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THE BATTALION
Days of Old:
By Kelly Preiser
THE BATTALION
access of
the “Aggie I
depends onA]
pgestions andi 0IT | an y 5 being on the road for 10 con-
dvernment rep- tive months sounds daunting, but for
what they r ear-old Kenita Miller, it is worth it.
id. Idler, a recent graduate of The
the goals ft encan Music and Dramatic Academy
f j s wor p;i ns . lew York, is performing in her second
thp availahi- a( ^ wa y mus ' ca l- After finishing a tour
w .• i the Broadway production of Civil
ces on estu stars as Sarah in the award-
y creating ac ning Broadway musical, “Ragtime.”
would servkt instant touring is a difficult adjust-
ght. it, as the cast stays in some places for
said she and hr 'one night, Miller said. She said it
esearch on dns cts cast members’ sleeping and
ucation andt.: •! habits - But Miller said she is will-
. , to make this sacrifice; she has
'ies a 0 erm imed of being in show business since
ow these polks was a young girl.
at A&M. I’ve been singing all my life ... since
said she thinks as three,” she said. “I always knew 1
r campaign plr Hedto be on stage ... I want to fper-
y but surely. "] until I am physically incapable of
good about it, ) er f orrn j n g f Mjn er said, is more than
have a ton oi||g| or y 0 f being on stage.
*- “ Performing is a way of expressing
self,” she said. “I’m not very social,
when I sing, I let everything out.”
Wilier said she relates to her character.
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She's a bit naive but still strong ...
t gullible,” Miller said. “She’s very
nts to tell me: 5 tj ona ] an d jets her emotions make her
isions. I can relate to Sarah in that we
both kind of naive.”
While she and Sarah may have simi-
ties,Miller said it is hard to imagine
m being the same because Sarah’s
C. I'Aracter existed in such a different
OlUfllOfie period.
Ragtime takes place at the turn of the
'hcentury and centers around three dif
ferent families with varying backgrounds.
There is an upper-middle class,
Caucasian family, a Jewish immigrant
family and a black family from Harlem.
The musical intertwines these families’
lives with real-life events, such as
Admiral Peary’s expedition to the North
Pole, the sinking of the Lusitania, the
birth of the American Labor Union, the
development of assembly-line technology
and the dawn of the automotive and
motion picture industries. Historical fig
ures including Henry Ford, Harry
Houdini, J.P. Morgan and Booker T.
Washington also appear in the musical.
Miller said the story of “Ragtime” is
much like current events.
“The story itself is kind of like what’s
going on right now,” she said. “The main
theme is that even though everyone’s dif
ferent, they can all live together. And they
all end up together in a special way.”
Miller said several of the cast members
are from New York and deeply were
affected by the recent events.
“It was hard to know if we could do it,”
she said. “A lot of us are from New York
and a lot of us were affected. With every
thing that is going on, this is an outlet for
us and one way we can give back.”
It was also difficult for the cast mem
bers to place themselves fully into their
characters without incorporating their
modem-day views.
“At first it was hard, to be truthful,”
Miller said. “There are a lot of issues in
“Ragtime” that people don’t deal with
everyday anymore. Like the word ‘nig
ger’ comes up a lot. It’s a touchy subject
but we have to laugh at it and try to
make it light-hearted. We can’t take it
too personally.”
In preparing to portray her character,
Miller researched the Ragtime era. Sarah
was a washwoman and Miller looked into
what a woman
in that role
would have
worn as well
as what her
lifestyle
would have
been.
Miller’s
goal in par
ticipating in
this produc
tion is to be as
truthful to the era, and to her charac
ter, as possible.
“My goal is to be truthful and to
try to make it real,” she said. “I
want people to get sucked into it
and really appreciate it.”
The “Ragtime” cast has been
touring since September. Millet-
said the cast members are very
distinct individuals, but
because they are all fairly
young it is easier for them to
relate to each other. The
original cast comprised of
50 members. This produc
tion has only 28.
The Memorial
Student Center Opera
and Performing Arts
Society (OPAS)
brought “Ragtime” to
Rudder auditorium last
night and it will show
again tonight at 7:30
p.m. There will be a lec
ture at 6:30 p.m. in MSC
224, hosted by the OPAS
Guild Patricia S. Peters
Lagniappe Lecture Series at which Dr.
Michael Greenwald, a theatre arts and
English professor at A&M, will preview
the music of “Ragtime.”
Coalhouse Walker Jr. (Quentin Earl Darrington) and Sarah (Kenita Miller) in
the National Tour of Ragtime.
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PHOTO COURTESY OF RAGTIME