Improvised Play Rings True on College Life

Throughout the beginning of fall semester, students took part in the creation and formation of a theatrical piece by the name Mil-wonky Too! (Sex, Drugs, and D2L).  The improvised production, designed to capture the realities of college life at UW-Milwaukee, provoked some audience members into tears with its stories of the system making it harder for students to succeed.

The play was focused on the negative sides of college and not the commercial sides that universities across the nation use as a recruitment tool.

Audience members were shocked by how many of the situations portrayed in the show actually happen all the time.

Students are required to take GER classes that have nothing to do with their major.

Students often have to work multiple jobs to try and cover costs of school if loans aren’t enough.

Students have to balance paying for school, getting good grades, and the stress that comes with living on your own.

The underlining question of the piece was, why does the system set up students to fail?

The show, which premiered and ran from the Oct. 15 to Oct. 19, was one of the highlights of the university’s fall theatre line up.

Kenilworth theatre, a multi-use space where the show was held, holds about an audience of 99.

Every single night, the space was almost at capacity.

“We had no idea what the turnout was going to be,” said cast member Emilie Rackovan. “The cast was just open minded and believed in the show… everyone was pumped to perform and I think that’s what made it so successful.”

A spotlight was on Mil-wonky Too! due to the fact it was based on being a student at UWM and was an improvised piece, which in short means there was no set script.

Students who were cast in the show worked hand-in-hand with director Alvaro Saar Rios to create the powerful piece that evolved from a general story and heavy improvisation.

“The first script we got was almost like a list of prompts we had to follow,” shared senior cast member Louie Glotfelty. “It was very bare bones and we had to shape and create the show into what it would eventually be.”

The story was centered around a young man, Smalls, who decided that he wanted a better life and to be the first one in his family to go to college.

Yet, once at UWM, his dreams of a better future and success are soon crushed.

Almost immediately after he arrived on campus, everything went wrong for him.

Financial aid couldn’t help him because his parents made too much money, even though they weren’t paying for his schooling, he signed up for GER-sanctioned classes which seemed pointless, Twerking 101, and he soon started to sink under all of the pressures of college.

“Our goal was never to point out flaws in the university as it was to point out flaws in the advertisement of college,” said cast member Katie Seidl.

“It was almost an Alice in Wonderland view of college: An exaggeration of things that happen in daily college life… being so overwhelmed and in such culture shock of all the unfamiliar things around you… sometimes students come in too naïve.”

But, the show did more than just exemplify the struggles of college.

Students shared their own personal stories through monologues and highlighted the great parts about college specific to each cast member.

“Everyone did something different and the audience related to different cast members,” added Glotfelty. “People were crying during monologues and felt very connected to the personal stories. Everyone connected to something different in the show and I think even that made the show so much more unique.”

The university has not commented on the show or any of the situations portrayed in the play.