Gillian Mccomeskey
gimccomeskey@ursinus.edu
This past weekend, Ursinus College Theater presented “9 to 5: The Musical” in the Kaleidoscope Performing Arts Center.
The musical is an adaptation from the book written by Patricia Resnick. It’s set in 1979, and follows employees Violet, played by senior Claire Hughes, Doralee, played by first-year Zara Tabackin, and Judy, played by junior Julia Herrero, who’ve had enough of sexist behavior from their boss. It celebrates female stories in workplace equality.
The musical was directed by Assistant Professor of Theater Meghan Brodie and choreographed by Professor of Dance Karen Clemente.
The cast worked extremely hard to put the show together.
Junior Myla Haan played Margaret, the office drunk in the musical. She discussed the demanding rehearsal schedule consisting of rehearsals every weekday for five and half hours over the course of one month.
“To prepare, I started off by memorizing all my lines and learning the songs in the show. Then, up until the performance, I was doing a combination of both individual character work (figuring out how to best play ‘drunk’ and to make the character more dynamic than what’s written on the page) and ensemble work,” she said.
The show was such a success that every single night was sold out. It kept everyone on their toes with constant twists and turns, and captured modern issues which made the show that much more interesting to watch. It was funny, suspenseful, and inspiring.
“I seriously loved the show … I attended the show because my friends were in the play and I wanted to support them. Seeing my friend’s hard work pay off was such an amazing thing. My favorite part of the show had to be at the end when the three women stood up for themselves against ‘the head,’ I thought it was very moving seeing the women in such a time period stand up for themselves,” said Jackie Bogan ’23.
The amount of support and love that was shown at the shows was an overwhelming experience for the cast.
“Positive crowds completely affect the actor’s approach to performance. For me at least, if I know the audience is reacting positively to what I’m doing, I have more confidence for other scenes and I’ll just punch lines and actions a little harder. If an audience isn’t reacting with as much enthusiasm as I would expect, that also really pushes me to bring more energy to my performance. In that case, I kind of see those types of audiences as a challenge; I’m thinking to myself, ‘How can I approach this next scene in a way where I will get the audience excited?’” said Myla Haan.