On Tuesday, Argyros Forum will be transformed into a small 1950s town with a power-seeking man chasing after the wife of the mayor, as their children live up teenage romances and heartbreaks.

The Beyond Stage Ensemble, which started in 2006 as a sub-organization of the on-campus club C.A.S.T., is putting on a musical titled “FREEDOM with a Side of Watermelons: The Musical!” The entirely student-run production will open Tuesday in Argyros Forum’s old cafeteria. The members say they are putting the production on as a change in pace from the usual prewritten, Broadway plays they perform and as a fundraiser for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

“We’ve got the best voices and performers on campus and I’m really proud to say this is going to outshine everything else Beyond Stage has done in the past,” said junior Kai de Mello-Folsom, a theatre performance and film production double major.

The musical was written and choreographed by members of the Beyond Stage Ensemble. Although Tamiko Washington, associate professor of theatre, is their faculty adviser, Washington said it has been completely organized by the students and she had no part in directing or choosing the cast.

The writer, junior theatre and screenwriting major Katie Wilson, said she created the characters based on caricatures of the personalities of each person of the 12 member cast.

“Once I came up with a basic idea I was able to create a unique character for each person in the show,” Wilson said. “The show itself uses songs from many different musicals like ‘Hairspray,’ ‘Urinetown,’ ‘The Full Monty,’ ‘Thoroughly Modern Millie,’ but I was able to write a script for it that tied all of these songs together, and make it into its own unique cohesive story.”

“We’ve worked with the people that we have to create a full length story and character-driven show,” Mello-Folsom said. “It’s a fun night of musical theatre and it’s going to a great cause.”

Playing the leading character Freddy, senior theatre performance major Brian Clark said that the group has tried to make this entire production student-run.

“We decided to do this because we wanted the script to be from someone within the group,” Clark said. “It helps because [Wilson] knows us all, what we are capable of, and she definitely knows how to write a great, witty and snappy script.”

The play centers around the small town Maple Tin Falls and its annual harvest festival. The townspeople are determined to outshine their neighboring townships by growing the biggest and best watermelons. The adults are obsessed, to the dismay of their sons and daughters who are busily involved in their own teenage drama and relationships.

While the musical takes place in a time before students were even born, it should still be very entertaining, Mello-Folsom said.

“If you know musical theatre at all, you’ll definitely recognize some of the songs and maybe get acquainted with a few you’ve never heard before,” Mello-Folsom said. “It’ll be a great way to relax and laugh for an hour or so before the stress of finals week.”

Clark said that each performance will also be a fundraiser for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, a nationwide non-profit that works with the theater community to provide services to people with AIDS.

“We ask for donations at each show and people can feel free to help out a great cause,” Clark said.


Contact this reporter: olivia.scott@thepantheronline.com