Pulling an All-Nighter/Musicianship Poster

Have you ever pulled an all-nighter? I have a few times, but I wanted to share one I had to pull last week. Depending on where you are in the program (senior, junior, sophomore or freshman), you present a showcase highlighting where you currently are and how you’ve improved throughout the year. In my major, the freshmen and seniors have showcases, which is how this story came about. Essentially, when you're a senior in musical theatre, you go to New York for a week to present 32-bar cuts from two different songs in hopes of receiving an offer from an agent or manager who can help you launch your career in the city. Before that trip, though, the seniors perform a showcase here at school so their family and friends can see the results of their hard work over the past three years. It also gives the performers a chance to run their material in front of a live audience before performing for industry professionals.

Here’s where the actual story begins. Sorry for all the background, but I wanted to give context—many people aren’t familiar with the arts, so I can’t just throw out terms that won’t make sense or feel relevant. Anyway, during our musicianship class (where we work on our freshman showcase material), our director suggested that we make posters for each of the seniors. Since there are eight of us in my group and eight seniors, we could each make one for a specific senior and use it to cheer them on during their performance. It was an excellent idea. The only issue? We had just under a week to get them done. Now, this wasn’t something we’d be graded on, but I wanted to treat it with the same respect and effort as a regular assignment. The seniors in my program have not only been kind, but also incredibly inspiring. Each of them is extremely talented and humble about their success here at ONU. It’s refreshing to see people in this industry who care about their craft and are genuinely good people. That’s not always the case—either in college programs or the real world—so I feel grateful to be at a school where everyone wants to be here, do the work, and build meaningful friendships. 

OK, I could talk about the seniors forever, but I also want to tell you about my poster. We got to choose which senior to create a poster for, so naturally I chose the one I’m closest with: Katja Roberts. Honestly, I likely wouldn’t be at this school if it weren’t for her. My sister, who’s also in musical theatre, met Katja doing a professional summer job a few years ago, and they’ve been close friends ever since. Katja recommended this school to my sister, and when I was auditioning for colleges last year, my sister told me to apply. The rest is history. After choosing Katja, I knew I had to go all out. I wanted the poster to match her vibe and really capture her personality. My idea was to make the sign look like a billboard—something you’d see on the street promoting a performer. I don’t know if it actually came across that way (arts and crafts aren’t my strong suit), but it was the best I could do with limited time and other assignments to juggle.

First, I found some sparkly gold tape and used it to border the poster to give it that “billboard” look. That set the tone. I wrote “Starring the one and only… Katja Roberts” in all caps, using red for the first part and black for her name. Then came the photos—lots of them. I found pictures of her in all kinds of situations: with my sister during their professional job, onstage in shows, in silly moments, and more. I went a little overboard and printed about 50 pages of photos, just in case. I arranged them like a collage and filled up the whole board. I had to stay up all night to finish it. Between class, other assignments, and preparing for Thursday’s showcase, it was the only way to get it done. But it was worth it. Katja loved the poster—and that made it all worth it. 

It was a long night, but I’m glad I gave it my all. Looking back, I’m proud of the result. Even if it cost me a few hours of sleep, it was totally worth the all-nighter—and now it’s something I’ll remember forever.

When I actually gave Kat the poster!

What the finished poster looked like!