University Players present show, unable to disclose title for copyright reasons

Some individualized major students write a paper for their senior project. Others write a small play. Some go even further, writing a rock musical large enough to be performed at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater. This is exactly what senior Codey Girten did.\nToday and Friday the University Players are presenting a free showing of a new rock musical set to the music of a popular 90s rock band. The event is no secret, yet the event title and the band name could not be given out or advertised by Girten due to copyright reasons. When a band's songs are used in a different context than the original intent, creative control is harder to obtain than being able to use a band's name when referring to a cover band's performance. They were not able to use the band's name because they turned the songs into an entire musical that tells a different story through the band's songs.\nAccording to posted fliers, however, the event is called "February Stars: The Foosical." The music, inspired by the Foo Fighters, will be played by a cover band from Louisville called the Brewskies. The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers, however, turned down the idea of letting them use the band's name regarding the dramatic role of the music .\n"We have a 600-seat house to fill, we've been trying to spread it by word of mouth," said Girten.\nThe lack of publicity and advertising almost prevented the show from being able to be held at the BCT.\n"We were hesitant to book the Buskirk, because if we couldn't advertise it, it would be hard to get the word out," Girten said. "We think the show deserves to be seen by a lot of people. "\nThe Buskirk is a much larger space (and more expensive) than most people's senior projects could fill or even afford. The project, which he worked on for three years, is one of the largest senior projects to come out of the Individualized Major Program. The IMP requires all seniors to create a senior project, which is open to anything from a research papers to something like Girten's rock musical.\n"We've been writing the script for three years, and the whole time they're coming out with new albums so we had to find a way to add them," said Girten, who said there is at least one song off of each of the band's albums.\nWhile most sophomores were only worried about their next test, Girten was starting the long process of finding resources and funding for his musical. In his three years working on the project, involvement continued to increase. Along with help setting it up, Girten had more than 70 people audition for it, so he said he had plenty of talent to choose from to create his 14-person cast.\n"We've got such a wide range, from people from the music department to the theater department," said Girten. \nGirten was able to receive help from the University Players, who took the control of some of the fundraising. One of the major sources was the IU Student Foundation, which gave nearly half of the funds for this project. Girten found help in many other places as well, including the theater department for choreography and the Musical Arts Center for stage design. Before the Foosical, Girten had no experience talking to businesses about setting up shows, but he had to learn to help raise funding. He also added that learning this has helped him "bring together (his) four years here."\nAlong with local businesses, he received funds in the form of grants from the IMP program itself and the Hutton Honors College.\nThe show will be held at 8 p.m. at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater. The show will be free.