You have probably heard of MADtv, the comedic television show that highlights bad puns and silly stereotypes. Now, let me introduce you to MADArt, the Purchase College club that spotlights “Music, Acting, Dance, and all that is Art.”
Pre-Shock Executive Producer and Director Santino Lo, along with many members of MADArt 2011, transformed the Dining Hall into a black box theater for his show “Life After Dreams” starring Chase Meyerson, Amber Turner, and Nisarah Lewis. Lo scheduled shows on Wednesday and Thursday, the 13th and 14th of April. With the help of his production team, Lo was able to make his dining hall dream come true.
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One of the production writers, Bryan Korn’s, goal was to create a text that shared the same footprint as the other elements. “A lateral ordering of the pieces, rather than something like a musical ordering itself from the top down,” Korn said.  “It’s a funny thing, though, live music breeds the operatic; what the audience finally saw was fulfilled in the dance and in the pit, the performers, choreographer, and arrangers as much the storytellers if not more.”
According to visual art coordinator Francisco Donoso, this show was to create collaboration amongst students with different artistic backgrounds. Donoso took on the role as costume designer to help more directly present the visual art for the show. “While costumes still play a passive role in the entirety of the show, it allowed for us to try our hand at something we hadn’t done before, expand our vision and understanding of what visual arts can signify, and allowed for us to become more involved with music and dance,” he said.
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Freshman sculpture major, and another costume designer for the production, Kenzie Manning said, “I couldn’t asked for a better school where something like this could have happened.”
If you are interested in Santino Lo’s vision, visit http://santinolo.com/or look into the MADArt series or even partake in the artistic madness. As opposed to a “Life After Dreams,” you could make a life out of your dreams. Isn’t that why we’re all here?