In years past, World Theater Day has come and gone with no fanfare from the Tufts campus. This year, random acts of theater including, but not limited to, the literal fanfare provided by two trumpeters in Dewick announcing the mid-lunch musical serenade by Torn Ticket II singers effectively ended this non-celebratory trend.
Perhaps it was this suspiciously "spontaneous" five-minute choreographed musical number in the dining hall that tipped you off. Maybe it was the "Romeo and Juliet" balcony scene, supplanted to Dewick's dual-level interior that made you wonder whether this was more than just a severe case of spring fever. Surely, amidst the sudden and spectacular rendition of the title track of the musical "Hair," performed with curiously strong harmonization for an unsuspecting audience of pre-frosh and parents, you were able to reason that Jumbos weren't this improvisationally coordinated.
For those who were on campus yesterday (albeit in the right place at the right time), Theater Blitz '06 provided a startling midweek thespian experience. The event, put on by members and leaders of Pen, Paint, and Pretzels (3Ps), Bare Bodkin, and Torn Ticket II, celebrated the 45th incarnation of World Theater Day (which fell this year on March 27th) with guerilla theater occurrences around the Tufts campus.
The events elicited a wide range of emotions from their audiences.
"It was really fun to see the looks on people's faces," said senior Greg Fujita, who had, for his part of the blitz, confidently leapt in front of a large crowd of tour-goers on the Bendetson patio to sing the opening lines of "Hair." The crowd's reactions ranged from "sheer terror to lots of excitement," said Fujita.
"I thought it was done well. It was definitely a surprise," said prospective student Sara Rouse. "It was a good opening for the tour."
Indeed, the bemused and confused tour guides launched right into their welcome following the singing.
Senior tour guide Courtney Skay, who was put in the unexpected position of welcoming visitors immediately
following the surprise serenade of singing, tambourine-shaking and hand-clapping, handled the guerilla theater incident smoothly.
"Welcome to Tufts - we switch up the musicals," she said as she greeted her 11:45 tour, which instead embarked at 11:50 due to the unforeseen blitz incident.
"I loved it," said senior Jess Fisch, director of the upcoming full-length (non-guerilla) production of "Hair." "It gives people a great impression of Tufts, and that was the largest group of people I've ever seen on the Quad.
The crowds got even larger as Theater Blitz's events went on. Dewick's lunch crowd became unknowing audience members as about twenty Torn Ticket members popped up from their tables to launch into a student-written parody of Les Mis?©rables' "One Day More," entitled "One Tray More."
The song, which commented on such universally experienced Dewick phenomena as the dearth of knives and upperclassman's proclivity for bumming meals off younger students, captured diners' attention as they looked on with confusion and amusement.
Senior Jackie Haker, whose lunch table was used as a stepping stone when Romeo (junior David Jenkins), eager to see what light through yonder window broke, climbed towards his waiting Juliet (freshman Shiri Raphaely), found the affair to be "really amusing." Indeed, upon the completion of the scene, the large crowd that had gathered on both levels of the dining hall cheered and applauded for the episode of Shakespearian prose.
Senior Maureen Donohue, the president of 3Ps, sees the groups' celebration of World Theater Day to be an opportunity to "do theater in places other than the Arena [Balch Arena Theater]" and as a "way to create awareness about theater in general."
Senior Ashley Berman, the executive director of Bare Bodkin, echoed that sentiment. Said Berman, "It's a great way to get everybody involved and make everybody aware."
The Dewick musical might have felt vaguely familiar for those acquainted with the works of Columbia University's Prangstgr??p, a guerilla theater group that videotapes their pranks and posts them on their website. Donohue and Torn Ticket president Julia Arazi agreed that the group, whose site famously features clips of its members earnestly and faux-spontaneously singing musical numbers including the library-inspired tune "Reading on a Dream," served as the inspiration for Torn Ticket's Dewick interlude.
For those who missed yesterday's antics, the pieces performed during Theater Blitz '06, as well as additional scenes from recent Tufts productions, will be on view in a Bare Bodkin-sponsored Hotung showcase tomorrow evening. "We're excited for people to perform these scenes again in case everyone didn't get to see them," said Donohue.
Despite the undeniable allure of Theater Blitz '06's slant-rhymed name, Donohue hopes the event will continue. "Ideally I would like to see it still going on in 10 years," she said.
