August 2022

University of Michigan’s MT ’23 Senior Entrance

MT23 Senior Entrance
Towsley Studio

U of Michigan Department of Musical Theatre | Ann Arbor, MI
Writers | Adina Aaron, Nick Daly, Claire DeJean, Sofia Deler, Hoke Faser, John Taos Foster, Zac Mitchell, Rixey Terry, and Timmy Thompson
Directors | Sevon Askew, Austin Nedrow, and Lily Rosenberg
Music Directors | Caleb Middleton and Zac Mitchell
Choreographers | Ze’ev Barmor, Alyssa Carol, Kelly Lomonte, Caleb Quezon, Rixey Terry, and Timmy Thompson
Stage Manager | Holly Adam
Director of Photography and Editor | Johannes Pardi
Lighting Design | Abi Farnsworth


For the second year in a row, the University of Michigan’s Musical Theatre senior class upped their production game for their now famous Senior Entrance YouTube video by requesting lighting design.

A huge fan of this annual tradition, I was honored to help again.

This year, they wanted to pay homage to classes that came before by keeping room lights on over my lighting for the first half to reflect the original series of senior entrances with overhead-lighting-only.

To create their own unique sense of drama, when the overhead lights went down we kept the majority of lighting to a movie-screen-like rectangular area, framing their dancing and performances like the movie-star-famous entertainers they aspire to become.

This production was filmed in 4K for the first time ever.

The seniors also took the time to submit the entire script as as closed captioning on YouTube, something I wish every production on YouTube would take the time to do.
As their lyrics are both clever and detailed, we all get the benefit of appreciating the hard work of the the student writers and lyricists.

Tags

Lighting Design, Video