44 Comments
Although the Varsity Show has traditionally been a highlight of prospies’ Days on Campus experience, this year, none of V121 will be performed. This came after the Office of Admissions deemed some scenes “too mature” for prospective students, claiming that much of the satire would be lost on students who have yet to experience Columbia firsthand.
Instead, a team of VShow alumni has elected to perform selections from past shows after the current production felt “that it would be disingenuous…to perform only the limited selection of songs that Admissions deemed “acceptable” to present to prospective students.”
Read the full statement from the V121 creative team and cast below:
WARNING: The 121st Annual Varsity Show has been deemed “too mature” for prospective students by the Office of Admissions.
Therefore, it is with great regret that despite long-running tradition, The 121st Annual Varsity Show will not be performing at this year’s Days on Campus. There was concern that the sentiment of our satire would be lost on prospective students who have not yet experienced the Columbia community and the current campus conditions to which we are responding this year.
Given the especially difficult campus climate students have been faced with this year, and our mission to represent said difficulties, we feel that it would be disingenuous to the spirit and purpose of our show to perform only the limited selection of songs that Admissions deemed “acceptable” to present to prospective students.
Seeing as the Days on Campus performance has served a valuable purpose in introducing the university to potential future Columbians, a group of Varsity Show alumni will be performing a small selection of numbers and scenes from past shows. We did not wish to under serve any prospective students who may have enjoyed a Varsity Show performance; however, we, as The 121st Annual Varsity Show, stand firm in our belief that we could not compromise the mission of our iteration of this tradition by performing the censored version of our show suggested to us by Admissions.
Signed,
The Creative Team and Cast of The 121st Annual Varsity Show
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44 Comments
@Anonymous YAAAASSS
@v115 This is the best publicity the varsity show ever could have hoped for. I for one can’t wait to see it, and I bet a lot of people feel the same way — veesh love forever!!
@I love The varsity show!!!
@v116 When we did our Days on Campus show we just did Act 1 straight through. Not even touching the moral aspects of censorship, it’s totally ridiculous to expect the team to make big changes and then unmake them again this close to opening. Couldn’t be done, even if they wanted to.
@Mike Eisenberg To the Office of Admissions:
Okay, for all I know, the songs aren’t in the best taste. But it’s *comedy*. Come on, now. Comedy. At a college. It’s *supposed* to be in questionable taste. For heaven’s sake, don’t be so thin-skinned; it does more damage than the songs could possibly do.
Comedy. Lighten up.
Mike Eisenberg CC ’78 (co-author of the 1978 Varsity Show)
oh, and ps. to anonymous: Who would want to work at Goldman Sachs??
@Sorry, but as I’m sure you can realize, this show is centered on outright hatred of Columbia, which isn’t appropriate for Days on Campus. The songs aren’t intended to be comedy, they’re intended to be scathing.
Admissions was put in a compromising position when handed this script, and absolutely made the right decision.
@Anonymous “this show is centered on outright hatred of Columbia”
I bow down to ye troll king of the troll kings. You have my fealty.
@hmm wonder if these people had anything to do with it Jocelyn Bohn
Caitlin Lowell
Luke Foster
Jared Odessky
Julia Qian
Dennis Jared
Jason Pettigrew
Abby Abrams
Fatimatou Diallo
Emma Sulkowicz
Shaday Fermin
Armando Lozano
@Well that's odd They couldn’t get the CC Class President this year, either? How embarrassing…
@fuck the nacoms
@Sachem as much as I enjoy seeing randos shit on the Nacoms…you got the list wrong. you could only list 12 and two of the people you listed are wrong. nice try.
@fuck Daniel Stone
@djs2190 So I don’t know who wrote this, but this isn’t really my style. (For me, the main purpose of the Bwog comment function is trolling.) Feel free to hit me up if you want to talk or something.
-Dan
@shit forgot about the track function…
@lol wait this list is super wrong. at least be good at snooping if you’re gonna leak a list in a bwog comment
@Anonymous why would i want to be part of a senior society that can’t even rig a ccsc election?
@wow!!! ~*~dirt~*~
@Anonymous WARNING? Capital letters, WARNING? Warning of what? This doesn’t affect the current students at all
@Veesh Alum Go V121! You all are amazing. We are all proud of what you are doing.
@an actual alum funny, all the alumni told them to change what got them into this mess in the first place, and I doubt any real alumn values the destruction of traditions (first west end preview, now this).
@Okay but like Varsity show as like an institution is still performing it’s just not this year”s varsity show. I don’t see why they’re making a big deal out of it
@Anonymous Yeah, not sure why they released this statement, because they were told they could do a shortened preview (they chose not to), and this preview is mainly so the team can make edits and the actors can get comfortable doing the show in Roone. It’s not like they were told they couldn’t do the show at all.
@insider they were actually told they couldn’t performed a shortened version of their show, because all except one song was deemed unacceptable. even the west end preview version was deemed “too mature.”
@*real* insider no, the administration told them they could perform a very condensed version of the first act–removing the portions the administrators found inappropriate (of which, there were many)–and the team decided not to do that.
@ok but the administration censors the days on campus performance EVERY year. What makes this team think they’re so special that they can float above that?
@Insider! You literally do not know what happened so stop. The team was told they could reWRITE the first act to make it less critical, and they were only approved to do ONE song from act one. One song, of probably at least 7 in Act 1 isn’t condensed. It’s downright censored. Having performed in 118, I can tell you that the typical “censoring” from the administration tends to come in the form of using less profanity and avoiding overt references to drug usages. These are usually like edits. This is an entirely different deal. Nobody thinks they’re special, except for you, since you know everything!
@to "Insider!" above cole, you were in 119, not 118 ;)
@Cole Not me, but I agree tbqh
@Anonymous varsity show should advertise and do an unofficial performance on low steps or another building for the prospies. It’s complete bullshit that they will not allow the original performance to be done. Columbia’s administration needs to just stop, this is just getting fucking ridiculous.
@Anonymous It’ll be on Youtube by the start of summer…
@Anonymous Why doesn’t Columbia perform a creative, insightful show like other schools, rather than constant one sided complaints at the administration. These one sided activist points of view are not remotely funny. Can you imagine applying for a job at Goldman Sachs and having the employees make fun of their bosses. Embarrassing. Hopefully you can see how this is not even remotely appropriate for prospective students.
@Wait Comparing a corporate job to an education that students pay for? Are you and idiot?
@I agree Im shocked that so many students here don’t realize that groundlessly complaining about the administration is 1) going to get them nowhere and 2) shooting themselves in the foot. have some pride in your school and make it look good to prospective students. Preserve the image of this school and stop devaluing my diploma. Columbia reputation in this country is tanking because of your antics.
@Anonymous *looks at 6.1% acceptance rate*
*reads “reputation tanking”*
*explodes*
@uhh this shouldn’t be that big of a shock. why would admissions show prospective students stuff that makes the school look too bad? it may be true, but they’re obviously gonna save their skin. you don’t advertise a product by saying what it sucks at… and according to the letter they were allowed to perform some stuff. at least this means V121 will pack a punch :)
@Anon Good points here. Imagine you’re the administration. You want great students to be turned on to the idea of attending your school. Do you show them well-known, funny, and generally tame skits, or do you show them the equivalent of Orgo Night? Some might like it, but for others (especially parents) it could be a deal-breaker. And hey, this means that all of the good stuff will be saved for the ACTUAL show, which looks to be dynamite!
@"too mature"? is columbia concerned with preserving the innocence of prospies or was the show too critical of the administration and their response to events on and off campus this year?
@insider the latter
@real insider it was actually censored because the opening number has full frontal nudity
@Lomax93 I heard they got permission to slaughter a live animal in the second act.
@ArthurBerman1959 I heard there are going to be women in this year’a performance. Boy have times changed.
@Anonymous I’m a little creeped out how Alma Mater’s face is split in half in that picture
@"we are censored and not allowed to perform" so we are making a statement that says that representatives of the varsity show are still going to perform, just not the show
ok???
@Cast Member TRIGGER WARNING: I AM ABOUT TO TELL YOU WHAT THE 121st VARSITY SHOW IS REALLY ABOUT…
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Why did the administration try to shut down Bacchanal? Why don’t you ever see Big Sean and Varsity Show performing together at Bacchanal? Why was the lead of the last few Varsity Shows named Sean? Open your eyes, people. They’re the same person!! This school is run by the Illuminati, and that kid who jumped out the window was just being abducted by aliens from another planet. Get a job, and play some youth sports for a change: I HATE THIS SCHOOL!!!
“COME AND SEE OUR SHOW ON MAY 1st, 2nd, AND 3rd… COME AND SEE THE VARSITY SHOW!” ~c.t.