In the Spotlight: Lander Players take center stage
By: Morgan Bailey Gravely
“To be or not to be?” a question posed by Shakespeare’s Hamlet, a question that the Lander Players can answer. With so many clubs for the Lander University student body to be a part of, it can sometimes be difficult to choose which ones they want to join. The Lander Players are offering students a chance to decide what kind of performer they are or for some it is a chance to find out what kind of performer they are willing to become.
Whether a student is a born a ballerina or a masterful mathematician, Lander Administrative Assistant Laura Dennin explains, “Lander Players is a student-lead theatre group comprised of all different majors who wish to focus on theatre education.” Lander Players is a Lander club where a Bearcat can take a break from his or her normal studies and learn something new.
It is very easy for anyone to become a Lander Player. All a student has to do to become a Lander Player is to show up at one of the many meetings throughout the semester or email the organization’s president, Keith Dumais. The meetings are in room 220 of the Josephine B. Abney Cultural Center.
Dennin, who serves as advisor to the group, also mentioned, “Lander Players is a club that is open to the schedules of other clubs and organizations around campus as well as any other scheduling conflict a student may have. If they miss a meeting there is not an attendance taken, so they won’t have to worry about being kicked out of the club because they couldn’t make it to every meeting”.
According to Dennin “Lander Players was founded by Myra Green in the fall semester of 2016.” Dennin added, “Green is retired now, but she is serving as the community advisor for the Lander Players and the Greenwood Community Theatre.”
Green is still very much involved with the club as she helps out with set design, costumes, and she is always ready to contribute a new idea or two to Dumais and his club officers about future events.
Lander Players tries to stay involved with the community of Greenwood and the Lander University community. When asked about community services that the players have done, Dennin said, “The Lander Players did an outreach children’s show in the summer of 2017 for the Greenwood community.”
Of course the community services that the players are offering don’t end there, Dennin also said, “In this semester Lander Players plan to be a part of a children’s outreach show that will be traveling to different schools in the Greenwood area.
For the spring semester, Dennin said, “There will be two one act plays taking place on April 6th at 8:00pm, April 7th at 3:00pm and 8:00pm and April 8th at 3:00pm. These one act plays are titled “Spotlight” and “Mustard Seed,” and both plays will be shedding a little light on what it is like behind the scenes of a production”.
Lander Players will be holding auditions for these one act plays on February 1st in 220 of the Josephine B. Abney Cultural Center, but before a student can come an audition they must become a member of Lander Players as this experience is an exclusive perk for members only.
There are many other perks that a Lander student can enjoy by being a Lander Player. Some of these include getting discount tickets for shows at the Peace Center or other theatre venues, free acting workshops and seminars, and possible internship opportunities with the Greenwood Community Theatre, the partners of Lander Players.
For the spring semester some of the discount tickets that Lander Players members will be able to purchase are “The Phantom of the Opera” and “Waitress” and some of the seminars that were on the docket for the semester might include costume measurements, Script Writing, and Acting.
Dennin said, “A Lander student can learn confidence building and learn how to come out of their comfort zone to try a new experience, and they can also learn theatre skills that could benefit them for their rest of their careers to various degrees”.
