Dreary math enlivened by Calculus: The Musical

    Parents of eighth grade students chatting in Clausen Hall on Thursday night, April 24, might have been taken aback by loud rapping emanating from the AHS auditorium, coupled with the sounds of cheering students. Though a faint Eminem beat was discernable within the electrified noise, the featured artists were hardly heralded Billboard artists. In fact, they were rapping about calculus.

    That ‘s right. Calculus. Matheatre’s presentation of Calculus: The Musical!, a free show attended by Fairfax County students from over eight schools, featured musical models of songs by Simon and Garfunkel, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and of course, Eminem himself, fit to lyrics associated with high school math’s pinnacle subject. Numbers (names included “Without Reimann,” the rap spoof, and “Triggy Rules”) were complete with lyrics describing some of calculus’s most important components, including the Product Rule, the Quotient Rule, and “everyone’s favorite,” L’Hopital’s Theorem.

    Calculus: The Musical! is probably the first of its kind, according to creators Sadie Bowman and Marc Gutman (also the show’s stars). The unique approach to math education caught the eyes of math teachers across the county, so the dynamic duo was commissioned by Fairfax to put on its brainchild for calculus students. Not knowing what to expect, many students attended to receive extra credit in their math classes; but, having packed the AHS auditorium, they were entertained by the show’s unique style of presenting complex principles, even if lyrics were difficult to make out. 

    “I loved the show. [The actors] were really funny and clever,” said Caitlin DiMaina, a senior at WT Woodson High School. “I have to say that I didn’t really learn that much about calculus. It wasn’t like, ‘O.K. let’s help Caitlin pull an A this quarter!’ But I really enjoyed it.”

    “At first I thought this was just going to be an opportunity to get some math extra credit, but it turned out to be a great performance,” said Jason Bethke, a senior at Woodson. “The hard work of the actors really paid off.”

    The musical was structured like a traditional calculus textbook, introducing mathematical concepts through songs and acts in a sequential order from easiest to hardest. Gutman and Bowman played history’s greatest mathematicians, and the plot developed as each actor embarked on various mathematical exploits within the guises of aged geniuses. The performance incorporated music videos and other technological components, and musical numbers were sung primarily by Gutman, accompanied by Bowman.

    “It was a new way to look at Calculus,” said senior HL Math student, Lien Vu. “I definitely enjoyed it.”

    The show had some pitfalls, including many technological difficulties that caused the action to stop and start; during some pauses, Gutman and Bowman broke the fourth wall, almost too frequently. The plot was largely underdeveloped as there was no real story, and each actor seemed to have only low-level collegiate experience with acting. Still, considering the show’s uniqueness, and the urging-on of hundreds of high school calculus students that had expected much less, these problems were easily overlooked.

    “[The musical] presented some concepts of calculus in a different and entertaining way, which some students would find helpful to improve their understanding,” said Jim Evans, IB Higher Level Math teacher at AHS who was monitoring traffic flow in the back of the auditorium, as some students decided to check out early. “Due to high ambient noise levels in the back of the auditorium, I did not hear all the lyrics clearly. But, I found the entertainment to be fun and interesting.”

    Gutman and Bowman’s journey to creating the musical is a story in itself. Gutman, by profession a high school math teacher, had been in a Minneapolis classroom for five years before he decided he needed a change of pace. As he felt he could not leave his students for another school, he decided his only legitimate excuse was to take a cross-state road trip to the Minnesota Fringe Festival with friend Bowman in order to perform Calculus: The Musical! in front of the duo’s first audience. Bowman had been the member to really push for the creation of the musical, as Gutman had already created the show’s songs as devices to help his calculus students remember key concepts.

    “The initial idea was just to do the show for as long as we could at as many festivals as we could before the money ran out,” said Gutman. “When the money ran out, I guess we thought we would just go back to our old jobs in Minnesota.”

    After Minnesota, Gutman and Bowman travelled to the Halifax Fringe Competition in Nova Scotia, where they built up a following of math teachers that spread the word about Calculus: The Musical! to other school systems. Gutman and Bowman stayed with friends and family as they tried to get their own popularity off the ground. “The first year we basically would do one show, and then a month would go by, and we would have nothing,” said Gutman. “Finally we might get another show.”

    Of course, both actor-mathematicians succeeded far beyond their initial expectations. “I’m really proud of the fact that we built the production up to the point where we have been doing it for this long,” said Bowman. “I did not expect that at all. Like, if you asked me a year ago whether or not I would still be doing this today, I would have said ‘no way’.”