Perhaps you’ll recognize this week’s WesCelebs from “The Real Housewives of Middletown.” If you have not yet had the pleasure of watching this web series, you’ve most likely seen them in a Second Stage show, or enthusiastically lining up for Classics at Usdan brunch. It was only fitting that Sophie Elwood ’20 and Pryor Krugman ’20 would be featured together—they finish each other’s sentences and are, put simply, a hive mind. It wasn’t too much of a shock when the self-dubbed “WesCelouple” revealed their marriage pact. The Argus sat down with this “WesCelouple” to talk senior year, their time at Wesleyan, and Real Housewives of Middletown (oh yes, and that marriage pact). Our first topic of conversation? The ghost haunting their Brainerd wood frame.

Pryor Krugman: We were informed that a presence occupies the house. I believe it. We threw it a party last weekend.

Sophie Elwood: Because it was Friday the 13th.

PK: We also believe one of our housemates kind of released it. He opened the basement—we said, “Chris, don’t do that,” he opened it anyway—snakes came out and we said— 

SE: That’s the entity being released.

PK: And it was. But obviously we’re welcoming it into our family as it is hopefully welcoming us into its home. So yeah, that’s where we’re at. 

The Argus: How has the entity manifested itself besides the snakes?

SE: So there is a light on in the basement, which we don’t love. Also a lot of times things just fall, like lamps and stuff. And glasses will just like, fall off the table—like no one’s around it.

PK: The doors will sometimes just not work. If I can’t open the door, some would say, “The handle!” No. It’s the entity.

A: WesCelouple? How long has that joke existed between you two?

PK: About four days.

SE: But we’ve been planning on being co-WesCelebs since freshman year.

PK: Since freshman year, when we met and fell in love. 

A: So you’ve been friends since freshman year.

SE: Our story starts at “High School Musical” callbacks, the fall of 2016…and our friendship was solidified on the night of the 2016 elections. ’Cause you never forget who you were with the night of the 2016 election.

A: Pryor, I know you’re involved with Second Stage.

PK: Yeah, I’m a part of the Second Stage Board. But I’ve done a lot of Second Stage productions. Including “High School Musical.”

SE: [These are] the ones we’ve been in together: “High School Musical,” “Mamma Mia’s Pizzeria”…it was an unlicensed version of Mamma Mia that they placed in a pizzeria. 

PK: Looking back, the whole thing was probably as illegal as could be.

SE: And we were also in “Things I’ll Never Say” together, which was a jukebox musical with the music of Avril Lavigne. It was an original musical by a student.

PK: All Avril. Very upsettingly Avril. Intensely Avril.

A: I need to ask you about “The Real Housewives of Middletown.”

SE: So it was our web series that we did freshman year with some other friends, with Ramsey Burgess [’20], Nathan Mullen [’20], and Naomi Okada [’20]. Like everything in our friendship and in our lives, it was a bit that we really took to the extreme. And then there we were, filming a six-episode web series.

PK: Some highlights from that…how do you even describe our characters?

SE: You don’t.

PK: People will associate us as a little duo from “The Real Housewives of Middletown.” Still streaming on YouTube. So that was kind of our big claim to fame, if you will. 

A: Are there any more “Real Housewives of Middletown” episodes in the works?

SE: Not at this time.

PK: Rumors are circulating within the creative team—

SE: This is the first I’ve heard of it.

PK: You know, stay tuned. Something could happen, maybe.

SE: I can’t say there won’t be a senior year reunion.

A: So how has senior year been for both of you so far?

SE: It’s good. We were both abroad in spring, so it’s actually been really nice to be back on campus. Like, weird in a lot of ways. But I think going abroad junior spring made me sort of refreshed and excited to be back on campus, rather than dreading going back to campus. And we have a lovely house with our lovely entity. And it has been fun so far…. There hasn’t been a lot of like, senior year things. Other than like, starting to work on my thesis. But other than that, it’s been a fun time. [To Pryor] What do you think of senior year so far? Now that we’re three whole weeks in?

PK: Well, I’ve kind of gone in with this motto, if you will. And that is simply, senior year: fuck it all, fuck it up. It’s just, you know, just get through, try to graduate. You know, have fun with people. I have some bones to pick though. I have some bones to pick. Number one: Summies getting rid of the empanadas. My favorite. God, I love those empanadas.

SE: If I may snowball off of that…I would say the issue that’s nearest and dearest to our hearts is that it’s been, I think, two full years, if not more, since Usdan has had Challah at brunch.

PK: But besides those bones to pick…it’s a good time. It’s a fun time. Busy with Second Stage, which there’s another article coming out about that, that you all should read.

A: So you mentioned a thesis, Sophie. What’s your thesis about?

SE: I’m a Government major with an Education Studies minor, and I’m writing a Government thesis on the evolution of education policy in the United States. Hopefully in a few weeks, I will have a more specific answer than that. That’s the phase that we’re in right now. It’s just reading a lot of background stuff and trying to narrow in on a topic. So it’s an exciting time. It’s overwhelming, but it’s exciting.

A: What about you, Pryor? Is there a thesis involved?

PK: There is a project. So me, a sophomore, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, created a University major—which is where you combine different departments—because I was mad there was no business of theater study here. So in addition to my Gov major, I created an artistic production management major, which in itself is a bit. But for that, I basically will be, probably, for my final project, working in some capacity with the spring department show to kind of tie everything I’ve learned together. So I have to do a project and a small written component, but not a full-fledged thesis. And the details of that…I know none of. So you’ll have to circle back.

A: What was it like doing a University major? 

PK: Now that it is approved and done, it’s really cool, it’s exciting. It’s not only exciting just for the variety of classes I can take and knowing that I can shape my own studies, but…I’ve done a lot of it in the last year. Last summer, I did an internship that was very, very pertinent to what I’m trying to do. And I’m in a bunch of classes that are very pertinent to what I want to do. So that’s exciting. The process of actually creating the major, understandably, is a bit rigorous. It takes a lot of work and proposals and letters of support and sponsors. And it’s a lot to put together. And I might actually say I’m still kind of putting it together in my last year, but definitely worth it—he said confidently—no, definitely worth it. I’m excited by it.

A: So besides theater, what else are you two involved in on campus?

SE: I work at the Writing Center. I’m in the workshop this semester. I volunteer as a clinic escort. And I’m also the chapter leader of Wesleyan for Warren…. That’s been a fun process to try to start up as we are new this semester.

PK: Second Stage does take up a lot of time. That’s exciting. And then what I will be doing is, for one of my classes, we partner with a nonprofit in town. So I’ll be partnering with a performing arts center, and I’ll be shadowing—I’ll technically be sitting on their board. I don’t think I get to be a part of actual decisions. But I get to see how that happens, and I’ll do some projects for them. So that’s still theater-related, I suppose. But that’s like a separate little thing that I’ll be doing throughout the whole year for one of my classes. 

A: What is that class?

PK: It’s called “Nonprofit Boards: Theory and Practice.” You learn about the role of not only nonprofits in general, but specifically the boards of nonprofits, how they function, and then you basically go work with one. 

A: That’s cool.

PK: It is really cool. I recommend it. It’s a year-long course, 0.5 credits each semester. But really, the time commitment is not bad. You do one one-hour-and-twenty-minute class a week, have maybe one or two readings to do for that. And then you’re expected to work probably about an hour and a half to two hours a week on whatever project you have for the nonprofit. So it’s totally doable, very, very doable. Really interesting.

SE: There are a lot of classes that I think don’t get as much attention as they should, that involve getting involved in the Middletown community. Where you like, get credit for doing good stuff in the community.

PK: There’s also a lot of like, everyday skills classes that are really relevant in the Center for the Study of Public Life. Some of them count for certain majors, some of them count for certificates. But I’d recommend during pre-reg, going to look at some of those class options, because a lot of them are just useful things to know about moving into, you know, life outside of the Wesleyan bubble. 

A: You mentioned earlier that you both went abroad. Where did you go?

PK: I was in the U.K., and I chose the U.K. for my major, specifically, because there [were] specific classes that I could transfer over. And turns out, you can get pretty much anywhere from there. So I was all over the place last semester, which was really fun. I visited Sophie.

SE: So I was in Prague, which I really loved and cannot recommend enough. And I also did some traveling. I think Prague is growing in popularity as a study abroad destination. But it still feels like you’re not just surrounded by Americans all the time, which is sort of an obnoxious thing to say, but it’s kind of true. Like, it did feel like I was in a different place. I did not get to visit Pryor in London. He came to visit me and we also spent a few days in Lisbon together for our spring break, which was so fun. And that was—the time between the end of fall semester and when we went to Lisbon was the longest that we had gone without seeing each other since we met freshman year.

PK: I feel like we should—do we expose the last little bit of information?

SE: Yeah. Yeah.

PK: Would you like to?

SE: So as far as I know, we are the only, I’ll say, non-romantic couple on campus that fully intends to get married. We have a very serious marriage pact—it’s set for age 40.

PK: We wanted to have a little bit of faith in ourselves.

SE: But should the time come that we are both 40, and neither of us is in a serious, committed relationship? We’re getting married. Again, as far as I know, we’re the only ones on the campus.

PK: Yeah. That’s something special about us.

 

Sofia Khu can be reached at skhu@wesleyan.edu.