A Dramatic Entrance: Meet Mr. Magill

Cistercian’s new drama teacher, Mr. Seth Magill, boasts one of the more animated resumes among the school’s faculty.

Among his many accomplishments, Mr. Magill has provided voice-over performances for a variety of anime series. Most recently, he was the voice of Madoka Takatori, one of the lead characters on Shonen Maid. “It’s often difficult to do a voice-over,” Mr. Magill explains. “When you’re part of a play, you have the time to read through your lines, memorize them, and practice over and over before you perform in front of an audience. When doing a voice-over, you’re reading cold. Sometimes, the director might change one of the lines your character says while you’re in the middle of reading.”

The most impressive of Mr. Magill’s accomplishments is his own play, “On the Eve.” The production — which he wrote and for which he produced music — is based on two time-travelling space men from the future who get stuck in eighteenth century France at the time of the invention of the hot air balloon.

“The main plot is about the adventure of these two time travelers and how they use the technology they have in the time period they get stuck in to find a way back home. However, we use the history of the Montgolfier brothers creating the hot air balloon as a subplot to give the audience a clear path to follow as the time travelers find their way back home.”

As the music producer, Mr. Magill sought to make the style of music in this production unique. “Along with the drums, concert piano, cello, and mandolin, I used an Irish step dancer, dancing in rhythm with the drummer’s beats. I set up a box with special microphones that capture the sounds the dancer makes. We then use those sounds in our pieces throughout the play.”

Starting at a small theater in Uptown, Mr. Magill’s production has come a long way. It has since been put on at the Dallas Theater Center, the National Alliance for Musical Theater festival, and is now being put on in New Jersey. Hopefully, one day Cistercian will be able to say that its drama teacher made it on Broadway!