“Everybody,” written by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins and directed by Elizabeth Wellman, was performed on Sept. 26-29 and Oct. 3-6 at the UNCW theater. The play follows the character Everybody through the journey of finding who will follow him to his death.

Elizabeth Wellman, assistant professor of theater and director of the show, put on the production.

“I think that he [Branden Jacob-Jenkins] is really smart, funny and weird,” said Wellman. “He tackles complicated problems and asks us hard questions.”

Wellman describes how the play not only tackles these hard questions but leaves room for directors and cast members to be creative. The “Everybody” script does not tell the director or character where it is set and who is playing a certain role. The play is open-ended, leaving room for actors and designers to experiment. Jacobs-Jenkins specifically wrote the play like this to allow different productions to put on different shows as much as how life is not the same for everybody.

“The most important thing as a director, especially a director in an academic setting, is that the art making of students is championed,” said Wellman.

Twenty-five members, including cast and crew, came together to put on the performance. Students auditioned for the role in April and received the roles before summer as they would have to memorize five different roles. Every night of the show, actors would open an envelope with their name on it, addressing what role they would be playing that night. Wellman did not designate these roles to the students but did so with the help of ChatGPT.

“It [the randomization of who is playing what role] was to demonstrate how life and death feel random to us,” said Wellman. “There are over 125 possible combinations, but you will only see eight.”

“Knowing that I had to learn five different roles was terrifying,” said Bela Gonzalez, sophomore at UNCW and cast member. “Opening those envelopes and seeing what you are is just terrifying.”

Gonzalez expressed how she played Everybody opening night of the performance. “My heart was racing a hundred miles a minute because I knew there was more pressure,” she said. However, Gonzalez and all her other cast mates have rehearsed and practiced all of the roles prior to their performance.

“Because of the subject matter and talking about death, relationships and love, I found for me that the rehearsals were hard,” stated Gonzalez. Gonzalez speaks about how Wellman and cast came together to create a support system. Gonzalez struggled with her fear of not performing the role to the best of her ability but, with the help of the cast and crew she was able to achieve that.

“I think I am just going to remember this show forever. I have never been a part of a show that has a deep meaning. It has been just a rewarding show,” said Gonzalez.

Victoria Gibson, senior at UNCW and music director, orchestrated all the acapella singing throughout the performance of “Everybody.”

“Elizabeth wanted songs to be Appalachian folk songs and hymns to go along with the setting of the show,” said Gibson. “She pulled some of her songs that were inspirational. I listened to them and thought of them more in terms of harmony and the amount of people between each scene.”

Gibson started conducting vocals in community theaters in 2017. “I have never done all acapella singing in a show, and it was really cool that Elizabeth trusted me with that,” said Gibson.

Gibson explained her idea of having the acapella singers be in the audience and not on stage to create a surround sound effect. “For acapella singing, it is really important to them [singers] to see and hear each other. That is why we had them in the audience. It also gives the audience an even sound from where they are generally sitting,” said Gibson.

“I really enjoyed working on this production,” said Gibson. “This is the first time I have done any musical production here at UNCW. It has been really great, and I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything.”

Olivia Knighten, sophomore and choreographer for the production, gave insight into the skeleton dance that was performed during the show.

“Wellman came to me and asked if I wanted to be her choreographer,” said Knighten. “She wanted to start with one person, me, and slowly bring all of the other people in.”

Knighten explains how the dance was a mix of footwork tap and Carolina shag in the partnering section. “I just played with the movement that I think a skeleton would use. I wanted to be stiff in my movement but beautiful in a way,” said Knighten. Knighten explained how the most difficult part was her being able to teach everyone the dance with the changing roles.

“I felt really successful just having everyone support me. I am only a sophomore, and I am not faculty,” Knighten said. “The support was nice to put together a performance that I am proud of.”

“No matter who you are, you can come see this play and see a little piece of something that will show up on stage,” said Wellman.