'How I Spent My Saturday' combines visual and performing arts

Very few people can say they’ve sung next to Pablo Picasso’s artwork. Students in LAB! Theatre’s “How I Spent My Saturday” will become a part of those lucky few when they perform the show in the Ackland Art Museum this weekend. 

“We’re tying in UNC’s performance art atmosphere with our visual art atmosphere,” said senior Mary Greene, the show’s director. 

“How I Spent My Saturday” is not a complete musical but instead a workshop performance of songs written by UNC graduate Alex Koceja. Those songs are connected by monologues that senior Jake Springfield wrote. 

“Instead of following one plot line in a certain order, the songs are different snapshots of a community,” said Koceja, a current student in New York University's Graduate Musical Theatre Writing program. 

Both Greene and Koceja described the process of creating “How I Spent My Saturday” as a collaborative one, something they both enjoyed.

“It’s given us a lot of flexibility,” Greene said. “You’re never gonna get to call Stephen Sondheim and say, ‘What did you think this was supposed to sound like?’ But we were able to do that with Alex.”

Since “How I Spent My Saturday” has never been previously performed, actors in the show had the chance to make the characters their own. 

“Once Meryl Streep has played a character, you can never play that character because you’ll never be able to do it as well,” Greene said. “But this is the first time these characters have been done.”

Lochlan Belford, who plays multiple characters in the show, said bringing his characters to life for the first time was an exciting challenge. 

“In some ways it was more difficult, but at the same time we had a lot more freedom to make it our own instead of copying what someone else has already done, which was really nice,” he said.

Greene said she thinks the show has a lot of unique qualities people will like, including its unconventional location — the Ackland Art Museum. 

“I had never heard of a show being at the Ackland during my four years,” Koceja said. “When Mary told me that was the space they were working at, I got really scared for a second.”

But after thinking about it, Koceja said he realized the Ackland might be the perfect performance setting given the show’s theme.

“The theme is there are all these subcultures people don’t even know exist, and I like the Ackland because it’s a place you’d never think of as a performance space,” Koceja said.

Koceja said the show is about characters he sees as underrepresented in the media, which often focuses on notable characters like superheroes, presidents and celebrities, and how these characters are important to a community.

“You get to see people who fly under the radar. They’re not in it for everyone to love them and follow them on Twitter, but they’re just as passionate as people on TV and in movies,” Koceja said.

“How I Spent My Saturday” runs from Jan. 28 to Jan. 31. Greene said she believes students who come will enjoy the community aspect of the show. 

“It’s really intimate and you feel like you’re hanging out with them,” she said.

Although there aren’t any set plans to put “How I Spent My Saturday” on at another location or school, Koceja said he is open to the idea of future performances. 

“Sixty percent of what it is now came from the directors, LAB! Theatre and our actors,” Koceja said. “So if we took it to a different place, it could be turned into a completely new production, which is something I find very cool.”

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