Upcoming Events at SMC

The year here at Saint Michael's has started off well! We are starting week 3 of classes, and already events are starting up. I'm planning on attending some cultural events around campus in the next few weeks, the first of which is auditions for the Aca Bellas, which is the ladies' a capella singing group on campus. Those will be Thursday night at 7pm. I'm not sure if I'll be able to make it Thursday but I'm hoping they will let me audition another day! There are 2 other a capella groups on campus as well: Sleepless Knights, which is our co-ed group (auditions tomorrow, Tuesday 9/13) and Mike Check, the guys (auditions Wednesday 9/14).

Also coming up this week is the 24-hour play festival hosted by the Drama Club. The play fest is one of my favorite events of the year! It's so great to see people who are somewhat interested in theater, but aren't always able to commit for long periods of time, come out and have fun. At 7pm on Friday all people interested in writing, acting, and directing will meet up at the McCarthy theater and sign in. Then the writers stay all night to hash out their skits in groups. The directors come in at 6am to cast everyone who signed up to act; the actors come in at 7am and start rehearsing all day! It's so fun. The performance at 7pm on Saturday is always a goofy blast. Come and have fun, bring some friends, the show is never more than an hour or so; we all can enjoy our Saturday night!

On Sunday the 18th there is an event in the recital hall at the McCarthy Arts Center called Join Hands Vermont: Irene Relief Benefit Performance. This starts at 2pm and accepts all donations, proceeds to go to the Vermont Response and all those who are still struggling in Hurricane Irene's aftermath. I know I'm very interested in this because 1) there is a great lineup of local performers and 2) my hometown and the surrounding areas were hit very hard by the storm and there is a lot of damage.

Later on this month, the Drama Club has its second annual team participating in Burlington's Light the Night Walk, a fundraiser for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. We have been working really hard to raise money this summer and fall to heighten awareness and help fight cancer in the name of the Devlin family. John Devlin is our adviser and in charge of all things technical in the theater, and his family lost their son Patrick just 2 years ago to a leukemia relapse. Recently their daughter Kat has been fighting a similar illness, and we are so relieved that she is back in school this year and well on the road to recovery. The walk will be September 23rd in Burlington, and we welcome all members of the SMC Community to join our team.

Thank you for reading as always!