club-and-greek-monologues
Club & Greek

Monologues: Flying Solo From the Page to Stage

CommWorks Hosts Their Final Event of Semester


club-and-greek-monologuesCommWorks hosted their last event of the spring semester, “Monologues: Flying Solo from the Page to the Stage,” where students recited published poetry and literature, as well as some original works of their own.

The event was split between two days, Tuesday April 17 and Thursday April 19 after Professor Deanna Shoemaker’s Performance and Social Activism class.

“CommWorks is a special group. W e w ill try almost anything that the students want. If you like to tap dance or break dance, we can find a way to incorporate that,” said Deanna Shoemaker, CommWorks faculty advisor. “ We like to honor what each student has.”

CommWorks is a group for “students committed to performance” and hosts many on-campus events throughout the year. Previously, they have hosted poetry slams, Christmas shows and more. “This event differs from a poetry slam because for a poetry slam everyone across campus is invited to participate; they tend to be more chaotic and free spirited, people get political,” said Shoemaker. “‘Monologues’ is a smaller group, it’s more intimate and a more controlled environment.”

Students filled room 235 in the Jules Plangere Center to see the performances. T he audience was also given event programs to follow along with the show. Shoemaker warned the audience not to be alarmed by the content of the show because some of the monologues were “X-rated.”

“Professor Shoemaker asked me to participate (in ‘Monologues’) because our class took part in a performance for the Global Understanding Convention. T he p ieces h ad t o d eal with our relationship with water,” said Katelyn Nawoyski, junior. Nawoyski is a student in Shoemaker’s Performance and Social Activism Class. “I have never preformed in front of people before I was in this class,” Nawoyski explained. “So this class definitely helped me to become more comfortable and now it’s challenging me, pushing me even more because I’m performing in front of people from outside my class.”

Shoemaker explained that Nawoyski’s piece was an original piece that was first performed for the Global Understanding Convention, “The performances for the Global Understanding Convention had to do with water, our relationship to the ocean, out first memories of water.”

The “Vagina Monologues,” “American Buffalo,” and “Imperceptible Mutabilities in the Third Kingdom” were just some of the plays in which excerpts were drawn from. There were monologues about parenting and divorce, taken from Tina Fey’s book “Bossypants” and “I Ate the Divorce Papers” by Gabriel Davis. In “The Expert” senior Brian Morelli emulated a teenager buying condoms for the first time. Senior Nicole Vitale performed the only musical number of the event by singing part of “Blood on the Ground” by Incubus.

“I have participated in poetry slams, and Christmas shows,” Senior Kathryn Perez explained. “I started CommWorks last year, but due to scheduling conflicts with Hawk TV I couldn’t do much, so I did small things like helping with flyers. And this year I was asked to be treasurer for CommWorks.” Perez said that she would be performing two pieces, one comedic piece and one serious piece. “I found out one of them is a dark comedy, so I’m going to play up the comedy part a lot. We have a lot of serious monologues and we want to balance it out.”

“It was nothing like I expected,” said Joe Heinz, Junior. It kept my attention the whole time.” Heinz’s Business Communication class attended the Monologues event.

“I believe in the power of performance to raise awareness, to build community, and to offer the potential for social change,” said Shoemaker. “Especially for Communication students, performance pushes their skills to the next level. You use your full voice and expressive body to put together a strong message.”

CommWorks meets on Wednesdays at 2:30 in the Jules Plangere Center 235.  

PHOTO COURTESY of Alexis Orlacchio