Every semester, students experience syllabus week, midterms, finals and the Original Cast semester production. Each term, I find myself eagerly stalking The OC’s Instagram for details about their newest show, and I am not alone in this obsession. This semester, tickets for the OC were a hot commodity, with all their shows selling out within 10 minutes. Like many, I was disappointed when I couldn’t secure a ticket, but I got creative to see this year’s show. I had the chance to speak with this semester’s director, Izzie Binici, and other cast members during their final dress rehearsal.
For those unfamiliar with the campus organization, each semester’s OC setlist and script serve as the director’s love letter to musical theater, highlighting the genre’s core essence: creativity. The production pushes the boundaries of storytelling with wacky outfits, catchy yet emotional songs and niche humor. While the process of making the show and the final product can be sporadic and creatively crazy, the essence of OC is a community of theater kids bringing their love of musical theater to their friends, families and the Vanderbilt community.
Binici and this year’s production’s producer, Kylie Frame, shared their experiences joining OC. Binici, a senior, joined the organization during her sophomore year after being recruited by Frame. The two talked about how OC is like a large friend group, and inviting their friends to be a part of the organization is another way they create this camaraderie.
When it comes to selecting a theme for their show, OC operates collaboratively. Cast members pitch their ideas to the group, and the cast votes on which concept to pursue. With this process in mind, I asked Binici how she came up with the doll theme for “Pretending.”
“The idea I came up with was about dolls, and I was inspired by how I see children in my life play pretend. I just think it’s the funniest thing, what kids can come up with when they play pretend. They come up with the craziest storylines, or they follow a very Disney Channel Original movie plot,” Binici said. “I wanted to mimic that and hopefully have the audience be able to relate in some sort of way to the plot by being able to see their childhood playtimes in the show.”
Binici further explained that the show is broken up into two acts, with the first following a little girl and her playing with dolls. As she plays, cast members perform what the girl is making up. The Second Act follows the dolls and what they do when the kids are asleep. Binici stated that she was inspired by Toy Story.
“It’s like Toy Story, but like a little more wild, a little more OC,” Binici said.
“It’s a college Toy Story,” Frame said.
As always, OC tells its story by selecting songs, this time Broadway hits and Disney Channel classics, to accentuate its plot. Binici elaborated on the selection process.
“The director of each show always picks the songs. I have this big musical theater playlist, like 600 songs long, so I just went through, and I had the idea of the plot in mind,” Binici said. “I knew I needed a song about a girl playing with toys. I needed a song about love. I needed a song where two dolls fight with each other, so just a bunch of random stuff.”
Binici also explained the importance of feasibility in song choices.
“You also wanna pick songs that people can sing or you think are feasible to put on. Staging is really important,” Binici said.
Frame, a previous OC director and now producer, also spoke on the process of selecting songs.
“You’re finding songs that fit your plot, and then half the time, you’re taking your favorite songs and figuring out how to make them work in your plot,” Frame said.
When asked more about the script, Binici spoke about how two fellow board memebers added quirky, outlandish humor as well as plot transitions between songs so the audience can continue to follow along with the story.
“I sat down when I had all my songs, and I kind of wrote like a little synopsis of how I wanted Act One and Act Two to go,” Binici said. “And then, we have two people on our board this semester, Holland Perryman and Soren Olsen, who wrote the script from my direction, and we work together.”
Perryman explained that she wrote Act One, and Olsen took Act Two. They collaborated on meshing the humor and storylines.
“We were just sitting in a Rand booth writing this, just cracking ourselves up, but hoping other people are gonna get our jokes,” Perryman said.
As a frequent audience member of OC, I always leave a show feeling light and happy after a wild ride. Binici had the audience in mind when she designed this fall’s show.
”I want the audience to feel a little bit nostalgic about their childhood and also just be able to leave their lives behind and think about simpler times when you were kids,” Binici said.
The Original Cast is as advertised: original. They are authentic in their humor and their plots and are always a must-see every semester. For those lucky enough to have snagged tickets to “Pretending” the show dates are Nov. 14 – 16. Have fun reminiscing the good ole’ days of pretending!
