For sophomores Blake Hunter and Joshua Little, the Homecoming musical "Thoroughly Modern Millie" required a little more than learning tap dances and rehearsing lines. These two men took on the roles of Bung Foo and Ching Ho, Chinese brothers working to save enough money to bring their mother to America. To make the role as convincing as possible, they had to learn Chinese. Hunter and Little had to understand their characters very well in order to perform their roles accurately. "I played Bun Foo, who is from China," Little said. "He's the older brother of Ching Ho (Hunter), and together they are working for Mrs. Meers (senior Mary McBride) because she's promised them to bring their mother to America. He's what you would expect from an older brother. He has his eye on the goal and wants to complete it." Learning the Chinese dialect was extremely timeconsuming. "This show consumed my life," Little said. "I was walking around campus learning the Chinese fort he show in addition to the rehearsals. We probably worked several times a week on the dialect alone. I don't even know how to give a total amount of time worked on it." Professor of communication Cindee Stockstill, the producer of "Thoroughly Modern Millie," also understood the extra work these two performers had to go through to make their chamcters realistic. "lttook a lot of rehearsal time to getthe right pronunciation and the right inflection and tone fodhis dialect," Stockstill said. "I would estimate they spent three times longer in rehearsal for those scenes than others who did not have ' to learn a 'new' language." In addition to listening to their lines prerecorded on a 214 organizations CD, senior Jordan Dollins was one of the biggest assets in assisting Hunter and Little in learning Chinese. "He deserves so much credit because he learned both of our lines, so he could teach tl:lem to us," Hunter said. There were also some surprising challenges that came along with learning a new language. "The biggest challenge was honestly not laughing," Little said. "Even though we knew the translations, sometimes it would just be the way we were moving or the faces we were making or delivering the line in another way that made us die laughing." During the actual show, there were some unique challenges as well. "It was difficult putting the interpretation on the right syllables to make sense to the audience," Stockstill said. "Also, they had to allow extra time between lines to give the audience time to read the translation on the screen." Despite all of the late-night practices, days spent memorizing pronunciations and countless hours of dancing, the production ended up being a success. "The audience seemed to really enjoy the scenes with Ching Ho and Bun Foo," Stockstill said. "Both of these young men were very diligent in their efforts. I applaud the work effort evidenced by Blake, Josh and Jordan. My biggest thrill is seeing the students push themselves to new heights of performance and seeing them enjoy the applause of the crowd." At the end of the show, the audience applauded uproariously for Bung Fo and Ching Ho. "The end result was an awesome character," Little said. "There's really no other way to put it. The two China men in this show are dynamite characters that are so much fun to play." Mackenzie Lee Rowl: C. Bennett, M. West. A. Dorsey, R Filbeck. Row 2: L. Koys, S. Clyde, A. Mosslewhite, J. Aders.
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