FaSt is made up of (from left) Steve Wassell, Mark Magruder, Tom Marcais, Adam White and Rob Granger. Photo by Pat Richeson.

FaSt Composes Tunes for ‘Measure for Measure’

SUZANNE RAMSEY
College relations staff writer

"Measure for Measure," featuring songs by FaSt members Adam White, Mark Magruder and Tom Marcais, will be performed Oct. 25-28 at Murchison Lane Auditorium.

Recently, Sweet Briar College theater professor Bill Kershner asked members of FaSt — a band made up of Sweet Briar faculty and staff, thus the group’s name — if they would be interested in writing some music for his upcoming production, William Shakespeare’s “Measure for Measure.”

“At our second Rebec [Vineyard] gig, Bill … asked us if we would write something for the play,” said Adam White, Sweet Briar’s chaplain and a band member, adding that Kershner wanted them to “capture the sounds of a western European brothel.”

The end result is two songs: “Nein, nicht mir!” which White describes as a German “industrial metal song,” and a second “bluesy number.”

Both have been recorded as background music for Kershner’s play, which will be presented at 7:30 p.m. Friday through Saturday, Oct. 25 to 27 and 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 28 in Murchison Lane Auditorium.

Prior to writing “Nein, nicht mir!” — which translates as “No, not me!” — FaSt member and SBC dance professor Mark Magruder turned to his son, Conan, for guidance. “He has been all over Europe and he really is a total music nut,” Magruder said. “I said, ‘What do they play?’ and he said Rammstein and some other things.”

Magruder listened to the German metal dance band, noting the group’s repetitive use of words set off by pounding dance music. In the resulting “Nein, nicht mir!” Magruder shouts the three words over and over, accompanied by drums and electric guitars.

“I’m going to do something that I can pronounce,” he said. “I speak German slightly. I never took any lessons but I’ve been over there enough times that I can certainly do, ‘No, not me!’ ”

The band even got a “thumbs up” for authenticity from SBC German professor Ron Horwege. “Ron really liked it,” Magruder said. “He thought we had nailed it.”

FaSt is made up of White, Magruder, math professor Steve Wassell, chemistry professor Rob Granger and academic technology trainer Tom Marcais. “These pieces were composed and performed by Mark, Tom and myself,” White said. “It was not the whole group, so we call it ‘slim-FaSt.’ ”

The songs can be heard at the following links:

http://www.staff.sbc.edu/tmarcais/band/theatre/german.mp3

http://www.staff.sbc.edu/tmarcais/band/theatre/Jazz.mp3