The oldest club at Clark University is changing. Founded in 1908, the Clark University Players Society (CUPS) is one of Worcester’s oldest theater production companies, only beaten by the Hanover Theater, which opened in 1904. Over 100 years later, the club is making some administrative changes. 

CUPS has served as an alternative theater space for Clark students since its founding and has become even more independent since its split with the theater department in 2020.

“We still rely on the theater department for support and use of their space,” CUPS President Weslee Tyler explained. “But as our own theatrical company, we function independently.” 

Since the split, the club has been able to hold more non-traditional theater events such as the club’s bi-annual event, Play in a Day, where students write, direct, design, act, and perform a play in 24 hours. 

CUPS also provides Clark students with a less intense theater experience than other options on campus. 

“CUPS demands a lot less from students than the theater department does,” Tyler said. “If you’re doing a department show, that’s like five days a week of rehearsal, often like two plus hours each.” 

Clark University is known for having a busy student body, with students participating in multiple clubs and teams a semester. Thus, many Clark students who are interested in theater but do not have time to participate in a department show go to CUPS. 

“It’s more flexible than the theater department or CMT,” said Lucy Bonat, who recently became the club’s publicity chair. 

Clark Musical Theater (CMT) is another student-run theater group on campus. CUPS and CMT are similar in that they both split from the theater department and that they give students a space to explore theater outside of classes and department shows.

“What makes us [CUPS] different, most of all, is that we try to keep it only student-run,” said Secretary of CUPS Aster Mehigan. The club used to hire outside directors, but now it is entirely student-run, from directors and stage managers to actors and crew, said Mehigan. 

According to Mehigan and Bonat, CMT is less student-run than CUPS, in that they often hire outside directors for their shows. 

CMT produces musicals, hence the name, while CUPS focuses on straight plays and interactive theater. Musicals often have more and longer rehearsals as they have more elements to them than straight plays.

Some students have time for these longer rehearsals while others do not; some students like to sing while others do not. Thus some students turn to CUPS rather than CMT when looking for theater experiences on campus outside of the theater department. 

“Compared to CMT and the theater department, it’s a little more chaotic, but it also feels more personal,” Bonat shared. “This might have been just the position I was in, but I was given a little bit more agency on how I wanted the props to look.” 

To its members, CUPS is more than just a club. 

“It’s, like, not only a club but very much a social space. We all spend a lot of time together,” Tyler said. 

“CUPS is a pretty good club, like, it’s where I met a lot of people,” Mehigan said. “I probably would not have made a majority of my friends had I not assistant-directed my sophomore year.” 

“Being a non-binary person, it was very gender affirming to finally be cast not in a female role,” Mehigan added, talking about their time acting in their freshman show, “Hearts Like Fists.” 

“Also in a theater space, I feel safe to be open about that,” they continued.“And so that was something I really appreciated about it.” 

In the past, CUPS and the other theater groups on campus performed two main stage shows: one in the fall semester and one in the spring.

This past fall, though, the theater department and CUPS had their shows within a week of each other, and they both had tech rehearsals in the same week. 

The lead in CUPS’ production of “Twelve Angry Jurors,” Justin Schwartz, was also a large part of the theater department’s “The Moors.”  “This was an insanely stressful time of my life, having to juggle these performances while trying to make a name for myself with my internship and staying dedicated to my schoolwork, but I was insanely rewarded with the experiences as both shows went off without a hitch,” Schwartz said. 

While both shows had wonderful performances, it was a very stressful time for everyone involved in CUPS. Thus the club took this experience as a jumping-off point to change how they run. This year instead of a second main stage show, the club is focusing on providing workshops and other smaller theater events.

“We’re trying to branch out to new different ways to do theater, especially interactive stuff,” said Mehigan. 

Some possible events the club is thinking about include a murder mystery dinner and a monologue symposium.

“Rudy [CUPS Treasurer] and I are planning something for next month,” Mehigan shared. “It’s right up my alley with spooky stuff.” 

Next year CUPS plans to change its schedule drastically; not only will they be reducing their number of main stage shows to one, but they will also move around the scheduling of events.  This new schedule was first proposed by now-former CUPS e-board members. 

“Moving forward next year I want to try to do a new kind of schedule where we will have haunted house in October and afterwards only then do we start prepping for main stage,” Tyler said. “We start it by the end of fall semester, have it continue over break, and then have it have the actual show be halfway through spring semester,” said Tyler.  

With this new schedule, the club hopes to put its all into one spectacular show while lessening stress for its members. 

“I think it’ll also free up people’s time if they wanna also do a department or a CMT show,” Tyler finished. “Because right now, it’s kind of like you have to choose.” 

Disclaimer: Weslee Tyler, CUPS president, is also the Living Arts Editor for The Scarlet. She did not participate in the editing process of this article in order to maintain journalistic standards.