Although this club’s name can be deceiving, its culture fosters a welcoming environment amongst members that translates to their recent sold-out show success.
The Anti Club Theatre Club is an SJSU student-run organization that was created in 2011. The club encourages local artists to develop their theatrical skills by providing opportunities to learn and work with other students in the club as well as its club advisors, according to SJSU's Department of Film, Theatre, and Dance webpage.
The name Anti Club Theatre Club comes from the belief that the atmosphere is not typical to that of a regular theater club where there needs to be loads of experience but rather an atmosphere in which everyone is welcomed no matter the experience, according to the clubs president, Sean Maguire.
On Jan. 30, the Anti Club Theatre Club opened the doors to Hal Todd Studio Theater for this year’s winter show, “The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical” with tickets being sold out just hours before the show.
Lorisa Hays, Vice President of the club and second-year English preparation for teaching and theatre student shares behind the scenes from creating the blueprint to the opening day of production.
“The process usually starts right when we get the new officers,” Hays said. “We like to take pitches from people in the club to get a feel of what kinds of shows they want to participate in.”
With a high-intensity production and a deadline fast approaching, the Anti Club worked with several volunteers and hires to make sure the show went as smoothly as possible while overcoming multiple challenges.
“The main issue that we had that I think was mics. In the past, we had the club officers who were here before work with the Hammer,” said Hays, (The Hammer) they were like too late’ but luckily, it all worked out. One of our officers had a friend who was very kind enough to let us borrow.”
Although there were some hurdles, the show was an overall success with each show selling out and adding additional seats on the last day.
“The night before closing, we actually added six seats because some people had come in, they hadn't bought tickets,” Hays said.
With the excitement of continuously having a sold-out show, club members mentioned the want to bring theater to the community around them.
“We wanted to give everyone a chance to be able to see the show,” Hays said. “I feel we're such of the belief of like, we just want to bring theater to this world and like to these people.”
Part of this success was the people the Anti Club Theatre Club brought to help collaborate to make the show a reality, according to Anti Club’ President.
Sean Maguire, the current president of the Anti Club Theatre Club provided some insight on how the club was able to bring in people to collaborate with.
“I became the head producer,” Maguire said. “Last semester, we did a lot of the pre-production stuff. I hired three people and made sure that we had everyone there.”
Those three people are choreographer April Murphy, vocal director Zella Ferronato and director Eric Scoles who took on these roles specific for this musical.
“The Lighting Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical” was Scoles’s directorial debut and was eager to take the role, Hays said.
Although Maguire was the head producer, he was still involved in many other roles during the production of this project.
“I helped with all the tech, I was the projectionist, I helped put up our images and helped edit sounds,” Maguire said. “So I did a lot of the tech positions that we didn't really have people for because it was stuff that needed to be taught.”
Ferronato, a third-year music student, worked to ensure their actors felt prepared to perform with her direction.
“In some of the songs, there would be harmonies that were super challenging, and there were a lot of tritones,” Ferranato said. “There was some clashing of notes and that made it even more difficult. So it was really hard listening-wise.”
A tritone is a series of 3 different tones that don't seem to have a specific harmony and are most commonly used to create a sort of build up, according to Music Theory Academy.
Although the music was challenging, Ferranato said that it was because of the actors' willingness to learn and to collaborate that made for a successful performance. A where Ferranato wished the show had gone for a week longer.
“I think the third weekend would have been great so that more people could have seen it and it would allow us to get more comfortable with the performance and for the actors to get used to the audience feel,” said Ferranato.
Even though “The Lighting Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical” is no longer showing, the Anti Club Theater Club is gearing up for their upcoming Spring Glee Cabaret.
“When we were thinking of a theme for the cabaret we wanted to do something fun and we thought of Glee. You've got the pop songs, but you also have the musical theater songs,” said Hays.
A cabaret is a show in which actors will do a combination of singing and acting and overall follows a casual atmosphere, according to Good Night Theatre.
The club’s spring cabaret will be surrounding its songs around Glee.
Glee is a show that ran from 2009-2015 that surrounds a group of students who are part of a group called Glee Club where short choral songs and focuses on their experiences as students, according to Rotten Tomatoes.
As of now, there is no confirmed date for the Glee Cabaret, but there are club projects between mid-March and early April.
The club meets every friday to discuss upcoming ideas and create a sense of community enforcing that they are focused on building connections amongst the members.
“Our meetings are to create a more of just a sense of community, I want my main goal for this semester is to bring up the amount of people who show up and join the club,” said Maguire.
