Cabaret benefits Stockley Scholarship

By Hannah Simpson
Senior Staff Writer

Students from the Music Department produced and performed a cabaret to raise funds for the Travis Stockley Memorial Scholarship.

Stockley was coordinator of the musical theatre degree program. He died in a car accident earlier this semester.

Freshmen Joey Sarno, Leah Nichols, Mike Bousquet and Junior Ruth Golsteyn performed the show in Moore Hall Nov. 3.

Each student chose two songs that they enjoyed performing while Sarno and Nichols also composed dialogue to accompany them.

The performance raised over $100 for the scholarship.
           
Each had auditioned for Stockley to enter the program and had worked with him until his death.
           
“I wasn’t expecting someone like him,” said Bousquet.
           
Bousquet described Stockley as an energetic and passionate teacher.
           
Nichols performed under Stockley before entering the university for an all county school theatre performance in Columbus County.
           
“I hope that he would be very proud of what we did,” she said.

Sarno and Nichols originally intended to perform a dialogue they had written called the “Mattress Monologues” but plans for the performance fell through. 
           
Despite the setback both of them wanted to perform in order to raise money for the scholarship.
           
“If we were going to put (a performance) on, we were going to put it in Travis’ name,” Nichols said.
           
The performance included pieces from “Les Misérables,” “Sunset Boulevard,” “Spamalot” and “Beauty and the Beast.”
           
The script was written so each song fit together to form a single play. At one point, Sarno announced intermission and was interrupted by Bousquet’s opening line “Do you really think that I would ever let you go?” from “Jekyll and Hyde.”
           
The students ended the cabaret with “So Long, Farewell” from The Sound of Music.
           
Sarno and Nichols said that a jazz cabaret is being planned as another fundraiser for the Stockley Memorial Scholarship.  It is scheduled to take place in the spring.