Over the weekend, on Friday, March 5 and Saturday, March 6, Dickinson’s Department of Theatre and Dance broadcast a radio presentation of Dylan Thomas’ Under Milk Wood. Students on and off campus were able to tune in to WDCV Radio or listen online. 

According to the Department of Theatre and Dance website, Under Milk Wood brought together a cast of 30 current students and alumni. The play takes place in a small Welsh village by the sea and was designed to be performed either on a stage or over the air. 

For Erin Lowe ’23, “Under Milk Wood was an unprecedented opportunity that allowed students on and off campus to work with faculty and alumni to create something beautiful.” While currently taking a gap year, “taking part in the radio play allowed [her] to connect with old and new friends… At its core, theatre is a connecting force.”

Each spring, the Department of Theatre and Dance puts on one theatre mainstage performance, in Mather’s Theatre. Due to COVID-19, last springs’ performance of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale was canceled. Mohala Kaliebe ’22 said, “I felt lucky that I still had the opportunity to participate in Dickinson theatre in some capacity, even during this unusual semester.” 

Many groups on campus have been finding creative ways to work around the pandemic. Hillel Finder ’22 said, “While the format is very different from what we would usually do during the semester at Dickinson, I think it was a very good choice for accommodating and utilizing people who would not be able to, or feel comfortable with, doing a normal stage production.” Kaliebe appreciated the opportunity to branch out, saying Under Milk Wood “allowed me to try voice acting, which was a new and enjoyable experience!” 

This involved a lot of technical work in order to unite the recordings, which were done individually. Alaina Clemence ’22 explained that her “main role ended up being equalizing the entire track of voices to make it sound less like everyone was recording from different states and microphones.” While “highly technical,” she enjoyed the process of “going speaker by speaker though the sections,” working “to make the transitions between voices less noticeable.” 

Natalie Cist ’23 listened to the performance on Friday. She “really enjoyed the play with language and the choices the actors made to play with accents and even singing!”