All the world’s a stage, and GW students are merely the players.

A team of those players — better known as Forbidden Planet Productions, one of GW’s student theater companies — took the stage in the University Student Center on Jan. 15 for its first general body meeting of the semester. Veteran thespians and amateur actors gathered in the student center’s presentation space as anticipation mounted for the curtain to rise on the theater company’s spring season.

About 70 attendees stomped their feet and broke out into a decibel of applause comparable to the ovation that followed Patti LuPone’s legendary performance of “Anything Goes” at the 1988 Tony Awards. The theater company’s 12-student executive board then delivered a celestial-themed presentation on their upcoming slate of shows: their 18th annual cabaret — a medley of 11 songs from a variety of shows, like “Hairspray” and “Cats” — and the musical adaptations of “Little Women” and “Legally Blonde.” 

With that, the group moved to begin auditions: the long awaited, nerve-wracking ritual that precedes all productions and inspired the opening number, “I Hope I Get It,” of the 1975 musical “A Chorus Line.”

After a trudge through Foggy Bottom’s icy streets, the group set up shop in Funger Hall for the first of two nights of auditions for the cabaret.

Senior Eva Sell, the co-director of the cabaret’s rendition of “Another Day of Sun” from “La La Land,” said the cabaret has historically included a cast of 50 to 70 students — offering an opportunity for a wide range of performers with varying repertoires to step into the limelight with FPP.

“It is such a cool tradition in FPP because it is our biggest show, so it attracts the most amount of people,” Sell said. 

Sell said she has been involved with the theater company since her first year at GW after seeing flyers around campus advertising the company’s annual Halloweekend performance of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” the show that sparked FPP’s founding in 1994.

She is also directing the full-length “Little Women” production later this semester and said this year marks her first turn in the director’s chair after choreographing for previous productions, like Rocky Horror.

“Seeing how relationships between a cast develops and how the show develops based on the people who are cast, it’s just such a beautiful process,” she said. “It’s so amazing to watch every time.”

Sell also acts as a liaison for the Student Theatre Council, a coalition of GW’s four student theater groups — FPP, Generic Theatre Company, GW Shakespeare Company and 14th Grade Players. There is a lot of crossover between the companies she said, creating a broader theater community of students at GW who are passionate about the art and beating the allegations of a “Camp Rock versus Camp Star” cross-company rivalry.

“There’s a lot of rumors about crazy theater kids, and there’s some validity to that, I get it, but FPP is just a really amazing community of a bunch of friends who really just want to make cool theater and see awesome stories come to life on stage,” Sell said.

The cabaret directors gathered in a room on the first floor of Funger, ready to judge the auditions, while stage hopefuls waited in an adjacent, cavernous lecture hall.

Instead of the frantic vocal warm-ups and lip trills that typically precede audition scenes on screen, like those of Sharpay Evans in “High School Musical,” friendly conversations filled the lecture hall. Auditions for the FPP cabaret and full-length shows are a fairly casual ordeal, with students singing 30 seconds from any song of their choosing — “you can literally sing your ABCs,” according to Sell.

Callbacks, which usually occur about two days later, are slightly more laborious as select performers are tested on their dancing and acting abilities.

Emily Saffer, a first-year majoring in political science and psychology, said to prepare for cabaret auditions, she drank a Monster Energy, took a puff from her inhaler and prayed she wouldn’t forget the words to her audition song, “Fly, Fly Away” from the Broadway adaptation of “Catch Me If You Can.”

“I really hate audition season,” Saffer said. “It’s the worst, but this is kind of a more relaxed audition.”

She later said she was cast in her “first pick” cabaret number: “Rise and Fall of the Midwest Princess Medley: A Chappell Roan Medley,” a blend of songs from pop star Chappell Roan’s 2023 debut album.

Saffer, who starred as Katherine Plumber in FPP’s production of “Newsies” last semester, said the culture of FPP strongly differs from the “toxic” environment of her high school theater program. The older FPP members fostered a “fun and welcoming” environment for the company when she first auditioned, she said.

“Here at GW, I’ve never felt so loved and cared for in a production,” Saffer said.

A week later, Generic Theatre Company cued the spotlight on the second floor of the student center to kick off its first general body meeting of the semester. While a bit quieter than the chaos of the FPP meeting, members of Generic were just as supportive, cheering and clapping as they announced their spring full-length musicals: “Dog Fight” and “Fun Home.”

Nine members of the executive board ran through a presentation, including a desperate plea for a cellist to play in their orchestra pit. Raucous cheers broke out at the sight of the last presentation slide, which included a signature Generic mantra: “Dream big, don’t stop believing, stay savvy.”

After the meeting concluded, students headed upstairs, where the company’s first night of auditions were set to begin. The air buzzed with a simmering tension as students waited to be called into a room down the hall, where they would audition with 30 seconds from their song of choice, just like in FPP.

One student, slouching anxiously in her chair, said, “I might vom,” as others paced and softly sang their

audition songs to themselves.

Emily Neuwirth, a sophomore studying international affairs, said she is directing “Fun Home” this semester, a musical adaptation of Alison Bechdel’s memoir that explores the author’s coming of age as a lesbian and the discovery that her father was closeted.

She said putting on the production, which she has revered since first seeing an off-Broadway production of the show at Queens University of Charlotte in North Carolina when she was 13 years old, presents an opportunity to explore themes of identity and grief in a musical format.

Since joining during her first year, Neuwirth said Generic has shaped her college experience, adding that the company’s annual trip to Maryland corn fields was where she met her now-girlfriend.

“I spent the entire day flirting with her, and by the end of the day, she became my girlfriend,” she said. “It’s the cutest thing ever. It’s how I’ve met some of my best friends.”

Katrina Heil, a sophomore studying political science and theater, said her audition for “Fun Home” marked her first foray into the world of Generic, after previously performing in GW Shakespeare Company and 14th Grade Players’ productions.

She said she decided to audition for the musical this semester because she loves Neuwirth, the director, and the show’s exploration of complex father-daughter relationships and focus on self-discovery.

“Theater, being in person and you’re seeing it live in front of you with actual people, really just gives a form of personal connection to humanity,” Heil said.