Stockton’s community was given a treat on Friday evening when students in the upper-level Theatre course, “Creative Project Development,” presented their finalized project: a performance of Jason Robert Brown’s “Songs for a New World.”

The show elevated student voices and facilities—as the musical contains various songs and choreographies that were performed by Theatre students, while all the props, costumes, graphics, programs, and other supplies were entirely student-made. The play itself is a musical theatre song cycle about decisions and transformations in people’s lives, bringing many short stories and many different characters to the stage.

The play opened with an ensemble performance of “The New World” followed by “On the Deck of a Spanish Sailing Ship, 1492.” The latter song depicts a crew of a ship washing the deck while praying for success in their uncertain journey across the sea. Rabiyah Footman followed with “Just One Step,” depicting a woman on a window ledge trying to get her neglectful husband’s attention. Her humorous acting and powerful voice had the crowd engaged from beginning to end. In total, there were 15 songs on the list, each of them bringing amazing tunes and talent. One song, “I’m not Afraid of Anything,” was a strong anthem about confidence and bravery, made even more powerful with Summer Hudak’s talent. Jackson Maroon brought a great cover of “She Cries,” portraying a man trying to leave a toxic relationship, with excellent acting and impressive vocals.

A performance that especially impressed was Ellie Prendergast’s rendition of “Surabaya-Santa”, a parody version of “Surabaya Johnny“, portraying a disgruntled Mrs. Claus deciding to leave her husband, Santa Claus, after twenty years of neglect. Her incredible singing, emotive acting, and humorous interactions with the musicians—music director Stephen Strouse, pianist Lucas Colon, and drummer Frank Soltys—won the audience’s hearts, especially with the three musicians continuing to play as if Ellie wasn’t interacting with them at all. During the spoken portion of the song, incorporating the “Jingle Bells” tune in such an angry register was very well-done.

The play concluded with the ensemble of actors performing “Hear My Song,” a piece guiding a child with wise advice and comforting words towards their future, referencing the song as a source of reassurance. The end of the song had the audience give a standing ovation to the stellar cast, who motioned to the musicians and crew during the curtain call to give them credit for their hard work and amazing contributions to the performance. The cast and crew had rehearsed for many consecutive nights into late hours, their dedication and commitment clearly having paid off.

At the end of the show, the audience, made up of the cast and crew’s friends and family, met the members out in the Experimental Theatre Lobby, congratulating and commending them for their hard work.

“As someone who is passionate about props design, I am grateful for the experience that I gained from Creative Project Development,” said Skylar Cassar-Scalise, a third-year Theatre major responsible for the play’s props. “Because it’s a class, we gain a lot of insight from our professors. I was able to learn more about props that are seemingly small but help to fulfill the concept of each scene/song […] I found myself providing props for scenes in the 1700s up until modern day. Each concept […] is realistic and relatable to everyone, so providing a variety of props unrelated to one another was a lot of fun for me. One day I was breaking a picture frame, and making a bedazzled candy cane whip the next. It truly was a lot of fun, and I hope that everyone who came to see the performance enjoyed it.”

To learn more about Stockton’s Theatre Department, click here.