The music theater department at Colorado Mesa University celebrated seniors on April 28 during their senior capstone cabarets. The semester will wrap up with a concluding cabaret at Charlie Dwelingtons. 

Every year, the seniors are required to create a 30-minute cabaret that involves six to seven songs. The songs are chosen by the seniors to explain who they are as artists. 

“The seniors work all year to create songs to help the story they want to tell, they do costumes and direct and choreograph group pieces if they choose to include a group piece,” Anna Dworkin, junior musical theater major said. “Each piece is incredibly unique to the specific senior, which I love.”

Dworkin performed in seniors Taylor Browns and Q McElroy’s cabaret in a short group number. 

“They are created completely by the senior that is performing them and it really gives the audience an insight into who they are. These performances are really the explanation point to their time here at CMU and it’s so unique and special to see their growth and see their amazing work,” Dworkin said. 

Compared to the regular performances put on by the department, cabarets are much more personal, rather than the stage performances that involve many people in the department. 

Jeremy Franklin, head of the musical theater department, works with the seniors to create their cabarets. 

“Jeremy Franklin is also incredibly helpful and has been preparing us since we first got here,” Dworkin said. “It’s a lot of work and takes a lot of training to put together an entire cabaret so I’m sure everyone would help me in saying that it really is amazing to have the support of Jeremy and the pianist, Doug Morrow. Doug is also amazing we wouldn’t be anywhere without him. These cabarets really are the seniors’ show… but also with Doug.” 

The department does prepare the students for this task. Dworkin explained that this past fall she took a class where they had to build their own cabaret, but didn’t have to perform it. It was practice creating the songs, the story line and the title. 

“It was a great way to ease into the whole shabang,” Dworkin said. 

As the seniors are ready to hit the road, there is one last performance to be done. 

“The cabarets that are a part of our main stage seasons were implemented not too long ago, and they are very beneficial to our learning,” senior Joey DeMers said.

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The venue is off campus which is different than previous years. 

“It provides another perspective of performing commonly associated with smaller venue types of entertainment and pics that we may have to do and use later in our careers,” DeMers said.  

Another change to this years cabaret is the theme of contemporary commercial music (CCM).

“[CCM] captures everything in music that we may recognize as the title ‘contemporary commercial’ implies,” DeMers explained. “In this cabaret, people will get a taste of anything CCM from Lady Gaga to Queen in an evening of almost perfected karaoke.”

This will take place on May 5 at 6:00 p.m. and will go until around 11:00 p.m.

“These are singers who are going to school and training their vocal style tags so I’m sure it’s going to be a fun and entertaining night, if not for anything else that you’ll be sitting in the audience wanting to sing along to all those songs you love to hate and hate to love,” DeMers said.

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