"Congratulations! You are getting this e-mail because we have voted you one of the most talented people at Princeton and we want to make sure that everyone on this campus knows it!"
Thus began an e-mail sent in January to 30 University undergraduates by sophomores Amanda Brandes and Liriel Higa. The flattering message was a preliminary step in coordinating what was to become "Muse: A Performing Arts Cararet."
Last summer, during an AOL instant messenger conversation, Brandes and Higa were lamenting the lack of opportunity for most Princeton students to display their creativity — except through the often-limiting confines of particular dance, theater and music groups — and they decided to do something about it.
The pair — both of whom are involved in campus performance groups — selected students with various creative abilities, contacted them and encouraged them to pass the call to action along to others, spurring a movement that culminated last Thursday and Friday in "Muse," performed in the Student Center rotunda.
Cabaret
The idea for the show's format came from Brandes, who in high school traveled with her dance troupe to nursing homes and similar venues to put on cabaret-style shows. A similar format, she thought, would be ideal for the sort of project she and Higa wanted, as it would be relatively easy to organize and would allow a great deal of flexibility in terms of the types of acts that could be performed.
The project was to involve writers, actors, dancers, singers, instrumentalists and other performers from different creative backgrounds and student arts organizations. Higa and Brandes gathered the groups of interested students — about half of whom had been on the original e-mail list — organized them into groups, established a preliminary plan of how the event might run and then left them to create and rehearse on their own.
The show's creators checked in only periodically with the performers until production week, when the group convened to practice the show as a whole.
Variety
True to the creators' vision, the 16 acts in "Muse" represented a remarkable range of performance types — from actors, singers and musicians to mimes, jugglers, a poet and a martial arts expert. Many of the acts followed a traditional format — songs from calico. and scenes from plays, either student-written or published — but others were unique performances that might not have been produced outside this openly creative setting.
For instance, Adam Ruben '01's monologue on love, disguised as a French horn solo gone wrong, might never have been performed.
Rakesh Satyal '02 would probably never have had the opportunity to share his one-man rendition of a scene from the movie "Clue" with as large an audience as he found last weekend.
Alex Kontorovich '02 might not have been able to demonstrate his Kung Fu skills to many people outside his martial arts classes and tournaments.
Even the more traditional acts in the show — such as the Irish fiddle and dance combination by Lori Mihalich '01 and Bridget Nolan '02 or the rhythmic gymnastics demonstration by Higa, Juliet Hernandez '02 and Becca Lemme '02, set to the music of composer and musician Efstratios Minakakis '02 — offered students a unique opportunity to collaborate with individuals with whom they might otherwise never have been able to work.
This is precisely what Higa and Brandes had hoped for when they first came up with the idea for "Muse" — a venue that would give undergraduates a chance to free up their creativity and work together in new partnerships and styles.
Reactions to the cabaret were overwhelmingly positive, and audiences seemed to revel in the eccentric nature of the evening. Samara Abrams-Primack '02, a singer and actress who performed a musical duet Friday night, was told by an audience member that "Muse" was one of the most creative events she had seen at Princeton.
The organizers were also pleased with the results of their brainchild. Brandes said she is "extremely happy with how it turned out" and expressed interest in seeing a similar performance take place next year — and perhaps even developing the event into an annual tradition.
"There's lots of untapped talent that deserves to be recognized but generally lacks a forum," Higa said.
"Muse" was able to uncover some of this talent but, according to Higa, "knowing how happenstance our connections to many of the performers was, I'm convinced that there is a lot of talent that we didn't reach."
"Hopefully, we've managed to break a little ground," she said.
"Muse" certainly did break new ground, and perhaps similar cabaret-style performances in the future will dig even deeper into the reserves of talent hidden in the University community.
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