WEDNESDAY
MAY 3,2017
4j-
LIFESTYLE
Alumni share stage in ‘ Pippin’ National Tour ssg;,^
Deirdre Kronschnabel
Contributor
@kronschd
The “Pippin” opening number is a huge
reveal — circus artists, illusionists and dancers
twirl on stage in an organized chaos of feath
ers, hoops and lights.
“I just don’t think there’s anything else like
it,” said Elon University alumna Savannah
Sprinkle ’15, who plays
the role of Catherine in
the 2017 National Tour of
“Pippin.” “Everyone is just
blown away.”
Sprinkle and her former
classmate Mara Lucas ’15
performed alongside each
other in McCrary Theatre
in “Crazy for You” and
“Ragtime” while in the
same musical theatre class
at Elon. Now, the two alum
na are spreading the magic
to stages across the United
States in the 2017 Pippin
National Tour.
Sprinkle received a callback for Catherine,
Pippin’s love interest, but after no further
contact, assumed she hadn’t gotten the role.
Three months later, the producer called
Sprinkle to a meeting. At the time. Sprinkle
was playing Mary Poppins in her hometown
of Atlanta.
“I had a crazy day,” Sprinkle said. “I
left at 6 a.m., got to New York at 8 a.m.,
did my audition and then right after that
I left and flew back to Atlanta. I did Mary
Poppins that night.”
IT’S SO NICE TO HAVE
SOMEONETHEREWHO
YOUWENTTOSCHOOE
WITH AND YOU SHARED
A LOT OE GROWING UP
EXPERIENGES TOGETHER
SAVANNAH SPRINKLE
'15
Sprinkle’s wish for the role was granted, but
the excitement had only just begun.
In February, while Sprinkle was on tour,
Lucas began subletting her apartment in
New York.
It was a Friday when Lucas received an
email from Prather Entertainment Group
looking for an immediate replacement for
an injured Pippin dancer. By the following
Monday, she had been offered the job.
“I had a week to
pack up my stuff in
New York, and I joined
the tour that Sunday,”
said Lucas, ensemble
member and under
study to the Leading
Player. “I learned the
show in a week and
a half, and I’ve been
doing it since.”
Sprinkle had no idea
the company was going
to ask Lucas to submit.
“It’s so nice to have
someone there who
you went to school
with and you shared a lot of growing up
experiences together,” Sprinkle said. “It’s like
you’re connected to the past but also you’re
doing something that will forever bond you
to the future.”
For Lucas, Sprinkle made her national
stage debut a little less daunting.
“Joining a tour in the middle is sort of like
switching high schools in the middle of the
year,” Lucas said. “Everybody already knows
each other and you’re the new kid. It was just
nice to know there would be someone I was
comfortable with.”
Still, a national tour conjures up other
struggles. Almost two years post-gradua
tion, the alumna have had to adapt to fewer
resources and more difficult roles.
“It’s hard when you’re in a collegiate
program because you have to cast entire
shows with very young people,” Sprinkle
said. “I ended up playing a lot of older roles
when I was at Elon [University], which was
incredible, but sort of confusing when I left
school. I was trying to figure out, ‘What can
I play now?”’
The quirky and endearing Catherine
has challenged Sprinkle to tiptoe a fine line
between comedy and drama.
“That was one of the things that I had the
biggest trouble with,” Sprinkle said. “Finding
the really funny bits and moments, but mak
ing them truthful and sincere so that she reads
to the audience as a very relatable character.”
Linda Sabo, associate professor in the
Performing Arts department, is familiar with
the genuineness that sparkles from Sprinkle
on stage.
“She does the work not because she has
stars in her eyes, but because she loves it and
would do it no matter what,” Sabo said. “She
is truly a performing artist.”
Lucas and Sprinkle encourage current stu
dents to take advantage of resources. Notes
from professors and copies of sheet music
might not seem critical now, but they will
become luxuries once off campus.
“Really think about your time while you’re
in school, and use that time to take advantage
of all you’re given, so that you can go into the
real world with confidence,” Sprinkle said.
And above all, to always get back up.
PHOTO SUBMfnEDBV MARA LUCAS
Mara Lucas ’15 and Savannah Sprinkle ’15 are sharing
the stage again on National Tour of “Pippin.”
“There are going to be times when you’re
going to feel like no matter what you do,
you’re being pulled back,” Sprinkle said.
“But you’re going to be launched into some
thing great.”
Regardless of what obstacles may stand in
the way of their next adventures, both women
are testaments that with dedication and deter
mination, dreams come true.
“I always had an aunt who would say things
like, ‘Are you sure you don’t want to get a
minor in business?”’ Sprinkle said. “Then she
came to see the show and she goes, ‘I under
stand now. I get it. And I think it was worth
every bit of it.’”
SOPHIE ZINN
Majors: International
Studies and Political Science
Minor: Intereligious
Studies and Middle East
Studies
Mentor: Brian Pennington
JOCELYN PIETRO
Majors: Public Health and
Psychology
Minor: Intereligious Studies
and Human Service Studies
Mentor: Amanda Tapler
KRISTINA MEYER
Majors: Religious Studies
and Mathematics
Mentor: Toddle Peters
STYRLING ROHR
Majors: Religious Studies
and Anthropology
Minor: Asian Studies
Mentor: Amy Aiiocco
KANNON HALL
Majors: Strategic
Communications and
International Studies
Minor: Intereligious
Studies and Middle East
Studies
Mentor: Shereen Elgamal
SAMANTHA CROSIER
Majors: English and
Political Science
Minor: Jewish Studies and
Intereligious Studies
Mentor: Geoffrey Claussen
MULTI-FAITH
from cover
of the program.
“I think that our society has
stigmatized religion as something
that’s private and something that
shouldn’t be talked about,” Zinn
said. “However, because we have
suppressed our religious identities
in our country, we haven’t been
able to interact on more personal
levels with each other.”
Amy Allorrr* associate profes-
U • ■. .N— '^'rec-
tht , . , ■- /-ars,
and then the univeisity will assume
its funding.
Allocco said that the goal of the
program is to be interdisciplinary.
It stretches across the whole univer
sity, and its first cohort is composed
of students with a variety of majors,
backgrounds and research topics.
“We are privileging students
who are not otherwise cohorted,”
Allocco said. “This is a great oppor
tunity for students who wouldn’t
otherwise have a research platform
to get involved in this.”
A requirement to be admitted
to the Multi-faith scholars pro
gram is to be a religious stud
ies major or interreligious studies
minor. Though its first cohort
ranges from students majoring
in public heath, English, strategic
communications, religious studies
and international studies.
“Students who have multi-faith
=»rnpnts will have the oppor
tunity to pair classroom learning
and a closely mentored under
graduate research experience with
engagement outside of the univer
sity, with our local communities
and use those three building blocks
intersectionally,” Aiiocco said.
Sophomore Kristina Meyer, who
is in the program’s first cohort along
with Zinn, says she chose to apply
to the program not only because of
her interest in doing research with
interfaith organizations, but also
because she finds building relation
ships with her cohort as a valuable
aspect of her experience.
“We each have different research
topics,” Meyer said. “But the fact
that we are engaging in multiple
religions and engaging with people
of multiple religions, we will be able
to challenge each other and offer
each other different perspectives.”
This two-year program requires
the selected scholars to pursue their
projects closely with faculty men
tors. It also requires the students to
engage with the local communities
to promote multi-faith learning and
diversity. During their first year,
the scholars will work with their
mentors to plan global engagement
opportunities as well as research
experiences that will assist in broad
ening their development as multi
faith leaders. During their senior
year, they will take leadership roles
on campus within different depart
ments and lead educational events
focused around religion.
Zinn hopes to gain a wider
perspective of individual experi
ences, not only from her cohort,
but also from those she engages
with in the community.
“I think a lot of the times it’s
easy to associate different religions
with particular belief systems or
practices,” Zinn said. “But when
it becomes more personal, I think
that people’s convictions of others
religions deteriorate.”
For Meyer, learning from
other religions has made her
more compassionate.
“I found that studying other
religions and studying how people
interact has strengthened my own
faith,” Meyer said.
Meyer and Zinn are excited to
see the expansion of the program
and learn more about what they will
be doing with their cohort and in
their individual research projects.
Allocco hopes for the schol
ars to bring the communities they
engage with outside of Elon back to
campus to facilitate conversations
within the student body. She wants
to see increased communication
between religious communities at
Elon, and believes the scholars can
change the conversation about reli
gion at Elon. Her first meeting with
the cohort will be Thursday, May 4.
She hopes this meeting will serve as
the “launching pad” for the cohort
that she is looking to build.
“I hope we support one another
in the challenging kinds of proj
ects,” Allocco said. “Share resources
and cheer one another along and
ask hard questions to one another
as we dig into these research proj
ects and topics.”