The math classroom can be a foreboding place, filled with complicated equations and concepts that require their own language to decipher. And most math students at some point in their education find themselves wondering, “How will I apply this to real life?”

“Being in the [theater arts] program is what it must be like to have spiritual faith,” says Madison Ryckman, ’11, costume designer for Top Girls, Ithaca College’s first main stage production of the season. Faith might be a good descriptor for the small family of theater students, who must rely on each other to transform each written play into an actual performance.