Wednesday night the University hosted “The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace” at Kobacker Hall. The musical included the University Choral Society, members of the BGSU Wind Symphony and members from the Toledo Symphony Orchestra.

“The musical for tonight is a powerful and compelling account into the descent into and the consequences of war,” said Jacob Hoverman, a sophomore and part of the University Choral Society.

Before the show began, the theater began to fill up with more and more people. They waited for the performers to get ready, some even waving to loved ones on stage.

“For this musical, I am expecting to see chorus with an orchestra compliment and visual images on the screen,” said Melody Griffith, a senior.

The musical consisted of 13 pieces and each one had its own story. While the participants were performing each piece, a large screen above projected video clips from past wars and war related issues.

The video clips showed men and women marching in single file lines, images of military bases, soldiers handling weapons, military trucks and more.

A few of the scenes could even be thought of as disturbing, since some included small children in military stance and uniforms.

“I really enjoyed how there were recorded videos and images, it made the show even more powerful than I expected it to be,” said Megan Schwartz, a junior.

Each piece that was performed had a lot of strong feelings linked with it, according to Schwartz.

“While watching the show I could tell the performers had a lot of emotion in what they were playing. The music was loud and powerful to get the meaning across, yet some pieces became more subtle,” Scwartz said.

The video clips matched each piece that was being played. If there was a clip of a bomb going off, then the drums would pound very hard, which connected back to what the musical was all about: war.

“We have been preparing for this musical all semester. We rehearsed for two hours once a week,” said Erin Lewis, a sophomore and member of the University Choral Society.

“With the film and the chorus, everything [came] together. There’s a lot of different takeaways you can have so you should take some personal reflection to figure out what exactly it means to you,” Lewis said.

Hoverman agreed with Lewis.

“I would like people to leave the musical with a mindset of peace and have an open mind for peace around the world, even though it’s not really achievable in some aspects,” Hoverman said. “We want to show the horrible aspects of war for them to think about.”