festival playhouse

Festival Playhouse Explores Body Image in ‘Most Massive Woman Wins’

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In a waiting room at a liposuction clinic, four women sit with their thoughts, their bodies, and their personal histories. What unfolds is The Most Massive Woman Wins, the next production by the Festival Playhouse at Kalamazoo College. 

It’s a play that confronts body image, misogyny and the personal costs of trying to fit into a society obsessed with women’s appearances. Written by Madeleine George and directed by Milan Levy ’23, the show will run at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, February 26 to Saturday, February 28, with a 2 p.m. matinee on Sunday, March 1. Tickets are available at festivalplayhouse.ludus.com. 

Since graduating from K, Levy has built a directing résumé that includes codirecting Smart People with Face Off Theatre Company, Kalamazoo’s Black-owned theatre company, in fall 2024. When Professor of Theatre Arts Lanny Potts reached out about the opportunity to direct at Levy’s alma mater, they immediately said yes. For Levy—who also serves the College as a program coordinator in the Office of Student Activities—this show is deeply personal. 

“Being someone who grew up a plus size woman, I saw so much of myself and the insecurities I’ve held, spoken through the words of these women,” Levy said. “I wanted to explore this play for myself, and everyone who would connect to this story.”  

Four actors from "The Most Massive Woman Wins" huddle during a rehearsal
Victoria (Gracie) Burnham ’27 (from left), Shay Kruse ’28, Helen Stoy ’26 and Sofia Gross ’29 are among the student actors in “The Most Massive Woman Wins” slated for February 26–March 1 at the Festival Playhouse.

The play unfolds as a series of monologues and scenes that move between the clinic’s waiting room and the women’s memories of schoolyards, workplaces and relationships. Each character has arrived at the same door, having traveled a completely different path to reach it. 

Liliana Stout ’26 plays Sabine, a Ph.D. student and committed feminist who wrestles with an internal conflict between her politics and her desire for intimacy, driving much of the play’s emotional tension. Stout describes the character as deeply angry and in constant dialogue with herself. 

“She can’t overcome the loneliness, and she has to find a way to balance being the deeply moral, feminist person that she is while wanting the love that she hasn’t found,” Stout said. 

Two casts will perform in the production, with Stout being the only actor to take the stage each night. Stout noted that the ensemble spans the full range of K class years, from a first-year student to seniors, and at least one cast member is performing on stage for the first time. The other actors include: 

  • Gracie Burnham ’27 and Emily Reese ’27 who portray Rennie, a teenager consumed by an eating disorder, trying to gain the love and acceptance of her mother.   
  • Sofia Gross ’29 and Shay Kruse ’28 who play Carly, a loving mother who believes her hard work will ensure her daughter doesn’t end up the way her and her mother did. What happens when this belief is challenged? 
  • Helen Stoy ’26 and Zoee Perez ’26 who act as Cel, a woman who struggles with self-harm and needs the help of others to keep her grounded. 

The play is set in the 1990s, but both Levy and Stout say its concerns feel urgently modern, as medications promising rapid weight loss dominate public conversation and the media continues to project narrow definitions of beauty. 

“We’re returning to the 90s in a way,” Levy said. “People are now using Ozempic and GLP-1s to lose weight. It’s all about looking skinny but that doesn’t equate to healthy. Expecting us all to have the same body or work towards it, is putting an impossible standard.” 

For Stout, the play is an invitation to empathy rather than judgment. She hopes audiences leave with a more generous understanding of why people arrive at decisions around changing their bodies. 

“It’s easy to stop and judge someone for doing something like plastic surgery or liposuction and say they’re lazy, or taking the easy way out, or that they just don’t love themselves,” she said. “I hope watching the show encourages people to take a moment to pause and instead find a way to understand what they’re going through and show them love instead.” 

Levy wants audiences, especially those who have felt the pressures these characters embody, to feel seen. 

“I want this show to give voice to the things people never felt they could share or say out loud,” they said.

Shakespearean Comedy Enters the Disco Era at Festival Playhouse

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Jack Dewey ’27 will have a handful of flamboyant costumes to wear, including a bright blue velvet suit, when he plays a not-so-typical King Ferdinand of Navarre in the Shakespearean Love’s Labour’s Lost, coming to the Festival Playhouse.

Running November 6–November 9, the show takes the Bard’s witty comedy about love and vows and spins it into a vibrant 1970s spectacle filled with music, dancing and retro flair.

“We’ve got flashing lights, dance numbers, sequined costumes—everything is colorful, loud and alive,” Dewey said. “It’s less like seeing Shakespeare and more like watching Mamma Mia.”

Originally written in the 1590s, Love’s Labour’s Lost follows four noblemen who swear off women and worldly pleasures to focus on their academic studies—until a visiting princess and her ladies arrive, undoing their oaths. In this production, Dewey and his fellow lords are reimagined as having the swagger and energy of college fraternity brothers, complete with banter, bravado and bad decisions.

“I’ve never played someone who’s just an absolute jerk before,” Dewey laughed. “In most of my roles, I’ve been the hopeless romantic or the sad guy. This time I get to be a switchblade-comb-wielding, smooth-talking, terrible flirt, and it’s so refreshing.”

Four cast members of Shakespearean comedy Love's Labour's Lost Rehearse at Festival Playhouse
The cast of the Shakespearean comedy “Love’s Labour’s Lost” includes Hannah Ulanoski ’26 as Marcade (from left), Jack Dewey ’26 as King Ferdinand of Navarre, Morgan Smith ’29 as the Princess of France and Max Wright ’26 as Boyet.

The decision to set the play in the 1970s, Dewey said, came from the creative team’s desire to capture an era defined by liberation and self-expression.

“All of our costumes are incredibly sequined and shiny,” he said. “The ’70s were about freedom and individuality, and that fits perfectly with the play’s humor and feminist themes.”

A native of Minneapolis, Minnesota, Dewey said he hadn’t heard of Kalamazoo College until he began receiving recruitment emails. One campus visit changed his future, helped in part by having family living in southwest Michigan. 

“I stepped foot on campus and thought, ‘This is what I want my college experience to look like,’” he said.

Since becoming a student at K, Dewey has performed in Eurydice and Little Shop of Horrors. Even with that experience, Love’s Labour’s Lost is his most physically demanding role.

“We’re running, sliding and lunging, all while speaking in Shakespearean English,” he said. “It’s wild, but this cast makes it so much fun.”

That cast includes several first-year students, including Morgan Smith as the princess of France; Jey Trebley as Berowne; Sam Pattison as Dumaine; Dewen Luo-Li as Rosaline; Laurel Stowers as Maria; and Abram Haynes as Longaville. Dewey said their energy has transformed rehearsals into what he calls the best kind of organized chaos.

“Half the cast are first-years, and they’re so loud, outgoing and funny,” he said. “It’s incredible to see the youngest people leading the charge.”

He also credits acting leaders such as Bernice Mike ’26 as Katherine, Owen Ellis ’27 as Costard and Max Wright ’26 as Boyet for the experience they bring to the cast. Despite the challenges of Shakespeare’s language, Dewey said the company’s modern take makes the story accessible and hilarious.

“I don’t always know what every word means, but I know what my character is trying to say,” he said. “That’s what makes it fun, translating Shakespeare’s intentions into something audiences can feel.”

For anyone hesitant about seeing Shakespeare, Dewey insists this production will change their mind.

“If anyone wants to dip their toes into Shakespeare, this is the play to see,” he said. “It’s an hour of chaos, comedy and color.”

Love’s Labour’s Lost will be staged at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, November 6–Saturday, November 8, and at 2 p.m. Sunday, November 9. Tickets are available through the Festival Playhouse box office website and by phone at 269.337.7333. For more information on the production, contact Theatre Company Manager Kirsten Sluyter at Kirsten.Sluyter@kzoo.edu.

‘Little Shop of Horrors’ Takes Root at K

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Something big, green and hungry is taking root at Kalamazoo College this week with Mo Silcott ’27 and Lee Zwart ’27 bringing it to life. The two will provide the puppetry behind the Audrey II, a giant plant with a taste for trouble, in the dark musical comedy Little Shop of Horrors, presented by the Festival Playhouse May 15–18. 

In the play, Seymour—a wallflower of an assistant at Mr. Mushnik’s plant shop—desires Audrey, a beautiful co-worker who dates a sadistic dentist. After a sudden solar eclipse, Seymour finds a mysterious plant that looks like a Venus fly trap and names it the Audrey II.  

Despite Seymour’s best efforts, Audrey II sickens until Seymour pricks his finger on a thorn, causing the plant to hungrily open its pod. Business begins to blossom for the shop as the bloodthirsty Audrey II grows like a weed. The situation, however, seeds problems, forcing Seymour to nip them in the bud. Max Goldner ’27 portrays Seymour, James Hauke ’26 plays Mr. Mushnik, Sophia Merchant ’25 performs as Audrey, and Drew Oss ’28 presents Orin the Dentist. 

Two "Little Shop of Horrors" actors with the Audrey II puppet
Sophia Merchant ’25 portrays Audrey and Max Goldner ’27 plays Seymour in “Little Shop of Horrors Thursday–Sunday at the Festival Playhouse of Kalamazoo College. Audrey II puppet provided by Cameron McEachern.

“Little Shop has always been one of my favorite shows, and I think the plot speaks to a lot of Americans’ current situation, whether that be in the same sense as Seymour or not,” Silcott said. “We might want to get out of a bad spot, to be somewhere that isn’t the harsh reality we find ourselves in during our day-to-day life. Little Shop gives the audience a chance to laugh at that a little bit and digest those realities in a show that manages to take itself seriously while also finding places for laughter.” 

Bringing the botanical behemoth to life is no small feat, but Silcott and Zwart are up for the challenge. The Festival Playhouse is renting the puppets with Silcott performing as the smaller Audrey II in the first act and Zwart performing as the full-grown beast in the second act. 

“One of the biggest challenges of performing the role of Audrey II is having to sit still on stage for about 25 minutes,” Silcott said. “Most of my acting consists of me sitting idly, and I didn’t realize how hard it is to actually just sit in one position with a full costume on, one that is stuffed with extremely warm materials. It’s very difficult to not move in a puppet that is a lot of fun to operate.” 

Zwart potentially faces an even bigger challenge, wearing a harness that allows him to operate an upper and a lower pod of the Audrey II plant: He faces a full-body workout while synching his movements with an offstage voice. 

“It’s physically taxing,” Zwart said. “I have to maneuver all of myself around to move this puppet and it’s pretty heavy and hot.”  

After weeks of such exertion, Zwart is looking forward to opening night.   

“It’s always fun to practice a play just running through it, but hearing the audience laughing and clapping is really very rewarding, especially for a play that’s as over the top as Little Shop.” 

The student-led production promises big vocals, bold costumes and plenty of leafy-green surprises, providing the cast and crew with ambitious challenges. The musical will be staged at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 15–Saturday, May 17, and at 2 p.m. Sunday, May 18, in the Festival Playhouse Theatre at 129 Thompson St. Thursday’s show will include a talkback with the cast after the performance. Tickets are available online or by calling the Festival Playhouse at 269.337.7333. 

“I’m really looking forward to the audience’s reaction to the puppets,” Silcott said. “I can’t see too much, so all of my cues and understanding of how my performance is going, is through sound. The best part of a production like this is seeing the audience’s initial reaction to each of the puppets, and that gives me a lot of motivation to perform and to perform well. Working with this cast has been a truly incredible experience and I’m especially excited to perform with them in the coming week.” 

‘Eurydice’ Puts Modern Spin on Greek Mythology

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As an international student from Romania, Bernice Mike ’26 knows what it’s like to face a choice between staying with one’s family and pursuing life far away. Such is the choice her lead character makes in Eurydice, the play coming to Kalamazoo College’s Festival Playhouse, 129 Thompson St., this week. 

“I’ve loved Greek mythology since I was a child,” Mike said. “And being a dramatic play, Eurydice is the kind of story I gravitate toward. I read it over winter break and it hit me immediately, so I thought it would be a good role to try out for. I haven’t dealt with grief the way she has to, but I know what it’s like to make a choice between staying with loved ones and going away.” 

The original Orpheus and Eurydice story is told from the perspective of Orpheus, a musician who travels to the Underworld to try to save his wife after she dies on their wedding day from a snakebite. 

“Orpheus plays the most beautiful music in the world,” Mike said. “There are so many other people who are attracted to him, but because the story is Greek mythology, we don’t know much about Eurydice and why she’s the one for him. It’s a love story that shows you don’t have to put why you love someone into words, but she’s a big enigma.” 

Eurydice, though, is told from the heroine’s point of view. The play—directed this week by K Professor of Theatre Arts Ren Pruis—premiered at Madison Repertory Theatre in Madison, Wisconsin, in 2003. In Mike’s words, Eurydice is an intelligent and loving character, and the play emphasizes her internal struggle as she grapples between a desire to stay with a predeceased family member in the Underworld or return to Orpheus. Audiences will see her navigate stages of life as she forgets and then relearns how to be herself.  

“It’s cool to portray this character who turns out to be strong and brave through the lens of Sarah Ruhl’s play,” Mike said. “She deals with a loss from a young age, but has a lot of love to give. We see some of that in her relationship with Orpheus, but also with her father after they reunite in the Underworld. What is important is that she constantly stays true to who she is.”

Two students rehearse for Eurydice
Bernice Mike ’26 and Davis Henderson ’25 rehearse for “Eurydice,” which will be staged Thursday-Saturday at the Festival Playhouse. Photo by Andy Krieger/Inspired Media. 

Mike said she feels the story also wants audiences to learn to follow their own hearts. 

“Eurydice follows her heart and her own story,” Mike said. “It’s almost a coming-of-age story in that way. I’ve learned from playing Eurydice that it’s important to constantly seek and get to know yourself no matter the situation you’re in. There’s a lot of tragedy that goes into it. I would say the story’s message is to constantly get to know yourself and seek what your heart wants to do. At the end of the day, it is the best decision that you could make.” 

Eurydice will be staged at 7:30 p.m. from Thursday, February 27–Saturday, March 1, and at 2 p.m. Sunday, March 2. Tickets are available online or by calling the Festival Playhouse at 269.337.7333. 

“I think you’ll be able to go through a lot of emotions if you see it,” Mike said. “There are funny, heartwarming and gut-wrenching moments. I think for people who love theater and want to feel those emotions, we offer a great array of them. It’s an immersive experience and a different one because it’s Greek mythology told in a modern way. It’s not something that you get to see every day.” 

Face Off Theatre Presents ‘Sunset Baby’ at K

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A local theatre company’s full-circle moment will come to fruition this week when it presents Sunset Baby at the Nelda K. Balch Festival Playhouse, 139 Thompson St.

Face Off Theatre presented The Mountaintop in its first season at Kalamazoo College 10 years ago and is returning to stage Sunset Baby at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and at 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Also, before the Saturday night performance, the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership, 205 Monroe St., will host a community discussion about the play at 5 p.m. with Bianca Washington Ciungan—a local actor, director and theatre professor at Hope College—serving as the moderator.

Sunset Baby features Kenyatta, a former Black revolutionary, who visits his daughter, Nina, in East Brooklyn, New York. The estranged father looks to obtain pieces of his late wife’s legacy including the letters she wrote to him while he was in prison. Nina, meanwhile, pursues her own life with her boyfriend, Damon. Ron Ware portrays Kenyatta, Western Michigan University alumna Mikaela Johnson performs as Nina, and former WMU student Delanti Hall embodies Damon. K alumna Milan Levy ’23 will serve as a production manager.

Face Off Theatre Managing Artistic Director and founding company member Marissa Harrington, another WMU grad, will direct the play, her fourth at a K venue between company productions and the Festival Playhouse.

“I’ve directed at a lot of theatres,” Harrington said. “This is one of my favorites and an inspiring place to work. The College’s mission to lean into equity and representation with its stories makes this production a smart way to start our season. It’s a play by Dominique Morriseau, who is a fantastic playwright, and her work is hard. You want to produce a show like this with people who know what they’re doing. Everybody at K is a true professional and that has made this a great time.”

The director said she saw Sunset Baby for the first time herself with her husband in 2017 in Chicago.

“I was immediately taken by the story,” she said. “You have this beautiful woman in Nina who is strong, driven and convicted, and her father comes out of the woodwork to reconnect. That in itself is an intriguing storyline. But Dominique Morriseau weaves in current events with all her shows. She takes this man who was a figure in the Black Panther movement. He’s looking for things and Nina wants nothing to do with him. There’s discourse in this show around love, activism and their costs in fighting a system that isn’t made for you. When you have this interpersonal dynamic, between a man and his estranged daughter, that is powerful. You then layer in the idea that she was a lovechild—a product of two Black Panthers who wanted to continue their work through love because love was the answer after all that fighting. It’s a well-written, powerful show.”

Sunset Baby stage
The Festival Playhouse is hosting Face Off Theatre for its production of “Sunset Baby.” Five shows are available this week through Sunday.
Actors for Sunset Baby. Image says Face Off Theatre Company. "Sunset Baby" by Dominique Morisseau
Ron Ware (from left) portrays Kenyatta, Mikaela Johnson performs as Nina and Delanti Hall embodies Damon in “Sunset Baby.”

Sunset Baby will help Face Off Theater take its first steps toward its renewed goals of expanding opportunities for People of Color as actors, directors, stage managers, costumers and more in Kalamazoo while instilling a love for theatre in local Black and brown youths. Harrington said she grew up in South Central Los Angeles in an area that many would consider to be a bad neighborhood, where theatre was the only activity she had to shape who she is today.

“I think we take for granted the skills that youths gain from the arts,” Harrington said. “When we talk about arts education, we talk about a well-rounded education. All kids deserve to have access to that. We want to lean into how we can create community impact and change through what we’re doing. We talk about graduation rates, reading levels and attendance in Kalamazoo, and there are statistics to back up that. Kids engaged in the arts, especially with afterschool activities, their whole trajectory of learning changes. They’re more excited about learning and school, and their test scores increase. It’s about accessibility.”

Black and brown representations within all roles of theatre are important, she added, to ensure young people pursue that accessibility.

“Regardless of good intentions, safety means, ‘you look like me,’” Harrington said. “You look like me, I feel welcome, and I can do this, too. We’ve had 10 years of beautiful community work. Now it’s time to lean into training the next generation with an arts organization that is Black-ran, woman-ran and queer-ran to see what the need is in the community and address it. I think it’s important for us this year as an organization to show that we’re arts and activism together: artivism. That’s who we’ve been this entire time. But moving into this next generation, we see the importance of training Black and brown artists now more than ever. We want to be a beacon of light for the kids who don’t see themselves going into engineering or business, but they love creating, writing plays and seeing stories in their minds. They love taking a moment and recreating it. We have kids who have that talent, and they don’t have anywhere to put it. We want them trained to be hirable.”

Tickets for all performances of Sunset Baby and Face Off Theatre’s entire 10th season are available at its website.

‘Spelling Bee’ Musical Spells Opportunity with a K

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Starting Wednesday, opportunity will be spelled with a K for a local theatre company and several students at Kalamazoo College. That’s because K’s Festival Playhouse and Farmers Alley Theatre are joining forces for nine performances of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at the Nelda K. Balch Playhouse, 129 Thompson St. 

The partnership is uniting K students with professional Actors’ Equity Association performers and stage workers who will present what Megan J. Herbst ’25 describes as a laugh-out-loud, super witty and heart-touching comedy about six socially outcast tweens.  

“The characters are trying to figure out their own personalities, they’re all competitive and they all love to spell,” said Herbst, who is working in a paid position as an associate assistant stage manager for the show. “There are a few additional supporting characters, but it’s a story of kids coming together and creating bonds between them. It’s easy to connect with so many elements of each character’s story. Even though they’re weird, you will find a soft spot for every one of them. We’ve had test audiences and every person who’s come to see it so far has loved it.” 

Herbst is a theatre and psychology double major and religion minor, who pursued acting from sixth grade through high school. When she arrived at K, she wanted to try something new within the theatre world. Since then, Herbst has served as a stage manager, assistant stage manager, scenic designer, fight captain, assistant costumer designer, performer and more for 11 shows with Festival Playhouse. Some of her favorites include Othello; Next to Normal; On the Exhale, a senior integrated project by Brooklyn Moore ‘24; and Be More Chill.

Herbst said her work—and that of several other K students—with Spelling Bee started nearly immediately after Be More Chill, the last Festival Playhouse production of the 2023–24 academic season, ended. That meant a rigorous schedule that included end-of-term academic work and preparing for finals in addition to the challenges of working on a musical, but every experience in working alongside Farmers Alley representatives has been valuable. 

“So many college students have summer jobs and I’m grateful that mine is something I’m passionate about,” Herbst said. “It’s a privilege to get to work on my craft because sometimes these opportunities can be far and few in between. I get to do what I love every day, so I’m fortunate that this is not only a paid opportunity, but an opportunity that exists at all. 

Six cast members from The 25th annual Putnam County Spelling Bee dressed as tweens for the show
“The characters are trying to figure out their own personalities, they’re all competitive and they all love to spell,” said Megan J. Herbst ’25, who is one of the students working on “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.” Photo by Klose2UPhotography.
Actress rehearses for "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee."
“Spelling Bee” is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 12–Saturday, June 15; 2 p.m. Sunday, June 16; 7:30 p.m. Thursday, June 20–Saturday, June 22; and 2 p.m. Sunday, June 23. Tickets are available online. Photo by Klose2UPhotography.
Actors rehearse at the Festival Playhouse
The partnership between the Festival Playhouse and Farmers Alley Theatre is uniting K students with professional Actors’ Equity Association performers and stage workers who will present what Herbst describes as a laugh-out-loud, super witty and heart-touching comedy. Photo by Klose2uPhotography.
Cast members rehearse at the Festival Playhouse
With “Spelling Bee,” Farmers Alley Theatre Executive Director Robert Weiner is directing a company production for the first time since “Avenue Q” in 2019. Photo by Klose2UPhotography.
Actors rehearse for "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee."
Weiner says an equity theatre experience is valuable for students to learn from as it follows a set of guidelines from the union that students need to be aware of if they ever work for a professional theatre. Photo by Klose2UPhotography.
Actors rehearse for "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee."
“We hire talented artists from all over the country, even directors and actors who have worked on Broadway. To have the ability to watch and learn from these established veterans of the theatre scene is invaluable, not to mention the talented artists we hire locally,” Weiner said of the opportunity for K students. Photo by Klose2uPhotography.

“What people don’t understand about stage management is that there is somebody verbally making everything happen,” she added. “There’s somebody saying, ‘Lights down, go. Fog machine, go.’ Everything is controlled by multiple people. But what’s important about our job is that people don’t notice us. Stage management and all of the backstage crew are responsible for making things run as smoothly as possible, so the audience has a truly immersive and magical experience. If you see a truly great show and don’t catch any issues, then it’s either because we did our job well or caught any mistakes before you could. There’s as much talent offstage of any show as there is on stage.” 

Robert Weiner, a founder and executive director of Farmers Alley, says an equity theatre experience is valuable for students to learn from as it follows a set of guidelines from the union that students need to be aware of if they ever work for a professional theatre. 

“We hire talented artists from all over the country, even directors and actors who have worked on Broadway,” Weiner said. “To have the ability to watch and learn from these established veterans of the theatre scene is invaluable, not to mention the talented artists we hire locally.” 

With Spelling Bee, Weiner is directing a company production for the first time since Avenue Q in 2019. 

“Because of audience participation—we invite four members of the audience for each show to ‘compete’ alongside our spellers in the bee—every show has a new feeling where anything could happen,” he said. “We’ve been fortunate during the rehearsal process to have some K students volunteer their time to be guest spellers and they’ve had fun participating. Also, this is the best sounding group of singers I’ve ever heard in a production of Spelling Bee. There are a couple of numbers like Pandemonium or The I Love You Song that are very challenging, and these performers absolutely crush it every single time. The show is like a warm hug that will have you leaving the theatre in a good mood. I really hope K students take advantage of our student and rush tickets. It’s a guaranteed fun evening!” 

Weiner previously directed Farmers Alley productions such as [title of show], The Toxic Avenger, Fully Committed, All in the Timing and A Grand Night for Singing. However, he is eager for the experience of bringing productions like Spelling Bee—and School of Rock later this summer—to a larger venue. 

“We are so grateful to be performing at the Festival Playhouse all summer with Spelling Bee and School of Rock,” Weiner said. “The main draw was the added stage space and audience capacity. School of Rock features 30 performers, including 15 students aged 11–16, and our small, intimate space downtown just wouldn’t be viable for a show of that magnitude. There are lots of challenges producing a show not in our space, including set building and load-in off site and all the intricacies of this unique space to adjust to. Thankfully, Professor of Theatre Lanny Potts and the entire K staff have been so welcoming and the whole process has been a win-win. 

“One thing I’ve noticed about K students is how kind and accepting they are,” he added. “Theatre attracts individuals of all kinds. We want to make Farmers Alley Theatre a space for all, and from my purview, it looks like K does the same. They’re smart, hard-working and willing to adapt and problem solve while keeping a positive attitude.” 

If Herbst and Weiner have piqued your interest, performances of Spelling Bee are scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 12–Saturday, June 15; 2 p.m. Sunday, June 16; 7:30 p.m. Thursday, June 20–Saturday, June 22; and 2 p.m. Sunday, June 23. The performance Sunday, June 16, includes American Sign Language interpretation. Tickets are available online. 

“Why should you see it? This show is flat-out fun,” Weiner said. “There are catchy songs with clever lyrics, quirky characters, lots of laughs and a fair amount of heart. Plus, it’s only 90 minutes long. It really is a perfect little evening of summer entertainment.”  

Alum’s Musical ‘Be More Chill’ Opens Thursday at Festival Playhouse

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A Broadway musical written by a Kalamazoo College alumnus who is influencing the entertainment industry will run Thursday, May 16–Sunday, May 19, at K’s Festival Playhouse.

Be More Chill, which features music and lyrics by Joe Iconis and a book by Joe Tracz ’04, will spotlight Max Wright ’26 as Jeremy Heere. Jeremy is an average teenager until he discovers the Squip, a supercomputer that promises to bring him everything he desires including a date with Christine Canigula, played by Brooklyn Moore ’24, along with an invitation to the party of the year and a chance to enjoy life in his suburban New Jersey high school.

The musical concludes the academic year for the Playhouse’s 60th season, which has been themed “Systems as Old as Time.” It also has featured plays such as Playhouse Creatures and The Dutchman, which explore the harmful systems that hold back the oppressed while highlighting the ways that joy, laughter and solidarity can exist and thrive despite those systems.

Caleb Allen ’25 is serving Be More Chill as its dramaturg by assisting Director Quincy Thomas, a K assistant professor of theatre arts, in teaching the actors about the play’s characters and settings. Allen said the musical references some pop culture from the 1980s—including retro drinks such as Ecto Cooler, games such as Pac-Man and actors such as Robert DeNiro and Joe Pesci—but it has themes that are relatable for all audiences.

“It’s very much a play about finding yourself in high school,” he said. “There’s obviously a lot of fun with it, but there’s also a deep, sad story that probably resonates with a lot of people. Even the characters who are portrayed as cool in the play definitely have their own issues and everyone deals with negative self-talk.”

Another K alumnus, Grinnell College Professor of Theatre and Design Justin Thomas ’01, will serve as a Be More Chill scenic designer.

Tracz is well known for being a writer and co-executive producer on the Disney+ series adaptation of Percy Jackson and the Olympians. He previously created the Netflix series Dash & Lily and served as its showrunner. He also worked on the Netflix version of A Series of Unfortunate Events as a writer and producer, and next will work as a co-showrunner for Season 2 of the live action version of One Piece on Netflix. His other theatre credits include The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical, for which he was a Drama Desk award nominee for outstanding book.

Tracz “feels almost like a mythological figure to me,” Allen said. “Just being from the same school is exciting. I definitely have friends from outside of K, who are surprised to know that he went here, and he’s worked on a lot since then. It’s inspiring to see he came from roots like this to go into what he’s doing now.”

Be More Chill is presented through an arrangement with Concord Theatricals. Shows will begin at 7:30 p.m. Thursday–Saturday and at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Nelda K. Balch Playhouse, 129 Thompson St. Tickets are available online or by calling the Festival Playhouse at 269.337.7333. K students, faculty and staff are admitted free with a College ID. Adult tickets are $25, seniors are $20 and children younger than 12 are $5. Thursday’s performance will include a sign language interpreter. Please note that the play contains language and situations that may be triggering, including adult themes and the use of haze, flashing images and strobe lights.

Be More Chill photo shows Max Wright as Jeremy Heere and Zachary Ufkes '24 as the mask-wearing supercomputer, the Squip.
Max Wright ’26 portrays Jeremy Heere and Zachary Ufkes ’24 is a supercomputer called the Squip in “Be More Chill,” running Thursday-Sunday at Kalamazoo College’s Festival Playhouse. Photos by Andy Krieger of Inspired Media.
Be More Chill actors
Tickets to “Be More Chill” are available online or by calling the Festival Playhouse at 269.337.7333. Photos by by Andy Krieger of Inspired Media.

Festival Playhouse Opens 60th Season with ‘Playhouse Creatures’

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The curtain will rise beginning Thursday on a production that’s based on historical figures, but not historical fact, at Kalamazoo College’s Festival Playhouse.

Playhouse Creatures begins in 1669 as theatres in England are reopening after 17 years of Puritan suppression under a regime led by Oliver Cromwell. The Restoration Era is beginning with a monarchy re-established under King Charles II, who declares that women—for the first time in England—should be the actors in female-identifying roles.

The play examines five of the most famous actresses of the English stage to provide a moving and often comic account of the trailblazers. The characters include Doll Common, played by Brooklyn Moore ’24; Nell Gwynn, played by Jericho Trevino ’27; Mrs. Mary Betterton, played by Abby Nelson ’24; Mrs. Rebecca Marshall, played by Cameo Green ’24; and Mrs. Elizabeth Farley, played by May Moe Tun ’25.

Playhouse Creatures is the first play slated for the Festival Playhouse’s 60th season, which features a theme of “Systems as Old as Time,” focusing on the harmful systems that hold back the oppressed and how people fight against them. It will highlight the ways that joy, laughter and solidarity can still exist and thrive despite those systems.

Actors rehearse for "Playhouse Creatures" at the Festival Playhouse stage
Jericho Trevino ’27 (left) and May Moe Tun ’25 rehearse for “Playhouse Creatures,” which runs Thursday, November 2–Sunday, November 5, at the Festival Playhouse.

“Nell Gwynn, our main character, became an incredibly influential figure in English society, but she starts the show in a very low place, and we see her rise,” said Max Wright ’26, who is serving as the play’s dramaturg. “We also see the difference between the young, new actors and the women who were older after acting early in the Restoration.”

Wright is stepping into a production role for the first time. However, they have been acting since fourth grade and they were a featured actor in the Festival Playhouse show of Othello last year. Their responsibilities for this production include a lobby display that provides basic historical context, a brief look back on women in theater, and a view into the lives that the real-life characters led.

“It’s a very heavy show, but I think a lot of it is about overcoming the constraints that are placed on you and still making your way in the world, while finding your own place despite someone else’s expectations and the hardships you have to go through,” Wright said. “It’s very focused on the community aspect of how women have leaned on each other and the sisterhood of feminism in history.”

The play will be staged at 7:30 p.m. on November 2–4, and at 2 p.m. November 5, in the Festival Playhouse Theatre at 129 Thompson St. Thursday’s show will include American Sign Language interpretation in a performance made possible with support from Theatre Kalamazoo and the James Gilmore Foundation. Tickets are available online or by calling the Festival Playhouse at 269.337.7333.  Audiences should be aware that the play’s content includes flashing lights and situations including abortion and simulated violence.

“Theatre in general is a wonderful experience because it tells stories in ways that can’t be done elsewhere,” Wright said. “The aspect of live theatre—of physically seeing a story played out in front of you—is a form of communication that we’ve had throughout history. That is how we share our culture. That is how we share our community. That is how we share the stories of ourselves in our past. This is one of the stories of our past and it was a crucial point in time for women and theatre in general.”

‘Next to Normal’ Completes Season Focused on Mental Health

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The Festival Playhouse will present the capstone to its 59th season with four performances of Next to Normal from Thursday, May 18–Sunday, May 21, at the Nelda K. Balch Playhouse, 129 Thompson St.

The rock musical centers on Diana, a suburban woman struggling with worsening bipolar disorder and its effects on her family. The show has themes of grief, depression, suicide, drug abuse and psychiatric ethics, making it ideal for concluding a season themed Mental Health Matters. After an off-Broadway debut in 2008, Next to Normal opened on Broadway in 2009, earning 11 Tony nominations and three awards along with the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Visiting Assistant Professor Anthony J. Hamilton will serve as the musical’s director. Hamilton made his New York directorial debut in a production titled Grandma’s Quilt with the Negro Ensemble Company in 2020. He has directing and choreography credits from the Kalamazoo Civic Theatre including Ain’t Misbehavin’ in 2011, Once on This Island in 2019, The 1940s Radio Hour in 2021, The Piano Lesson and Newsies in 2022, and A Raisin in the Sun in 2023.

“It isn’t a typical rock opera or musical, but I think those who come will get something out of it, which is that ‘mental health matters’ component,” Hamilton said. “I think young people especially are championing the idea that it matters, and because we’re presenting it at a college, it will be interesting to see how students react to this piece.”

Dramaturg Isaiah Calderon ’26 says the play doesn’t shy away from some horrible experiences while it tackles issues surrounding both mental health and the modern-day medical industry.

“This broad scope of focus might detract from the narrative efficiency of another play, but Next to Normal handles its eclectic storytelling in a way that leaves everything thoroughly explored,” Calderon said. “All the pieces are brought together by the acknowledgement of human imperfection and the fact that even though it may be tempting, the perfection we strive for is neither attainable nor ideal. Its presentation intends to affect its viewer in a way that feels a bit overwhelming, but upon examination, is refreshingly direct. Its intensity and refusal to compromise drive home its points perfectly.”

Sophia Merchant ’25 will play Diana, the matriarch of her nuclear family, in the musical’s lead.

“What’s great about working on a show at a place like K instead of a place like Western, where everyone is a theatre major, is that we have psychology majors and engineers, our state manager is pre-med, and we have all of these different backgrounds coming together to put on this show,” Hamilton said.

The play will be staged at 7:30 p.m. May 18–20 and at 2 p.m. May 21. Tickets are available online or by calling the Festival Playhouse at 269.337.7333.

Sophia Merchant sings during Founders Day at Stetson Chapel
Sophia Merchant ’25 will play Diana, a character who deals with mental health issues including worsening bipolar disorder, in the upcoming production of “Next to Normal.”
Image advertising play about mental health says, "Next to Normal" by Brian Yorkey and Tom Kitt
The Festival Playhouse will stage “Next to Normal” at 7:30 p.m. May 18–20 and at 2 p.m. May 21.

Playhouse’s 60th Season to Spotlight Alum’s Broadway Musical

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The Festival Playhouse of Kalamazoo College is celebrating a milestone season in the 2023–24 academic year by staging a Broadway musical written by an alumnus among its three productions before hosting Farmers Alley Theatre for another musical.

The theme for its 60th season is “Systems as Old as Time,” which will focus on the harmful systems that hold back the oppressed and how people fight against them. The Playhouse will highlight the ways that joy, laughter and solidarity can still exist and thrive despite those systems.

“The ‘Systems as Old as Time’ theme is a both/and: it both harkens to our 60th anniversary and recognizes the frighteningly repetitive nature of oppressive systems,” Professor of Theatre Lanny Potts said. “Theatre uniquely has the opportunity to help us explore, as a community, oppressive systemic structures.”

The season will open in fall with Playhouse Creatures, written by April De Angelis and directed by Professor of Theatre Arts Ren Pruis. Set in 1669, the play focuses on five women who were some of the first English actresses to appear on stage after Puritan oppression. It explores the lives of the trailblazers and their fight for power and agency in a patriarchal society.

Musical writer Joe Tracz '04
Alumnus Joe Tracz ’04 wrote the musical “Be More Chill,” which will be one of three Festival Playhouse productions in its 60th season along with “Playhouse Creatures” and “Pipeline.” The Playhouse also will host the Farmers Alley Theatre for its production of “School of Rock,” which will give students a chance to work alongside local and Actors Equity professionals.

The second show, scheduled for the winter term, will be Pipeline, written by Dominique Morisseau and directed by Visiting Assistant Professor of Theatre Arts Anthony Hamilton. It is the story of a mother’s fight to help give her son a future without turning her back on the community that made him who he is. It confronts the damages of a rigged school-to-prison pipeline and emphasizes the importance of bringing the conversations surrounding it to the forefront of our institutions.

In a college premier, the third show will be the Broadway musical Be More Chill, directed by Assistant Professor of Theatre Quincy Thomas. This rock sci-fi story about growing up, high school and what people do to get what they want is written by K alumnus Joe Tracz ’04. He is updating the play to license it to K, and another alumnus, Grinnell College Professor of Theatre and Design Justin Thomas ’01, will join the production as its scenic designer.

Then, after the academic season, Farmers Alley Theatre will produce School of Rock on the Playhouse stage. The opportunity will allow students to work alongside local and Actors Equity professionals, as they did in 1964 during the first Festival Playhouse season. Based on the film starring Jack Black, the School of Rock musical follows Dewey Finn, a failed rock star who decides to earn money by posing as a substitute teacher at a prestigious prep school. At the school, he turns a class of bright and well-accomplished students into a rock band.

“Our 60th season explores misogyny, patriarchy, racism, redlining and the schools to prison complex, bullying, social shaming and conformism,” Potts said. “And we look forward to connecting with our community partners and campus as we explore complex themes in ways that help us to better comprehend, and as accomplices, move forward to dismantle these oppressive systems.”