Hi there!

       Melissa Newman here. I’m currently a second semester junior here at Lycoming College where I am studying Theatre with a concentration in Acting and Directing! I’m originally from New Gretna, New Jersey, which is right smack in between Long Beach Island and Atlantic City, and is about a four-and-a-half-hour drive to Lycoming. I heard about Lycoming when I was a junior in high school and it’s hard for me to believe that four years later, I’m now a junior here! Time has whizzed by, but that’s because the Theatre Department has kept me busy with its four shows per year, interesting and specialized classes, and extraordinary opportunities.

       Luckily, I knew I wanted major in theatre right from my start at Lycoming. I caught the theatre bug in high school, and although I didn’t know what path I wanted to pursue in theatre, I knew it would be a part of my life forever. During my senior year in high school, I auditioned for a Lycoming Theatre Department Scholarship and was ecstatic when I received one. That sealed the deal for me.
When I came to Lycoming’s Theatre Department as a freshman,
it was amazing how quickly I became part of the family. I’ll
never forget my first audition . . . I was SO nervous that I
was shaking. Since then, I’m not so nervous anymore! In fact,
I’m so busy I don’t have time to be nervous—and I wouldn’t
have it any other way.

       As a freshman, my first part in a show at Lycoming
was in John Guare’s The House of Blue Leaves, and a
memorable show it was! In that same semester, I
was enrolled in Acting I, and I found it really
interesting to put the techniques I was learning
in class to use in my first college show. Since
then, I’ve been a part of every production
since. I have worked as an actor, on the
stage crew, in the costume shop, and also
as an assistant stage manager. The shows
I have been involved in here at Lycoming,
in just three years include: Joe Calarco’s
Shakespeare’s R&J, Lysistrata,
Something’s Afoot, Jean Genet’s
The Maids, Art, A.R. Gurney’s The Dining
Room, Look Homeward, Angel, Steve
Martin’s adaptation of The Underpants, Lee
Blessing’s Independence, and Sophie Treadwell’s
Machinal. I was also a member of a theatre class that mounted a children’s one-act play called “Heads and Tales,” which we performed in several different elementary schools. I learned a lot from that class, because to keep the children’s attention you have to be very creative and so much larger than life. Plus, it was thrilling to see their little smiles at the end and to know that I helped make them laugh while hopefully teaching them a moral lesson.

       Each show and director here at Lycoming has challenged me in different ways. For example, A.R. Gurney’s play The Dining Room is a collaboration of overlapping scenes that take place in different time periods, but are all centralized around the subject of the family and its quintessential dining room. Each actor in the show ended up playing anywhere from six to nine different characters. We were challenged by the fact that we had to play characters ranging from ages four to ninety-four—without make-up effects. My favorite character that I played in The Dining Room was the confused ninety-four-year-old woman named “Mother,” who is at her son’s house for Thanksgiving Dinner. It’s a sad role, because she can’t remember anything, but it was also very interesting to play because I had to learn to manipulate my facial expressions, body language, and voice to be true to her age.

       Another show that unexpectedly challenged me was Steve Martin’s adaptation of The Underpants. It was my first farce, and I thought it would be easier than it was. I learned quickly that I was wrong. Flitting around on stage in a corset is no easy task! Add fainting and hyperventilating and five crazy men who are all in pursuit of my character, and that’s pretty much chaos on stage! But, oh, was it fun chaos! I learned that comedy is very much about physical acting and timing. That play will definitely go down in my memory forever!

       In our spare time (that’s a laugh!), Lycoming’s Theatre Department also offers annual trips; one to Canada to go to the George Bernard Shaw Festival at Niagara-on-the-Lake and one to New York City to see a show. I have been on both trips, and they are marvelous experiences. We saw four shows in three days in Canada, and it was a whirlwind of amazing theatre. Our faculty makes sure to expose us to many different types of shows so that we are well-rounded when we graduate and enter the real world. They manage to capture this feat not only by taking us to different festivals and to the city, but also by taking us to nearby colleges to see their productions as well. The classes that are a part of the Theatre major at Lycoming are enriching and challenging, whether they be Theatre History, Play Production, Modern Drama, Scene, Costume, or Lighting Design, or Shakespeare on Stage, and they add to our well-roundedness as well. I always leave class feeling stimulated and ready to learn more.

       I have to say that my favorite part about our Theatre Department is that our faculty and students work so closely together. Our entire faculty is very much involved, knows us personally, and even if I don’t have class with them every day, I’m seeing them every day. They very much want for us to succeed and do whatever they can to help us and make sure we do.

       Since coming to Lycoming, my career goals have changed. I used to want to teach Theatre and English at the high-school level, which would still be a very rewarding career, but now, because I have been so inspired by our department professors, I, too, want to become a college professor of theatre. Getting my doctorate in theatre will be an intense process that includes about six years more of education, but I am confident that Lycoming’s Theatre Department has given me the tools I need to succeed in graduate school and beyond.