EVANSTON — Northwestern students and faculty alike were dismayed Wednesday afternoon to discover a barricade made mainly of desks, chairs, stolen bikes, and Norris at Night giveaway water bottles completely blocking Sheridan Road. The barricade was anywhere between six and eight feet tall and stretched from the library entrance at Deering Meadow to the Weinberg Dean’s administrative offices across Sheridan Road.

Economics major John Wood was annoyed by the barricade. “Instead of just walking along Sheridan Road from Kellogg to University Hall, I had to go around the other way. Ugh. Walking through tree-lined pathways with a view of the lakefill sucks.”

The barricade turned out to be the work of a freshman method acting class, currently rehearsing for a production of Les Misérables. They were instructed to remain in character twenty-four hours a day for a week, and on the second day, they decided to fight for the rights of the oppressed proletariat–the oppressed proletariat of Northwestern student theatre majors.

When questioned, the students building the barricade refused to explain themselves, and only continued to chant “Down with the Bourgeoisie!” and sing “Black, the night that ends at last!” in lovely four-part harmony. All the while, the theater majors would stop passersby at random and ask, “Will you join in our crusade, who will be strong and stand with me?”

Several of these students actually dropped what they were doing to stand in solidarity with the rebels at the barricade. One such student, junior Environmental Engineering major Michael Hunt, said, “I never thought I would do something like this. It’s just…something in the melody touched me, you know? Because the beating of my heart really did echo the beating of the drums. It’s interesting that–” Hunt stopped mid-sentence before rushing to the top of the barricade to declare, surprisingly on key, “My place is here, I fight with you!” to the freshmen.

Professor Benjamin Dover, who teaches the acting class, was very pleased to see his students taking method acting so seriously. “They’ve really gone above and beyond what I had expected. They got into the minds of their characters.” Professor Dover went on to suggest that all students and faculty come to see the performance of Les Misérables next Sunday in Cahn Auditorium at 2 PM. “I can see they’ve truly grown as actors through this experience, and I can’t wait to begin to workshop our upcoming show, Sweeney Todd.”