Last weekend, Queen’s Existere presented their new show Excetera VIII to energetic audiences, and it proved to be quirky, informative and, most importantly, funny.
Excetera is an extension of Existere, and was created in 2007 to provide more comedic insight into the university experience.
Excetera VIII was directed by Rebecca Curtis, ArtSci ’15, and Ally Dodds, ArtSci ’14, while the production featured a cast of 13 students ranging from second- to fourth-year.
With three shows total, the event ran on Friday and Saturday for both students and staff at Grant Hall.
It served as a follow-up of sorts to Existere’s annual frosh week presentation, where they taught the new first-year students lessons about sex, schoolwork, residence and more, in dramatic skits.
Excetera VIII began with an introductory song by the actors to the classic tune of “Footloose”. The introduction then carried on to a series of short skits in which combinations of actors performed together.
The act not only catered to first years post-frosh week, but upper years as well. One of the first skits was about living with friends and making “rules” that had to be followed. The crowd received this part well, and the actors’ natural humour made their points even funnier, while still giving any first years in the crowd ideas of how to deal with frustrating housemates.
Even though the majority of the skits were humourous in nature, others were more serious and went over resources for issues such as sexual assault, consent and mental illness.
As with every Existere event, the audience was lively and high-spirited — the auditorium held over 100 people during the afternoon show, with an even higher turnout at night.
Taylor Resnick, Comm ’17, thought the show was equally humorous and enlightening.
“I thought that the show provided the perfect balance of humour and addressed important issues that surround university students today,” she told the Journalvia email.
Other parts of the act covered relationships in university, sex, exercising and eating well, labelling people, and myths about campus.
Overall, the cast was impressively organized and each actor had something fresh to bring to the table. No one actor outshone the other, which provided for a well-rounded, enjoyable Excetera VIII experience.
Excetera VIII put a new spin on topics covered during frosh week, and by doing this the show catered to everyone, from first years to grad students.
The wonderful thing about the performance was that each story offered a clear moral in a light-hearted, witty way — a way that helps the student body learn valuable lessons about a multitude of experiences they could potentially face at Queen’s.
Tags
All final editorial decisions are made by the Editor(s)-in-Chief and/or the Managing Editor. Authors should not be contacted, targeted, or harassed under any circumstances. If you have any grievances with this article, please direct your comments to journal_editors@ams.queensu.ca.
