Presented by the University of Maryland music school, the showcase included performances by three jazz ensembles: University Jazz Band, Jazz Lab Band and Jazz Ensemble.

As students and visitors entered the concert hall, a projector above the stage displayed fun facts about the night’s music selection and the music school.

“I’m here to listen to some good jazz,” sophomore supply chain management major Elliot McNeal said before the concert. “I had some free time tonight, so just trying to relax after a stressful semester.”

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The night’s theme was “The Basics of Basie,” a reference to the life and music of Count Basie. The bandleader’s music and leadership were pivotal in making big band jazz into what it is today. His ensemble, the Count Basie Orchestra, carries on his legacy.

“We just wanted to bring it back to the basics with Basie,” said Gio Hidalgo, a freshman jazz studies major and percussionist for Jazz Lab Band. “Most of the tunes were either written by Count Basie, written for Count Basie or written for his orchestra.”

University Jazz Band, an ensemble mainly made up of non-music majors, opened the showcase. Musicians began with the standard “In a Mellow Tone,” composed by Duke Ellington and arranged by Mark Taylor. The song’s smooth melody began in the saxophone section before transferring to the back row trumpets, which joined the saxes in a calland-response style.

Student musicians relied on one another and the steady rhythm section — guitars, keys, drums and bass — to stay in one piece. Ensemble leaders played only a supporting role in the performances, clapping along to the rhythm and occasionally signaling to players.

Bringing together the ensemble is a lengthy process. Jamie Pankratz, a freshman majoring in aerospace engineering and jazz studies who plays alto in the Lab Band, said rehearsals begin by selecting potential charts and sight-reading. Students then learn their own parts before coming together as a group.

Student instrumentalists in each ensemble showcased their musical talent through improvised solos within the written pieces.

Jazz Lab Band, comprised of both music and non-music majors, featured several soloists in their six pieces. The third song, “Don’t Git Sassy” by Thad Jones, included a tenor saxophone solo that could only be described as exceptionally stanky.

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The night’s final instrumental group, the Jazz Ensemble, featured solos by talented professional musicians affiliated with the Count Basie Orchestra.

Senior Master Sgt. Grant Langford, a former member of the orchestra, played an amazing solo on the saxophone.  

Clarence Banks, longtime trombonist for Basie’s orchestra, performed a creative solo in the song “I Need to Be Bee’d With” with the help of a trombone mute.

For percussionist Hidalgo, the emotions of the music, both in the audience and on stage, were paramount.

“I was literally smiling the entire time,” Hidalgo said “That’s super important when it comes to big band jazz, just having it feel good. And I think we did a pretty good job today.”

The Nyumburu Jazz Club gradually crept into Juan Tizol and Duke Ellington’s “Caravan.” Cymbals snaked in and bass guitar punctuated the pauses. With a baritone saxophone, trumpet and piano, the band fully assembled with exotica flair.

The jazz club began a night of music, dance and poetry, exalting various cultures and fostering community. 

Hosted by the Nyumburu Cultural Center, Juke Joint is a monthly open mic event for students and community members to showcase their multidisciplinary talents. While a typical session lasts about 90 minutes, this month’s spanned three hours to celebrate the University of Maryland’s homecoming week. 

Jason Christopher, a junior information systems major, said Wednesday’s event was his third time at Juke Joint. He finds the event to be a reminder of the community this university offers outside of academics.

“It’s a place where a lot of people who [have] similar backgrounds get to express themselves, whether it be poetry, dance or song,” Christopher said. “Seeing that expressed onstage is beautiful, and it kind of brings people together.”

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Junior information science and information systems major, Dorian Mkam similarly said Juke Joint offers a respite from classwork. 

“UMD is an academic-heavy school, but us being able to showcase what we can do outside of school is always cool,” Mkam said.

Various dance groups took the stage throughout the night. 

Decked out in camouflage pants, all-women African dance group Afrochique performed its boot camp-inspired routine, claiming only the top cadet dancers would be able to survive.

The group launched into precise, energetic movements to deliver this promise. With each meticulously choreographed step, the dancers moved together. Parts of the audience stood up to watch and even used chairs as vantage points.

Afrochique closed out Juke Joint more than three hours into the night and 30 minutes past its scheduled end. The crowd still came alive.

Natalie Gilmore, a freshman biological sciences major, said one of her favorite parts of the night was the audience’s infectious energy, as they would often break out into dance parties in between acts. 

“I didn’t expect to get so hype out of nowhere,” Gilmore said. “I thought it was really cool.”

Diazporić, a co-ed African dance team at this university, featured similar maximalist movements as zombified Eagle Scouts to celebrate Halloween. UMD S.T.E.P.P., a step dance team, paid homage to slasher films and horror icons Ghostface and Jason Voorhees during its set. 

“I’m African, so seeing African dance onstage and people celebrate that is something beautiful to see,” Christopher said. 

Juke Joint did not limit itself to dance acts. Chavannah Green, a freshman business administration and management major, brought a violin onstage. Green’s act began serenely, as intimate strings filled the space.

Suddenly, Green launched into Jeremih’s “Birthday Sex.” The crowd erupted.

Gerald Tabe, a sophomore neuroscience major and a Juke Joint regular, sang his act entirely in French. A blend of pop and R&B, he defined his vocals with an impossibly high falsetto. 

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Mkam said Tabe’s vocals were particularly impressive. 

“The high notes that he was able to hit and the performance he was able to give to the crowd was honestly outstanding,” Mkam said. “He deserves a lot of praise for that performance, and I’d love to see him continue singing.”

Spoken-word artist and senior public health science major Mohammed Salih recited a poem about the Trump administration’s efforts to intimidate people of color, rebutting that communities carry more power than the administration realizes. 

“We shouldn’t live in fear, we’ve got nothing to be afraid of, we’ve got our community,” Salih reminded the audience before the set.

It’s this community, Gilmore said, that gives her a deep sense of pride. “I was sitting down the whole time thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, I love being Black,’ because it was just fun,” Gilmore said. “It gives you a sense of pride, you know what I’m saying?”

Conducted by music director and cellist Jonathon Heyward, the orchestra played three compositions — “Israfel,” “Violin Concerto No. 2” and “Symphonie fantastique.”

Heyward, originally a musician in the orchestra, sought to acknowledge the rich history behind these pieces and translate them to a new audience. He emphasized the importance of expressing emotion without words in a manner that translates effectively to the audience.

“That’s the power of relatability within the classical music art form,” Heyward said in a Q&A after the performance. “That … is the beauty of what we get to do.”

For audience members like Eashana Subramanian, a senior landscape architecture major, Friday’s concert was their first exposure to these orchestral pieces.

“This is the first time I’m actually going to an orchestra symphony performance, so I’m really excited,” Subramanian said.

“Israfel,” originally a poem by Edgar Allen Poe, praises an Islamic tradition in which an archangel blows trumpets that signify the end of the world. Composed nearly two centuries later in 2015 by Mark Simpson, the piece seeks to capture the same emotions Poe wrote about. The orchestra’s performance marks the first time the piece was played in the United States.

The composition featured a range of instrumental pitches. Shifting from light-hearted melodies in the first section to intense rhythms in the second, it evoked the triumphant and chaotic feelings of the original poem.

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“Violin Concerto No. 2,” inspired by Russian folk music, sought to stir dramatic feelings in the audience.

Violinist Francesca Dego said during the Q&A that the piece is meticulously conducted, requiring focus and a strict adherence to the sheet music.

“It is almost like dialoguing with a living composer,” Dego said. “It’s so intricate and detailed … that you have to listen all the time.”

Through speedy rhythms, loud notes and instrumental techniques such as pizzicato, or plucked, strings, the orchestra only escalated Dego’s frantic solo.

Valeska Zitta, a junior chemistry major and former violinist, expressed her admiration of Dego’s performance.

“[Dego is] so impressive. It was amazing,” Zitta said

“Symphonie fantastique” articulated a five-movement act composed by Hector Berlioz. It tells the story of a protagonist infatuated with a beautiful woman, leading to misery and his eventual demise.

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To preserve the originality of the tragic story, Heyward ignored the usual repetition of the opening, just as Berlioz did when premiering the piece.

“My gut feeling was he never really wanted it, but he was thinking actually about mocking the symphonic tradition to do the sonata form,” Heyward said in the Q&A.

With dramatic sequences and playful melodies, the orchestra told this story using only sound.

Zitta said she enjoyed the orchestra and called its music and performance “beautiful.”

During the Q&A, Heyward highlighted the importance of performances like the orchestra’s, which provoke unity in difficult times. He emphasized the need for people to participate in the arts as a learning experience.

“What matters is actually being able to dedicate yourself to the arts in a meaningful and intentional way so that you all leave a bit more whole in such a fractious world,” Heyward said.

Performed and produced by the University of Maryland’s theatre, dance and performance studies school, the musical primarily follows the story of two employees of Maraczek’s Parfümēria, Amalia Balash and Georg Nowack. The coworkers are bickering rivals who have been unknowingly sending love letters to each other through a “Lonely Hearts” column. Antics ensue when Mr. Nowack discovers the identity of his anonymous friend and realizes it is his displeasing coworker.

But Mr. Nowack and Ms. Balash are not always the center of attention — this ensemble musical features a heartwarming cast of characters, each with their own hopes, dreams and solo numbers. Supporting the production was a featured pit orchestra of musicians from this university’s music school, as well as projected closed captions.

“Ever since last year, I was trying to go to more Clarice events in general … This is one of the ones that seemed interesting,” said junior immersive media design and studio art major Anna Marchler. 

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The musical began at the detailed storefront of “Maraczek’s Parfümēria,” the Bath and Bodyworks-esque shop that employs our main characters: Mr. Maraczek, Amalia Balash, Steven Kodaly, Arpad Laszlo, Georg Nowack, Ilona Ritter and Ladislav Sipos. As the characters entered their workplace, the front door of Maraczek’s lifted into the rafters to reveal an intricately designed parfumerie complete with stocked shelves of products and even a spiral staircase.

“I got to see how things came in and out when we had to do touch-ups and things, which is a lot of fun,”said sophomore theatre major Mary McHale, who helped paint the musical’s set. 

She Loves Me contained both comedic and sincere beats that prompted a wide variety of emotions in the audience.

The eager character of Arpad, played by junior elementary education and theatre major Matthew Dietrich, created many of the show’s humorous moments. When attempting to convince Mr. Maraczek to hire him as a salesperson, Arpad sincerely sang, “Why break someone in / When I’m already broken?”, prompting laughter from the audience.

The musical featured many emotional twists and turns. The audience voiced “ooohs” of surprise when Mr. Maraczek learned that his employee, Mr. Kodaly, was having an affair with his wife. When Maraczek’s subsequent exit from the stage was followed by the ring of a gunshot, the audience gasped in shock, and a hush fell over the theater. Don’t worry — Maraczek reappeared safe in a hospital bed at the beginning of Act 2, resolving the tension from his previous scene.

Throughout the show, the central enemies-to-lovers romance between Amalia and Georg had viewers on the edge of their seats. When the building drama finally resulted in the two lovebirds kissing under falling snow, loud cheering rang out from the crowd.

“I felt like that was the most heartfelt rom-com I’ve seen in a while,” said sophomore theatre major Dean White after the show.

Sophomore finance and theatre major Jordan Richard described the experience on stage as a “lovely adrenaline rush.”

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Richard played a humorous waiter and a customer on opening night, but he also holds roles as Kodaly’s understudy and the show’s dance captain. 

“Half of the people in that performance are non-theatre majors,” he said. “It is truly such a lovely melting pot of people that you get to know, and I think that that’s what makes theater great – it’s pulling experiences from your own life and different people you meet.”

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Depending on which version of it you watch, Sweeney Todd is either an eerie Tim Burton tall tale or a grimly comedic journey into situationally convenient cannibalism. Either way, it’s a one-of-a-kind trip.

When protagonist Sweeney Todd returns to London from unjust imprisonment and finds that his wife, Lucy, is dead, he vows to get revenge. With the help of his old straight razors and a manic baker, Sweeney takes creative measures to avenge his wife. Tread lightly if you have a weak stomach.

Ride the Cyclone

This off-Broadway comedy features a cast portraying six recently deceased high schoolers, one sentient fortune-telling carnival machine and one very hungry rat eating through the fortune teller’s wiring. The liminal space between life and death is as wacky as it gets.

The children are members of a Canadian high school choir who tragically die after a roller coaster called the Cyclone breaks. In a series of solo and group numbers, each character pleads their case for why they should earn the right to return to the land of the living. Ride the Cyclone has a diverse range of songs, with “The Ballad of Jane Doe” in particular a beautifully haunting performance perfect for the Halloween season.

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Rocky Horror Picture Show

Don’t let the title fool you — this cult-classic isn’t actually a horror musical. Starring the incomparable Tim Curry, Rocky Horror is pure, unadulterated camp.

Watch as unassuming lovebirds Janet Weiss and Brad Majors find themselves trapped in the strange home of Dr. Frank-N-Furter, a mad scientist who somehow succeeds in creating life. With rock-and-roll musical numbers and unashamed raunchiness, this musical is sure to make any dull October night into one to remember.

The Hatchetfield Trilogy

The Hatchetfield trilogy is a series of three professionally recorded stage musicals created by the musical theater company Starkid, best known for A Very Potter Musical. The productions take inspiration from several horror tropes, including alien invasions, mind control and teen slashers. Each musical exists in an alternate version of the fictional town of Hatchetfield, and many familiar characters serve as Easter eggs throughout the trilogy.

The first musical is The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals, a hilarious, self-aware production about a Broadway-hater named Paul who discovers his town is invaded by body-snatching, spontaneously singing aliens. Situational humor mixes with genuine heart as Paul and his friends attempt to evade this musical nightmare.

Next is Black Friday, a family-oriented musical that asks the question: what if the most popular toy of the holiday season was actually a Lovecraftian monster from the beyond? Bridging the gap between spooky month and “the most wonderful time of the year,” this installment has a lot to offer for anti-consumerist audiences.

The final musical is Nerdy Prudes Must Die, which follows the social outcast Peter Spankoffski and his friends as they deal with their evil high school bully, Max Jägerman. Things come to a head when the geeks accidentally murder Max, leading to the bully returning as a ghost and vowing revenge on all “nerdy prudes” in Hatchetfield. For any fans of more mature productions, this trilogy is for you. 

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Next to Normal

This production is not necessarily scary, but it is a ghost story. Familial trauma and the paranormal collide to blur the lines between reality and delusion.

On the surface, the Goodmans look like a normal nuclear family. But as cracks appear in the family’s lives, we soon learn that the mother’s mental illness has taken a harsh toll on every family member, creating a household that is anything but normal. With plot twists throughout, Next to Normal grabs your attention and refuses to let go.

Bonus: Cats (2019)

This infamous movie musical is not scary, nor is it a thriller, but it is certainly unsettling. You’re sure to be covering your eyes in no time.

Hornbake Library unveiled its exhibit, “The UMD Sesame Street Archival Showcase,” Wednesday, which explores the educational experience and cultural impact of the beloved puppet show Sesame Street.

A quaint corner of archives, featuring documents, puppets and photographs, celebrates the groundbreaking phenomenon of Sesame Street, exploring its humor and nostalgia just as much as its impact.

Susie Tofte, an archivist at The Jim Henson Company, captures Jim Henson’s legacy and presence at the University of Maryland, more than 60 years after his graduation. At Wednesday’s ceremony, Tofte gave a speech about Henson’s life and artistry.   

Tofte expressed her fondness for Henson’s dedication to his craft and the timelessness of his characters.

From performing on television to pitching The Muppet Show for years until it aired in 1976, Tofte reflected on Henson’s tenacity in making his goals a reality.

“He was not afraid to try new things,” Tofte said. “That’s a really great quality to have in life.” 

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Paul Cote, a senior lecturer in the English department, attended the exhibit’s premiere. He is teaching a course this semester titled “The Henson Family as Filmmakers,” which focuses on Henson’s work beyond Sesame Street and his family’s careers in the filmmaking industry. 

Heather Henson, Jim Henson’s daughter, founded Handmade Puppet Dreams, a company that showcases new puppeteers who bring their creations to life through film. Through her collaboration with the Green Feather Foundation, Henson assists in production efforts for independent puppeteers to create work for the screen. 

Cote regards Henson’s work as a callback to her father’s artistic activism, being “outside of what commerciality is supposed to look like.”

Chad Infante, an assistant professor in the English department, helped organize the exhibit. He said part of his work at this university is to spotlight the work of notable alumni such as Henson, Aaron McGruder and Jeff Kinney. 

“The real goal of this exhibit was to inspire students to think about their time here as students on UMD’s campus, by highlighting both the materials that we have that they could access, but also the legacies of former students,” Infante said. 

Wednesday’s showcase highlighted screenings of Sesame Street in Jamaica during the 1970s, an effort to introduce children in rural areas to television and determine if the show’s stories could connect across cultures. A blend of photographs and documents, the display celebrates Sesame Street’s unquestionable international impact and cultural reach.

Originally from Jamaica, Infante found the archives on the project particularly intriguing. 

“It really allowed me to catch a glimpse of the people I care about in the work,” Infante said.

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Efforts continue to bring Sesame Street to Jamaican children. The Sesame Workshop is currently partnering with various organizations to bring the educational television episodes to communities across the country. 

Infante thinks Sesame Street also aims to make its educational content personal.

“They draw on specific cultural traditions of the place they’re in,” Infante said.

Alex Buckton, a library and information science graduate student aspiring to work in archives and special collections, remarked how cool it was to see Roosevelt Franklin, the first Black Muppet, at the event.

Roosevelt Franklin’s character was controversial, loved by some and criticized by others. Sesame Street actor Matt Robinson, his creator and original voice actor, saw the puppet as a way for the show to reach Black children.

“Somewhere around four or five, a Black kid is going to learn he’s Black,” Robinson said in a 1971 interview. “He’s going to learn that’s positive or negative. What I want to project is a positive image.” 

Roosevelt Franklin’s presence in the show was highly debated — many thought his character was stereotypical and one-dimensional. The puppet ultimately made his last appearance in 1977. But for those who are interested, they can learn about his history in the exhibit.

“I feel like everyone would love to see Franklin,” Buckton said.

The planning of the event helped inspire Cote to create his course and take advantage of the already existing relationship between this university and Henson. He hopes to have multiple members of the Henson family speak to his class during the semester. 

In speaking to some family members for course preparation this past summer, Cote found that “just meeting your heroes was really something special.”

“The UMD Sesame Street Archival Showcase” will remain open until Dec. 20.

Hosted at The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, Sagal’s appearance was part of a larger event called “Humor, Hope, and the Humanities: Why Creativity Matters” within the Dean’s Lecture Series. 

Their lively discussion served as a formal launch of the arts and humanities college’s new five-year strategic plan, a roadmap to increase creativity, growth and engagement in the humanities.

“We wanted our attendees to leave having engaged with the conversation that I had with Peter Sagal, having engaged with the music that we presented on stage and come away understanding this is where the arts and humanities has been, and this is where the arts and humanities will go further,” Shonekan told The Diamondback. 

As a long time listener of Sagal, and with his background studying humanities, Shonekan knew he was a guest who could help the audience understand the importance of the arts and humanities in the context of current events. 

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The conversation dove into Sagal’s career, hitting on highlights such as his passion for theater and performing, working as a playwright and screenwriter and his journey to becoming the host of Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! in 1998.

In 2013, Sagal hosted the PBS documentary Constitution USA with Peter Sagal, in which he traveled the country investigating the U.S. Constitution’s role in modern society. Sagal and Shonekan discussed the importance of the Constitution to Americans and the ways it’s interpreted.

“For one of my classes, we just read the Constitution,” said sophomore English major Rebeca Ventura. “Hearing him talk about it was very interesting because he was saying that most Americans don’t know the Constitution … that’s something that I definitely felt when discussing it with my class.”  

Shonekan called the timing of his visit “serendipitous,” because this university’s First Year Book selection this year is the Constitution.

“With the Constitution as our First Year Book and the fact that he’ll be on campus, I thought what a wonderful part of the event to have him talk about something he cares deeply about,” Shonekan told The Diamondback.

Shonekan closed the discussion by naming each department within the arts and humanities college and asking Sagal to say the first word or phrase that came to mind. Sagal was his typical witty self, responding with jokes such as “learn it before they take it away” to history and “I don’t understand” to communication. 

Juliana Messinger, a sophomore immersive media design major said she had “no expectations” coming into the conversation but enjoyed hearing Sagal speak.

“I’ve listened to Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! since I was a kid. So when I saw Peter Sagal was coming, I really wanted to hear what he had to say,” she said. 

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Shonekan wanted Sagal’s appearance to invite all attendees to reflect on how the arts and humanities interact with American society.

“With so much technology around, with the rise of AI, we are, at the end of the day, still human beings who have really wonderful histories and cultures and worldviews,” Shonekan said. “It’s the arts and humanities that reminds us of our humanity, and so my conversation with Peter Sagal was really very much about that.”

We live in an era of adaptation. It seems like no popular film is exempt from being turned into a musical. Recently, the song-and-dance adaptation of the 1992 cult classic Death Becomes Her received 10 nominations at the 2025 Tony Awards, including Best Musical. 

Musical versions of Mean Girls, Waitress, The Notebook and Back to the Future all spent time on Broadway this decade. My personal favorite musical of recent years, Beetlejuice, will return to Broadway in October for its third run.

This current adaptation trend is concerning many in the theater fandom. Redditors who love Broadway lament its turn toward adaptations, wishing that more original ideas filled theaters. Popular social media figure Jess Val Ortiz recently argued online that “not every movie needs to be turned into a musical,” earning over 186K likes on Tik Tok.

I understand the concern. Miranda Priestly’s movie persona may be too serious and stoic for rock-style songs written by Elton John. Some stories are simply better suited for the screen than the stage, while others are too well-known as films to be convincing as musicals.

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However, Broadway’s sudden crisis of unoriginality feels exaggerated. Musicals haven’t become unoriginal just because movie adaptations are taking over — many famous Broadway musicals are adaptations. 

Back in 2019, Trevor Jones for The Conversation argued theater was always a breeding ground for adaptations, especially ones of popular novels. We see this most recently in The Great Gatsby and The Outsiders, two musicals which began as worldwide literary phenomena.

Wicked — one of the most popular movies right now — is an incredible musical based on the novel by Gregory Maguire, which in turn was based on The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum. Hamilton is currently celebrating its 10-year anniversary and a return to the internet’s spotlight, and Lin-Manuel Miranda based that musical off of Ron Chernow’s biography, Alexander Hamilton. 

Way further back in time, one of Broadway’s earliest hits, Porgy and Bess, was adapted from a stage play, which was, you guessed it, adapted from a novel. Oklahoma!, a terrible musical from the wonderful Rodgers and Hammerstein, was adapted from a play as well.

If you’re concerned about Broadway’s lack of originality, the first thing you must understand is that it is not a new phenomenon.

Original ideas are great, and we shouldn’t try arguing over the merits of Legally Blonde versus In the Heights. Instead, what the theater community needs to ask itself is how much a musical’s origins really matter.

Musicals with completely original concepts are just as likely to bomb. Merrily We Roll Along is an original show that was poorly received during its first Broadway run, and Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark is an infamous adaptation that ended (literally) painfully. Conversely, Falsettos is an incredible original concept whereas the stage adaptation of Les Misérables became theater gold.

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Good art can come from unexpected places. Bad art can, too. What matters is not where a musical comes from but instead, how it makes you feel. Judging a show based on its inception may lead audiences to overlook new, exceptional works. If there was any perfect environment to try weird things and see if they stick, it’s musical theater. After all, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s fever dream Cats ran on Broadway for an exceptionally long time, proving that even the most bizarre concept can find success on stage. So who knows? Maybe The Devil Wears Prada will also run for decades if it makes its Broadway debut.

The installation showcases the work of multidisciplinary artists through film, interactive pieces and visual art. Their pieces explore memory in a multi-faceted way, provoking self-reflection from the viewer.

Art history graduate student Júlia Sodré helped curate the collection and said her intentions were to center on the idea of “memory as fiction,”3  bringing together a group of artists to do so. 

“My hope is that [students] can learn … what the artists of their local region are doing,” she said.

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One striking painting by artist Lolo Gem, “The Human Mind Can Stand Just So Much,” is a jumble of bright colors, cartoon references and classic comic book-inspired drawings. This style can be some people’s first exposure to art at a young age, Gem explained.

She said her pieces are a reminder that “we’re all doing this together” — an exploration of nostalgic comforts amid the chaos of adult life. Gem hopes her work encourages her audience to pause and reflect on their own feelings. 

“I know that the feelings I’m putting in it are universal,”  she said. 

Similarly, artist Jiangshengyu Nova Pan’s film “like, don’t know which word will blurt out next.” incorporates her experience migrating across the world as a young adult. The premise follows two actors — one being the artist — through a conversation about their struggles with transformation and embracing difficult changes.

Projected onto the gallery wall, the black and white film follows two actors spending time together over food and wine as they discuss entering a new phase of life. They reveal challenges and find comfort in their joint experiences. The film portrays their struggle to verbally communicate as a symbol of cultural immersion barriers. 
Originally from the southern Chinese city Hangzhou, Nova Pan said she gained a greater sense of the world through her travels. Her focus on depicting migration as a means for people to unite and accept differences shines in the work.  

A notable moment in the piece is when the characters discuss their living arrangements. They both differ in their preference of having a roommate, representing their adaptation to migration. 

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“If you see the world more … you will start to embrace the differences more than confront why we are so different,” she said.  

College students often have similar feelings of transition. Cultivating a sense of self, expanding horizons and growing by embracing new experiences are all results of overcoming the challenges of transformation in life.

“My hope is that the students could come here, [and] have some moments of reflection, either learning about other people’s experiences … or finding a sense of community,” Sodré said.“Lights off at 8pm,” is more than an opportunity to observe phenomenal artwork. It’s also a space for self-reflection. The exhibit is open until Oct. 11.

The show began with a time traveler who started by scolding present-day students for being discriminatory against artificial intelligence. They then helped their college-age father accept his sexuality and become a positive male role model for the time traveler.

Reminiscent of Gen Z’s critique of mansplainers and emotionally absent fathers, the opener set the stage for a comedically chaotic night.

Maryland Night Live’s 15th season featured a free comedy show with a mix of sketches, stand-up, recorded skits and jazz music written and performed by members of the group as part of The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center’s NextNow Fest.

Maryland Night Live, in name and content, takes inspiration from the long-running NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live.

“I wasn’t as familiar with SNL as a concept, so this was pretty fun and intriguing,” sophomore computer science and information systems major Mira Balakrishnan said. “They were really funny. I especially liked the stand-up.”

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For years, Maryland Night Live shows have made sketch comedy widely available to University of Maryland students. Jaden Chen, a junior computer science and immersive media design major, said he was excited for his first show from the group.

“I like comedy,” Chen said. “I’ve never been to a live comedy show … I’m excited to see what we have here.”

The performance included humor specific to this university that the comedy troupe is known for. Its news segment featured a joke about the first traffic signal on campus, its mere mention prompting outcries from the crowd.

The night’s guest stand-up was performed by Trisha Anand, a senior computer science and mathematics major and member of Hysterics, this university’s comedy troupe for underrepresented genders. In her set, Anand joked about the dangers of exposing her future unborn child to hours of TikTok every day, concerned the baby would emerge from the womb too familiar with the internet and already crafting Reddit posts.

“[Comedy is] the most special type of audience,” Anand said. “Everyone is interacting, everyone’s laughing … It makes it very special.”

[Ed Sheeran’s ‘Play’ is heartfelt, but inconsistent]

In the 90-minute span, the lights went up three times on an excited patron sitting in an Applebee’s as the audience watched their rocky attempts at finding companionship as a messy food lover. Don’t worry — the series had a happy ending as the customer ran offstage with a like-minded Applebee’s employee.

Rather than having an outside musical guest like in past productions, the group opted for an extended solo from their accompanying jazz band midway through the performance led by tenor saxophonist and senior geology major Alli Stavely.

What most stood out about Maryland Night Live was its collaborative comedy style. The actors constantly bounced off one another, reacting to the energy of the moment.

In one of the last sketches, a YouTube how-to video on fixing a dryer devolved into chaos when the dryer suddenly came to life. As the actors ran around the stage chasing one another — one of whom was wearing a cardboard dryer costume — it was clear they were having a great time.

“There’s a really special community in [Maryland Night Live],” Anand said. “It can be a way to break out of your comfort zone, even if you have never done anything with comedy.”