Many students may be unaware of the thriving theater scene at the University, whether through student-run productions or the Drama department. One small but mighty group in particular — Spectrum Theatre — is dedicated to the creation of engaging and challenging theatre for the University and Charlottesville community.
The student-run group became a part of the University theater scene in 2004 — pitching, creating and performing one or two works a semester, many of which are musicals. For second-year College student Brianna Whitaker, Spectrum Theatre has become part of her lifeblood.
Whitaker has been involved in theater since discovering a passion for the art form as early as kindergarten. Her sister and mother were both performers themselves, exposing Whitaker to the stage from a young age.
“Drama has always been incredibly closely tied to myself and my identity,” Whitaker said. “I was very infatuated with that whole world.”
Whitaker did not originally intend to find herself in this theater community and entered the University intending to major solely in astrophysics with theater as a hobby. Nonetheless, upon her arrival on Grounds, she found a thriving theater community and was drawn in.
“There is so much bigger and larger of a drama scene at this school than I anticipated,” Whitaker said. “There are so many lively and very passionate voices.”
Whitaker first became involved in Spectrum when she took to the stage as an actress in their Spring 2024 production of Duncan Sheik’s “Alice by Heart,” a relatively new work inspired by Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland.” Whitaker found “Alice by Heart” to be one of her most rewarding theater experiences. According to her, it was one of the first times she felt that her identity as a Black woman had not been reduced to stereotypes or subordinate to white, male counterparts in a show.
“It was like one of the best experiences I've ever had in my life,” Whitaker said. “[‘Alice by Heart’] was the first time I've been able to see myself and my identity actually placed and thought about and represented in a musical.”
From her place as an actress, Whitaker was able to learn more about and develop a passion for the behind the scenes elements that make up a Spectrum production.
“[Spectrum needs] people with a heart for performance, propelling performance and making performance,” Whitaker said. “It needs an open avenue of expression for people to tell their stories and their experience and to have those experiences mirrored and paralleled in the shows that we put on.”
As a testament of her love for the organization, Whitaker decided to take on the tall order of directing Spectrum’s spring musical this semester, which she selected to be “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.” She pitched this show to the production staff because she related to its exploration of themes such as adolescence, overachievement and parental pressures.
“[With “Spelling Bee”], overachievement and identity, and living up to high expectations [are] baked within these character stories,” Whitaker said. “It's that level of containment but also expansion that I feel that [Spelling Bee] does so much better than a lot of other musicals I've seen.”
The storyline follows a group of young children — typically played by adults — who each take their turn at the microphone during a spelling bee, singing about these issues. Featuring University students of various years, Spectrum’s production of “Spelling Bee” is set to run April 4-6 at the Student Activities Building.
Throughout the rehearsal process, Whitaker has immersed herself in her cast’s characters during every rehearsal. Whitaker says that she will often take pointers from her actors rather than solely presenting her own ideas, emphasizing how everyone can learn from each other.
Whitaker cites “Alice by Heart” as her first experience with this teamwork-based dynamic. While acting in "Alice by Heart,” Whitaker appreciated how the student director encouraged actors to bring their own creative choices to the table.
“There were no walls put up,” Whitaker said. “We're so heavily inclined to allow actor input into the creative process because it's also [their] show that [they] are putting forth, and [they] have just as much of a say in it as anybody else.”
Directing a show is no small feat, even for someone as immersed in theater as Whitaker. Spectrum’s cast and artistic team rehearses over six hours a week, with more rehearsals leading up to the week of the show. While this amount of time can be stressful, Whitaker finds the work energizing rather than draining. Whitaker said she prefers the stress from her rehearsals more than any type of academic stress.
“It's something that I look forward to so much, because our cast is genuinely so passionate. They are so just full of energy and life, and they bring so much life to the characters and the scenes,” she said.
Through both acting and directing, Whitaker has been able to find true fulfillment in the performing arts, a passion which she will carry through the rest of her life and infuses into her work.
“This is my calling, and I feel the most alive,” Whitaker said. “I have a purpose on this earth when doing theater.”
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