For four years, I had the privilege of watching this organization grow. And, as we all know, growth does not come easy. We've followed the roller coaster of pitfalls and glories, all the while dedicate to the cliche, "the show must go on". This amazing group of action-seeking roller coaster riders have become some of my best friends. Not to mention, they are some of the newest and most talented artists at UVA. First Year Players exists to cater to, what I call, the "new artist". First-year students at the University perform the musicals, while other students take on the artistic, technical, financial, and administrative responsibilities. No matter what the role a student plays in First Year Players, each person is committed to the art of the musical itself. With such dedication, you can see why I've returned year after year.

In thinking about First Year Players' artistic mission, a passage from James Joyce's "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" comes to mind.

"The dramatic form is reached when the vitality which has flowed and eddied round each person fills each person with such vital force that he or she assumes a proper and intangible esthetic life. The personality of the artist, at first a cry or a cadence or a mood and then a fluid and lambent narrative, finally refines itself, so to speak. The esthetic image in the dramatic form is life purified in and reprojected from the human imagination. The mystery of esthetic like that of material creation is accomplished. The artist, like the God of creation remains within or behind or beyond or above his handiwork, invisible..." (Bantam Books, New York, 1992; 1916, p 209)

Godspell as you will see, is an appropriate addendum to the archives of First Year Players' shows in light of Joyce's keen insight concerning the "artist".

I'd like to extend a sincere and heartfelt thank you to everyone who has made this show possible - and a special thank you to you - the patron - for your support and dedication to the arts.

Enjoy the show!

Jennifer Little