Blur the Lines was a collaborative effort sponsored by SMTD Collaborative Student Assembly (CSA).
SMTD CSA’s Facebook
The performance was on October 19th in the Arthur Miller Theater at the Walgreen Drama Center. The cast was made up of student volunteers from several majors in the School of Music Theater and Dance. The goal of the event was to create, and perform, a one hour show in 24 hours.
Through Facebook promotion, Blur the Lines rounded up two volunteer composers, two writers, a director, several musicians, dancers, and actors, as well as PAT majors and a MUSIC THEORY major, to donate around 24 straight hours of their time to creating this show. First, the script writers and composers met at 8pm and wrote the show until 8am, when the performers joined in order to rehearse until the show started at 8 pm. Apparently this was the first year Blur the Lines had been organized, but I had no idea because the show was so put together, but it explains why so few people knew about it despite the Facebook efforts. However, I have no doubt, as the semesters progress, this will become a widely attended event.
It is honestly difficult to review the show because it’s such a unique situation for people to perform under, and it doesn’t seem to allow for much editing, which is arguably the most important part of the creative process. The concept of the show was supposed to be a day in the life of a person, starting in the morning, and ending at night. Honestly, that concept did not really come across. The whole show was made up of several, individual scenes about extremely varied topics. There was a scene with young love at the beginning and a scene revolving around a funeral towards the end but most of the scenes in between didn’t seem to have a strictly chronological order or revolve around time, like the theme suggested they would. The scenes also varied from great hits to scenes which could have benefited from much more editing. However, the show still had many great moments.
One of my favorite scenes was a monologue about a “Magic Girl”. I enjoyed the writing, which was very memorable, and the staging, which was active enough to hold the audience’s attention, while still complimenting the text, and music, instead of distracting from them. The scene following was also enjoyable, and extremely relatable for anyone who has grown up in a religious family, but is atheist. This monologue described how a person, forced to attend Sabbath every weekend with their family, struggles with a lack of ability to spiritually relate to the ceremony in a life “measured in Sabbaths”. The most entertaining scene was a monologue spoken by a girl about her desire for emotional and physical contact. What made this scene so unique was her “duet” with the violinist, who would respond musically to her advances, and eventually broke up with her. The two dancers in the cast also had a modern dance segment, which was very beautiful.
Honestly, what I recommend even more than seeing Blur the Lines next semester is PARTICIPATING in it. Everyone involved had the absolute time of their life and learned so much about themselves, and the creation process, no matter their major. It was also a great way for students to bridge the gap in SMTD, which is a school very separated by majors. But, what will lead to an even better experience is that the organization is planning on expanding it’s reach to the whole school, not just SMTD. I urge you to like SMTD CSA on Facebook and keep in touch about when the next Blur the Lines will be. This is an event which can only be made better by a bigger variety of student involvement, so I really hope you keep this on your radar and at least attend the next performance to see if you would like to get involved in it!
