Say you have a love of theatre, song, public speaking, and speaking in general, building and construction, or painting and art, and you want a good, passionate community. Well, I present to you: DDAF! But specifically, one of the D’s, Drama.

For this article, I took an interview with the Drama director and Theatre teacher at Memorial, Eliav M Goldman, to learn more about Drama as a whole. And maybe, you’re reading this article because you want to as well. But first, a little bit about your director:

This year is Goldman’s first year teaching theater classes, which include technical theater, stagecraft, and theater 1, where, instead of building, it’s acting. This year is also his 3rd year as drama director; “directing all theatrical productions,” as he put it. He’s been rebuilding the drama program, making good shows with a lot of passion and support from many around him. 

For his childhood, he grew up in Madison, Wisconsin, and went to West High School. When he was young, he went to a summer camp for acting, music, and simply drama in general, but didn’t find it enjoyable being in the spotlight. Nevertheless, he highlights that in the final years of high school, he participated in their musical, in his Senior year, it was Beauty and the Beast, where he went and acted on stage.

Later, Goldman went to UW-Madison in pursuit of music education. He became a choir and music teacher, mainly at Akira Toki Middle School, for some years, but really became more involved with theatre production because of his work there. To this day, he continues to do Drama Club at Toki while also working at Memorial.

Onto the ‘more drama’ part of the interview, the first question I asked was: What exactly is drama?

Lunde: What is drama?

Goldman: So, drama is this, broadly speaking, this umbrella term that encapsulates all the theatre arts. Here at Memorial, it’s really a way for students to get involved in being a part of a production, whether that means being on stage and working on your acting skills, or your musical skills, or your creative skills, or applying those skills backstage to technical theatre. So, working on set construction, or sewing costumes, or making props, or designing lights and sounds. All of those are different ways for our students to get involved in the theatre productions here at Memorial.

Lunde: What does drama mean to you?

Goldman: For me, the most special thing about drama is the community aspect, right? Like, the fact that you get to work really hard on this one thing for months at a time with people who are also really passionate and care about that same thing, you put in all this hard work, and at the end of it, you get to, not only share that with the people on stage with you or backstage with you, but you get to share it with the people in your life who care about you and that you care about, right? And so, that is such a special feeling, and I never get tired of it, no matter how many times I do it, no matter how many productions I’m involved with. That is just a really special thing about being in the theatre.

And then, just from a personal note, my grandpa was really passionate about the theatre; he was a literature professor but he would write his own plays and was an avid theatre goer and he was my best friend until I was seven when he passed away and, for me, just on a personal level, I feel this, like, great connection to him, to this important person in my life. You know, even though he isn’t physically here anymore, I get to remain connected to him through theatre. 

Lunde: What is the Fall Play?

Goldman: The Fall Play is called Out of the Frying Pan, it is by Francis Swan, and it’s a play from the 1940s [and also was a film at one point]. It is a very silly comedy about six actors who are living together in a tiny apartment in New York City. They are trying to get their big break and make it big in the industry, and to do so, they have strategically moved into the apartment directly above a famous Broadway producer, Mr. Arthur Kenny. Through a series of hyginks, they try to manipulate their downstairs neighbor into coming up and watching a performance that they’ve put together of one of his most famous plays in the hopes that he will want to cast them in a future production. So, we’ve got a great cast of characters, lots of, you know, door slamming and people running around, that kind of silly comedy.

Lunde: What is the Winter Musical?

Goldman: The winter musical for this season is called Urinetown, yes, like pee. It is one of the great modern musicals from the 2000s, early 21st century. It was done at Memorial not too long ago. It was done six years ago, right before COVID shut everything down, and it’s a great dark comedy, satirical show about society where, essentially, there’s been a horrible drought and there’s no more water left. And so, a single corporation has total control over the water supply. In an effort to maintain it, this means that private restrooms are a thing of the past, and everyone has to use public bathrooms. The idea for this musical was one of the, who wrote the script of the play, who was traveling around in Europe and many other places in the world, including Europe, where you have to pay to use public restrooms. From that idea sprang Urinetown. So, it’s very satirical, very comedic, self-referential, and also pretty dark. It has a lot to say about capitalism, about control, about resource management. It’s a really fun show, and auditions for that are coming up pretty soon, the first week of November, the 5th and the 6th.

Lunde: Anything you can say about the spring play?

Goldman: Yeah, the spring play. So, full disclosure, we haven’t chosen the spring play yet, which usually happens a little later in the year. But, usually, auditions will be sometime in March or early April. That’s usually a much smaller production. Our fall play tends to be larger play casts, like 8-12 people, which, for a play, that’s pretty big. And then our musical usually has a cast of somewhere around 50 people. But then the spring play tends to be pretty small. So, last year, for our spring play, [we] had 5 people in it. So, it’ll probably be a much smaller production, but we also, this year and last year, we’ve brought back spring week of the arts, which is in may, and is a way for us to showcase all of the fine art that is going on here at memorial, so there will probably be other things that happen for spring week of the arts, such as our student directed one act plays, which we always do. It’s a chance for some of our seniors, who are really interested in directing, to choose their own one-act play to do and cast their show, and then get to direct their fellow students and put on their performance. We also might do another musical review… so we’ll probably have opportunities for that. And, there may be more things as well. We’re still kinda figuring out what spring week of the arts looks like and what we have the capacity to do for it.

Lunde: What are auditions like?

Goldman: So, auditions here at Memorial, we like to give you the material. If you go out in the world and audition, sometimes places will give you audition material, like the things you’re going to need to memorize and perform in the audition room, and sometimes you have to choose your own monologues or audition song cuts, or whatever it might be. For us, from an equity standpoint, we like everybody to have the same material. So, whether it’s fall play, spring play, musical, we always give you the audition packet, and in that audition packet, it’ll have audition sides, so like, scenes from the show, and audition cuts if it’s from a musical. You’ll have some song cuts that you’ll be expected to learn. For the musical, we also do an audition workshop, which is coming up soon on October 27th, right after school in the choir room, because we like to help teach that music. Not everybody has the ability to learn music on their own, and so, we provide an opportunity for students to come and learn that music all together. The audition process itself is, you know, auditions can be scary, and we recognize that, but we try to make it as chill as possible. So, normally, you have signed up for an audition timeslot. You come in with the 4 or 5 people who are with you. If it’s a play, you’ll read some scenes. You might not read all the time, you might be watching other people, but that’s a really important part of the audition process as well, because if you’re being disrespectful to people in the room, that’s a good indicator for us that you might not be a team player for a cast. So, no matter what you’re doing, you’re always auditioning. And then, for a musical, typically, you do your audition song selection by yourself. So, it’ll just be the directors in the room. And then the musical also has a dance component. So, there’s a specific time when everybody, regardless of which audition day you signed up for, needs to show up for the audition dance call so that we can see how you move. The musical also has callbacks. So, if you have been selected for a callback, you’d show up on a different day and learn some new material, and we’d see how you work with other actors and work for specific characters that we’re thinking of in the show.

Lunde: Why should you join drama?

Goldman: I think anyone who is craving some human connection, I think there’s no better place than a theatre community. You know, theatres are typically super welcoming places because they tend to be representative of a lot of diverse identities, and we really want people to be a part of that community and offer whatever they can to make that community stronger and better. I think if you are questioning whether being on stage is something that you’re interested in, there are so many ways to be involved in theater that aren’t on stage. If you have any sort of creative inclinations and you like drawing or painting or woodworking or sewing or working with computers or technology, or social media. Like, all of those things, there’s a place for all of that and more in the theatre. So, absolutely, everyone should come join.

Lunde: What are some exciting things about drama?

Goldman: I think we are really proud of our program here at Memorial. We have really high-level, high-quality performances and productions. I think that’s really exciting to be a part of. Theatre communities can be… It’s just the thing I said earlier about being a part of a community that really values the work that you’re doing. And so, if you show up to this community, this place, and you know that all these other people are just as passionate as you and want to make this thing happen, who want to bring this story to life, that is just a really great feeling. Right? And so, I think that is exciting to be part of. I think being a part of the productions is just really, really fun, like getting to experience what tech week is like, even though it’s long hours, but you get to see the show you’ve worked on [for] 3 or 4 months come to life on stage. I think some of our traditions and customs are a big hit for everybody, and getting to celebrate with your people afterwards, right? Like, cast parties, getting to celebrate the hard work that we’ve done, different community events, all those things

For the second part, I took some short interviews from actual students involved in drama as well. This includes actors, stage crew with managers, freshmen, seniors, and all the above!

Anya Issac, a senior here at Memorial, is the Head of Props and Crew Manager. Her job is to take attendance for crew meetings, make sure the crew is doing what they need to or just doing something, teach others what they should do, organize props for the shows, keep track of everything and acquire them, with a lot of spreadsheets, and support other crew heads!

She describes drama as ‘a good community of people who care about their craft to tell stories, and put in a lot of work to get good results.’ 

As for why you should join, she says: ‘it’s really fun’ – there’s so much about how fun it is, and that ‘crew is low commitment.’ You can help work without any experience or prior drama knowledge. You’ll be taught many things, some by her, make connections and get to know people, lots of people who care about art, and just in general, you make a lot of friends. Whether you’re an actor or a part of the stage crew, she guarantees you’ll have fun, if that’s the kind of thing you enjoy anyway, and learn so much.

Charlotte Vash, a sophomore, joined the stage crew when they came to Memorial. Before that, they were an actor, both participating in their Middle School drama club and going to some summer camps for the theatre. 

I asked about auditions, and they responded by saying, ‘It’s pretty easy,’ and ‘all you need to do is show up and read the audition packet.’ They claim it’s good to see it all come together and to see the production become what it is. ‘Making sets is fun, it’s something to do after school, and working with Frank, the sort of head of stage crew, is nice.’

Avery Haworth is a senior as well and has been in Memorial’s musicals since freshman year. Outside of the program, you might know her as Portia from Something Rotten, Memorial’s musical last year, if you didn’t know.

She’s had a lot of experience with theatre, doing musical theatre in 4th grade at VACT – Verona Area Community Theatre – where she did 2 shows a year. And then 5 years after that, she started doing drama at Memorial.

“I think I only have enough experience to speak to the musical for sure, but I know everyone should go see the fall play because it’s phenomenal year after year. Urinetown for the musical, this year was super unexpected, but listening to the music and watching the show, I am unbelievably excited. It looks like there will be plenty of room for people to shine and grow room, vocally.”

She strongly believes that auditions are a one-of-a-kind experience and that they’re something to look forward to. “There’s no adrenaline rush quite like it,” she says. It’s really fun, and you kind of get to show off your skills with acting and singing. As for advice: “It would be to remember that auditions are to display who you are and what you are capable of, not to give the directors perfection.” If you’re thinking about auditioning, you should “shoot your shot” because there’s so much you can learn, and getting call backs is ‘an experience on a whole different level.’ As Avery put it, it’s truly awesome.

“You should join because there truly is no environment that compares to that of the theatre department. As someone who’s played 2 sports for the school in addition to the shows, I wouldn’t trade the friendships I made for anything. I’m pretty sure all of the most important relationships in my life can be tied back to it. The coolest thing is to excel in something you enjoy, and to be able to share that with the world is a gift that everyone should take, given the opportunity.”