Joshua Robinson, assistant professor of musical theatre, is an experienced director and a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society. Since he first began directing as an undergraduate, he has gone on to direct almost 50 shows and to work as a freelance director.

“I directed two shows on the main stage for USI during the school year,” said Robinson. “This is our first time trying a summer show, so we’re excited to see what the response is and how that goes.”

“We know there are lots of options for people who are looking for summer theater. We’re just trying to see if we’ve got a place in that market as well,” said Robinson.

“We’re hopeful that we’ll have a decent turnout and that there’s interest in seeing USI produce something in the summer,” he added. “And you know as time moves on we’ll see how much of an audience there is and if we can produce slightly larger works on a slightly larger scale.”

Robinson explains that although “[title of show]” was held in the Mallette Studio Theatre, which is the smaller of USI’s theatres, there is “certainly availability and possibility” for future plays to be held in the Performance Center.

One factor that influenced their concerns about attendance was the absence of a large portion of the student body during the summer. 

However, Robinson finds that this show is aimed at, as he put it, theatre nerds, “that’s what we’re banking on to bring into the show, the Evansville theater contingent, but you know obviously we want the show to be well attended and we are working the marketing and publicity end and the social media end of the show pretty hard, so we’re hopeful.”

Plans for a summer musical have been in the works for some time.

“I tried to figure out something for us to do last summer, but the timing didn’t work out,” said Robinson.  “So I brought it to Paul Weimer, who’s our chair in the theater department, and it was the two of us kind of putting our heads together and figuring out what would be possible, and what kind of show and what scope of show would be achievable in the time period that we had.”

Although [title of show] appealed to them because it seemed feasible in terms of their tight rehearsal schedule, tech and number of actors, they chose it because it “has a lot of heart to it and it’s a heartwarming show in the end.”

The musical uses the premise of two friends writing a musical to tell a story about the four characters developing a “profound friendship.”

“It seemed like the right time to tell that story, to tell a story about human connection,” said Robinson. “Particularly in a time when we’re so divided.”

Since they had so little time to rehearse, Robinson found that the schedule was their biggest challenge.

“The show itself is a pleasure to direct and to block,” said Robinson. “You get to have a lot of goofy moments in it, and to really play with those goofy moments. So while the scheduling has been a bit of a challenge, it’s been a pleasure to put together.”

Going forward, with future summer shows, they intend to begin recruitment sooner, before students make their summer plans. “We ended up still having more than enough people audition, and more than enough people volunteer for crew. But in the future, it’s definitely something we want to look at,” said Robinson.