Barnstormers

The Barnstormers are Johns Hopkins University's largest and oldest theater organization. They take their name from the converted barn on the Homewood estate where they once performed, but were forcibly relocated, when Hopkins leased the theater to the Hopkins Players, a community theater organization. The Barnstomers are said to have been founded around 1900, but nobody knows for sure, since they are an entirely student run organization. That means Hopkins students, which means people too busy to keep good records. However, the group manages to put up a total of seven productions per year, including five student-directed shows and two professionaly directed shows, and usually one musical per year, thanks to their infamous techies, and insanely dedicated members. As a group, the Barnstormers are often found in league with HOPSFA, DSAGA, and the Mental Notes. Barnstormers most often recruit young freshmen into their circle through the Freshman One-Acts each October. These freshmen are rarely heard from again.

Interestingly, the Barnstormers qualify as a cult under the Hopkins Student Code of Conduct. Luckily, their religion seems to have also seduced the administration, which has just completed building a new Student Arts Center, including a nice new theater. It is rumoured that Hopkins may add a theater major in the future.

The Barnstormers' executive board consists of:

• a president
• a business manager
• a secretary
• a vice-president for professional productions
• a vice-president for studio productions
• a technical executive
• 2 tech directors
• a scenographer
• a Throat Culture representative

Their shows include: one show during freshman orientation known as the O-show, the freshmen one-acts, the fall mainstage drama which is professionally directed, a studio during January's intersession, and a spring musical. Once a semester, there is usually a showing of Rocky Horror Picture Show which is quasi-affiliated with the Barnstormers. In more recent seasons, a Shakespeare comedy has gone up during Spring Fair. Throat Culture puts on 1 or 2 shows a semester, to boot.

Many members of Barnstormers are writing seminars or English majors. (That's hardly a surprise, eh?) Cognitive science majors also get involved a lot. How do they get away with calling themselves "the oldest and largest student group"? In their number, they count anybody who has auditioned for a play or worked at even one tech session. At any rate, they are consistently in the top 3 best-funded student groups.

Trivia: Spiro Agnew was once President of the Barnstormers. Though the Barnstormers no longer use the Merrick Barn as theater-space, the group stores most of their props, costumes, dead rats, and literature in a corner of the building. Furniture and tech supplies are kept at the Swirnow Theater located in the Mattin Center.

Their official web site is located at: http://www.jhubarnstormers.com/