Scotch'n'Soda

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Scotch'n'Soda Theatre
Scotch n' Soda's logo; student-run acting group from Carnegie Mellon, Feb 2018.png
Founded 1937
Type 501(c)(3)
Location
Origins The White Friars Club
Area served
Pittsburgh
Key people
 Board Of Directors
Website Scotch'n'Soda Theatre

Scotch'n'Soda is a student-run theatre organization that resides on the campus of Carnegie Mellon University. Its initial dedication was the creation and production of original musicals, but has now taken to performing both professionally published and student-written materials. Students are welcome to write, compose, design, direct, perform in, and otherwise become involved with every aspect of each production. The organization is open to all Carnegie Mellon students from all backgrounds who are interested, and all performances are public with varying ticket prices.

Carnegie Mellon University private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States

Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private nonprofit research university based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools, the university became the Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1912 and began granting four-year degrees. In 1967, the Carnegie Institute of Technology merged with the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research to form Carnegie Mellon University. With its main campus located 3 miles (5 km) from Downtown Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon has grown into an international university with over a dozen degree-granting locations in six continents, including campuses in Qatar and Silicon Valley, and more than 20 research partnerships.

History

Scotch'n'Soda Theatre is the nation's oldest co-ed student theater group, and is one of the oldest and largest student organizations at Carnegie Mellon University. It was founded in the fall of 1907 as The White Friars Club, providing a theatrical outlet for the students of the Carnegie Technical Schools. Their first production, in the spring of 1908, was entitled "All in a Dormitory" and gave a comical look at life on campus. The club would grow in only three years to have a membership of seventy-eight in 1910 and continued on to have its first financially successful year in 1911. [1] [2] The White Friars Club was short-lived, as student theater went on hiatus during World War I. It wasn't until 1932 when a student theater group called The Bacchanalians formed to produce a musical for Carnegie Tech's Spring Carnival. [3]

World War I 1914–1918 global war originating in Europe

World War I, also known as the First World War or the Great War, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. Contemporaneously described as "the war to end all wars", it led to the mobilisation of more than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, making it one of the largest wars in history. It is also one of the deadliest conflicts in history, with an estimated nine million combatants and seven million civilian deaths as a direct result of the war, while resulting genocides and the 1918 influenza pandemic caused another 50 to 100 million deaths worldwide.

The organization took its current name in 1937 during a vote by the membership. Unconfirmed rumor has it that the name with the most votes was Hop'n'Scotch, but the leaders of the organization fixed the vote so that Scotch'n'Soda came out victorious. In any case, the newly named student-run theater troupe founded by three drama majors began producing original full-length musicals for Spring Carnival. With the exception of a five-year break from 1942 to 1946 for World War II, Scotch'n'Soda has been producing musicals for Carnival continuously to the present.

World War II 1939–1945 global war

World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The vast majority of the world's countries—including all the great powers—eventually formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. A state of total war emerged, directly involving more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. The major participants threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, marked by 50 to 85 million fatalities, most of whom were civilians in the Soviet Union and China. It included massacres, the genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing, premeditated death from starvation and disease, and the only use of nuclear weapons in war.

In the 1960s, Scotch'n'Soda began expanding its season by producing shows for Homecoming. While then still heavily populated by drama majors, S'n'S provided a theatrical outlet to students of all disciplines and encouraged collaboration on original works. Certainly the most notable of these original works from the 60s was the musical "Pippin, Pippin" by drama student Stephen Schwartz, produced for Carnival 1967. This show was produced on Broadway just five years later in 1972 under the shortened title "Pippin", and was directed and choreographed by the famed Bob Fosse. [4] [5]

<i>Pippin</i> (musical) musical

Pippin is a 1972 musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and a book by Roger O. Hirson. Bob Fosse, who directed the original Broadway production, also contributed to the libretto. The musical uses the premise of a mysterious performance troupe, led by a Leading Player, to tell the story of Pippin, a young prince on his search for meaning and significance.

Stephen Schwartz (composer) American musical theatre lyricist and composer

Stephen Lawrence Schwartz is an American musical theatre lyricist and composer. In a career spanning over four decades, Schwartz has written such hit musicals as Godspell (1971), Pippin (1972), and Wicked (2003). He has contributed lyrics for a number of successful films, including Pocahontas (1995), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), The Prince of Egypt, and Enchanted (2007). Schwartz has won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lyrics, three Grammy Awards, three Academy Awards, and has been nominated for six Tony Awards. He received the 2015 Isabelle Stevenson Award, a special Tony Award, for his commitment to serving artists and fostering new talent.

Bob Fosse American actor, dancer, choreographer, director, screenwriter and film director

Robert Louis Fosse was an American dancer, musical theatre choreographer, director, and film director.

Scotch'n'Soda continued to grow in the 1970s, winning a Broadcast Music, Inc. award for Outstanding Variety Show in 1970 for "Something Personal" by David Sheridan Spangler and Mark Pirolo and again in 1972 for "A New Day" by Stephen M. Fechtor. [6] [7] However, in a major blow to the membership the School of Drama forbade acting majors from participating in Scotch'n'Soda productions in 1976. Despite losing the core of the membership, the remaining members of the club decided to press on with completely student-run, non-major theater.

Broadcast Music, Inc. performing rights organization in the United States

Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) is one of five United States performing rights organizations, along with ASCAP, SESAC, Pro Music Rights, and SoundExchange. It collects license fees on behalf of songwriters, composers, and music publishers and distributes them as royalties to those members whose works have been performed. In FY 2017, BMI collected more than $1.13 billion in licensing fees and distributed $1.023 billion in royalties. BMI's repertoire includes over 800,000 songwriters and 13 million compositions.

Not satisfied with only doing musicals for Homecoming and Carnival, Scotch'n'Soda introduced the campus' first long-form improvisational comedy production in 1988. This began a 20-year period of growth and change for the organization. In the early 1990s, they expanded to a three-production season. In 1993, a subsidiary group that existed for one year called Club Soda formed, which taught new skills to the diverse membership. This led to more submissions of both student and professionally written plays, and in 1994 the theater company began regular theater "seasons" of three shows plus the Spring Carnival Musical. In 1996, another subsidiary troupe formed, The No Parking Players, Carnegie Mellon's first improv comedy group. In 1998, Scotch'n'Soda expanded to a permanent five-production season.

Today, Scotch'n'Soda proudly produces six to seven shows each season, ranging from full-scale musicals to intimate black box plays, performing in a variety of spaces in the University Center and elsewhere on campus. With a strongly committed and talented membership spanning all six of Carnegie Mellon's undergraduate colleges and representing over 30 different majors, Scotch'n'Soda is growing still and is well poised to continue providing student-run theater to the Carnegie Mellon campus community for years to come.

Board of directors

Scotch'n'Soda is governed by a board of nine directors . Each position of the board is elected annually by the general membership. These positions (along with the current students who occupy them) include:

These nine students work to contribute and act as executive producers to each production. They also hold open weekly meetings to discuss all issues related to the organization and hold responsibility for selecting material for productions. They are assisted by auxiliary board members who handle various facets of the organization and include the Webmaster, Historian, Director of Alumni Relations, Directors of Technical and Artistic Training, Music Liaison, and various liaisons to the subsidiary troupes within the organization. All auxiliary board members are represented at Board Meetings by the Vice President.

Show process

Selection of material

Scotch'n'Soda welcomes scripts presented from any student on Carnegie Mellon's campus, though it does not have to be student-written. Playwrights who are not Carnegie Mellon students may submit their own material as long as it is submitted through a current CMU student. All scripts must be approved by the board, who examine each script and approve those that appeal to the community and membership, and are technically feasible. After scripts are approved, all Carnegie Mellon students are welcome to submit a Director's Proposal to the Scotch'n'Soda board. In a publicly held meeting, directors present their proposals to the board. The meeting is then closed to the public as the board selects a specific show for production. Several weeks into production, a Board Preview performance is held—which includes an open rehearsal of the show, as well as reports from all members of the technical staff on the production. It is at this Board Preview that final approval must be given to a show before it may begin performances.

Funding

Scotch'n'Soda is funded by a specific allocation of a student activities fee paid by all students and distributed by Carnegie Mellon's Joint Funding Committee. Scotch'n'Soda does not profit from its productions, nor does any member receive payment for services. [8] [9]

Venues

Originally, Scotch'n'Soda presented all its performances in Pittsburgh's Carnegie Music Hall, located less than one mile from the school's campus. Eventually, due to rental fees and time commitments, Scotch'n'Soda had to leave the large performance hall and was transplanted into the Carnegie Mellon gym. This was soon followed by a move into a specially constructed stage in Skibo Ballroom, part of the Skibo University Center on Carnegie Mellon's campus. In the summer of 1994, this building was torn down to make room for the school's current University Center. During the two years of construction, Scotch'n'Soda was completely homeless and performed in various lecture halls, the drill deck of the old student center and off campus at Rodef Shalom Congregation.

Upon the completion of CMU's University Center, Scotch'n'Soda has been alternating performance spaces throughout the building including: The Connan Room, The McKenna/Peter/Wright Room, Rangos Ballroom, and McConomy Auditorium. This has proven difficult for the organization to this day, as access to the performance spaces is very limited, and in most cases they can only use each performance space for a maximum of seven consecutive days (Spring Carnival performances in 1997–99 were able to reserve Rangos hall for two weeks). This limited amount of time includes load-in, rehearsals, performances and strike. In fact, unable to find a suitable venue, the May 2001 production of Edward Albee's "The Zoo Story" was performed outside in the Highlander Compass.

Some other venues have been used in recent years, including Porter Hall 100, Porter Hall 125C and the Helen Wayne Rauh Studio Theatre (in the Purnell Center). As of Fall 2016, most performances are held in the Cohon University Center Studio Theater, a black box theater constructed as part of the University Center expansion and opened in 2016. [10]

Subtroupes

The No Parking Players

No Parking Players Improv No Parking Players Logo, a subtroupe of Scotch n' Soda at Carnegie Mellon, Feb 2018.png
No Parking Players Improv

Founded in 1996, the No Parking Players is Scotch'n'Soda Theatre's improv troupe. NPP practices improvised theatre of all kinds, with a focus on long form comedy. At the core of the NPP experience are the weekly workshops on Thursdays and Sundays, open to the entire campus community. People of all experience levels are welcome, including those who have never tried improv before. Most workshops are composed of regulars and newcomers side-by-side. The No Parking Players performance group (PG) also has regular shows about twice a month, with the improvisers performing long form improv such as Harolds and Armandos. In 2009, the troupe began offering a class on comedic improv for free elective credit via Carnegie Mellon's Student College.

Tisbert Sketch Comedy

Tisbert sketch comedy Tisbert Logo, a sketch comedy group from Carnegie Mellon, part of Scotch n' Soda, Feb 2018.png
Tisbert sketch comedy

Founded during the 2011–12 academic year, Tisbert is Scotch'n'Soda's sketch comedy group. A combination of student and professionally written sketches, Tisbert presents one show per semester for a total of two shows per academic calendar; the troupe is known for employing multiple forms of media, such as video, in their sketches. [11] Tisbert is audition-only and open to any member of the Carnegie Mellon Community. The troupe does not reveal what Tisbert is to non-members, and the mystery is evident by the question mark in their logo. A relatively new development in Tisbert is the creation of the Tistroupe, a group of writers and actors that are becoming their own performance troupe within the subtroupe. In 2018, the troupe began offering a class on writing and performing sketch comedy for free elective credit via Carnegie Mellon's Student College.

New Works Coffeehouse

The NewWorks Coffeehouse logo The NewWorks Coffeehouse logo, a subtroupe of Scotch n' Soda from Carnegie Mellon, Feb 2018.png
The NewWorks Coffeehouse logo

Previously simply called "Workshopping", the New Works Coffeehouse embraces the ideals of the early years of Scotch'n'Soda, facilitating the creation of new original works by its members. The subtroupe provides members with the tools they need to get from idea to script, and hosts readings, stagings, and productions of work by current and former members of Scotch'n'Soda. It accepts submissions of all forms of writing for either workshopping or production services; these services are open to all students who are a part of the Carnegie Mellon Community, regardless of department.

Alumni Clan

Scotch'n'Soda is currently developing an Alumni Clan, which is devoted to keeping all past members of the organization in touch and organizing reunion events. It also presents the Buzz Blair Award for the Performing Arts, named after founding member Leonard 'Buzz' Blair, and given annually during Carnegie Mellon's homecoming festivities. [12]

Notable alumni

Numerous renowned figures in the performing arts started with Scotch'n'Soda. Some of the most acclaimed are John-Michael Tebelak, author of Godspell ; Roger O. Hirson, author of Pippin ; and Stephen Schwartz, who wrote the music and lyrics for Pippin. [13] [14] [15] Other performing arts alumni include:

See also

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References

  1. ↑ Field, William (1910). "Abstracts from the Report of the Secretary". Annual Report. Pittsburgh, PA: Carnegie Institute. p. 114. Retrieved 7 February 2018.
  2. ↑ Field, William (1911). "Abstracts from the Report of the Secretary". Annual Report. Pittsburgh, PA: Carnegie Institute. pp. 186–187. Retrieved 7 February 2018.
  3. ↑ M, J (May 23, 1932). "Carnegie Tech's Bacchanalians Take O'Neill, Euripides, Et Al, For a Ride". The Pittsburgh Press. 48 (325). p. 12. Retrieved 24 February 2018.
  4. ↑ "Quick Facts". Tony Awards. Retrieved 24 February 2018.
  5. ↑ "Pippin". Playbill. Retrieved 24 February 2018.
  6. ↑ "Pitts U. Show Award Winner". Billboard. 82 (43). Nielsen Business Media, Inc. Oct 24, 1970. p. 28. ISSN   0006-2510 . Retrieved 7 February 2018.
  7. ↑ Blank, Edward (Oct 12, 1972). "CMU's 'A New Day' Wins BMI's Top Variety Show Award". The Pittsburgh Press. 89 (110). p. 39. Retrieved 7 February 2018.
  8. ↑ "Student Activities Fee". Carnegie Mellon University. Retrieved 24 February 2018.
  9. ↑ "Scotch'n'Soda Budget". Carnegie Mellon University. Joint Funding Committee. Retrieved 24 February 2018.
  10. ↑ "Studio Theater". Carnegie Mellon University. Retrieved 7 February 2018.
  11. ↑ Hoffmaier, Ariel (20 November 2015). "Tisbert delivers Ted Talks parody TisTalks". The Tartan. Pittsburgh. Retrieved 9 February 2018.
  12. ↑ Poettinger, Amy. "Alumni Clan Information" . Retrieved 7 February 2018.
  13. ↑ Fischgrund, Tom, ed. (1993); Barron's Top 50: An Inside Look at America's Best Colleges; ISBN   0-8120-1447-2. See p.101.
  14. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Wintermantel, Ed (8 April 1973). "Scotch 'n' Soda... You Don't Drink It, You Join It" . The Pittsburgh Press. p. 278. Retrieved 2 February 2018.
  15. ↑ Schwartz, Stephen. "What is the history of PIPPIN?" . Retrieved 23 November 2014.
  16. ↑ Laird, Paul R. (2014-04-10). The Musical Theater of Stephen Schwartz: From Godspell to Wicked and Beyond. Scarecrow Press. ISBN   9780810891920.
  17. 1 2 3 "Musical Variety Show at Carnegie Tech". The Pittsburgh Press. 73 (307). 28 April 1957. p. 5:15. Retrieved 9 February 2018.
  18. ↑ Das, Bagmi (16 October 2006). "Lost writer soon to be found on campus". The Tartan. Retrieved 1 October 2015.
  19. ↑ "About | Michael Patrick Walker | Composer • Lyricist". Michael Patrick Walker. Retrieved 2016-10-28.
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