Rather than conceive a play first and then hope to find students to perform it, Raphe Crystal chose Ball State’s fifteen finest theatre students and worked with them to create a musical comedy specifically tailored to their strengths. The result was a transformation of Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost into Love Me, Love Me Not. Reset in “Eden, Indiana” and loaded with contemporary puns and schtick, the new production featured an original score by Crystal and comic dialogue by the students. Off Broadway in New York, it repeatedly packed the John Houseman Theatre, as well as the Muncie Center for the Arts back here at home.

				Raphael Crystal serves as Musical Director & Assistant Professor of Musical Theatre in the Dept. of Theatre & Dance. An award-winning theatre composer, his best-known work, the musical Kuni-Leml, won the New York Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Off-Broadway Musical. At Ball State, in collaboration with Michael O'Hara, he created the musical entertainment Love, Love, Love for the first "Shakespeare & Song Under the Stars," sponsored by the Minnetrista Cultural Center.
	CLASS MEMBERS: (Counterclockwise from upper left) Nick Brenner, Leanne Boarman, Kellie Harrison, Tiiu Rebane, Liz Davito, Chris Bryant, Lisa Liaromatis, Natalie Ellis, Carey Kayser, Brad Coolidge, A. Michael Tilford; Center: Robb Coles, Jason Whicker, Katie Shawger, Brian Geary; Not Pictured: Meggan Ratterman