As part of her self-designed major, bridging the theater and film departments, Jillian Eddy '12 presented her honors project "Jackie and Johnny's Friday Night Fright Show" yesterday night. Combining film collages with live theatrics and music, Eddy brought together multiple art mediums for a truly unique performance.
Eddy raised issues of sexism, violence against females and the objectification of women in her treatment of monsters, horror and sexual relationships.
The show began with Eddy and her backup chorus the Sirens, accompanied by Johnny Coster '12 on guitar, signing Ringo Starr's "You're Sixteen." Dressed in 1950s attire that matched the film-projected clips onto a large screen, Eddy and the Sirens sang songs focusing on heterosexual relations.
The performance continued with the unfolding of the relationship between Jackie, played by Sasha Davis '13, and Johnny, played by Joshua Zalinger '13. The scene is set in the middle of the night in a town that is being terrorized by a serial killer with an affinity for teenage girls.
Throughout the rest of the show, the acting was layered with live songs as well as clips from movies and film collages. Some clips depicted disturbing visuals and others were scenes from well-known movies such as "Psycho" and "All About Eve." At times, the actors spoke in unison with the clips and at other times, the videos give visualizations of the dialogue.
This multifaceted performance synthesizes the disciplines that comprise Eddy's major.
"Last year I set out to design my own major grounded in the contention that theater and film are not necessarily mutually exclusive and competitive forces but rather two media born of a shared artistic tradition, continually interacting and moving forward together" said Eddy. "I hoped to find some kind of hybrid possessing both the theatrical experience of shared ritual and the filmic experience of individual expulsion into the unknown."
Eddy's idea for the project sprang from her work designing the major. She finished planning by December and spent the spring putting the show together, according to Professor of Theater and Dance Davis Robinson, her faculty adviser.
According to Robinson, Eddy was fully involved in all aspects of the show.
"She was not just the director but also a part of it," he said.
In addition to directing, Eddy wrote the script, edited the film, chose and arranged the music, and performed the songs.
"She got her proposal [for her self-designed major] accepted on her first shot and she got everything done she said she would do" said Associate Professor of Film Studies Tricia Welsch, who is Eddy's film department faculty adviser.
Eddy plans to go on to do a graduate study in musical theater in the London Central School of Drama.