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In the news today: For our first story of the day focusing on events and entertainment, Wharton Center hosts open rehearsal, previews upcoming production 'In Pieces.' For our second story focusing on student life, back-to-back national champion MSU club dodgeball hungry for more success.
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What is The State - A Podcast from The State News + Impact 89FM?
The State is a daily rundown of the headlines that matter to the East Lansing, MI community.
This is The State for Thursday, September 19th where we bring you the headlines that matter. I'm Rachel Fulton.
For our first story of the day focusing on events and entertainment,
On Tuesday morning, in the Wharton Center for Performing Arts's Pasant Theater, cast and crew members gathered to continue putting the finishing touches on "In Pieces," a new musical production set to open today.
This production is being put on through the New Musical Laboratory, a collaboration between the Wharton Center and Michigan State University's Department of Theater.
This partnership seeks to support new musicals by bringing professionals in the theater industry to East Lansing to collaborate with students and put on a never before seen production with just three weeks of rehearsals.
The New Musical Laboratory process begins with the selection of the year's production. In October of last year, "In Pieces" was selected out of 118 submissions by a committee of faculty members, students and Wharton Center representatives.
A central element of the New Musical Laboratory is the collaboration between Broadway professionals and MSU students.
The connections that the Wharton Center has to the Broadway and theater industry allows them to bring in professionals to work with students in the Department of Theater and the writers of these new productions.
The cast of "In Pieces" is made up of 10 MSU student actors as well as two professional actors, Julian Diaz-Granados and Stephanie Torns. The show is also guest directed by professional director Emily Maltby.
For our second story focusing on student life,
Over the past two years, one of the biggest success stories at Michigan State has gone unnoticed.
The MSU club men's dodgeball team is reigning back-to-back National Collegiate Dodgeball Association, or NCDA, national champions. The women's team has had recent success as well, finishing as the runner-up in the NCDA last season after losing to Akron in the national final.
MSU has arguably the best club dodgeball programs in the country. The players, who have earned the accolades without equal recognition, only want to do one thing: win.
Although a club sport, players say dodgeball is just as competitive as other sports on campus, if not more so. The men's "Pinch" team has only 18 starting roster spots, and the women's team only has eight. The Dodgeball Club as a whole is 80 members total, making it difficult to earn a traveling spot with the team.
Players and coaches said many fail to realize how dynamic the game of dodgeball is. It's similar to other sports with its emphasis on offensive and defensive strategies and formations, and the team watches film to study its opponents.
The Spartans have become one of the most dominant college club dodgeball teams in the nation over the past year. The team's first championship season in 2023 didn't include a single loss; it is one of the best single-season performances in the history of college club dodgeball.
The second championship, this year, was won in dominant fashion, but with a tougher task. Every team had a target on MSU's back, players said, especially Grand Valley State which is the most decorated college dodgeball team in the nation.
With such an intense and electric sport to be showcased, players and coaches said the MSU club dodgeball team deserves greater recognition.
To end our last episode of the week, here are a few announcements!
Today's weather forecast is predicting mainly sunny skies 83 degrees and a low of 59 degrees. For the weekend it looks like it will be intervals of clouds and sunshine with temps in the mid 80's.
Here is the MSU Athletic line-up for the weekend...
Today, Women's Soccer will play Nebraska at 6 P.M. at DeMartin Stadium.
To end the weekend on Sunday, Women's Golf will compete in the Mary Fossum Invite at Forest Akers West Golf Course.
Thank you for joining us for The State... Produced by The State News and Impact eighty-nine F-M. You can find us online at State News dot com and Impact eight-nine F-M dot org. We'll be back next week with more.