This fall, Samantha Eve — the artistic director of Out of the Box Theatre, a local production company specializing in contemporary musicals — is bringing her expertise in musical theater to Westmont College. Eve will direct Westmont’s Momentum! A Musical Revue, featuring students performing a curated list of Broadway songs about facing life in a fast-moving world. Some selections may be familiar to audiences, such as “Something’s Coming” from the popular musical West Side Story, while other songs come from more obscure works, such as “Spark of Creation” from the lesser-known Children of Eden. Each of these songs exemplify Momentum’s thematic refrain of being whisked from one new adventure to another.
“The Westmont theater program makes a point to offer its students an extremely well-rounded understanding of theater,” says Eve, who accepted the offer to lead this production after being invited to consult with students about their ambitions and options for learning and performance opportunities. “It’s a heavily personalized program where the students are able to express what interests them and pursue it as a part of their curriculum.”
The production also benefits from the talents of Music Director Neil Di Maggio, Vocal Director Matthew Peterson, and choreographer Gwenyth Lundgaard, a Westmont student herself.
“We’re working to give the students the full experience of putting together a musical theater production,” says Eve. “Musical theater acting is a unique form of performing arts, particularly in how music can be utilized as an actor’s tool to express internalized thoughts and emotions…. I’m hoping this project allows these students to take the things they’ve learned in Westmont’s theater program and put the techniques to work in a new format.”
The show runs at the Porter Theatre at Westmont (955 La Paz Rd.) September 18–20, with a variety of evening and afternoon showtimes. See bit.ly/467El0n for tickets.
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