by Dimas Syuardi
Maryland Night Live virtually returned as part of the NextNOW Fest 2020 lineup with veteran hosts Sammy Garcia and Stephanie Moy on Sept. 11.
The NextNOW Fest serves as one of the biggest welcome back events for the University of Maryland community.
The show kicked off its fifth season, streaming on Vimeo for the first time with over 170 viewers. MNL filled the hour and a half event with a mix of live segments and pre-recorded skits.
Sammy Garcia, co-founder of MNL said “the main challenge was tech week, which is generally really stressful.” Even though going online posed its own challenges, “the performers were dying to get creative,” he said.
The performers of MNL leveraged their creativity given the limitations of the COVID-19 pandemic, which continues to restrict people from meeting in large gatherings.
Justine Morris, stage manager and company manager of MNL said that their previous shows had been “huge, high-production-value, energy-filled live show production[s].”
She acknowledged the difficulty of moving the show online and said she was “super proud of the whole company” for carrying on their performances.
The show had a wide range of acts and touched on many current social issues. Some of these performances highlighted social justice movements, TikTok trends and the ongoing global pandemic. Viewers were also serenaded by two musical guests, Cuni and Benny Roman.
Marjorie Antonio, a junior history and American studies major (and an avid MNL fan) also took note of their creativity, praising how performers were able to “make the most out of the situation” to produce pre-recorded content within a 6-week period.
“The quality of the writing and production was fantastic,” she said.
The NextNOW Fest served as a virtual event for students to connect and engage with each other safely.
“I think we definitely set a precedent with our show!” Morris said. “I’ve never managed a show quite like this, and I know people have never seen a show quite like it either! We worked hard to make it seamless, professional, hilarious, and personable.”
The show, indeed, set a precedent as one of the first university-wide events of the academic year.
Even with the uncertainty of how the future will unfold, MNL co-founder Garcia said “there are ways to engage and be your best self, and MNL is proof in the pudding.”
Featured photo: The “Maryland Night Live” cast and crew come together for a virtual curtain call closing their first ever virtual show at NextNOW Fest 2020. Photo by Dimas Syuardi.