Less than two weeks ahead of opening night, the cast of Ƶ’s production of Cabaret sits attentively on the stage of the Tom Miles Theatre, locking in after their lunch break in the middle of an eight-hour Saturday rehearsal.
In the theater’s front row, director Dan Murphy stands and reads from a notepad, delivering his notes on the run of act two that the company completed just ahead of lunch. The cast is thoughtful and attentive, but also quick to answer questions and offer suggestions on how they might mold their characters.
Murphy welcomes the suggestions, engaging in short conversations about their thoughts before handing off to choreographer Liberty Dolence, who follows up with more notes on stage position, dance moves, and selling their characters to the audience.
The energy and the commitment of the cast and crew is clear.
“I think what I have enjoyed the most is that everyone wants to be here,” said Murphy, who is the co-founder and managing director of Portland’s . “Nobody wants to be the weakest link.”
Cabaret, the classic musical by John Kander and Fred Ebb, was staged at Pacific’s Tom Miles Theatre in October 2025 as a collaboration between the university’s music and theatre departments. And the opportunity to learn from the play’s professional production staff enhanced the experiential learning experience for Pacific students.
That professional team included Pacific’s experienced faculty, including Distinguished University Professor of Theatre Ellen Margolis and Assistant Professor of Voice Anne McKee Reed, but was magnified by the presence of Murphy and Dolence, who has acted and choreographed for a number of the region’s professional acting companies.
“I think what we both bring is being able for students to learn from our example,” Murphy said. “There are times when we are on a break and they come over and start picking our brains. We start talking about theater from our personal experience. Having been there, hopefully we’re being an example of the expectation of professionals.”
One of four productions on the Theatre Department schedule for the 2025-26 academic year, Cabaret is to music and theatre majors what an outside internship is to many other undergraduate students. Of the 16 members of Cabaret’s cast, 12 are music or theatre majors.
“I love seeing the different directing and instructing styles,” said Sydney Timm ’27, a music education and vocal performance major who played the female lead of Sally Bowles. “It’s really nice to get a different feel for things. With Dan, and his background at Broadway Rose, I see his more manager-type directing that I sometimes get in community theatre.”
“I’ve never been part of a program that has resident directors and it is fascinating to hear different takes,” said Malcolm Armstrong ’27, a music and theatre major who played the male lead of Cliff Bradshaw. “Dan goes into it with a frame of what he wants to see, but there’s always room to surprise him and change his mind.”
