Pauper Players bring new melodies

In a post-apocalyptic world, Oprah Winfrey has some dark plans. In another world, freshman student Hinton James must restore Lenoir Dining Hall’s glory in order to save himself from an enchantress’ spell.

These are two of the stories that will come together in Pauper Players’ “Broadway Melodies,” a series of three student-written and directed one-act plays opening Friday at the Hanes Art Center.

“It’s lightning fast, but it is a lot of fun,” said junior Max Bitar, who is Broadway Melodies’ producer and executive director of publicity.

The three featured plays were selected specifically for their connections to a UNC audience.

One of the plays, “Into the Games,” is a combination of the music from “Into the Woods” and the story of “The Hunger Games.” The play was written by sophomores Jake Springfield and Will Foos and co-directed by Foos and sophmore Mary Greene.

Greene said the script for “Into the Games” — as well as the other two scripts — allows the actors to have more freedom in portraying their characters.

“I love the jokes that (Springfield and Foos) put in,” Greene said, “And it’s been nice to see people do that improvisation and put a little bit of their own style in.”

“Jurassic Pop,” written by senior Alex Thompson, takes the concept of “Jurassic Park” and replaces terrifying dinosaurs with celebrities who have risen from the dead.

“Oprah Winfrey is the villain,” Thompson said. “In the version of our world that’s in my script, she’s taken all that power and all that money and she’s got some very dark plans.”

“Les Nor,” a play on “Les Miserables,” is centered around Lenoir Dining Hall. “Les Nor” is written by recently graduated dramatic art student Jessica Sorgi and directed by junior Blayne Telling.

“Little Hinton James, who starts the show as this wide-eyed freshman, comes in and ends up scorning a student who comes into the dining hall,” Telling said.

“(The student) turns out to be an enchantress who places a spell on him and gives him a magic rose, and if he doesn’t make Lenoir this wonderful place to eat by the time the last petal falls, then he is going to die.”

Telling said that the whole show is geared toward the UNC experience, and it provides a new and fun experience for the audience to relate to.

“People say that theater has to be serious and deliver a clear message, and it has to change the way you think about something,” Bitar said. “I think all of those things are true, but this is our chance to show everyone that you can do that in a fun, positive, exciting way.”

“Broadway Melodies” — and Pauper Players as a group — provides a variety of opportunities for students to get involved in the campus theater community, whether through acting, writing or directing.

“Our main goal is to show people that this is what we are all about — this is the kind of fun, crazy stuff we do,” Bitar said.

“It’s so much fun to watch everyone be surprised and be excited and just enjoy the fun with us.”

arts@dailytarheel.com