Senior Theatre & Dance College students Direct Manufacturing for Community Little ones
The Muhlenberg workforce is effective in collaboration with 1 a further and the Allentown Jewish Group Heart local community to place on a output of “Schoolhouse Rock Reside!”

By:



Clarissa Shirley ’22 & Sarah Wedeking ’24




Thursday, April 21, 2022 11:47 AM
College students rehearse at the JCC
A team of theatre & dance college students are taking the abilities they’ve uncovered at Muhlenberg out into the local community. Savannah Hastings ’22, Arianna Tilley ’22 and Abigail Sherman ’22 are the resourceful group powering Schoolhouse Rock Are living! at the Allentown Jewish Group Center’s (JCC) Stagemakers Theatre Arts Program. This is the JCC’s first entire-scale output considering the fact that the get started of the pandemic in March 2020.
“The pandemic has stripped children of a portion of their youth,” says Hastings, who directs the output. “To provide some of that feeling of local community and perform, in man or woman, again to them is amazing.”
The Stagemaker System presents Allentown small children, ages 4 to 14, a opportunity to carry out onstage in a complete-scale musical. It also presents a semester-long expert practical experience to graduating faculty theatre artists. This year’s group includes Hastings, choreographer Tilley and musical director Sherman. Performances operate April 28 and May 1 tickets and details are offered at lvjcc.org/stagemakers.
Heather Lavin ’08, software coordinator at the JCC, says that the small children have been positively impacted by the expertise, which she characteristics to the Muhlenberg team’s get the job done ethic and the department’s multidisciplinary solution to theater and dance.
“The holistic look at they have gained from their scientific studies has supplied them the skill to exhibit the youngsters a well-rounded strategy to the accomplishing arts,” Lavin says. “It’s seriously excellent to see them draw those connections throughout the other spots that they analyze and be ready to build a nicely-rounded practical experience as these children learn about theatre for the initial time.”
Hastings agrees that the Muhlenberg team has benefited alongside the solid of youngsters.
“I consider it is great to have the option to develop outside the house of Muhlenberg’s campus,” Hastings says, “and use the skills that I have realized to help do one thing constructive in the community.”
Schoolhouse Rock Reside! is a musical based on ABC’s cartoon collection of instructional small movies that ran Saturday mornings from 1973 to 1984.
“I made use of to view it every single working day on VHS tapes, and I am nevertheless obsessed with the songs,” Tilley states. “Those music received me by way of [Advanced Placement] U.S. Govt in higher school.”
Although Tilley feels a private relationship to the materials, she says that what definitely drew her to the venture was the possibility to empower little ones as they find out to sing and dance.
“I just really like functioning with kids—watching them get enthusiastic about dancing and staying on stage,” Tilley claims. “I remember that enthusiasm and drive as a child. I have designed it my own intention to give all people a highlight to glow and steal the stage, and it has been a joy choreographing these moments and observing their faces light-weight up.”
Lavin claims she enjoys the possibility to join with current and upcoming Muhlenberg college students.
“I want students to know that it’s a spot that they can come for employment and working experience,” Lavin says. “I hope it sort of gets passed down from university student to college student.”
As graduation in May well strategies, Hastings is grateful for the chance to get the job done in a professional atmosphere. She says it has helped her to know what kind of chief she would like to be in the long term.
“I want to be a leader who listens, who is structured, and is committed to their group,” Hastings states. “Wherever I go, I really feel ready and all set for the worries that will be thrown my way.”
About the Muhlenberg College Theatre & Dance Division
Muhlenberg features Bachelor of Arts degrees in theater and dance. The Princeton Critique ranked Muhlenberg’s theater system in the prime twelve in the nation for 8 decades in a row, and Fiske Guidebook to Schools lists equally the theater and dance courses between the top tiny university packages in the United States. Muhlenberg is just one of only eight faculties to be shown in Fiske for equally theater and dance.
About Muhlenberg School
Started in 1848, Muhlenberg is a hugely selective, non-public, 4-year household, liberal arts faculty supplying baccalaureate and graduate systems. With an enrollment of approximately 2,200 pupils, Muhlenberg Faculty is committed to shaping resourceful, compassionate, collaborative leaders via demanding educational packages in the arts, humanities, purely natural sciences and social sciences chosen preprofessional applications, including accounting, business, training and community health and fitness and progressive workforce-focused publish-baccalaureate certificates and master’s levels. Positioned in Allentown, Pennsylvania, close to 90 miles west of New York Metropolis, Muhlenberg is a member of the Centennial Conference, competing in 22 varsity athletics. Muhlenberg is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in The us.
