Campus Celebrity: Michael Levine

Name: Michael Levine

 

Age: 20 (I just found out I am exactly 20 years older than Sir Winston the Corgi, because we share a birthday.)

 

Major/Minor: Theatre Studies Directing & Playwriting

 

Year of Graduation: Fall 2016

 

Hometown: Pittsford, New York

 

Emerson Extracurriculars: Kidding Around Advisory Board, Sleeping, Writing

 

What was it like to win an Evvy? James and the Giant Peach was a really fun show we did last fall. It was my passion project and I was so lucky to be working with the nicest and most talented people at Emerson. To me that show is about family, and we created a little family over the course of production. I was so happy to have created exactly what I wanted it to be, and being recognized by the EVVYs was a really nice affirmation that other people liked it as well.

 

You wrote your own show, what’s it about? This semester I’m directing a play I wrote, Marvelous Oz, based on the stories most people don’t know happened after Dorothy left. It’s a sort of Queer-Dust-Bowl-fairy-tale play with music, which shows Oz trying to find a new leader after the Wizard left everything in shambles. It follows a young trans girl named Tip who finds her power in helping Oz, and she meets up with favorites like the Scarecrow and Glinda, as well as a bunch of less familiar characters. There’s also a great folk score written by Bridget Driscoll, and we perform December 12 and 13 in the Cabaret.

 

Fun Facts? I don’t know what kind of fun facts you want! I try to live my life as witch-like as possible. My favorite animal is the sloth but my spirit animal is the Indonesian sun bear.