Claim to Fame
By Jen Clay
A&E Editor
In her four years at Pepperdine, senior Cristina Dohmen will finally experience the thrill of performing at Pepperdine’s annual Songfest. And she’s jumping in head first. As one of this year’s seven Songfest hosts, Dohmen will be responsible for entertaining the sold-out Smothers crowds with dance, song and drama. Not an easy job, but definitely all within the capabilities of this theater major from Hawaii.
Born in Honolulu, Dohmen discovered the performing arts as a result of an audition – her sister’s, in fact.
“My sister was auditioning for a play in Hawaii, and my mom brought me along and at the audition my mom thought it would be a good idea if I sang a song,” Dohmen said. “So I sang ‘Part of your World’ from ‘The Little Mermaid,’ and I didn’t even have any music or anything.”
The accompanist happened to know the song, and the next day Dohmen got a call. She was in.
“Back then it was just fun for me,” she said. “All the adults gave me a lot of attention.”
Once she came to Pepperdine in the fall of 2000, Dohmen was experienced in hula dancing pageants and had begun taking singing seriously after her father gave her private voice lessons as a birthday gift while she was still in high school.
Dohmen had hoped she would at some point be able to participate in Songfest while at the university after watching the production her freshman year. In the past three years, Dohmen has sung soprano in Pepperdine’s Concert Choir as well as performed in such noted Pepperdine productions as “The House of Bernardo Alba,” “Fiddler on the Roof” and “Man of La Mancha,” but Dohmen is leaving her mark on Songfest for her first – and last – time during her senior year.
For auditions in October, Dohmen was required to prepare two contrasting musical numbers as well as an introduction of her favorite celebrity. Although Dohmen cites Julia Roberts as a favorite actress, she just can’t remember which celebrity she picked to introduce for her audition.
“I can only remember my friend auditioned after me and he did Adolph Hitler,” she said.
Just like she did so many years ago, Dohmen got the part, and within days, it was already time for Songfest rehearsals to begin. In the beginning of the process, Dohmen explained that the hosts would brainstorm weekly to find songs that would fit this year’s Songfest theme, “Songfest Academy: A Show of Class.”
“We got together about once a week in the morning,” she said. “It would usually be Wednesday at 8 a.m. We’d all meet and talk about the concept of the show and we’d just start brainstorming ideas. Then we started coming up with funny stories that happened to us, you know like ‘do you remember when ‘pogs’ were in?’ ”
Ultimately, Songfest producer Sam Parmalee, choreography director Katie Ebeling and musical director Chris Stivers determined which pieces were best for the hosts to perform, and Dohmen and her co-hosts returned from Christmas break ready to “tackle” approximately one song per week. As the dates of the performances approached, rehearsals became more dance-intensive, and last weekend it all came together as hosts spent one day rehearsing for 11 straight hours.
While Dohmen has admitted to temporarily sacrificing her schoolwork for the show and understandably spent Spring Break catching up, she feels the hard work she has put into the show paid off even before Songfest’s string of five performances began in Smothers last night. In a telling moment, Dohmen could not decide which number in the production is her favorite, until she finally settled on the opening number.
“In the first number we have children on the stage with us, and we dance with (the) children,” she explained. “The kids are so, so cute.”
Beyond Songfest, which will end its run Saturday night, Dohmen has no immediate plans following her participation in this summer’s Edinburgh Theatre program where she will help stage a performance of “The Grapes of Wrath.” However, she does hope to continue performing in the future in some fashion and says she will always remember her days as a performer at Pepperdine with fondness and gratitude.
“(Pepperdine) just totally opened my eyes,” Dohmen said. “There’s so much more to it (performing) than I ever imagined. It’s something you work at constantly and that you’re never satisfied with.
“Each performance can be better than the performance before – through the performance process you make new discoveries,” she said.
But for the next few days at least, Dohmen will be reveling in and focusing on what she considers to be the ultimate in her accomplishments at Pepperdine – her participation in Songfest as a host.
“Amazing people worked amazingly hard to get something amazing done,” she said of the production.
Submitted March 25, 2004