Student Blogger: Emily Brooks

Four years ago, I was belting Jerry Herman’s “Look What Happened to Mabel” in college auditions. This week, I kicked off my senior year in Northwestern University’s musical theatre program. Unsurprisingly, it was a week full of reflections on change, and that song is feeling perhaps more applicable today than it was the last time I sang it.

As I watched the townspeople of Cinderella sing Queen’s “Somebody to Love” to celebrate the changing of the guard, I was forced me to think about what it is that makes some jukebox musicals work, while others (like, perhaps, Cinderella), perhaps…don’t quite.

Looking back four years later, I can say with confidence that the application/audition process for college theatre programs is probably the most difficult thing I have ever done. As I embark on my senior year in Northwestern University’s musical theatre program, I’m reflecting on what I wish I knew four years ago.

Several years ago, Dance Lab New York pioneered its Broadway Choreography Intensive – a unique intensive for early-career choreographers to train specifically in theatrical choreography. As longtime fan of DLNY, I was thrilled to be accepted into the intensive myself, and I’m excited to take you into the studio with me.

Alongside all the other strange experiences of the last year and a half, repeatedly coming home to a Seattle without live theatre was one of the strangest. But as we see a light at the end of the pandemic tunnel, especially in the heavily vaccinated Seattle community, in-person theatre has slowly begun to make its return, and experiencing it in a variety of capacities has been a highlight of my visit home.

Recognizing the massive crossover, overlap, and connections between the dance and theatre worlds, I’m reflecting on the way the emotional demands of ballet have shaped my own journey, the way those demands can manifest in a theatre setting, and the work we can do to prioritize healthier theatrical experiences as live theatre returns.

The Waa-Mu Show has been called 'the greatest college show in America' by the Associated Press. It's one of the largest Northwestern Theatre projects of the year, during which over a hundred students work to create and produce a brand new musical from the ground up under the mentorship of professionals.

'Devised theatre” and “devising” long felt like buzzwords for something that seemed fun and exciting but that I didn’t quite understand. But when cast in a long-form devised process myself, I’d fall deeply in love with the practice, and which would come to inform my process on a variety of other projects.

When we think of choreography for the theatre, we imagine big dance breaks in classic musicals –and yet one of my first major choreographic opportunities was an expressionist, non-musical play. The process would introduce me to the variety of ways movement can show up in theatre (and film) beyond my narrow preconception of theatre choreography.

Soon after planning for this year’s Dolphin Show began in late winter 2020, the team faced a question: how on earth were they to produce a show that holds the record for being “the biggest student-produced musical in the country” in the midst of a global pandemic?

When I moved to Seattle in middle school, I never would have guessed that one of the city’s leading professional theatres would become an artistic home. In today’s blog post, I’ll be highlighting The 5th Avenue Theatre, a regional theatre that not only produces inspiring productions but has shaped the artistic journeys of myself and many other young people.

Whether choosing material for the next season of Next on Stage, an audition, or performance, finding the right song can feel as difficult as mastering the song itself. But choosing the right song – finding one that you really love to sing and can personally connect with – can make all the difference.

None of Sondheim's innovative works is just like another – so which one in particular you gravitate towards can say a lot. So in good, lighthearted fun, in celebration of a genius’s birthday, I bring you a very unscientific analysis of what your favorite Sondheim musical says about you!

I’m lucky enough to be studying theatre in a program that, even in normal times, is wonderfully unique. And while a global pandemic has of course brought its challenges, it’s made for an experience that is all the more innovative, varied, and surprising. To give you a glimpse, I’ll be taking you through my day as a Junior at Northwestern University, where I’m pursuing a B.A. in Theatre, along with a Music Theatre Certificate, and a World Literature minor.

I’ve loved theatre since I was very young. And I’ve loved literature for even longer. For a long time, I thought of these as two fairly unrelated important facts about me. But I’ve recently come more and more to the realization that at the core of these is the same passion: a deep love for stories and storytelling. 

It was recently announced that Come From Away would be filmed live this spring, for release in September. The show, which tells the story of the transformative welcome the tiny town of Gander, Newfoundland offered the passengers of the thirty-eight airplanes grounded there on 9/11, is one of my absolute favorites

This Covid winter quarter at Northwestern, I’m lucky enough to be engaging with theatre in a variety of ways. Beyond my continued largely-virtual study of musical theatre, I’m choreographing a play with music, performing in a play, and recently performed in a musical theatre cabaret.

It was 2020 -- the year of zoom teaching – that showed me that such work would be a part of my career not just to make ends meet, but to fulfill a deep love for the practice of theatre teaching itself. 

Last summer, a group of college-age theatre students decided to start an online theatre education company from the ground up. Since then, we’ve connected with aspiring and professional theatremakers around the world. I catch up with our founder Alyssa Jiwani to reflect on TVTC’s incredible journey.

I was recently reminded that this time eight years ago I was opening one of my favorite holiday experiences: Elf: The Musical at The 5th Avenue Theatre.