Performing Arts Major Hosts Senior Project Performing Arts Major Hosts Senior Project
NEAR THE END of the spring semester, audiences were caught up in comedic espionage during showings of “The 39 Steps,” a senior performing arts project by student director Tanner Zank, the first student to graduate from the performing arts program JBU started in 2023.
For two fast-paced nights in Jones Recital Hall, crowds followed Richard Hannay — a Canadian everyman played by sophomore Camden Mathis — as he was swept into a world of reconnaissance and romance. Hannay is pulled along this spy thriller by three female characters: Anabella Schmidt, a Russian spy; Margaret, a Scottish housewife; and Pamela, a headstrong American — all played by sophomore Julia McCarty. Junior Mayson Montgomery, senior Natasha Sakulyanonvitaya and senior Volen Stoyanov portrayed the clowns — characters who morph into the many faces populating the show’s 1930s European settings.
As the plot progresses, Hannay is met with increasingly difficult moral decisions. How will his actions affect the outside world? Who should he align himself with? Amidst the chaos, is there anyone he can trust?
These questions are part of the reason Zank chose the text for his senior project. He felt it contained a message that the JBU audience needed to hear.
“I think this story is a love story… it’s about [Hannay] falling in love with life because he is able to live it,” Zank said. However, Zank wasn’t always sure of the potential of Patrick Barlow’s adaptation. He said the usual large production scale and the need to reduce it to a smaller scale scared him. Ultimately, he decided he could make it work.
“It is a show that embraces creativity when making choices,” Zank said.
Fortunately, he was backed by a resourceful team of student designers who committed to the project in its early stages. Students rehearsed throughout the spring semester, balancing academics, extracurriculars and work-study jobs — sometimes rehearsing late into the night to refine a scene.
“The entire design team was established before we went on winter break, a luxury that was offered to me because of the buy-in of the people in the [music and theatre] department,” Zank said. “Lauren Van Andel said, ‘I’m lighting your senior project,’ before I even had considered what that might be, and Seth Malone said, ‘Oh, no, I’m sound designing,’ even though he had a very full semester.”
Additionally, mentorship from Associate Professor Josiah Wallace and Zank’s previous experience in the music and theatre department gave him the confidence to dream up the project. After many weeks of creative brainstorming and logistical decisions, Zank decided on the cast. Next came what Zank described as the most challenging part of the process — creating the schedule and making decisions when he only wanted to keep moving.
“It has been such a wonderful blessing to be a part of ‘The 39 Steps,’ especially because of the collaborative creation that is not just allowed but encouraged,” cast member Montgomery said. “There is something so holy about being able to offer ideas and choices and then see them grow into something even greater through the collaboration of others. It reminds me of how God takes our small lives and makes them part of a heavenly plan, giving us eternal significance.”
Zank wanted a communal atmosphere from the outset of the production; it is what attracts him to the art form. He said he likes making theatre because you’re in communion with a group of collaborators for a set amount of time, creating a performance that also exists for an amount of time.
This condensed timeframe is an intentional part of the project as it reflects the time working professionals have to complete a production in the industry.
“It’s important to equip our students with significant real-world practical projects,” Wallace said. “In the theatre, directing represents the strongest integration of all aspects of the field, and the presentation of that work for a live audience creates a built-in public assessment of that work.”
