JustArts spoke with Kelsey Strouse '13, UTC Coordinator, about her experiences in theater at Brandeis.

JustArts: What was your first theater experience at Brandeis?
Kelsey Strouse: I first did the 24-Hour Musical my freshman year and was the assistant stage manager. I fell in love with Brandeis theater and it has been my life ever since.
JA: What is your job as Undergraduate Theatre Collective coordinator?
KS: The UTC is five undergraduate theater clubs and each club puts on shows every year. I run commission meetings where all the Executive Boards of the clubs get together and talk about the UTC as a whole, what we want to do with undergraduate theater at Brandeis.
JA: How did you get involved with UTC?
KS: I had gotten asked to assistant stage manage A Chorus Line, done by Typanium Euphorium in the beginning of my freshman year. I had loved stage managing in high school and I wanted to keep doing it so I got involved with a lot of the clubs in the UTC. Mostly, I loved the community<>-there are five different clubs but it is one big family and people don't just do shows with one club.
JA: What are some of the highlights of the upcoming season?
KS: Well, we already had the 24-Hour Musical, which was a great theater orientation for everybody and to get excited about the season. Lots of the shows going up this year fill staff positions based on the people they meet at the musical. There's a good mix of shows this year: Tymp is doing Bat Boy, which is a dark comedy and sometimes absurd; Metamorphoses is being done through Brandeis Ensemble Theatre based on poems by Ovid, told in a series of vignettes, and the set is hopefully going to have a pool in it; Hillel Theater Group is doing Rumors, also a really funny dark comedy; Or is going up with Brandeis Players and it takes place in the mid-1600s but it is a commentary on the 1960s, and of course, Boris' Kitchen always does their sketch comedy show.
JA: How do the arts and theater enhance your experience at Brandeis?
KS: It's been my family since I've got here. It's a really great group of people who do theater and since I've been stage manager, I've gotten to work with actors and techies and I'm trying to bridge the gap between the two groups.
JA: If you could stage manage any theater piece what would it be?
KS: What I love about being involved with a show is watching the progression from beginning to end, so really any show that has a cast and crew really dedicated to the success of the show. That's what is all worth it to me. So I guess the show itself doesn't matter, as long as it's something people can be really passionate about and I can watch that grow.
JA: What shows have you stage managed in the past?
KS: I was abroad in the spring last year, but last fall I managed Cinderella Waltz. In the spring of my sophomore year I did Rent, which was an incredible experience. I've also done lots of little things, like stage managing for Boris' Kitchen and Quickies, which is the student-written play festival.
JA: What is the most challenging aspect of being stage manager of a theater show?
KS: The time commitment is huge, so balancing everything can get really tough. The stage manager's job is the ultimate middle man, so they are the liaison between the cast and the production staff, and as soon as you get into tech week, the manager is supposed to know everything that the designers, cast and directors need. Mediating all those different factors can get really stressful, especially within the UTC because we all share the same space and we have one or two weeks to get everything in the theater ready for the show. It's stressful and a lot of late nights, but so rewarding. It's the greatest feeling once the show gets on the stage and you realize everything you have done leading up to that one moment.
JA: What do you want to do after graduation?
KS: I want to go into teaching, and I'm still very much struggling in figuring out how theater is going to fit into my life because I know it has to. Theater is such a part of who I am. One of the best aspects about theater is that you don't have to give it up if you don't go into some other profession; there is always a place to fit it in. Also, I want to fit theater in with what I do as a teacher because it is a great tool for kids, especially now when there is a big push towards discipline, kids going on ADHD medication and things like that. Theater is a great outlet for kids to let everything loose that they can't in the classroom.
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