The Faces of Follies: A First Year’s Inside Look

With auditions this past week (and a fun karaoke event last week to get the Booth community excited), the Harper Center has been abuzz about Follies. With a multitude of ways for students to get involved, whether it's singing, writing, dancing, or producing, Follies is an excellent way to showcase the talent we have at Booth (and we have fun doing so!). Check out footage from last year's show on the Follies YouTube channel.

Dana
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Follies. It’s an essential part of the business school experience. This is the annual extravaganza of musicals, skits, dance numbers, scripted videos and anything else that will entertain an audience of razor sharp tongue-in-cheek business school students. At Booth, the show is set for May 10th, which gives us all enough time to properly reflect on what makes us unique, and sometimes tragically funny, to an outsider looking in. This is one of the biggest events on campus that fully engages both the first- and second-year classes; for the second-years, it is a sort of farewell ode to the past 2 magnificent years, and for first-years, it is a milestone celebration of endurance. For everyone, it is the chance to prove to the people you rubbed shoulders with in crop circles or sort of met on the Metra that you have real talents (being a Powerpoint deck master doesn’t count).

I am a first-year who was lucky enough to get involved with Follies from the very beginning. I was first introduced to Follies during Admit Weekend, and being a big fan of musicals and improv, I knew this was something that I wanted to be a part of. As far as I know, Follies is the first student group to recruit for first-year co-chairs, and the first-year co-chairs were already actively involved in the planning and coordination of the show as early as the beginning of the winter quarter. The content of the show is written by a group of students, which collectively form the Creative Team, who meets biweekly to brainstorm ideas and performs scripts out loud. Over time, an overall theme emerges, and it always highlights an irony or dynamic within Booth that everyone recognizes. This year, the theme, or title of the show, is still kept under wraps, but rest assured that no matter what the theme is, hundreds of Boothies will unite for one hilarious night to poke fun at ourselves and our experiences.

Together, the team of 7 first- and second-year co-chairs manages not only the creative process but also the mountain of logistical, financial and marketing aspects of the show. We have some support from the Graduate Business Council and the Booth administration, but we need to make sure that we are getting sponsorships and driving ticket sales proactively. More importantly, we need to manage the sheer number of people involved in the show, from actors and dancers to the writers and technicians. I’m looking forward to being on the other side of the judging process during auditions when dozens of Boothies hoping for a break in Hollywood (that’s Plan D after banking, consulting and entrepreneurship) will give their best shot at Follies stardom. Since this is an entirely student-produced and student-funded show, spring quarter will be extremely busy with coordinating marketing and selling efforts and making sure that everything and everyone is set for the big day. After all, we have to uphold our high caliber reputation among the top-tier business schools not JUST in academics but also when it comes to bringing down the house with a well-timed musical parody.

Chicago Booth Follies!

Hi everyone,

Over the past week or so, the Winter Garden has been abuzz with filming and students with scripts in hand. There have also been some pretty witty messages left in the student mail folders in the past few days. Why? It's all part of the preparation that leads up to Follies. In this week's post, Renata Johns and Geoff McQueen, our Follies Creative Team co-chairs do a great (and funny) job of explaining what Follies is all about and have left us with a "trailer" to get us that more excited for Thursday, May 3!

Dana

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Hey there!

It's mid-April, which means only one thing – the inaugural annual "What is Chicago Booth Follies About" post on The Booth Experience blog. Follies is Booth's annual variety show where we come together as a community to share some laughs, highlight our class talents, and poke fun at ourselves and life at Booth. This year the evening’s events start out with a special LPF event complete with heavy hors d’oeuvres and a few frosty beverages, lead to the Booth Follies show, and end with a trolley ride to an after party event. (No frosty beverages if you're on stage though…*cough*Tim*cough*) Last year's show created some amazing memories for everyone involved (Asian boy band anyone? “Real Harper Heroes” anyone?) and it's up to us the creative co-chairs of Follies along with our other co-chairs to build on that experience and make it bigger and better each year.

The amazing thing about Follies is all the different ways to get involved. Even with no prior experience on stage, Booth students can audition to sing, dance, or act in front of all of the Booth Community and show off a side that may not come through during class or a Corporate Finance study group meeting. Or, for those who are more of a 'behind-the-scenes' type, there’s a production team that works to coordinate lighting, sound, and equipment. For those who feel like they used to be creative, only to have the real world and 80 hour work weeks turn them into Excel automatons in their previous jobs, they can rediscover those creative talents on our writing team and help write a full-length two hour show from scratch.

One of the best parts about Follies is that it isn't limited to just Booth students. Follies involves professors, staff, and of course, Dean Kumar, whose Tony for last year's performance must have gotten lost in the mail.

The other unique aspect of Follies is in how it brings the community together not only for the night of the show but for the months leading up to the event! The three first-year co-chairs work directly with the four second-year co-chairs learning how to take the reins for the following year and working side by side on managing the entire process. In addition to that, there are at almost 100 Boothies that touch Follies directly in some way, whether it is directing a skit, recording audio, editing a video, writing a sketch, designing lighting, singing, coordinating rehearsals, or choreographing a dance routine. It takes a large part of the community to make the show happen, and given how busy Boothies can be, it's no small feat! The reward is in discovering just how talented and gifted the community really is! (And not just with academic stuff!)Regardless of any past theater experience, production skills, or writing talent, Boothies can be a part of Booth Follies, the only show produced by Boothies for Boothies. Even with absolutely zero relevant skills, someone has to write next year's second annual "What is Chicago Booth Follies About" post!