__Known to many as the winner of the Mr. William & Mary pageant, Greg Collins is just as charming and sociable as the paper version of himself he used to advertise himself for the contest. From a small town south of Richmond, he is a fraternity man, a College of William and Mary tour guide, a summer admissions intern and someone who can tackle the Unit G cockroaches in stride. Unpretentious and candid, Greg shows his soft side when he admits his fondness for “The Notebook,” shares his admiration for the late Tim Russert and tells us what it was like to go skydiving with the Army.__

**Can you share a funny story from when you were giving a tour here?**

I tripped over a cone once and a sidewalk once. With the cone, I fell flat on my ass. The mom in the front was freaking out. I had to give one this summer during a torrential downpour with thunder and lightning. We were running from building to building trying, not to get struck by lightning.

**You worked in the admissions office this summer and part of your job was interviewing prospective students. What was a question you especially enjoyed asking them?**

One was: If you could have dinner with any three people, who would they be? Students would always say Thomas Jefferson, Jon Stewart and then someone like Gandhi. Over and over people said that.

**What would your answer to that question be?**

Tim Russert, Warren Buffet and my mom.

**What’s your favorite place on campus?**

Recently it’s been Matoaka, especially late at night because it’s right there on the water. I also really like the history of the second floor of the Wren Building because of all the portraits. You feel a lot of weight resting on your shoulders because of what all of these people have gone through.

**What’s something you’ve enjoyed, or something that’s surprised you, about the College since you’ve been here?**

I think it’s funny how people turn their campus involvements into popularity points. “Oh, you spent three hours doing community service? I spent 36.” Or “You’re in seven clubs? I’m in 600.” I mean, if I have the time I’m more than happy to go help do something, but I’m just as happy to sit on my couch and watch “Real Housewives of New York City.” I think you can’t take yourself too seriously because that’s when you become miserable; you’ll find yourself trying too hard, and why try too hard?

**You are also a member of Kappa Alpha. Do you live in its unit?**

Yeah, this is my second year living there. When I moved in last year, my mom saw a cockroach as soon as she walked in and flipped out. I was like, “Mom, it’s about the experience, not the living conditions — its fine.” I don’t mind living there.

**In your Facebook profile picture, you’re wearing a wild-looking shirt. What’s the story behind it?**

I was dressed up for a date party we had called “Wine and Sleaze,” actually, and that was a shirt I found at the thrift store in the ladies’ section. I had my hair all slicked back, too, like a sleazy car salesman.

**If I turned on your iPod right now, what would I hear?**

It’s broken at the moment, but I like rap and hip-hop a lot. “Stomp the Yard” is my favorite movie of all time. I wish I could do it, but I can’t; secretly I’ve tried. I’ve Googled it and YouTubed how to step dance, and it never works. I also found out I really like Iron & Wine and The Weepies through my Pandora, though, and I like country.

**Do you have a ringtone on your phone?**

Yes, it’s “Beautiful” by Akon. I just really like that song. My computer has been in [Information Technology] all weekend, so I would ask my roommate, “Can we play that song just one more time? Just one more time?” And he’d be like, “Fine.”

**Is there a movie character you relate to?**

I wish I was as cool as Ferris Bueller, but I don’t really think I am. He’d probably be the closest.

**Do you have any nicknames?**

Last year one of my fraternity brothers thought it would be a great idea to send out an e-mail to everyone but me that said, “For the next couple of days, let’s refer to Greg as Craig, and just see how long it takes him to notice.” Well no, it works. I would just hear it in conversation and wouldn’t think anything of it. I’m trying to get my composite next year to say Cregory Gollins, and just switch the letters.

**Who is a figure you really respect?**

I really do respect Tim Russert a lot, even though he has passed away. He’s one of those people who could take government and make it cut and dry and say, “This is the way things work, and this is why.” I can remember being 12 or 13 during the 2000 election and him having the whiteboard and explaining the Electoral College and everyone being like, “Oh. That’s how it works.”

**Have you done any cool internships to prepare you for life after graduation?**

Yes, I had an internship with the Army between my freshman and sophomore year. I actually got to go skydiving on it because they had an open spot, and they were like, “Do you know anyone who would want to do it?” And I was like, “Wait, can I do it?” And they were like, “Yeah……” So I got paid to go skydiving. It was so much fun, but scary, especially when you’re sitting in the plane waiting, slowly feeling it get colder and colder as you loop up.

**Are there any movies that make you feel emotional?**

Something I don’t like to admit: I did see “The Notebook,” and I did cry because it was really sad. The thing about it is, if I cry, my face gets this color [he points to a very red sweater] and looks disgusting and I’m like, “Oh man.” I try to hold it back.

**Who was your favorite cartoon character?**

My favorite was Captain Planet. I don’t know why, but I do remember a couple years ago we went on a cruise and on the kids channel they did a marathon of “Captain Planet,” and I was like, “Wow, I didn’t know this was still around.”

**What was your favorite toy as a child?**

Teddy Ruxpin. He was a bear, you would put a tape in the back and his lips would move and he would sing along with you. It was the coolest toy in the world. I was an only child, so if all my friends went home, I’d have Teddy Ruxpin to hang out with.

**Do you have a favorite quote?**

I like the one by Eleanor Roosevelt: “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” Something I do feel like I have picked up here is that you can’t worry about what other people think about you because if you think too much, you’re not going to be happy or make a goof of yourself.

**What’s something you hate?**

I hate raisins. Hate ’em. My mom used to tell me when I was little they were candy, and she would just feed them to me. Now I can’t stand them.

**What’s something you can’t get enough of?**

Sleep? Fun? Beer?

**Anything else you’d like to add?**

I did forget one of my more recent vices. It’s this game called Dolphin Olympics … it’s really lame, but I’ve become addicted to it since I saw someone playing in class.

__Greg and I exit through separate doors on our way out of Lodge 1, but I manage to look over just as he is raucously greeting a friend who is giving a tour. He hugs her, and teases her good-naturedly about her 21st birthday in front of all the prospectives. Smart, social and very confident, Greg provides the College with a jovial face.__

“The title is a little shocking. We’ve had to censor the name in a few publications,” Director Stacey Eunnae ’09 said of her show.

She was speaking, of course, of International Performance Arts Exchange’s newest performance, “Hello (Sex) Kitty: Mad Asian Bitch on Wheels,” which will open this Saturday night at 8 p.m. in the College of William and Mary Campus Center’s Little Theater.

Written by California playwright Denise Uyehara, the show represents the viewpoint of a bisexual Asian-American woman. A collection of nine monologues, the show covers topics ranging from a humorous ridicule of cultural stereotypes to more serious issues such as domestic violence in Asian-American communities.

“There are lots of issues that pertain to the Asian-American women,” Eunnae said. “Especially … the idea of being perceived as exotic.”

Originally performed by Uyehara in San Jose, Ca. as a one-woman show, Eunnae and co-director Eddy Hong ’09 decided to split the show into performances by five actresses, all portraying different aspects of one woman’s psyche. The show stars Bernadette Sy ’11, Kris Lim ’10, Stacey Eunnae ’09, Emmy Fritz-Krocko ’09 and Ashley Dequilla ’09.

Hong said he was surprised by the productivity in co-directing the show.

“It’s been one of the greatest things with the show,” he said. “Usually when co-directing you see a conflict of vision.”

Eunnae and Hong decided on the show after theater professor and IPAX faculty adviser Francis Tanglao-Aguas presented them with the script. Uyehara served as Tanglao-Aguas’s mentor while he attended school at the University of California — Los Angeles.

“She came to give a workshop in Asian American performance, [and] showed me how the individual has the power to tell the story of so many,” Tanglao-Aguas said. “I know the IPAX cast and crew will make this a wonderful tribute to a brave and daring artist such as [she].”

Tanglao-Aguas founded IPAX two years ago with Hong as a group through which they could bring plays emphasizing diversity in the theatrical sphere to the College community. They have since performed plays dealing with various topics including African-American issues, Palistinian issues and the 1984 Los Angeles race riots.

Hello (Sex) Kitty is the first IPAX show to deal with issues relating solely to the Asian-American woman.
Eunnae said she was both shocked and fascinated by the script the first time she read it. She decided to bring the show to campus.

“Before this, I had never really done anything with theater,” she said. “I’d never acted, never directed … When I read this script, though, it overrode any stagefright I might have. I knew I had to bring it to William and Mary.

She said it was important to give Asian-American women a public voice.

“There are lots of Asian-American women on this campus who go to school as a minority,” Eunnae said. “If you don’t see people who look like you in positions of authority and grandeur, it can do a lot against your self esteem.”

After interest meetings and casting, which occured early in the semester, Eunnae held a sexuality workshop for the entirely Asian-American female cast. During the workshop, they examined cultural stereotypes and noted factors such as the top five images to appear on Google for “Asian woman.” While Eunnae had held a similar seminar the previous year, this was the first time she allowed those outside the racial and gender lines to attend.

According to Eunnae, the workshop fostered a closer cast.

“When you’re talking about sexuality, you get to know a lot of things about people,” she said. “We were all honest and open and had to acknowledge our different backgrounds.”

Hong agreed.

“We did talk about a lot of very personal issues. To make the show work, you have to feel in some ways you can relate,” he said. “In some cases this was more difficult because some had never experienced these issues. This is where the play got personal.”

The show will donate part of its proceeds to the Williamsburg AIDS Network. This will mark the first time IPAX has included a philanthropic side.

Eunnae said that as a women’s studies major, she was used to discussing such key gender ideas, and she wanted to expand the dialogue to the rest of campus and also contribute to the Williamsburg community. Because the play deals with sexual issues, she thought the Williamsburg AIDS network would be an appropriate beneficiary.

“We also considered Avalon [Women’s Shelter]” she said. “The Williamsburg AIDS network receives much less attention, though.”

Hello (Sex) Kitty will be performed Saturday in the Little Theater and Thursday in Ewell Theater at 8 p.m. Tickets cost $5 and may be purchased in the Sadler Center Lobby and at the door.

Meet Penny: She’s a 1963 New York City waitress at a dive called “Gary’s Grub,” and she wants to be an actress.

That’s pretty much the plot of “Penny Becomes an Actress,” a one-act, one-night-only musical that showed last night in Phi Beta Kappa Memorial Hall’s lab theater.

Ok, so a musical about wanting to be an actress is kind of cliché, but writer Beth Fagan ’11, who plays the titular character, said that was her aim.

“It’s just a big ball of fluff. This is not my opus by any means. It’s just a good time,” Fagan said. “My aim in it was to have a good time and to kind of play off all the musical theater cliches and just have fun.”

Fagan keeps up her cheeriness under the stress of performing. During a rehearsal Wednesday night, she broke character to joke about a scene in which she has to change shoes multiple times.

“I feel like Mr. Rogers,” she said, ripping off one pair of heels and slipping on another.

The idea for ‘Penny’ came from Fagan’s voice lessons with theater professor Gary Green.

“We kept singing all these songs for no purpose. And he kept kind of making jokes about how, ‘Oh, we’ll just put that in the cabaret.’ And I was like, ‘Oh yeah, ha ha, the cabaret,’” she said. “Then one day it became apparent that he was actually being serious.”

‘Penny’ consists of 10 songs strung together with a loose plot.

“I’m a waitress who’s trying to become an actress, so I sing songs about waiting tables; I sing songs about trying to be an actress; and I sing songs about wanting to marry a barbershop quartet,” Fagan said. “There’s also a French art song in here, which is during a cigarette break with one of the guys. So it’s all very silly.”

The barbershop quartet — the rest of the cast — are played by Adam Clark ’10, Sean Close ’10, Tommy Gillespie ’09 and Joey Thomas ’10.

“They’re just four of my friends who sing, and I enlisted their help,” Fagan said.

Fagan said she and the guys, whom she referred to as ‘the quartet,’ worked well as a group. While practicing the opening scene, Fagan and the guys discussed whether the Gary’s Grub menus should start out standing up or lying on the tables.

“Hey, Gary,” Fagan said to Green, who had just walked into the room, “Menus up or down for the set? They’re really cute up.”

Green, who was busy teaching the cues to a lighting tech, glanced at the menus and said, “Yeah, up is cute,” before bustling away again.

At one point in their Wednesday night rehearsal the lighting cues were off and several of the guys were left sitting in the dark. As Green halted his piano playing to go fix the lighting, the cast began joking about the pause.

“I just got so wrapped up in Gary’s Grub world I forgot we’re in a play,” Fagan said, realizing she was standing in half-darkness.

The cast used the break to discuss whether the theater is equipped with smoke detectors, referring to the earlier scene in which Fagan and Gillespie share a cigarette by the piano. They made a few obligatory death trap observations.

“We laugh now,” Fagan said ominously.

Fortunately for them, the theater did not burn down, nor did the fire marshal make a surprise visit.

Fagan is no stranger to the stage. She played the titular role in William and Mary Theatre’s production of “Antigone” and had parts in its productions of “The Seagull” and “Reefer Madness.”

“I want to act,” she said. “It’s what I plan on.”

Despite her extensive interest and experiences in drama, Fagan is a women’s studies major. She said a women’s studies class she is currently taking, “Feminist Theory and Contemporary Theater,” somewhat influenced her production of ‘Penny,’ though Fagan said ‘Penny’ “is not a feminist piece.”

“I guess where [feminism] came into play was, from the very beginning, I knew I was going to have a problem getting myself to sing this last song Gary did, because it’s all Gershwin lyrics from back in the day, and it’s all about finding my man,” Fagan said. “There’s a lyric, ‘Where is the shepherd for this lost lamb?’ — referring to myself — which of course, I’m having a little problem with. I mean, it’s beautiful music, and it’s so fun to sing, and it’s obviously all classic, so I kind of had to figure out how to do this without doing it literally.”

Thankfully for Fagan, she decided to make it fun and not take too literal of a direction with the lyrics. After all, as Penny belts out in one of her tunes, “I’m not just a waitress, I’m a one-woman show.”