Category: Student Organization

REVIEW: For the Love of (Or, the Roller Derby Play)

Maeve Ricks Leave a comment

As I settled into my seat at the Arthur Miller Theatre, little did I know that I was about to be whisked away into the adrenaline-pumping world of roller derby, a world I had never explored before. Enter the Rude Mechanicals and their electrifying production of For the Love of (or, the Roller Derby Play), which proved to be a dazzling spectacle that captivated from start to finish.

The Rude Mechanicals team assembled a seamless fusion of sets, costumes, hair, and lighting, each working harmoniously to transport this newbie into the vibrant, gritty world of roller derby. The dazzling costumes and imaginative set design were like characters themselves, imbued with the essence of the sport and its audacious players. 

And then there was the derby choreography, wow! The energetic sequences dazzled with their exhilarating pace, brilliantly captured the sport’s chaos and thrill while presumably being far safer than the real thing. The cast flew around the stage with infectious energy and precision, making the audience feel as if we’d dropped into a match on the fast track. 

Before the show, audience members were given team flags, stirring up competitive spirit and encouraging us to root for our favorite characters, which is a thrilling addition. This electrified the atmosphere, resulting in a lively yet respectful crowd. Imagine an audience fully engaged, mouths agape, eyes wide, and hearts pounding, not because of a stray Instagram scroll, but because the performance demanded it. 

However, every fierce jam (that’s a roller derby term I learned) has its slip-up, and here, the plot’s initial momentum veers off course. The script begins as a captivating ensemble piece, weaving the members’ stories like a taut team flag. Yet, it falters towards the end of act one, turning towards a singular storyline with a sapphic love triangle. This divulgence from the derby isn’t necessarily bad because sapphic love isn’t relevant to the story, but it dilutes the broader message of empowerment and unity within roller derby, which is what the story initially offers as you get to know the characters in the first act.

Despite this narrative detour, the cast delivered stellar performances. The actresses portraying Lizzie Lightning, Sophia Santos Ufkes, and Andrea the Vagiant, Sarah Josephina Hartmus, stood out, their portrayals embodying fierce athleticism and vulnerable emotion that provided nuanced reflections of the roller derby spirit, and their complicated characters. 

For the Love of (or, the Roller Derby Play) invited me into the intense, enthralling world of roller derby with Rude Mechanicals at the helm—definitely a production to be experienced. While I left with a major issue with the script, the overall excellence of the production remains undeniable. No matter the jam, in the rink, you’ll find your way through.

REVIEW: The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Maeve Ricks Leave a comment

Oh, the thrills of live theater… expectation in the air, anticipation humming, and—oh, what’s that?—a microphone left on backstage, inadvertently picking up the riveting sound of someone’s pre-show snack break. Alas, such was my experience with MUSKET’s winter production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame at the Power Center for Performing Arts. As the house lights dimmed, I was prepared for an epic adventure through the cobblestone streets of 15th-century Paris, guided by the sweeping melodies of a beloved Stephen Schwartz score. What I received instead was a journey paved with glaring sound issues and directorial missteps.

The sound design/mixing was, let’s just say, a unique interpretation of cacophony at its finest. The voices of leading roles were swallowed by the ensemble during featured moments; it was more like they were competing in a vocal tug-of-war where only one side had their microphones turned on. When the sound design is good, you notice nothing; when it’s bad, it’s like nails on a chalkboard. Mics left on at inopportune moments, and mics off when they were supposed to be on was just the beginning of the rest of this epic-length musical.

Then we have the set—a gorgeous, rented fantasy courtesy of Disney itself. Revel in its arches, its gothic allure, the golden bells, and its underwhelming presence because it was scarcely utilized! If I saw one more chorus arc singing center stage and standing still, there’d be hellfire to pay. Not to mention, that every powerful ballad lacked movement, standing on the same bored center stage mark.

The direction, I’m afraid, felt more like a directionless meandering. Lacking dynamism, each scene seemed to wash into the next with a repetitive lull that did no favors for the audience’s attention span or for characters who already struggle to stand out against their major movie counterparts. It’s hard for me to grasp onto characters whose only defining trait is their ability to make me wish the scene transition would happen already.

Despite these misadventures in sound and space, the cast carried the show on their capable shoulders with Esmeralda, played by Abby Lyons, and Quasimodo, played by Max Peluso, shining even through the most challenging acoustic trenches.

In the end, not even the beautiful set could gloss over the production’s glaring flaws, echoing Shakespeare’s timeless observation that “All that glitters is not gold.” Alas, it’s a poignant reminder that the right team can turn straw into gold, but all the gold-rented sets in the world can’t salvage a lackluster vision and poor sound mixing.

For a student theatre organization that is so popular and well-revered, it’s a shame this production can’t stand next to some of their other hits. Here’s hoping future productions can rise above, allowing both story and song to truly soar.

REVIEW: For The Love Of (Or, The Roller Derby Play)

musicalsoup Leave a comment

April 20 | 2pm | The Arthur Miller Theater

 

 

“Its called the pack, all of us together like that.” a cocky skater bellows, painted in tattoos and a hint of aggression. “It’s crazy how we get so caught up in it…How it becomes everything…The chase and the game.” Roller derby is no joke to Lizzie Lightning.

The air of the 2010s is crisp from the moment you step into the Arthur Miller Theater—I was nearly sent back to clutching my iPod Touch in my parents’ house while watching reruns of Victorious. Rude Mechanicals presents For The Love of (Or, The Roller Derby Play), a 2018 play by Gina Femia. Director Natalie Tell transports us into a Roller Derby locker room in 2015, the humble home of the Brooklyn Scallywags.

Misfit newcomer Joy Ride (Grace Wilson) is new to the Scallywags, a passionate women’s Roller Derby team. When Joy meets the star player, Lizzie Lightning (a forceful Sofia Santos-Ufkes), she and her partner Michelle (Alexandra Berryman) tackle new challenges from Joy’s split devotion to the Scallywags and her long-term relationship.

The team is led by their overlooked coach, Andrea the Vagiant (Sarah Josephina Hartmus) and: Anna-Stecia, a reliable nurse (Oummu Kabba), Hot Flash, a brash Brooklynite mother (Cammie Golba), the adorable Squeaky Mouse (Maya Kusalovic), the dedicated Prosecute-Her (Ariela Alperstein), and the tough, no-shit-taking Diaz de los Muertos (Naomi Rodriguez).

The Arthur Miller Theater.

The show weaves small vignettes of each skater’s life outside the rink with the team’s present lives on the track. The derby surrounds them, why, it makes up the entire set (an exquisite design by Ellie Vice). Though they work jobs, have children, partners, the team is their true community: “Roller Derby is not just a sport—it’s a movement on eight wheels, a high-speed collision of athleticism, spectacle and subculture”, thoughtfully stated by dramaturgs Sam Aupperlee and Nova Brown.

 

The choreography (by Marcus Byers Jr.) was sassy and energetic, just the right spunk to match bright pink and purple jerseys (costumes by Katy Dawson).  Though indulging in long scene transitions, the actors brought out the natural charm of their friendship, especially in intimate moments. Wilson and Berryman found a natural chemistry between each other, devastating as the two flounder, craving different realities.

Andrea initially seems uptight and standoffish, but when a past relationship with Lizzie is uncovered, the mood thickens, and she softens respectfully. Hartmus is effortless onstage, funny, and sensitive. With Santos-Ufkes, the two create sentimental and dynamic interplay between the past lovers.

The range of roles in this production is intriguing, but some of the writing feels reductive to stereotype. Prosecute-her and Squeaky Mouse, women with brief vignettes during the show, maintained a pretty central shtick (the law student and the ditzy girl), which left me craving more from them.

For The Love Of spends the least time exploring the sport of roller derby, and more of it sinking into the lives of those who play it. And the inherent queerness without any thematic overtness was refreshing. So was watching the team learn to love the game, themselves, and each other.  It never was about Roller Derby anyway.

 

 

 

Photos thanks to Rude Mechanicals & Ellie Vice. 

REVIEW: Echoes: A Music Journey to the East

Chloe Huang 1 Comment

In the fall of 2019, Qingyun Chinese Ensemble was founded, emerging as the University of Michigan’s first and only Chinese music ensemble and carrying a mission to bring traditional Chinese music to Michigan audiences. Their recent performance at the McIntosh Theater, Echoes: A Music Journey to the East, operates as an extension of their ambitions, focusing on bridging the gap between ancient melodies and contemporary interpretations. With extensive experience in their respective instruments, the members not only displayed technical skills but also a deep pride in representing their culture and heritage. 

Echoes: A Music Journey to the East was divided into three chapters–Journey to the West, Diversity in Harmony, and Life as a Bundle of Spirits– each showcasing a diverse selection of short pieces. Soloists and full ensembles constantly fluttered on and off the stage with their instruments as two announcers enthusiastically introduced each piece’s context and featured instruments. The announcers noted specifics of certain instruments, for example, how the sound of a solo instrument accentuated the intended emotion of the piece, as well as some of the song’s history. Whether or not audience members arrived with prior knowledge of Chinese traditional music, Qingyun ensured they left with a newfound understanding of the genre. 

My knowledge of Chinese traditional music is limited, and perhaps as a result, I found the evening marked by diverting surprises. I was taken at how the performers utilized the entirety of their instruments– for example, tapping on the base of the erhu (Chinese fiddle) or running a stick beater along the ridged encirclement of a dagu (Chinese bass drum)– and at the variety of songs being played. The repertoire ranged from Chinese folk music to more contemporary pieces, to adaptations of music from the video game Black Myth: Wukong, alongside a Japanese song and Mozart’s iconic Turkish March. The distinct sounds each instrument produced were strikingly beautiful, and when the full ensemble came together in the final chapter, their rich harmony was accentuated by individual tones adding layers of texture. I especially loved when the sounds of the dizi (Chinese transverse flute) poked through with its deep, melodic tones. Additionally, many of the traditional songs performed were deeply rooted in nature, a sensation that resonated in the music itself—the dizi evoked birdsong, the muyu (woodblock) mimicked the rhythm of galloping horses, and the guzheng (Chinese plucked zither) gently flowed like water streaming down a mountainside. 

Performance of Erhu Concerto “War Horses Galloping” (1976)

The compact McIntosh theater seated no more than 100 viewers, fostering an easy exchange between the performer on stage and the audience. The ability to see each musician’s fingers move deftly across their instrument, catch subtle expressions, and witness the silent nods exchanged before beginning a piece added a sense of intimacy to the experience. The final surprise song was one of exuberant energy as the behind-the-scenes crew was brought onto the stage and the audience was invited to heartily clap along to the rhythm. After the performance, there was also a ‘Meet the Instrument’ segment where the audience was invited to come up on stage and play the exhibited instruments.

The Qingyun Chinese Music Ensemble continues to provide a space for students to refine their craft while introducing new audiences to the often-overlooked beauty of Chinese traditional music. Their performance was both welcoming and educational, offering an experience that was not only immersive but also deeply personal, reflecting the performers’ passion for their art. 

More information on the ensemble as well as the pieces and instruments performed in Echoes: A Music Journey to the East can be found here: https://qr-codes.io/pkFUwE



REVIEW: A Prison, a Prisoner, and a Prison Guard : An Exploration of Carcerality in the Middle East and North Africa

the eye online Leave a comment

Featured Image: Marc Nelson (left) is an Illinois-based artist whose work documents the war crimes, and human rights violations occurring in Syria, Yemen, Myanmar, and the United States, and is featured in the exhibition. He is pictured with his friend and martyr of revolution Mazen Al-Hamada, whose verbal and visual testimony are also featured. Mazen was forcibly disappeared and later murdered in the “slaughterhouse” prison of Saydnaya in Damascus, only days before the toppling of the Assad regime.

CW: Depictions of Torture (Illustrated) and Discussions of Carceral Violence, Torture, and Death

The notion of human nature implies certain universalities amongst all people, suggesting an intangible connection between everyone who has ever lived, everyone alive now, and everyone who has yet to live. The tangible products of creative expression that we call art could be described as the physical manifestations of human nature. Thus, an artist’s humanity and identity become immortalized by their act of creation.

But what about those who cannot create art freely? Whose voices are silenced by carceral institutions designed to dehumanize and disenfranchise? Human nature does not simply vanish, and neither do those who are incarcerated.

A Prison, a Prisoner, and a Prison Guard: An Exploration of Carcerality in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is only the second exhibition I have encountered dedicated solely to incarcerated and prison-impacted artists and communities, a troubling reality I believe reflects the overwhelmingly negative Western and global attitudes towards incarcerated people.

Curators Susan Aboeid and Sumaya Tabbah of The Hafathah Collective, with organizational collaboration from U-M Students Organize for Syria (SOS), in partnership with U-M Library, and with support from the U-M Arts Initiative, have created one of the most poignant traveling exhibitions I have ever had the privilege of viewing. The geographic coverage of the MENA region is extensive, with prison art from Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen, effectively revealing the devastatingly similar carceral realities of these countries. The exhibition, however, resists exceptionalism by asserting that prisons in the MENA region are not bad because the area is bad, but because the prisons and those who run them are detestable. Untitled by Unknown, Undated, Yemen is a visual testimony smuggled out of prison by an unknown artist, depicting methods of systematic mass torture implemented in UAE-run prisons in Yemen. This piece grapples with the exhibition’s tension of understanding prison art as testimony versus aesthetic, the former allowing the works to transcend carceral geographies and speak to the visitors, who in turn, speak to each other. Thus, the gallery becomes a space for those who have survived these prisons but can’t go back, a chance to reconcile their experiences and emotions.Another work, Broken Oaths by Razaan Killawi, 2021, Syria, depicts former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad atop excerpts from his inaugural address, “…a speech laced with assurances of unity, reform, and national pride — words that starkly contrast the realities of oppression, fear, and violence experienced by Syrians” reads the object label. Much like Assad weaponized language to legitimize injustice and oppression, the prison experience is carefully designed to legitimize the disintegration of communities under the false notion of “protection”. What is truly protected within these prisons is the truth — the truth about the unbearable reality so many people experience, which they can only later describe as “being suspended between life and death”.

Whether we are separated by oceans and borders, language and culture, walls and bars, or armed guards and authoritarian regimes, we remain forever connected to our family and friends on the inside. This heart-wrenching exhibition, which will remain open until March 30th at the Hatcher Library at U-M, reminds those of us on the outside that those inside are still with us. I implore everyone who is able to take the opportunity to be with these artists through their immortal testimony, and hear their voices which will not be silenced.

REVIEW: The Stampede

Madi Hammond Leave a comment

When I picture an art gallery, my mind conjures a quiet, sterile space lined with ancient sculptures or framed paintings, each accompanied by a neatly printed placard. Even trendier collections, like those at the Museum of Modern Art, tend to follow a certain formula: curated, polished, and sometimes intimidating.

But The Stampede installation at the Stamps Gallery is something different — fresh, young, and alive. This exhibition is the first gallery showcase for The Stampede, a student organization founded in 2023 with a mission to create spaces for students to present new and unconventional artwork. With a rallying cry to “RUN WITH US!” it presents some of their work while showcasing the energy of this student-driven art movement.

Gallery-style art collection at The Stampede exhibit.

The exhibit serves as a retrospective of everything The Stampede has accomplished in its short existence. In just a year, the group has hosted pop-ups, parties, art markets, concerts, and gallery exhibitions, establishing itself as a vibrant hub for artists, writers, and musicians. This exhibition isn’t just a collection of their work — it’s a living testament to their rapid growth and creative impact.

The first thing you encounter upon rounding the corner into the one-room exhibit is a simulated merchandise table. While it was used for actual sales during the opening night, afterward, the items weren’t available for purchase. Instead, they mimic the kind of setup you’d find at a Stampede event, reinforcing the immersive, DIY ethos of the organization. It’s a clever way to blur the line between exhibition and experience, making visitors feel like they’ve stepped into a real Stampede gathering.

Artwork at The Stampede exhibit.

One wall is dedicated to a constantly running short film, projected in a loop, capturing the raw energy of Stampede parties, behind-the-scenes glimpses of artwork in progress, and the collective excitement that fuels the group. Another wall displays the spray-painted banners seen in the video, along with an archive of promotional posters from past Stampede events. The third wall is packed floor to ceiling in a salon-style arrangement, a practical necessity at their pop-up galleries where wall space is often scarce. This layout mirrors the spontaneous and organic nature of their events, where art spills over every available surface.

The variety of mediums on display is striking: zines, collages, paintings, sketches, and even papier-mâché sculptures. Each piece stands on its own, yet together they form a cohesive narrative of experimentation and self-expression. The installation feels less like a traditional gallery and more like an active, ongoing conversation between artists and their audience.

Perhaps the most playful (and fitting) element of the exhibit is the shrine to the “Blood of the Bull,” The Stampede’s signature sangria. A simple spray-paint can and red Solo cups serve as a cheeky nod to the community-building aspect of their events. It’s an artifact not just of their gatherings, but of the youthful, unfiltered spirit that defines The Stampede.

“Blood of the Bull,” an ode to sangria at The Stampede.

More than just an organization or an exhibit, The Stampede is a community. Every part of this installation pulses with the energy of the college experience: messy, exciting, and full of possibility. Rather than adhering to the conventions of traditional galleries, The Stampede invites us to break free, run wild, and make space for something new.