Columbia Daily Spectator •

Barnard theater department’s Senior Thesis Festival dissects the binary of the extraordinary and the ordinary

Jackie Kennedy grieves her famous husband in her blood-stained pink suit. Lord Byron ponders procrastination in a red velvet blazer and dazzling necklace. A man in a gray blazer, brown trousers, and a black tie imagines what it would be like to have a dead girlfriend. These are three characters across three different plays shown in one evening. Despite their contrasting premises, one thread ties them all together: they each explore the rise from the ordinary to the extraordinary...
Columbia Daily Spectator •

PODCAST: Sound maker Mac Waters on the canon, labels, and their Justin Bieber “Baby” remix

In this episode of “The Beat,” Arts & Entertainment reporter Jane Loughman interviews sound maker Mac Waters, CC ’22, who composes, produces, and performs music ranging from classical compositions to electronic remixes of pop songs. They speak to Spectacle about their relationship to the musical canon, their projects, and their opportunity to perform their remix of Justin Bieber’s “Baby” at a festival in the Czech Republic.
Columbia Daily Spectator •

Circus arts meets Shakespeare in KCST and Columbia Circus Collective’s ‘Hamlet’

Maia Castro-Santos, CC ’25, stands opposite Ry Spada, CC ’24, holding up a hula hoop. Castro-Santos hands Spada a tissue through the hula hoop, who then wipes her tears with the tissue—Castro-Santos mirrors her every movement. They separate, Castro-Santos threading the hula hoop through her own body and moving away to give space to Spada. As Hamlet, Spada begins the well-known Shakespeare speech: “To be or not to be, that is the question."
Columbia Daily Spectator •

Deadly Cuts, deadlier murders: Rachel Carey’s charming yet tonally confused debut feature

A gang rules over the North Dublin town of Piglinstown, Ireland. The town council would rather shut down the local shops than deal with the gang. The gang threatens the women of Piglinstown’s Deadly Cuts and vandalizes their salon, graffiting the walls and smashing the windows. However, the hairdressers won’t let anything dampen their spirits while preparing for the televised hairstyling competition “Ahh Hair”—even as they cut something very different.
Ratrock Magazine •

Lindsay Kornguth

On the Lerner ramps, I chatted with multimedia artist Lindsay Kornguth about her visual art and music, beginning by looking at her early portraits of celebrities. From YUNGBLUD in color pencil to Brendon Urie on graphite on paper, Lindsay used to share these portraits on her Instagram in high school, hashtagging and tagging the names behind the famous faces. However, Lindsay believes these portraits are not simply a way for her to garner attention from these A-listers.
Columbia Daily Spectator •

Powerful solos and comedic relief on Maple Avenue: Barnard theater department’s “Fun Home”

Standing at her desk, drawing her graphic memoir, Alison Bechdel is surrounded by the ghosts of her past. On stage right is her younger self, who pesters her mother Helen as she attempts to practice Chopin on the piano. On stage left is Alison’s father, flirting with a man elsewhere in her home. Alison is an observer, watching the breakdown of her parents’ relationship in retrospect.
Columbia Daily Spectator •

Sexuality, subway rides, and Jackie Kennedy: A sneak peek of Barnard Theater’s spring season

To Barnard adjunct lecturer Lisa Rothe, the theater maker’s job is to reflect and hold up a mirror to human nature. This is the goal of Barnard’s upcoming Senior Thesis Festival, which will stage four plays touching on longing, trauma, and the harsh realities of the creative process. And the first musical on the docket, Lisa Kron’s “Fun Home,” achieves this beautifully according to Rothe, the production’s director.
Columbia Daily Spectator •

Must the show go on? A look at mental health in the theater industry and in campus theater

Since the early 1800s, the theatrical credo, “The show must go on” has almost become a badge of honor for the theater industry. It is a phrase in show business, meaning that regardless of what catastrophe has occurred, the proceedings must continue. For over two centuries, this rhetoric has dominated the entertainment scene. But recently, campus and professional theatermakers have started to question the impacts of the “show must go on” mentality, particularly when it comes to mental health.
Columbia Daily Spectator •

Barnard Theater Department’s ‘By the Way, Meet Vera Stark’ explores performance through satire and innovative use of space and media

Hollywood film “The Belle of New Orleans” is projected onto a semi-translucent curtain, transporting the audience to a 1930s screening. The setting transitions from a modern-day colloquium to a 1970s talk show, the audience’s role in the story adapting accordingly. This is the sprawling, self-referential nature of the second act of “By The Way, Meet Vera Stark.”
Columbia Daily Spectator •

Puppetry, time jumps, and stereotypes: A sneak peek of Barnard Theater’s fall season

Barnard adjunct lecturer Ran Xia, director of the upcoming Barnard production of Sarah Ruhl’s “Orlando,” and assistant director, Eleanor Hannah Reich, BC ‘22, sit outside Milbank Hall on the bustling Barnard campus. Hearing loud construction noises, they joke about staging the play outdoors. It would be COVID-19 friendly and mask-free, but when thinking about all the preparation that has already been done for an in-person production, Reich asks, “Can you imagine telling the designers?”...
Columbia Daily Spectator •

CMTS seniors sing ‘Goodbye’ to Columbia in its 2021 Senior Showcase

After previously performing in productions such as “Godspell” with the Columbia Musical Theatre Society, Joel Meyers, CC ’21, dons his graduation robe and a mask for one last hurrah. He sings a verse of “Goodbye” in front of Butler Library, performing the “Catch Me If You Can” number with seven other seniors from the Columbia Musical Theatre Society as a farewell to their college performance days and to conclude CMTS’ 2021 Senior Showcase...
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