“Let's get the show on the road.” The words resound in the second act of Waa-Mu 2012: Off the Map, as a set of Northwestern students – a fraternity, a collection of Habitat for Humanity participants, an a cappella group and a sorority – embark on their tumultuous trip to New Orleans. After stumbling a bit along the way, they find their way back to school for graduation, but the process for Waa-Mu itself is one of an even more complex variety.
Watching the cast and crew of Waa-Mu put Off the Map together appears as a seamless effort. The finished product, a musical written, choreographed and presented by and for Northwestern students, fills Cahn Auditorium with alternating feelings of danceable excitement and emotional reflection. It all seems pretty natural and ideal.
But as late as Thursday night, dress rehearsals are still in full swing for the show, opening on Friday, April 27. It’s the devotion to perfection that qualifies this show as “the greatest college show in America,” a phrase prominently featured on Waa-Mu’s website and promotional materials.
The history of Waa-Mu speaks for itself, an image of a college tradition gone completely huge. “It’s so completely unique and unlike anything else that I’ve ever heard of before at any other school,” Assistant Manager and Weinberg freshman Hannah Dunn said. It has become an institution not only for being one-of-a-kind, but for the breadth of opportunities it offers. As Waa-Mu co-chair, performer and Communication senior Rachel Shapiro put it, “No where else has a place where you can produce a show, be in it and have written a song for it.”
Waa-Mu began 81 years ago as a collaborative musical revue between the Women’s Athletic Association and the Men’s Union at Northwestern. Since David Bell took over as director, though, the show has taken a turn onto a more plot-driven course. “He wanted us to write more about our own experiences in our own lives,” Shapiro said.
“David Bell always says in our musical theater classes that we sing to interrupt the silence of the universe,” Waa-Mu cast member, creative contributor and Communication junior Corey Moss, said. “When words aren’t enough, we sing.”
The show’s creative process, including the development of plot, is an intricate, year-long process. As soon as Waa-Mu finishes its run each year, a new group of co-chairs convene with Bell to flesh out a new show concept. By fall quarter, the show goes through creative meetings where the story-writing process unfolds and all the intricacies are developed. This makes way for Bell’s winter quarter class “Creating the Musical.”
Waa-Mu songwriter, cast member and Communication junior Patrick Budde took the class along with many other members of the Off the Map company. The class consisted of around 40 people of different levels of songwriting experience, all contributing music toward the eventual score which features over 30 original student-written pieces.
“Every week you’re either writing a new song or you’re re-writing something that the group expresses some sort of interest in,” Budde said. The process is a series of trials and errors in winter quarter, and once the score has been decided on, another process becomes of central importance.
Waa-Mu choreography chair and Communication senior Britt Banaszynski explained the difficulty of organizing the show's choreography when much of the music doesn’t get written until the rehearsals have nearly started. He and his fellow chair Mia Weinberger are hard at work on the choreography as soon as the music is available to them, drawing from a “pedestrian style of dance” that in Banaszynski’s words emphasize “simple” and “human” movements.
It all couples together with the message of the show about college students bridging the gap between their time at Northwestern and the inevitable end to their school years at graduation. As they travel to New Orleans for a final trip, they hope to take “one crazy adventure before they put on their gowns and caps."
“A lot of it is about taking advantage of Northwestern and the opportunities that we have here,” said Assistant Director and Communication junior Jesse Rothschild. Co-Chair, cast member and Communication senior Jon Harrison called it “an opportunity for students to embrace the parts of the school that they inhabit.”
With all the preparation that goes into the process, it’s no wonder that Waa-Mu has become an institution of Northwestern culture. Within the theater department it is a sort of historical artifact, but as Harrison and his fellow cast and crew suggest, one of Waa-Mu’s goals is to signify through its story the bringing together of cultures across campus.
The truth of Waa-Mu is that the individuals behind it wear many hats, both in the show and around campus. For Moss this has an even more significant value as he finds a connection between his Waa-Mu affiliation and his fraternity. In the basement of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity there is a plaque that states, “Joe W. Miller and Darrel Ware, Brothers in Phi Delta Theta, Wrote the Musical Show Good Morning Glory, the First Northwestern University Waa-Mu Show.” Since discovering this link, Moss has made it his purpose to make his fraternity involved somehow with Waa-Mu, and vice versa. “I wanted to think more about how Waa-Mu started originally because we don’t really talk about that much,” said Moss.
An interest in bridging the gap between various groups on campus seems an overarching theme for Waa-Mu. “As sappy as it sounds, there is a hope that this show can bring the two worlds [North and South campus] together and be some sort of merger,” Harrison said. The show is known for its popularity among Northwestern alumni and it continues the tradition of hosting a Greek Night to encourage students from outside the theater community to enjoy what Waa-Mu has to offer.
It comes as no surprise that this is such an inherent value for the Waa-Mu team, a group that self-identifies as a very tight knit community. “I love the family that’s created by all the people here,” Shapiro said.
For Co-Chair, cast member and Bienen senior Patrick Sulken, this becomes especially evident in rituals like the “hujjah” which involves a group of seniors speaking to the cast, followed by a set of “movements” and a chant in preparation for every performance. Backstage at Cahn sits a plaque dedicated to one of those founding members from Phi Delta Theta, Joe Miller. “After the hujjah everyone goes up and rubs the nose of Joe Miller for good luck,” Sulken said. “It just feels so much bigger than you.”
Waa-Mu in general feels like something so much bigger than it appears on stage. With performers playing multiple roles and a rich musical score with songs of many different styles and themes, it’s a project that spans a distance greater than any road trip, Chicago to New Orleans or otherwise.
“It’s a family that’s collaborated on this massive project and inevitably by doing this every day and by creating this world premiere you’re going to get close to the people you’ve worked with,” Moss said. “So I’m just very grateful to have been part of it.”