ROVING REPORTER

Now sit right back and you’ll hear a tale about 11 people stranded on a desert island, their clashes with the native culture, and their fierce struggles for power. “Castaways,” the freshman musical comedy about the troubles of island life, opens April 18 in the Adams House Pool Theatre. The Roving Reporter got tired of talking to his volleyball, so he decided to go find out what the play’s cast and director were up to.



Matthew C. Stone ’11



RR: What do you do for the freshman musical?

MS: Well, I’m the director of the freshman musical this year. I’m responsible for everything that happens on stage.

RR: Tell me a little about the plot.

MS: So “Castaways” is about this group of 11 people who get stranded on a desert island. This one character named Brandon starts taking control of everyone and sort of asserts himself as the leader of their society. Then a young girl named Cassandra objects to his position as a dictator and as a result he kicks her out of the society. Cassandra gets involved with a group of natives and begins falling in love with one of them. Meanwhile, the castaways’ society is falling apart so they decide to form a rescue mission to go save her. It all sort of converges in the last scene, and hilarity ensues.

RR: The plot sounds a little like “Lord of the Flies.”

MS: Whenever we tell people about the plot, we get comparisons to “Lord of the Flies,” “Lost,” “Gilligan’s Island,” all those sorts of things. At first, when we were starting out and conceiving the show, I was very against those comparisons. I wanted it to sort of be our own thing that we had created. Eventually it became so inevitable that people would draw those parallels that we decided to insert some sort of tongue-in-cheek humor about that sort of thing into thse show. So there are little “Lost” references here and there, and allusions to “Lord of the Flies,” that sort of thing.

RR: If you were trapped on a desert island, what people would you want to be with?

MS: The whole cast and staff. They’re just so wonderful. This past week with rehearsals every single night in the [Adams] Pool, it’s almost been like that, just everyone isolated together all the time. And it’s been great.



Umang J. Shukla ’11



RR: So tell me who you play in the freshman musical.

US: I am Elias. I’m an island native. The castaways think their island is deserted, but then they find out that there’s a pretty advanced society there already. It’s kind of a twist from the standard castaway plot.

RR: What’s your character’s native culture like?

US: It parallels modern society more than you might think. It’s the middle of election season, there’s an unpopular war going on, and it’s very capitalist, consumer-driven. So when people think they’re getting away from it all, they find out that they’re really not.

RR: If you were going to be trapped on a desert island, who would you want to be with?

US: That’s a tough question. I mean, I’d say Wolfgang Puck, ’cause like that man would make the food on the island. [Food] would be my primary concern and I’m quite confident he could whip up some amazing coconut dishes.



Tony J. Sterle ’11



RR: Who do you play in “Castaways”?

TS: I play the character Brandon. He’s a student at Harvard who goes on this vacation and he just kind of sets up this power structure in his society, and he kicks out the female lead and just becomes this evil dictator. And he slowly starts killing off the cast members.

RR: Is that anything like how your spring break went?

TS: No, not really.

RR: Does everything turn out okay for you? Could this be one of your future vacation plans?

TS: To set up a society on an island? No, I like to think of myself as a nice guy who wouldn’t try to do any horrible things to people, I guess.

RR: If you had to be trapped on a desert island, is there anyone you would want to be with?

TS: I would want to be with, probably, my mom because she could take care of me and I wouldn’t have to do any major survival things.

RR: This is going be in the paper. Are you sure you want everyone to know you’re reliant on your mom?

TS: Well, I can’t do anything about it now.

RR: Is there anyone you really wouldn’t want to be with?

TS: I wouldn’t want to be with Caroline [R. Giuliani ’11] because she is just… I can’t even handle it, she drives me crazy.



Caroline R. Giuliani ’11



RR: So who do you play in “Castaways”?

CG: I play Cassandra, a Harvard student who has decided to go on a nature cruise for spring break, to get away from the stress of school and everything. They get stranded on this island and she’s sort of the only one who is really thinking things through. Brandon—this power-hungry, other Harvard student—tries to set up this dictatorship-type thing, and she’s the only one who really sees things logically and sees him for the dictator he is. So she gets cast away from their society because of that.

RR: If you were stranded on a desert island, is there anyone you would want to be with?

CG: Some of my closest friends probably. Maybe my mom.

RR: Anyone you really wouldn’t want to be with?

CG: Well definitely not this character Brandon.

RR: Well Tony made it personal. He said he wouldn’t want to be with Caroline.

CG: Oh my gosh! Well Tony would be okay, I can accept that. But not Brandon. I think any of the actors in this cast I’d be happy to be stranded on a desert island with.

RR: I think you should go fight Tony.

CG: Go fight him? I might just have to do that. I’ve been wanting to this whole time, so now that you’ve given me permission I think I will.