July 29, 2008
Summer theatre features AU student in Huck Finn musical
Vishal Vaidya claims to be a king, but he’s just a low-down con man.
That’s his role at the Olney Theatre’s Big River, a musical version of Huckleberry Finn and the second professional play for the AU senior. It’s on stage until Aug. 3.
Vaidya ’09 has a key part as a swindler who forces Huck and the runaway slave Jim into his schemes. It’s a comic role that makes full use of his singing and dancing, as well as his courage.
As Mark Twain wrote it, “the King” bilks a town of rubes into paying to see him “a-prancing out on all fours, naked,” and “painted all over, ring-streaked and striped.”
The costumer put Vaidya instead into a hoochie-coochie bloomer outfit with a tasseled funnel on his chest. “It’s embarrassing every night,” he laughs.
But it’s also a lot of fun. And if that’s what it takes to make it in theatre, Vaidya is game.
Double life
“One of the reasons I came to AU was because I was able to double major,” says the native of Burtonsville, Md., who is majoring in music theatre and international studies.
Having a double major can make for a double life. Rehearsals on Big River started the day after he returned from Egypt, where he studied at the American University in Cairo for a semester as part of his focus on the Middle East.
While in Egypt he couldn’t resist the stage, though. Using Arabic learned at AU, he played a gangster in a college drama, though he admits that some of the plot details flew over his head.
It wasn’t his first time on the stage overseas. Vaidya was in the cast of AU’s They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? which traveled to Russia for a theatre festival. The University Honors student also performed in The Mystery of Edwin Drood and last year landed his first professional role in Olney Theatre’s Godspell.
The semester in Egypt provided not only insight into politics, but a cross-cultural look at the arts. “Performing is more a part of everyone’s life. Music, especially, is universal,” says Vaidya, recalling how ordinary Egyptians sing on the streets.
Passion for communication
After graduation he plans to pursue a theatre career in Washington, D.C., with New York City on the horizon for the future. He’s also interested in the way performance can be used for diplomacy and cultural exchange.
“I have a passion for the way we communicate, culturally and politically,” he says.
This summer he quips that he’s prepping for a young actor’s life by juggling his day job at AU’s Music Library with evenings on stage. He performs three nights a week and twice daily on Saturdays and Sundays. “It’s not so exhausting,” he says. “It seems like it starts, and then it’s over. I really like the show, and the cast is awesome.”
The singing senior is a key part of it, tassels and all.
