A taste of cabaret is coming to Fairfield. On April 19, the Fairfield University community will be presenting the first annual “Fairfield Follies: A Night of Musical Performance.”
Started by seniors Mary Hamann and Valentina Stefanidis, the show’s mission is to allow individuals from the different musical groups on campus to showcase their talents, while also offering a venue for seniors to present their own senior projects.
Although performances will include musical theatre pieces such as “In His Eyes” from “Jekyll and Hyde: The Musical,” “I’d Give it All for You” from “Songs for a New World” and numbers from “Avenue Q” and “Thoroughly Modern Millie,” other musical genres will be showcased as well.
“One thing we didn’t want it to be was a strictly musical theatre performance,” said Hamann. “A lot of people on campus are musically gifted, and we wanted to incorporate singers and instrumentalists. That’s why it’s exciting.”
Hamann said their goal was to include all types of musical arts in the event. “We have a Gershwin piano medley, a trio of trumpets and even an original hip-hop performance,” she said.
According to Hamann and Stefanidis, the evening will be presented with a cabaret or coffee house type of ambiance -complete with refreshments.
“We’re going to have refreshments, so it’s sort of like a cabaret, but it’s not staged,” said Hamann. “It’s like a musical review, where a bunch of students can come and watch us perform.”
The goal of Fairfield Follies is to not only showcase the different musical groups on campus, but also to have the event be about students outside of the already-established on-campus music groups. Stefanidis and Hamann said that they hope the event will continue in the future.
“We did most of the organizational aspects ourselves but in the future we want to get more people involved in actually organizing it -having a few people in charge of advertising and promotion, some finding people interested in performing and others to get refreshments and so on,” said Stefanidis.
“We hope that underclassmen or someone who isn’t a graduating senior will want to continue it because it’s an outlet for musicians; something besides orchestra, Glee Club, and band,” said Hamann. “A place where people who aren’t in those groups -or who are- can perform solo works, because there’s not a lot of solo opportunities on campus.
“Fairfield Follies” will be held on Thursday, April 19 at 8 p.m. in the Creative Life Dining Commons of 42 Bellermine Hall.
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