Drama showcase gives graduating seniors chance to share talents with industry

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Once Jaelle Laguerre let go of the idea that she only had two takes to film her senior showcase, the Syracuse University senior stepped into Archbold Theater feeling a sense of relief. It was her first opportunity to perform on a stage in months.

“The world is still upside down, a gleam of light has started to emerge for theater, and things are starting to weirdly and oddly open back up,” said Laguerre, a musical theater major. “It’s just in time for me and my classmates.”

The SU Lewis Hecker Drama Showcase is an annual presentation where graduating senior performance majors in the Department of Drama introduce themselves to the industry. Produced by SU Drama alumni Ben Holtzman and Sammy Lopez, students prepared songs, monologues, scenes and dance numbers showcased to an audience of industry professionals such as agents, casting directors and producers.

The showcase is usually performed live in New York City, but SU Drama moved to a recorded showcase due to the pandemic. Directed by Katherine McGerr, filming for the senior showcase took place during December and January. This year, for the first time, participation expanded to all senior performance majors.

Material selection began in October. Students were given the opportunity to film three minutes, which could be pooled with other students. Laguerre found it challenging to fit all her strengths into that small of a time frame. She also had to consider what is happening in the industry today and tailor pieces to meet those demands.

“The key was picking something that you really love to do, rather than picking something you think is expected of you, or you feel you need to show out,” Laguerre said. “If you pick two pieces or three pieces that you genuinely love … That’ll show.”

Jaelle Laguerre is a senior musical theater major who is presenting for the Syracuse University Lewis Hecker Drama Showcase. Courtesy of Jaelle Laguerre

David Lowenstein, director of the musical segments in the senior showcase, worked with students on their interpretation of the works they chose to perform, specifically aiding students who chose to sing for their segment. He believed his job was to help students feel confident about their work so that they could deliver strong performances.

McGerr used Zoom to her advantage by playing and testing out camera angles when working on scenes with students. Zoom made scheduling more flexible and allowed students who were not on campus to rehearse and present material for the showcase from home, like SU seniors Jueun Kang in South Korea and Mackenzie Rohan in California.

Laguerre believes her training at the Department of Drama prepared her in every way possible for the showcase. Her sophomore year scene study class was pivotal because she learned why it was important to break down a scene beat by beat in order to fully immerse herself into the given circumstances.

Laguerre’s voice teacher at SU, Kathleen Wrinn, helped her navigate the technical aspects of the challenging songs she chose to showcase, so she knew where the notes sat in her voice and so that she could sing them with ease.

While watching the students’ showcase videos, McGerr hopes parents, friends and prospective students see the Department of Drama’s values manifested in the seniors’ work — smart, well-rounded, complex storytelling and strong individuality.

“I hope they can get to see how much talent, but also self-knowledge our students have collected in their time.” McGerr said.

Lowenstein impresses upon the students that the senior showcase is not the be-all and end-all of their careers. Instead, it is an opportunity to be seen by some industry professionals. Since the showcase can seem like a “behemoth,” he hopes this mindset can take some pressure off of students.

Laguerre hopes audience members take away the importance of putting oneself out there. It’s also the same lesson she takes away from her showcase experience, with the abrupt shift of doing her classwork virtually and self-taping more frequently.

“All types of people from all types of backgrounds are going to watch this, so we were given no choice but to be vulnerable,” Laguerre said. “Some people are going to like it, some people are going to not … Quite frankly, it doesn’t matter as long as you loved it and you put your best out there.”