Brunch 2018 co-chairs

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Collegiate Juniors Gear Up for Annual Brunch Performance

11/20/2018

Brunch, the enduring Collegiate School tradition begun in the 1940s in which junior girls honored senior girls and every year includes a secret theme, takes place tomorrow in Oates Theater.

Collegiate juniors Lillian Barnes and Caroline Laskin serve as co-chairs of this year’s event, which has become a holiday musical extravaganza. For the past six months, they and their class members have been hard at work developing a show that lives up to the high expectations of previous juniors and seniors, and delivers a memorable performance for the 5th-10th Grade girls, the senior girls in particular, and all others in attendance.

Lillian and Caroline recently shared what goes into putting on Brunch, the challenges they have encountered, their hopes for the show and what audience members can expect this year.

When did you start working on Brunch 2018?

Caroline

Back in June, all of the junior girls got together and we had a meeting to start talking about what the theme should be, which committees we wanted to be on and if we wanted to co-chair a committee or co-chair the whole thing.

Lillian

We spoke in front of the 60 girls in our class and they voted for us to be co-chairs.

How time consuming is Brunch?

Caroline

We sign a contract because the time commitment is intense.

Lillian

We have people who opted out of being in the actual production or having a role in it. Or they just decided they wanted to do T-shirts, for example. They are either not performers or they just didn’t have enough time.

What have been the biggest challenges?

Caroline

I stage managed the musical in freshman and sophomore year, so I was expecting it to be very similar to that. But for the entire first few months, a lot of the responsibility is really on the dance co-chairs, Anaya Wright and V Brooks, to come up with the dances and teach them.

Lillian

Keeping all the girls quiet during rehearsals has been a challenge.

Caroline

It’s a lot of people. We’ve done a lot of small group work and those rehearsals go really well and really smoothly. If someone is talking all the voices don’t add up to this loud noise. But in the big giant group rehearsals it’s a lot.

What has been the best part so far?

Caroline

I’ve enjoyed every part of it. In our dance rehearsals, every single person is cheering for every person who has a role. It’s just positive reinforcement and I think that’s something that’s so important in junior year.

Lillian

That’s the really cool thing about Brunch. I haven’t seen some of the people in my grade since Middle School just because I don’t have any classes with them or I’m not best friends with them. But it’s been really fun to connect with them again. Or for the first time.

What can audience members expect from this year’s Brunch?

Lillian

To laugh definitely. It’s really funny. And our main cast is bigger than most. That’s kind of like the secret part of it.

Caroline

I think the script committee did a really great job. We have a lot of excitement, so I think it will be very high energy. I’m excited for the girls. As always, I don’t think we are going to disappoint.

How do you hope the seniors react?

Lillian

I hope they laugh, they cry. I hope they love it.

Caroline

I hope they experience the whole spectrum of emotions.

Why is Brunch such an important tradition?

Caroline

For the junior girls at least, it is a huge bonding experience.

Lillian

It’s an experience that we’ll take into our senior year and be really close in our senior year, our last year together.

How will you feel once it’s over?

Caroline

There will be post-show sadness for sure. Junior girls don’t get a whole lot of sleep the night before with our sleepover. So we’re going into the day running on pure adrenaline and caffeine. We perform our hearts out. We cry and our emotions are shot because we’ve had no sleep.

Lillian

We sing the senior song and we hug everyone and then go home and sleep a lot. It will be sad but still exciting that we finally put on Brunch and all our hard work paid off.

This year’s Brunch, performed on Wednesday, Nov. 21, had the theme Scooby-Doo.

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