A Night of Nostalgia: Disney Cabaret

The Theatre Appreciation Club put on its first-ever Disney Cabaret October 26. This event was free to attend, but the club accepted free-will donations.

Nine performers sang a wide range of songs from their favorite Disney classics:

• Anthony Duckett and K. Hampton - "A Whole New World," Aladdin
• T.J. Green - "Poor Unfortunate Souls," The Little Mermaid
• Edwina Cummins - "Speechless," Aladdin; "Colors of the Wind," Pocahontas
• Allison Hutson - "Reflection," Mulan
• Megan Peterson - "When Will My Life Begin," Tangled
• Michael Leese - "Can You Feel the Love Tonight," The Lion King
• Niki Dewitt - "Part of Your World," The Little Mermaid
• Nyssa Wagner - "Into the Open Air," Brave

This cabaret was a great opportunity for SAU students to perform a song they normally would not have the opportunity to sing. This event had performers not only from the Theatre Department but also from Marketing, Occupational Therapy, and Psychology.

Here's what the performers had to say about their song choices:

"I've always enjoyed Disney and wanted to partake in celebrating it," said Green, a senior theatre major. "I chose 'Poor Unfortunate Souls' because as a little gay fat kid, I always identified with Ursula because she was someone who didn't meet conventional beauty standards but loved herself anyway – tentacles and all."

"It's always nice to have a place to sing a song from Disney where people can actually hear you because when else will you get the chance to sing a childhood favorite in front of an audience?" said Wagner, a sophomore occupational therapy major. "Brave is my favorite Disney movie along with Merida being my favorite princess. I feel this song represents the change we have to make in order to become better people."

"It means a lot to me to be able to sing a song like that with my partner, said Duckett, a junior theatre major. "It's a song that we always sing together, and I figured that this cabaret would probably be one of the only times that we could actually perform it."

"I have loved to sing Disney since I was a little kid. I chose to sing from Mulan because I have always loved this song and never had the chance to perform it before," Hutson, junior marketing and music major and newest TAC executive board member, said.

The Disney Cabaret audience was lively, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. There was clapping, laughter and heartfelt "awws." The audience ranged from parents and students to people all over the Quad Cities community.

This was one of many events that TAC has planned for the school year. There will be many more opportunities to support this budding club, ranging from a miscast cabaret to a 24-hour play festival.

The next club event is an overnight trip to Chicago December 13-14. This trip involves taking around 20 theatre-loving students to see different productions and exposing them to different types of theatre that may not be available otherwise.