Junior Pens New Musical During Break, Wins Award

Last summer, one junior found her secretarial job at IBM rather boring.

So Lisa E. Davenport '88 took the time between typing and answering the phones to try her hand at writing a musical. Friday the result of her summer labor--a musical entitled "It's Really Me"--will open at the Agassiz Theater.

"The musical is about life after college, coping with it," said Davenport, adding that the play features 10 characters, eight of whom have just graduated from a college which is not specified.

Davenport wrote the lyrics and music for the 13 songs in the show as well as the script, although she has had no formal training in music other than piano lessons. The only time she performed in a Harvard play was during freshmanyear.

However, her play has already garnered criticalacclaim, winning the Louis B. Mayer prize, whichMGM awards annually to the best original playappearing in the Agassiz.

Although Davenport said that some of herco-Eliot House residents helped her define thecharacters, she added that the musical is lessabout college life than it seems. "You can find abit of 'Pippin,' 'West Side Story,' 'Sound ofMusic,' and 'Godspell' in it. It's about somethinguniversal," the government major said.

The hero and heroin of "It's Really Me" arelearning to deal with the newly-found frustrationand feeling of insecurity in the real world, withmore than a little help from their friends. Thehero survives a suicide attempt and a brief jailsentence to overcome his despair at the happyending.

Once Davenport had finished her work, she founda producer, musical director and funding for theshow, which she is directing. "Then I put upposters around the campus, and waited for people'sresponse," she said. More than 80 people decidedto try out for the 10 roles during Common CastingWeek in February and Davenport had to choose amongthem.

Many of the actors who have been involved withother plays before have found that "It's ReallyMe" is a new experience in terms of director-actorrelationship. "Lisa encourages us to define ourcharacters more sharply by ourselves," said DavidButtaro '90.

"We do a lot of revising as we go along," saidEric Altschuler '90.

"What's so exciting is that the musical is acompletely original one, and we get to add our ownideas to what these characters might be like inreal life," Buttaro said.

Directing has been a learning experience forDavenport as well. "Seeing 14 or 15 people comingtogether, directing them to interact, I have neverdone anything it," Davenport said.

For Davenport, writing a musical was "theneatest thing." "I am not a composer, but I lovewriting songs and lyrics," Davenport said.

But the Westchester, N.Y. native said she doesnot whether she will continue to write and directplays. "I just wanted to see if I could do it,that's all," she said