Blue Demon Theater put on its annual cabaret show, “In Your Dreams,” in an impressive ensemble of songs.
“There are so many big, dream roles that everyone pines for,” stated Ellie Johnson, director of the show.
The room darkened, and on cue, the anticipatory hush echoed throughout. It was October 17, and Blue Demon Theater was poised to debut this year’s cabaret, an annual assortment of ballads handpicked from the ever so lacking pool-of-copyright-infringement-free music. “In Your Dreams” was this year’s theme, with its explanation giving the illusion that the cast was performing the pieces they had always dreamed of but never had the opportunity to sing.
“We wanted to be able to give people opportunities to sing the songs from one of the shows that we will probably never do,” said Ellie Johnson, director of the cabaret, about the choice for the theme of the show.
Moments before, in room 120AB of Depaul’s Student Center, chatter buzzed around the space, and the reverberations of anticipation excited a liveliness and almost an air of annoyance in the seated crowd. It was hard to decipher where the commotion was commencing. Was it from the audience or behind the partition that divided them from the “backstage”? Sitting in my lap was the playbill, designed by Dylan Young, centering a moon over a dreamy purple sky, in a style resonant of a nostalgically illustrated children’s book.
However, the decisions of the song choices were on behalf of the creative team, not the performers. Putting the choice into the hands of the performers is what I had been led to believe was the point of the show, but that wasn’t the case. But a low-budget organization is not resourced to acquire the rights it needs for many songs, meaning it’s unfeasible to satisfy everyone’s dream performance. This means that deciding what tracks to use is a serious endeavor.
“Sydney really wanted to give people the opportunity for people to sing from iconic shows, and now, we’ve done that,” said Max Ching, assistant director, referring to Sydney Sallman, the producer.
Each performer was robed in black, yet there were flecks of blue and purple flitting through the dark. My wonder of this decision was quelled by an anonymous source, who informed me that the color scheme was to invoke a dreaminess, to play upon the show’s theme.
To the dismay of most of my friends and some select family members, theater has never been high on my list of preferred entertainment. I only let slip my disinterest for the art form in a hushed tone, using ambiguous diction, reminiscent of how I articulate my lack of film knowledge to my graduated film-major mother and brother. This production, however, brought me out of my cynicism, and I found myself thoroughly impressed with what a group of determined thespians could do in such a time crunch and with a scarcity of funds. The mic cracks and wardrobe malfunctions were relatively overshadowed by the skill and ambition of the cast.
I was especially awed by the second song. “Therapy” from the musical Tick Tick Boom is a dramatic display of an understanding of timing while simultaneously keeping your own path. Two paths are diverging as each person sings their own part to emblemize the argument between the two characters, never stopping at once to listen to the other and only running down the unceasing and tumultuous road of being the one who is “right.” The singers upheld their split synchronicity in perfect tune, their heads ticking like twin flame metronomes, so distinct yet in perfect pace to paint one singular picture.
“The feeling of performing in front of a big audience like we had last night is something that you really can’t like, replicate.” said Emma Lee Macosko, a part of the cast who was in parts of the song “Superboy and the Invisible Girl” from Next to Normal.
After the cast came out for their final bows, the room was enlightened once again, and the cast came spilling out. There was a pride and sense of accomplishment emanating from the cast and creative team as they gathered around each other and their friends and family for congratulations and embraces.
“I think it was our best run we’ve ever had,” said Jonathan Cimino, who starred in two songs in the cabaret, “Bad Idea” from Waitress and “They Both Reached for the Gun” from Chicago. “They all came together really well.”
Blue Demon Theater is a drama-focused club that welcomes anyone, DePaul Theater School affiliated or not, to have the ability to be involved in a production, as long as you can dazzle your way through the auditions or provide qualifications to be worthy of the creative team. Even Ellie Johnson, the director, is a film major, not a theater major. Emma Lee Macosko, who was part of the cast, is an Environmental Studies major, with minors in Women’s and Gender Studies and Climate Change Science. Many of the cast I interviewed had a past in theater, but as life went on and college advanced, their paths diverged and they decentered the stage. Blue Demon Theater gives them a way to rediscover this ardor, without having to make too many sacrifices for it.
The cabaret begins their series of shows of the year, then ends the autumn season with their pièce de résistance later in the autumn, when they run an official play. While the cabaret only ran October 17 and 18, Blue Demon Theater still offers opportunities to see its performers in action. On November 7, 8 and 9, they will be performing Murder on the Orient Express. Tickets will be available on the Blue Demon Theater website and should go live a week before the show premieres.
Anyone interested in joining the club can audition during the start of the academic year,
with more information to be found on the website.
Header Image by Connor McCallion
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