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Speaker 0 00:00:02 Silence your cell phones. And remember that masks are required during the duration of the performance. Thank you again for your support of the 79th annual dolphin show. We hope you enjoy our production of merrily. We roll along
Speaker 2 00:00:20 Northwestern dolphin show is an annual student run production with a rich history. Since 1939, Northwestern has put together productions of classic musicals every year, all performed, directed, and managed by students. Although for two consecutive years, when the COVID-19 pandemic stopped all student theater dolphin show to continue virtually in 2019 and 2020 this year, students prepared merrily. We roll along a Stephen Sondheim musical from 1981 and the Khan auditorium for the dolphin. Joe's first in-person audience. Since 2019,
Speaker 3 00:00:54 We read through tons and tons of shows this year, and we wanted to choose a show. You know, that was challenging for all of the students involved. It's a Sondheim musical as very challenging music. The story about merrily we roll along is about these relationships that we make when we're young and the decisions we make moving forward. And you know how we can either maintain or let those relationships fall apart.
Speaker 2 00:01:11 That was owned Kylie business producer of this year's production. Who's been working on the dolphin show for the past four years as business producer, he helped manage marketing sales and development for the show and was involved in making the final decision for what was going to be performed.
Speaker 3 00:01:28 We felt that the story was super universal to Northwestern students. And just trying to reminds us that the relationships we're making here can continue into the future. And the decisions we make in the future will affect those relationships and those friendships
Speaker 2 00:01:59 But with the pandemic looming, preparing for the show, turned out to be a major struggle for the cast and crew, to hear more about how COVID affected the show's timeline. I spoke to August Blanco, Rosenstein and Ruby Gibson, two of the main cast members who performed in this weekend's musical
Speaker 4 00:02:15 After winter break, we were expecting to come back on January 3rd in-person and get to put all of our scenes up on their feet. And, uh, that obviously did not happen when we got back because everything was remote for two weeks.
Speaker 5 00:02:29 It has been like crunch time for us over the past two weeks because of Wildcat wellness. We weren't, you know, going home over winter break expecting that we would be losing two weeks of in-person rehearsal. Um, so we had been doing zoom rehearsals for those two weeks, which it was still really awesome to see everyone, but, you know, zoom rehearsals for like a live theater production are not always super productive. And so a lot of stuff changed when we got into our space.
Speaker 4 00:02:59 You know, it's been unconventional. I think, I think that goes across the board, probably for all theater experiences at Northwestern, at other schools professionally for the last two years, it's been a theater is just a weird thing to do in a social environment where you can't be near each other,
Speaker 2 00:03:16 Despite major challenges. The dolphin show drove hundreds of Northwestern and Evanston community members to con auditorium this weekend for multiple performances of the Sondheim musical. Many of the cast and crew members attribute the production success to the very people who made it possible in the first place. The students,
Speaker 5 00:03:35 I love student theater. I participate in it probably too much, both on the administrative side. So I'm on one of the theater boards, but then also like I'm doing for the dolphin show I perform. And I think that student theater is one of the most magical things that happens at Northwestern. It's, it's just a way for every one of us to learn what goes into a production. Like there's so many roles on the dolphin show and in student theater in general that I didn't know existed until I got here. Like I never really knew what a producer did. And we have two amazing producers for this show, Simran and Owen. I honestly can't even like comprehend a quarter of the work that they're doing for the show. But knowing that the people that I'm working with are my peers just kind of makes me feel like safe and good about the room that I'm working in.
Speaker 3 00:04:24 One of the reasons I love the dolphin, show him one of the reasons I think the dolphin show is so special is that we bring together over 160 students. So there's so many students involved with this organization and there's so many opportunities, you know, people can work on finance. People can work on marketing. People can work on sales, but then they can also work on painting and carpentry. Um, and so I think, you know, the fact that it's student powered and student made is very unique and the scale of that is super unique and that it just offers really exciting opportunities for, for everyone
Speaker 4 00:04:53 There's comradery. There's understanding for each other's experiences. I think the creative team and the production team who have just been absolute like superheroes with all of the changes that they've made and not to mention all the changes that they've had to prepare for that have never had to have been made that idea of maybe, well, what if something happens and then we have to move this around or that around. And then how do we adjust this? I mean, they've been doing so much work behind the scenes. I think that them being students makes them not take anything for granted, understand that it all falls on them and gives them the opportunity to rise up to the challenge, which they've totally done.
Speaker 2 00:05:28 WMUR news. I'm Trevor Dugan's.
