Photo Courtesy of Max Fees ’17 | Derby Reeves ’17 (right) and Cheney Meel (left) perform at the Battle of the Bands Feb. 10. Reeves started a band called “The Art School Wannabes” and plays at Brophy events.
By Collin McShane ’19
THE ROUNDUP
Brophy prides itself on being the “home to the sixth man,” which, in basketball terms, means it is the home of many unsung heroes.
One of these behind the scenes work horses is Derby Reeves ’17.
Nicolas Pacioni ’17, friend and fellow actor, said Reeves’ personality has grown over the time he’s known him. “He’s become a more understanding person, he’s just grown to be much more pragmatic and easy to work with,” Pacioni said.
Reeves is a long time director/contributor to Brophy Student Theater and actor in a variety of Brophy and Xavier plays. He is also the drummer and frontman of the band Art School Wannabes.
“Derby’s actions for BST have changed Brophy significantly, he really took it by the reigns,” Pacioni said. “He does so many things to just make sure these events happen like writing music for the musical, writing lines and just doing so much grunt work that is required for these projects.”
Although on paper BST seems like a pretty simple operation it is by most accounts one of hardship, long unforgiving hours, tons of grueling work, but these actors willingly face these difficulties.
“A lot goes into these shows,” Reeves said. “If you don’t see the whole operation, the tech crew, the casting, the actors, the writing, just all of it, then it’s hard to understand what really goes into these shows.”
Since the beginning of Reeves’ directing, the BST as a whole has gained much more popularity.
Friend and band mate of Reeves, Jack Arthur ’19 said that “even the Bronco Room, one of our least popular shows, was packed every single night.”
Reeves has also participated much in Brophy’s musical arts such as Battle of the Bands, Friday Night Lights, and the Fine Arts Extravaganza.
“I am in a band (that’s now known as Art School Wannabes) in which I am the drummer with Jack,” Reeves said. “We’ve performed about eight or nine different shows together with rotating members, but I would say that Jack and I are the core two.”