Editor’s Note: This week, the Virginia Law Weekly solicited reflections from the cast of Libel 110. The following, unedited, is what we received for publication.
My favorite part of the show is tech week. Tech week is the last week of rehearsals right before the show. They’re long and tedious, but it’s the only time the whole cast is there, and we really bond. We also get to see the whole show come together for the first time, and there’s something really cool about seeing a bunch of these weird stand-alone sketches and putting them together to form a cohesive show. In the beginning you’re all strangers. It’s a little weird but just four days later, it’s you hanging out with your new best friends.
Jeremiah Kirstein ‘18
Assistant Director
jk7ce@virginia.edu
This experience has taught me the important and unique role that the Libel Show plays at UVa Law School. It’s an opportunity to laugh amidst our many stressors, to point out the many quirks and foibles of our school and the legal profession, and to bring the Law School community together for an evening of revelry and merriment. But more than that, it is also important for our participants as they are able to use their many creative talents to express their thoughts and ideas in a manner very different from what they are generally asked to do in law school. I am so grateful to our entire cast and crew who pulled off an amazing show; they are such an incredibly talented group of actors, singers, dancers, band members, technical experts, video and sound editors, and more. It is their enthusiasm and dedication to Libel that has made this process more rewarding than I had ever imagined. As I close out my time as co-Director, I am thrilled and hopeful as I know, with them at the helm, the future of the Libel Show is bright indeed.
Katerina Siefkas ’18
Director
kls2jk@virginia.edu
“I think my favorite part is it would always take us a solid 20 seconds to figure out if it was him on stage before we started yelling.”
“We really expanded his fan club, there were people yelling for 2L Jade even by the end.”
“I think it would be gauche of me to comment on my own role.”
The 2L Jake Fan Club ’19
Audience
Being a part of Libel is a ridiculous amount of fun, but it’s also amazing to see how much talent and skill people have outside of class/other “normal” law school things. I felt that last year while playing in the band and watching my classmates on stage, but I felt it even more this year being a part of Junta and seeing how much work and creativity go into the making of the show. For a bunch of law students with minimal free time, it’s mind-blowing that we’re able to pull off a production of this caliber year after year.
Courtney Koelbel ’19
Technical Director (Sound) / Band (Viola) / Cast
clk5nw@virginia.edu
My favorite moment had to be from the night when the professors were in the audience. There was a sketch where a bunch of students were impersonating professors teaching a high school sex-ed class, and the sketch-version of Anne Coughlin attests that she has had sex within the past two days. The real-life Professor Coughlin, sitting in the front row of the audience, triumphantly fist-pumped in response. It was a wonderful moment.
Emily Brown ’20
Band (Banjo & Flute)
eab4ka@virginia.edu