What It’s Like to Be in a Mainstage Production at Muhlenberg
It is not an easy feat, but the valuable lessons I learned and the bonds I made with fellow actors and faculty have made my time on the Muhlenberg stage worthwhile.By: Marie Tohill ’25 Monday, December 16, 2024 09:04 AM
Students perform in “Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812.” The author is in the second row on the right. Photo by Marco CalderonIn March, the Department of Theatre & Dance announced its 2024-2025 season. Even though I was studying abroad in Dublin at the time, I was overcome by a rush of excitement for one particular production on the list: Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812. Like many other students at Muhlenberg, I started brainstorming audition songs that night and wondering: Would I get to see my name on the cast list in September?
Despite being a non-theatre major (my majors are music and media & communication), I love musical theatre. Great Comet ran on Broadway in 2016 alongside shows like Hamilton, Waitress and Dear Evan Hansen. For 13-year-old Broadway-obsessed Marie, discovering the musical brilliance of Great Comet, written by Dave Malloy, was a formative experience. The musical features a complex plot based on Tolstoy’s War and Peace and complicated, discordant harmonies. I was not going to pass up my chance to be in a musical that mattered so much to my young self.
At the start of this semester, I walked into my 9:30 p.m. audition and performed the piece that I had spent the past month preparing. Two days later, I found out I had been called back. I spent the next day, a Saturday, in dance and vocal callbacks, led by the fabulous Sammy Reyes, an adjunct professor of dance and the show’s choreographer, and Vinny Trovato, a staff accompanist, piano instructor and music director for the musical. Throughout my first three years at Muhlenberg, I had honed my skills in dance, acting and music classes and as a member of Muhlenberg’s contemporary musical theatre ensemble, Songsycle. Now, as a senior serving as the group’s president, I was going into callbacks with a plethora of musical theatre skills under my belt.
After an agonizing wait, the cast list was announced by email on Monday morning and I scanned the list for my name. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw that I had been cast in the ensemble of the production. After a call home, I turned on the Great Comet soundtrack and began to prepare for our first rehearsal that night. The next two months leading up to our opening night on October 31 were filled with rehearsals every weekday from 7-11 p.m.
“While rehearsing for ‘Sing Happy’ as a junior, I discovered that my favorite part of the Muhlenberg theatre program is the relationships I’ve been able to forge with other actors, and ‘Great Comet’ was no exception. Muhlenberg actors support one another because we know how challenging it is to be a college student by day and a professional actor by night.”
—Marie Tohill ’25
Despite being in Sing Happy last fall, rehearsals for Great Comet pushed me further than I had been pushed before. Every day I was dancing, singing and acting more than I ever had. While I felt overcome by exhaustion at several points during the rehearsal process, other members of the ensemble and I learned to lean on one another for support. While rehearsing for Sing Happy as a junior, I discovered that my favorite part of the Muhlenberg theatre program is the relationships I’ve been able to forge with other actors, and Great Comet was no exception. Muhlenberg actors support one another because we know how challenging it is to be a college student by day and a professional actor by night.
On opening night, I was filled with pride and excitement for our production. I could not wait for my friends and family to see what we had achieved. I was especially proud to be a member of the production’s ensemble — we were on stage for almost the entire show and worked tirelessly to make this production what it was. I feel incredibly privileged to have been cast in two departmental productions during my time at Muhlenberg, and the work I’ve put into these shows is one of my greatest sources of pride. While I now consider myself retired from Muhlenberg theatre, acting in Sing Happy and Great Comet taught me that I am resilient, powerful and one hell of a singer!
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