Musical revue aims to help those in need
Audience asked to bring canned goods for local pantry
Heather Holm/Staff Reporter
Issue date: 11/20/09 Section: News
|
The Central Illinois Stage Company and Eastern's Student Community Service department are encouraging audience members to bring any non-perishable food to the revue as part of Eastern's "30 Days of Change: EIU Fights Hunger" food drive. This is reminescent of the war effort during World War II, since the revue is a call-back to a 1940s United Service Organization show.
"G.I. Jukebox" is a musical revue that is light on dialogue and filled with a wide range of musical numbers.
In the show, Hollywood stars have traveled to sing for some of the allied forces. Director Scott Brooks said he chose to direct the show because the music of the 1940s is really popular nowadays.
"I would say people of any older generation would appreciate the music more than a younger crowd, but the younger crowd will still recognize the songs," he said.
An array of songs will be performed, including "I'll be Seeing You," "Moonlight Serenade," "Opus One," "Jukebox Saturday Night," "In the Mood" and more.
The cast consists of Rachael Sapp, Casey Higgins, Kim Higgins, Tom Hawk, Vicki Christy, Dave Shunk and Michael Ve. Sapp liked the musical revue because it was different and because she likes 1930s and 1940s "big band" music.
"Mostly people do not hear of USO shows," she said. "I''d never heard of one, and I thought it would be fun to be in one."
She thinks the show is timely because of its war-like aspect, which Brooks agrees with.
"We will recognize any audience members that are either veterans or active duty," Brooks said.
The food collected goes to the Charleston Food Pantry, which is open to anyone.
"We especially need the food now (in the winter months) because with electric bills, people have to pay higher for heat and have less money to pay for food," Fisher said.
Fisher thinks this gives members of the community an opportunity to help each other out.
The "30 Days of Change" campaign was created to provide students at Eastern with an educational event or activity that connects to fighting hunger through education and change.
Fisher also said how 30 percent of citizens in Illinois are below the poverty line and how one out of seven children go hungry every day.
Sapp understands the importance of the cause as well.
"I am pitching in by helping my local pantry in Tuscola," Sapp said.
The revue started Thursday night and will continue Friday and Saturday, with a final show at 3 p.m. Sunday in the Praise Assembly of God in Charleston.
Tickets are on sale for $10 per person.
Heather Holm can be reached at 581-7942
or haholm@eiu.edu.
The Daily Eastern News encourages on-topic, civil discussion on its articles posted online. It is our policy not to screen comments before they are posted or edit them after they are posted. However, we reserve the right to remove comments that are off-topic, malicious, libelous or include excessive foul language. The DEN also reserves the right to turn off all comments on any story it deems necessary.
Comments violating copyright law will also be removed.
Users who repeatedly violate this policy will be banned from commenting.
If you have any questions on our comment policy or wish to report a comment that you feel violates these standards, please e-mail a link to the article to our Online Editor at DENNews.com@gmail.com.
Be the first to comment on this story