“Chicago” is a renowned play set during 1920’s Chicago, during the era of vaudeville, jazz and murder. The play follows the story of Roxie Hart and Velma Kelly, two murderers who compete for newfound fame through the press, and for the attention of greasy lawyer, Billy Flynn.
Arts and Comms. sophomore Paige Sanders portrayed the lead, Roxie Hart. Stepping into a character can be difficult, but it also provides an extremely rewarding experience.
“I think it was really fun. I was really scared, at first, because I didn’t know how to portray such a confident and manipulative person. But, after getting to know the character, and feeling how funny she was, I put a lot of myself into the role and it was my favorite role to play by far,” said Sanders.
Mona and Kitty were both portrayed by Arts and Comms. sophomore, Sabrina Rodriguez. The production had some challenges, but were quickly overcome with the overwhelming help and support of many different people.
“I think the dancing and especially bringing in, since we partnered in steps, I think bringing in the dancers and the overall dancing was pretty hard. It’s because we went to Saturday dance practices and we had professional choreographers from New York and they all worked with us really well. That was a really big thing because the dancing was really important since the style is Fosse, and it’s a really well known style. We had to make sure we practiced it really well so we could get the style correct,” said Rodriguez.
There are many aspects of the production that caused a strong sense of accomplishment amongst the cast.
“I was really proud of the overall production. I was scared it wasn’t going to be as good as it was, but I think overall, I was proud that everybody pulled together. I really loved working with the actors. I think we had such a good friendship, and despite everything, we worked really hard together and I made some really cool friends and memories along the way,” said Sanders.
The theater director, Mark Van Savage, directed this play and it was his first major musical. The production had its challenges, but overall ended up as a wonderful performance for all of those involved.
”I’m glad they had a great time. I hope it left them wanting to do more theater. I hope I attracted somebody in the audience to say, ‘Hey, I would really love to try to do that.’ I got some big shoes to fill and I hope I can bring it back up to that level and have everybody really enjoy what they did here, and to walk away saying they felt like they accomplished something,” said Van Savage.
