella of our club called Under Siege. Under Siege and Cabaret are not only for musical theater and acting majors, but also anyone of any major.

During the first meeting of the club, we welcome new members and talk about how the club works. We also choose a theme for the show, past themes have been love, education, and rebels. The cast performs 14 musical theater numbers, including a full company number, large groups, small groups, trios, duets, and solos. We let the members suggest songs to perform in each category and the club board, the president, vice president, secretary, and PR representative, narrows down the options. We then let the members vote on which songs they want to see performed and after, we select student directors to bring these numbers to life.

We explain the audition process, which is when we have a student choreographer create a dance for everyone to learn that night and after it is run enough times, the members perform for the directors. Every member then sings a 30-second snippet of any song just in front of the directors.

When the directors have selected the members they want to be in their numbers, the selected are called back to sing the director's choice. The callbacks are the day after the auditions, so the members being called back only have a short amount of time to learn what songs they are called back for.

Once callbacks are finished, all of the directors sit in a room and select and discuss who is going to be in which numbers. Finally, the cast list is sent and then it is in the directors' hands to execute and rehearse their numbers with their cast.

This process takes place over the course of five days and it is one of the most stressful weeks of the semester, but it is so worth it when we perform the show in May and it all comes together.

I have been a part of Cabaret since the first semester of my freshman year and I have definitely enjoyed my time in this club working with other students to create great art that we are proud to put on the stage.