{"id":175,"date":"2026-04-28T13:24:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T13:24:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/emily\/?p=175"},"modified":"2026-04-28T13:24:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T13:24:07","slug":"a-theatrical-thanks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/emily\/2026\/04\/28\/a-theatrical-thanks\/","title":{"rendered":"A Theatrical Thanks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every year in high school, I could expect to see five theater productions minimum. I was part of the Cappies program, where students attend at least five plays or musicals a year and write journalistic reviews on them for a chance to be published (my record was nine shows in 12th grade, as I wanted to say goodbye to my time as a Cappie in style).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, I felt a glaring absence<\/span> when I didn\u2019t go to a single show during my first college semester. I was no longer required to go, but it just seemed unusual to, well, <\/span>not <\/span><\/i>be required.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For my birthday back in March, I thought it was only fitting to celebrate a new milestone by reuniting with an old one: I invited some friends to join me for the theater department\u2019s latest production. Ironically, that production happened to be \u201cHead Over Heels,\u201d which was the musical my high school put on in my freshman year. Truly an unintentional full circle moment to see it again as a college freshman this time.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While \u201cHead Over Heels\u201d isn\u2019t my favorite musical ever, it was an energizing night of go-go boots, boisterous pop music, and fierce performances. I returned to my dorm\u2013with no 24-hour review deadline looming in front of me, either\u2013and looked up Hancher\u2019s seasonal schedule.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Since March, I\u2019ve seen the Broadway visiting tour of \u201cThe Music Man\u201d (Golden Age era is my preference!) and \u201cHunchback of Notre Dame\u201d (the song \u201cHellfire\u201d to a backdrop of violent red lighting is still stuck in my head even now).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I won\u2019t put any full-fledged reviews here. I\u2019ve already said goodbye to my days as a Cappie critic. But what I will do is share my appreciation for the performance arts and touring productions at Iowa. I can sit in a cushiony auditorium seat and, as the room dims and the curtain opens, revive that glimmer of theatrical excitement in my heart.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every year in high school, I could expect to see five theater productions minimum. I was part of the Cappies program, where students attend at least five plays or musicals a year and write journalistic reviews on them for a chance to be published (my record was nine shows in 12th grade, as I wanted to say goodbye to my time as a Cappie in style).\u00a0 Unsurprisingly, I felt a glaring absence when I didn\u2019t …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":175,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/emily\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/emily\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/emily\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/emily\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/175"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/emily\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/emily\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":177,"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/emily\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175\/revisions\/177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/emily\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/emily\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/emily\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}