From plays at Stewart Theatre to live concerts and arts exhibitions at the Gregg Museum, NC State’s arts scene offered a lot this semester.
Let’s start off with “Urinetown,” the musical production that poked fun at capitalism and brought artful satire to life. This production, the first to be staged in Stewart Theater since spring of 2020, was a huge success.
Joshua Reaves, program director with University Theatre, said performing at Stewart was fun yet challenging.
“It was great being back and, you know, we had to relearn a lot of things,” Reaves said. “There was a lot of ‘Oh, yeah, I forgot about that,’ … but it’s been a while since we’ve had a cast and crew that was so excited to be there and so excited to perform and just be part of something that brought in a large community of students together.”
The Gregg Museum also had several exhibitions throughout the semester, such as “True Likeness,” brought by the Van Every/Smith Galleries at Davidson College and “This is Not: Aldwyth in Retrospect,” curated by Mark Sloan.
In a previous Technician article, assistant culture editor Jameson Wolf said showcasing both exhibits together served to explore the artists’ ideas about identity from different angles.
Both exhibits are still on display, “True Likeness” in the Black/Sanderson gallery through July 22 and “This is Not: Aldwyth in Retrospect” in the Adams and Woodson galleries through Oct. 7.
Mark Tulbert, director of arts marketing at NC State, said even though these exhibitions will eventually close, the Gregg Museum will still have them available virtually on its website.
QuickSCRIPTS, a one-night event that showcases four 10-minute plays written, cast and produced in 72 hours, was also a popular event this semester.
“We started [QuickSCRIPTS] last summer, actually, so it’s not even a year old yet,” Reaves said. “We did one in the summer and then we did three this academic year: two in the fall, one in the spring.”
Reaves also mentioned that this event is open to all community members, not only students, thus enhancing collaboration between local actors working in the area and students interested in the arts.
The popularity for QuickSCRIPTS has increased, as it promotes freedom since the idea of the plays are not focused on the final product but rather the process of creating it.
“I have a sense or feeling that students don’t want to fail, like, ‘No, I’m going to work my butt off and do what I have to do to make sure this is exactly perfect,’ and QuickSCRIPTS doesn’t allow you to do that,” Reaves said. “It forces you to make a choice, right or wrong, and just go with it, go with your gut. Don’t research, don’t take your time thinking about it. If it’s wrong, who cares.”
As the semester comes to an end, it’s important to highlight the contribution of the arts to our community, as each event fosters mutual support and collaboration that creates an impact on students’ lives and will continue to in the future.
