A thank you note to the Barnstormers

That would require me to let go of a few things, namely Netflix and my extracurricular activities. Maybe one day I’ll be able to curb my addiction to binge watching television, but I’ll never be able to step away from The News-Letter or the Barnstormers, the two places on campus where I’ve started to carve out my home.

I don’t think I can justly blame my lack of effort in school on the paper, because the editor job I held this year did not require a massive time commitment. However, I can put a little of the blame on the Barnstormers, though I wouldn’t trade my experience with that theater group for anything.

Joining theater was one of the only things I knew I wanted to do once I got to Hopkins. I went to the Orientation Showcase with a couple of my friends from my First Year Mentor group and watched performances by the Barnstormers, Witness Theater, Dunbar Baldwin Hughes Theater, Throat Culture and the Buttered Niblets, and I knew I had found my place. The theater people. The people who burst out into songs from obscure musicals, the people who would support a purchase of a two-person cow costume, the people who would drive me crazy and make me so, so proud to know them.

I jumped right into the Barnstormers as Assistant Stage Manager for the fall main stage last year called Is He Dead?. That was a wild roller coaster of “oh my god this is so cool” and “this is so stressful.” After that I stage managed the Intersession show and our spring musical.

Sophomore year, I really dove in. I have served on the executive board this year, first as a Technical Director and then as the Technical Executive. I co-directed two baby freshmen in a one act play for our fall showcase. I stage-managed The Mousetrap in the fall, which was again one of the best and most stressful experiences of my life. Working on that show, I learned a lot about conflict resolution and how to get people to actually listen to me.

This past semester we put on a production of Legally Blonde. I thought about stepping back from the group, so I signed on as sound designer and assistant producer. And that worked for a little while. I focused a lot more on my schoolwork but was still involved with theater.

But this semester has been really rough for me, and it turned out that I couldn’t let go of the show. I threw myself back in by taking charge of our production blog, and the Barnstormers really helped me get through a pretty low point in my life. This theater group has helped me temper my anxiety, and everyone has been there for me without them saying anything or me having to ask. I haven’t fallen, but I know they would pick me up if I did.

I owe so much to the Barnstormers. They’re a family to me, and I am so grateful for everything they’ve done, whether or not they know they’ve done it. We all pour our hearts and our souls into these shows, and I think people can tell. Legally Blonde is the biggest show we’ve ever tried to do and the first show to sell out a matinee performance in recent Barnstormers history. That is BIG and hopefully has set a precedent for the types of shows we’ll be doing in the future.

So Barnstormers, thank you so much for my past two years, for all the shows we’ve done, for Legally Blonde especially and for being exactly what I need.