On November 22, 2019, Revolt! opened at Cafritz Foundation Theatre in the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. The play was written and directed by Walker Green, a senior theater and government and politics major.
Among the performers, Sam Intrater, a sophomore theatre, and government and politics double major plays Andrew Goodman. Andrew was a real civil rights activist, one of many real-life figures the play tells the story of.
Behind the scenes, the stagehands worked tirelessly to make sure everything was in working order. Dylan Jesnwe, a freshman bio-engineering major, played a part in this crucial operation in the production of Revolt!.
Walker and his partner, Justine Morris, go over details about the productions before the show begins in merely a few hours. The production was scaled back after the Second Season program only allowed for a 30-minute runtime.
Walker is very careful when it comes to technology in his shows. He uses projections a great deal, but problems can arise such as a video refusing to play which was solved by reading the dialogue of the video out loud to the audience.
Walker and Sam converse about how they think the play will go and ponder how it will ultimately be received. The two have worked together before and became close after Maryland Night Live and their time on The Visit.
Along with Sam playing the guitar, a band was also on stand by to perform "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" by Gil-Scott Heron. An obvious fit for this "spectacle play" as Walker describes it.
Walker rehearses his opening monologue with Justine. The monologue was inspired by an e-mail he received during the casting process of the show and deals with different worldviews that discouraged one actor from participating.
Dylan tests props to make sure that no hiccups occur during the performance. He says that while this was his first production in a year, "it was fun to be back."
Whenever the cast had downtime it usually meant having a phone break until they were ready for the next time to go on. It took their minds off the anxiety of performing and partially helped to look at the digital script.
Walker leads the cast in a warm-up exercise, using one of the chants that he wrote for the play. The cast was a very tight-knit group but Walker says that this bond didn't truly occur until Tech rehearsals when everyone got to work together.
The cast was now in costume and ready to perform after two and a half hours of waiting backstage since call time at 6 pm. The show shared billing with "Breath, Boom" another 30-minute play that acted as the first half of this double feature.
The cast climbs the stairs as they get ready for the show, all pumped up from the exercises backstage they are ready to put on an excellent performance.
The band converses as they wait for their turn to take the stage to perform their song. When I talked to them they had an awkward feeling of standing around when it felt like they should have been doing more.
Walker performs the opening monologue of the show which got a few laughs but ultimately sets a tone for what was to come. Walker says that the whole production was a year in the making and changed heavily due to cuts for time.
Dylan holds a French flag awaiting to be picked up by a cast member in the productions salute to the French resistance. Dylan says that the most interesting aspect of the show was "just how small it was" compared to the shows he was a part of in high school.
The production is broken up into several different segments about revolutions over the years. Nazi resistor Sophie Scholl is being portrayed by Leah Packer in a punk rock love letter to what she stood for.
Walker was often on the floor backstage between opening and close of the play in order to rehearse the closing monologue. This monologue was a response to an actor who took issue with how Israel and Palestine was depicted in the play.
During the production, Sam learned to play guitar for this segment of Revolt where he sings. He told me, "it was great because it was something I've always wanted to do."
Just like Walker has downtime between the beginning and end of the show, Dylan is able to chat with the actors and make sure all the props are working as they should. Dylan told me that it got the roughest backstage when "something was forgotten or misplaced during intermission."
Revolt! stresses the importance of not accepting the status quo, through its many songs and monologues it tells the audience that we can change the world. Sam says the most important part of the production is that "these are all completely true stories" being told.
The play has a lot of monologues taken from real people who were in resistance to the status quo of the time they lived in. These often required a lot of projection, something Same said wasn't that hard being in a relatively small theatre.
Sam looks on as a video of Barack Obama commemorating his real-life counterpart is played for the audience. These videos helped to make sure the message was received by the audience, something he wanted to accomplish with his own performance.
Walker performs the closing monologue, a response email to the one posed at the beginning from the upset actor. He hopes they saw the show and that whether they liked the play or hated it then he was doing his job as a writer.
Revolt! played to completely sold-out showing on all three of its performances. With the success of the play Walker hopes to move on to a full-fledged musical about Salvador Allende, a Chilean president who was assassinated during a US-backed coup.
Sam gazes at his guitar as he climbs down the stairs to the dressing room to take his costume off one last time. Though this would be his last performance with Revolt!, he was confident that he would be working with Walker again soon.
After all three performances were said and done, Dylan still had pick up duty for the various props and costumes. Despite this Dylan wants to keep on doing theater as "it's a nice change of pace from STEM."
Walker departs after saying goodbye to guitar player Benny Roman who performed "When I'm Gone" at the end of the play. This particular moment happened after the last show was over and the two of them couldn't be more relieved.
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