By Raegan Scharfetter/managing editor
An original, student-created play will celebrate South Campus’ 50th anniversary with The First 50 Years Sept. 28-30.
The First 50 Years will re-enact South’s history, but all through the cast’s point of view. The actors wanted to tell the campus’ history through the pop culture of the previous decades, South theater director Lindy Benton-Muller said.
“Students will travel through time with a student who believes they are Doctor Who,” she said. “It will be an enjoyable, fun time looking at the history of the campus. We tried to make it fun by not doing it like a documentary.”
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South student Kristen Clay plays herself playing the female Doctor Who, Laverne from Laverne & Shirley (1970s) and Diane from Cheers (1980s). She said the cast playing themselves playing other people from different decades sets apart The First 50 Years from other plays.
“It is a play within a play, so there is a lot of allusions, and we break the fourth wall a lot,” she said. “There is also going to be a lot of references to things that are happening today as well as references to things that happened in the past.”
South student Jacob Gilmore plays himself playing Mrs. Babish from Laverne & Shirley and Sam from Cheers. He said the cast is diving into pop culture to make the play “a good time” while still sharing campus history.
“I have watched these older TV shows to replicate the characters, and there is so much of a range of different personalities and voices,” Gilmore said. “We are trying our best to write jokes and make laughs. I play a girl at one point, so people can come laugh at me in a dress.”
The play starts at 7:30 p.m. each night in the Joe B. Rushing Center for the Performing Arts. Tickets are free for TCC students, faculty and staff, $3 for senior citizens and other students and $6 for the general public.
