By Maddie Thomas Daily TV/New Media Editor - March 18th, 2014

On a cold and dreary Michigan night, hitching a bus ride to the very last stop on Commuter South wouldn’t seem like the best way to lift your spirits. Hop off the bus and you’re alone in a desolate asphalt nowhere that lies dormant most nights (and only wakes from its slumber to the caffeine injection of the sporadic basketball game or a Football Saturday in September). If you’re lucky, though, you’ll notice a faint glimmer peeking out of the dark. The non-descript Student Theatre Arts Complex (or STAC) is a beacon in the snowy quietude of South Campus, holding within it a secret treasure: A buzzing ecosystem of performers, designers, producers and directors, aglow with the palpable energy of MUSKET’s “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.”

By NATALIE GADBOIS, Daily Arts Writer - November 21, 2013

In an unassuming rehearsal space in the hinterlands of South Campus, distressed garbage cans stand at the ready in one corner and backpacks are strewn across another. In the center, 16 students wait to transform into AIDS-afflicted, poverty-ridden, fatally idealistic New Yorkers.

Before the acclaimed musical starts, each actor takes hold of a piece of scaffolding, pushing the set into place until a bare loft centered around a dingy couch comes alive. They begin to sing, and as the music swells, their Wolverine garb and fresh faces fade away.

By ARIELLE SPECINER, Daily Arts Writer - November 16, 2012

“Hairspray,” this semester’s MUSKET performance, is a sparkling, stylish stage production with as much heart as there are sequins.

Full, floral and flowing skirts dance around the Power Center stage. Lines of Converse and Ked shoes twist and shout to the latest tunes. Men’s shirts are neatly pressed, tucked into their waist-high slacks. And without the actors saying a word, the audience is transported back to the 1960s.

By ANNA SADOVSKAYA, Daily Fine Arts Editor - March 22, 2012

It’s 2003. President Bush gives his “Mission Accomplished” speech and American troops are slowly sent home. Among them is Captain Walker, a man presumed to be dead by his family. As he enters his home, he finds his wife in the arms of another man. Filled with rage, Captain Walker kills the man while his 4-year-old son Tommy watches.

By ARIELLE SPECINER, Daily Arts Writer - November 14, 2011

The room is dimly lit and there’s a piano. The Emcee welcomes the audience with a “Wilkommen” and beautiful girls drape the stage with their voices and bodies. The boys hoot and holler, tables line the room with couples flirting — men with women, women with other women, men with other men. Then, the boisterous and beautiful Sally Bowles sashays in.

BY CASSIE BALFOUR Daily Arts Writer - March 24, 2011

“My unfortunate erection / Is destroying my perfection,” cries Chip Tolentino, played by LSA freshman Dave Caldwell, after his dream of becoming Putnam County’s preeminent speller is foiled by adolescence. It happens to the best of us. Luckily, the University will be able to relive those traumatizing middle school years this weekend at the Power Center.

BY BRAD SANDERS Daily Arts Writer - November 16, 2010

"Aida," MUSKET's first musical of the season, a powerhouse of contemporary music and ancient themes, bridges its extremes with a universal plotline: a love triangle.

“Aida” has origins in an opera by the same name. The story focuses on the struggle of Aida, a Nubian princess and recently captured slave, and an Egyptian captain, Radames, to pursue their romance while remaining loyal to their combating countries.

By LEAH BURGIN, Daily Fine Arts Editor - March 18, 2010

The story of “Man of La Mancha” is that of the world’s first novel — Miguel de Cervantes’s 17th-century classic, “The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha.” Adapted from this masterpiece, “Man of La Mancha” follows the fictional story of Cervantes, who is thrown into prison during the Spanish Inquisition.