Two actors with two different paths to the stage headline MSU Department of Theatre’s production of “And Away We Go,” which runs through Jan. 31 with shows at the Studio 60 Theatre in the basement of the Auditorium.
Theatre junior Derek Bry, who fills six of the 36 roles in the play, said his acting career started in second grade when he joined Destination Imagination, which consists of creative problem-solving competitions that sometimes involves doing skits.
“Originally, I just wanted to be in my school’s yearbook more and I wanted to be part of assemblies because I would always raise my hand to volunteer to go up and they would never pick me, so I was like, ‘I know if I do Destination Imagination I’ll get to do one assembly every year,’” Bry said.
When Bry started middle school, he started doing musicals and became involved with theater throughout high school and college.
After graduation, Bry plans to move to Los Angeles to pursue a career in TV or film.
“I’m really interested in lots of things, so when I was trying to pick a major for college I had a really hard time narrowing down all the stuff that I’m interested in, so I thought if I can get to be a successful enough actor I’ll get to play people who do all these different jobs that I want,” Bry said.
Theatre graduate student Karen Vance, who has been doing theater since she was five years old, took a more traditional road to the Studio 60 stage.
"(Theater is) the only thing I’ve ever wanted to do,” Vance said.
Vance will fill six roles in “And Away We Go” and graduated from Roosevelt University in Chicago in 2014.
After graduation, Vance stayed in Chicago and performed professionally on stage and in TV and film.
Most of the work Vance did was with the Shakespeare Project of Chicago or The Inappropriate Theatre Company.
The last show Vance did with the Inappropriate Theatre Company was an adaptation of “Romeo and Juliet” completely performed through stage combat, dance and aerial arts.
Vance said playing six roles in “And Away We Go” is exhausting, but gives her a chance to express her love her for theater.
“(The play is) basically a love letter to the theater talking about how theater is always the same and always changing,” Vance said.
The play is written by Terrence McNally and directed by associate professor in the Department of Theatre Ann Folino White.
It will feature six actors each playing six roles for a total of 36 different roles.
“It’s written in a way that it has all the genres of theater,” White said. “Now it’s a comedy, but what I mean by all the best things that theater can offer (is) it has death, romance, and violence, and competing egos and it is a chance for the actors and for me as a director to direct a bunch of different styles.”
Bry and Vance will be joined on stage by theatre graduate student Greg Hunter II, theatre senior Madelayne Shammas, theatre junior Lee Cleaveland and James Madison College freshman Anna Birmingham.
Hunter said “And Away We Go” will show many of the things one goes through as a theater actor, playwright or theater advocate, showing both the ups and the downs.
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The impact theater can have on the audience is what Hunter said got him to stick with acting and performing where he is today.
“Seeing how it can affect people and affect change in people’s viewpoints and the way they see the world is kind of what kept me in it,” Hunter said. “Specifically with family members who came to see me perform were so affected by what I was doing, I was like, ‘If I can do this with my family, then why not do this with as many other people as possible.’”
