V115: A spectacle long in the making

It is early March. The three writers of the Varsity Show sit in separate armchairs in Lerner Party Space, laptops in hand, prepared to make some final changes to the script before a preview performance.

When prompted with questions about their work on this year’s production, they effortlessly finish each other’s sentences, gliding from point to point as if they’ve rehearsed the conversation beforehand. It’s clear that the trio has been working together for many hours, so this type of talk flows naturally.

It’s no surprise, then, that the word that best describes the annual effort behind the Varsity Show is “collaborative.” The creative process involves weeks of discussion, continuous rewriting of songs and scenes, and extensive joke-testing to ensure that the Columbia satire is well received.

On Friday, May 1, the opening night of the 115th Varsity Show, the audience will be presented with a product that has been fine-tuned by 45 cast, crew, and creative team members who have worked on the production for more than a semester.

The Varsity Show is Columbia’s oldest performing arts tradition. Founded in 1894 as a fundraiser for Columbia sports teams, it soon became a spectacle in its own right. Its nontraditional creative process, sometimes-polemical casting, and satirical take on the University attract hundreds of Columbia students, alumni, and faculty every year.

The Varsity Show’s official creative team consists of a director, two producers, three writers, two composers/lyricists, a choreographer, and an art director. Their work outlining the overarching concept for the show begins in November.

Columbia College Dean Austin Quigley has seen nearly 20 past Varsity Shows, and remarked that the production unites many gifted students, linking them in a collaborative effort unlike any other on campus. “It brings together students from several of the theater groups and programs on campus and pools their talents, along with the talents and achievements of many of their predecessors,” Quigley said.

Putting It on Paper
The Varsity Show begins as a brainstorming session, and then evolves into a script that forms the backbone of the production. The writers begin by combing through what they know. “Our ideas come from Spec and Bwog, trying to find out what’s going on on campus, and personal experience,” co-writer Sam Reisman, CC ’10, said.

The jokes are tested on cast members to gauge the audience’s probable reaction. As scenes are finished, they are read aloud in front of the cast and creative team. “We all sit in a circle and write ‘laugh’ or ‘no laugh’,” co-writer Erica Drennan, CC ’11, said.

The jokes are intended to be accessible to the average Columbia student, but occasionally they go over the heads of underclassmen and need to be reworked to be more universal. “Sometimes the writers will come up with a joke and we’ll read through, and everyone will start laughing, and we [first-years] will be like, ‘What’s so funny?’” principal actor Patrick Blute, CC ’12, said.

The team also works to compose satirical music to reinforce the jokes. For composers Rebecca Greenstein, BC ’10, and Matt Stauffer, GS ’09, writing an original score about Columbia life is challenging and exciting, but also restrictive. “The only thing that’s limiting is that lyrically it [the music] has to bend to Columbia’s will. You have to be really corny ... It sometimes takes away from the show,” Stauffer said.

Though Stauffer and Greenstein said they wanted V115’s songs to have a darker mood, they explained that the need to follow a certain structure while also incorporating Columbia-related jokes every few lines inherently limited how distinct the music could be from that of Varsity Shows past. Like any traditional musical, every Varsity Show demands a climactic melody, a token melancholy tune in Act II, and a grand finale—and each of these songs must be full of campus commentary.

“They [the writers] are creating a script around us; we’re creating songs around them,” Stauffer said. To keep the music and script in sync, the writers and composers frequently share their material with each other, as well as with the cast. “Sometimes we test it [the music] out for the creative team first,” Greenstein said.

From Auditioners to Actors
Just as the writers and composers each craft their material with the other group in mind, they must also tweak it to accommodate the actors. The creative team does have a large say in the casting of the Varsity Show, but this system has also led to accusations that the audition process is unfair.

Investigation into the rumors of audition bias proved difficult—when asked for the names of anyone willing to discuss being rejected by the Varsity Show, the V115 producers were reluctant. The only name they surrendered was that of a student who didn’t get into the production because her job prevented her from attending callbacks.

However, a few past auditioners offered some insight into what truth lies behind the rumors. “I think each creative team picks the people they’d want to work with, given their audition and, truth be told, what they already know about them,” Varsity Show alumna Carly Hoogendyk, CC ’07, said.

Cassie van Stolk-Cooke, BC ’12, auditioned for V115 and said she was a casualty of the creative team’s tendency to choose a certain type of actor. “Upon hearing about the casting decisions, I realized what the cast members had in common,” she said. “They had all acted very crazy and silly during the callback process. ... I had no idea that that was what they [the creative team] were looking for.”

Whether or not the audition process is entirely fair, this collaborative selection of “crazy and silly” actors, while not beneficial to every student who auditions, does make sense. Judging by just a few peeks at Varsity Show rehearsals, it is obvious that the process requires actors who are willing to look ridiculous and act over the top. During one March rehearsal, for example, a pair of male actors had to perform an awkward, overly long embrace between “bros”—a task that may not be suited to the timid or easily embarrassed.

The Consequences of Creativity
It is also crucial that the creative team consider the amount of stress and commitment that comes with involvement in the Varsity Show, for both their own welfare and that of the cast. Rehearsals begin in late November and consistently consume between 25 and 35 hours per week until May. Both the writers and composers agreed that they spend seven to eight hours on Varsity Show work every day of the week.

“You think of classes as that hobby you have, and this [the Varsity Show] is your job,” Reisman said.

“I wouldn’t even call class a hobby—I’m not there,” Stauffer corrected. “I spent four hours on classes this month, and it was the four most guilt-filled hours I’ve ever spent.” Co-writer Rachel Leopold, CC ‘10, added, “It is pretty much our whole lives.”

The overwhelming nature of the Varsity Show affects not only class days, but breaks as well. Over the last weekend of winter break, the creative team met to hammer out the story and characters, and then spent spring break in Cape Cod retooling the show and converting it to final form.

But no matter how much time is spent toiling over songs, scenes, and casting decisions, the creative team said it’s all worthwhile. When asked to name their favorite part of the production, the team had an almost unanimous reply: knowing that they’re in it together.

This article is the first in a three part series examining the culture surrounding the Varsity Show. For the past several months, A&E reporter Maddy Kloss has been interviewing members of the cast and crew, sitting in on select rehearsals, and speaking to Varsity Show alumni about their experiences. This installment examines the show’s creative process.