Juniors Win Fall Fest!

By: Dylan Sattler

The long-awaited day of Fall Fest has many fun things planned, such as games, activities, and fun, but what Salem Siblings look forward to most is the skits. When the theme was announced as “Broadway Shows” at the Fall Fest kick-off party on Aug. 29, each class hastily began preparing for their performances for Fall Fest, which was scheduled for Sept. 17. Each skit performance must follow a set of rules: the morning skits must be around 15 minutes and include at least one song. And the evening skit must be 30 minutes long, include a song, and must have a cameo by a staff/faculty member or an alumnae. Additionally, each skit must include the ethical touchstones that are included in the Salem curriculum. 

The seniors’ set of skits was based on the musical Hamilton, which first made its Broadway debut in 2015 and became one of the most well-known musicals in the world. Senior Lyn Bailey played the main character, Alexander Hamilton. Artem Watson portrayed Hamilton’s rival, Aaron Burr, along with other seniors playing other, smaller roles. In their morning skit, the seniors performed four songs: “Alexander Hamilton”, “Aaron Burr, Sir”, “My Shot”, and “The Schuyler Sisters.” The songs were transformed to add different lyrics to symbolize the seniors’ journey throughout their time at Salem. In their evening skit, the seniors’ streak of using multiple songs was continued, performing “Farmer Refuted”, “Right Hand Man”, “Schuyler Defeated”, “The Room Where It Happens”,  “Burn”, and “Reynolds Pamphlet.”

“Our songs were the story of us, the class of 2026,” Bailey said. “It was extremely dramatized with parts made out for emphasis, like the entire class was Hamilton, coming back after COVID.”

For their set, the seniors created a makeshift turntable, using a platform with casters on, and two two-by-fours as leverage to spin. Seniors also took advantage of their privilege of costumes, dressing Bailey and Watson in trench coats to resemble their respective characters. As for their staff/faculty or alumnae cameo, the seniors secured Associate Director of Student Activities and Orientation, Sydney Bowen, having her jump in for just a second, when she was mentioned in the song “Right Hand Man.”

Moving on to the juniors, they secured the choice of Wicked for their skit. The juniors added a slightly different storyline to their skit, yet still kept it very true to the plot. The changes made included the decision to make the main love interest, Fiyero, a “Performative Male Manipulator,” played by S.C. George. He attempted to attract romantic interest from both Galinda, played by Lauren Hutchins, and Elphaba, played by Kaden Pegram. 

“Most of our transitions and the stuff between just come from all of our practices,” Pegram said. “We had a lot of practices where it just kind of came naturally.”

In contrast to the seniors, the juniors only used a few songs from the real musical, instead opting for songs like “The Subway” by Chappel Roan and “Fast Car” by Tracy Chapman for a more unorthodox spin.Another change made to the juniors’ take on Wicked was that the main villain, The Wizard of Oz, played by Clare Buchanan, was obsessed with the idea of Wake Forest fraternities: a symbol of the antithesis of Salem College’s culture and traditions. The juniors also made reference to their dwindling class size, using it as a main plot point. Their staff/faculty member feature was Dr. Jamila Young, who played herself as the “wisest witch in all of Oz” in a cameo to drop some much-needed knowledge about taking time to care for yourself, mentally and physically.

Sophomores took their chosen show, Heathers, and absolutely ran with it. The original show is quite gory, so their team had to clean up a bunch of the plotlines. Their main storyline still revolved around the character Veronica, played by Izzie Meanus, attempting to fit in with the “popular crowd.” The songs in their skits did keep to the original musical songs, yet rewrote the lyrics to fit their own storylines, including “Beautiful” and “Lifeboat” in the morning, and “Seventeen”, “The Me inside of Me”, “Dead Girl Walking (Reprise)”, and “Seventeen (Reprise)” in the evening.

“We decided to take a different approach to the script and focus more on students’ mental health awareness,” said Ozella Haslam. “And the fact that a lot of fellow classmates from first years to even seniors will transfer out due to the workload.”

The sophomore’s skit also included a feature from Dr. Sharee Fowler, playing the role of Ms. Fleming, the concerned teacher, who lent a helping hand to students going through rough times. She even brought her own touch to the script that none of the sophomores involved knew about: Fowler brought and handed out her own stress toys to them. 

Lastly, the First Year’s performance of their skits was based on Beetlejuice, which, similarly to Heathers, has some not-so-Fall Fest-appropriate themes that needed to be changed in order to be stage-ready. The story revolved around the main character, Beetlejuice, played by Lera Foust, and his complicated relationship with Lydia, portrayed by Lee Carpenter. The first year also took the opportunity to change up how the story was told and included four new characters. The four characters, Lynn, Maria, Emma, and Irena, were a group of friends wanting to see the show Beetlejuice. When one of the friends, Lynn, is hesitant, they act out the show for her and attempt to convince Lynn to come see it.

The songs that were used in the first years’ skits were “Day-O” and “Jump In The Line.” Although the lyrics were mostly the same, the backtracks of the songs were turned into more of a punk rock beat.