LATROBE, PA – When Maddie Klun graduates from Saint Vincent College this spring, she’ll leave behind a creation she described as her “pride and joy” in the Robert S. Carey Performing Arts Center.
Klun, a senior who is majoring in communication studies, is a three-year participant in student theatre with The Company and The Players. She is the outgoing president of The Company’s executive board, which plans events and elects the production teams for its musicals and cabarets. Her role is primarily off stage, focused on making sure every performance goes smoothly.
Klun helps with costume and set design for shows. This past November, she recreated one of the Notre Dame Cathedral’s magnificent stained-glass rose windows for The Company’s production of “The Hunchback of Notre Dame.”
To create the window, Klun painted on linen fabric that was stretched across a 6-by-6-foot wooden frame. The actual windows include small images of dozens of saints. For her colorful prop, Klun painted hundreds of tiny colored segments to give the illusion of the details on the original. On stage, it was backlit to complete the impression of moonlight streaming through the window.
“It was really fun making it, even though I stayed up working up until four or five every morning, which took the life out of me,” Klun said with a laugh. “It's one of those things that I didn't necessarily need to do with so much detail, but in my heart, I think the show would not have been the same without it.”
A legacy to Klun’s hard work over the past three years, the window is still intact and stored backstage at the theatre.
“I definitely plan on keeping that around, so it’ll be here whenever she returns,” said Gregg Brandt, assistant professor of theatre and faculty advisor to The Company. “Maddie has been an influential student throughout her performance career at Saint Vincent. She’s been an invaluable cast member and leader in any production in which she has been involved. We’re going to miss her.”
A native of Minneapolis, Klun spent her freshman year at the University of Minnesota. Although it’s her hometown school, she struggled to find her niche among the 54,000 students on the Twin Cities campus.
“I felt like a number,” Klun said. “I started searching for small, liberal arts schools and came across Saint Vincent. I saw the campus, the rich history and all the programs it has to offer and said, ‘I’ll give it a year and if I don’t like it, I’ll leave.’ Well, I fell in love with it.”
Klun joined The Company during her first year at Saint Vincent. As a junior, she became secretary of the executive board, and this year moved into the president’s role. In February, she was student director of “Fiddler on the Roof” and arranged for Rabbi Jamie Gibson to talk with the cast about the Jewish traditions that are central to the musical.
On March 21-23, The Company will perform its spring cabaret, “Fall in Love with Broadway.” Klun will perform in several songs, including “Amazing Mayzie” from “Seussical the Musical.” It will be Klun’s final show at Saint Vincent.
Maddie Klun
Maddie Klun in her role as Betty Blast in “Footloose”
