For the past few weeks, it has gotten worse. Whether they were on the bus going to class, eating at campus dining facilities or waiting at the post office, the stares, photographs, questions and whispers always follow. They may not have five siblings, own a magical joke shop or go to school at Hogwarts, but that doesn't stop people from confusing Ball State University sophomores Christopher and Justin Swader as "the Weasley twins" from "Harry Potter."
The identical twins from Evansville have been dealing with their famous doubles since the seventh grade. However, since neither of them read any "Harry Potter" books, they didn't understand the connection at first.
"It took us a while to understand," Christopher said. "People kept calling us ‘Fred' and ‘George,' but now we're used to it."
The recent increase of stares might be caused by the Facebook phenomenon of "Doppelgänger Month," in which users change their profile pictures to their celebrity look-a-likes.
Christopher and Justin decided against the photo change.
"Our friends told us to change our picture to each other's," Justin said. "But we didn't go through with it."
Double Similarities
Red-haired twins Fred and George Weasley are the brothers of Ron Weasley and are some of Harry Potter's best friends at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" series. They are never separated, and whenever they appear together, it always leads to mischief.
Theatre design and technology majors Christopher and Justin are usually seen together because of their accidentally identical class schedules, but it wasn't always the case. In high school, it was rare that they had a class together, and at one point they surprised a teacher.
"We did have one teacher in high school who kept thinking we were the same person until sophomore year," Justin said. "We were standing next to each other in the salad bar line, and our teacher was across from us. He gave us a funny look and said, ‘Oh, I didn't know there were two of you!'"
They also admit that sometimes they too can be mischievous like the Weasleys.
"Sometimes?" Beth Turcotte, associate professor of theatre, said. "Oh my mercy, they are the jokester twins!"
Justin and Christopher are known for making prank calls and leaving jokes, funny notes and signs for their friends.
"If they had brown hair or blonde hair, you wouldn't even notice them," Turcotte said. "But it's that bright red hair and that Harry Potter [similarity] that makes them stand out."
Turcotte first met them last year when she taught a freshman experience class for the theatre department. When she asked the class about their goals and dreams, she was intrigued when the twins said they wanted to write a musical.
"It's great when teachers are inspired by their students," she said.
The twins' dream evolved into an immersive learning project with a group of other theatre students, supported by a grant from the Virginia B. Ball Center led by Turcotte. They are adapting the book, "A Circus in Winter" by Cathy Day, into a musical that may be performed at Ball State next year.
"Our goal is to go to Broadway," Justin said. "It could take seven or 10 years, but we are working until we get there."
Great Minds Think Alike
This isn't the first time Christopher and Justin have worked on a project together.
Last year, the twins worked on an unrealized design project at the American College Theatre Festival. The duo randomly selected one of the five topics – which happened to be about twins – and won first place.
"People always ask us how we can work on things together, but to us it just makes sense," Justin said.
Even though they are twins with similar interests and have their celebrity look-a-likes, Turcotte sees them as two individuals with different goals connected to each other.
"They create magic; they don't have a magic shop," she said.
When thinking of ideas for the set of the Ball State production of "God's Ear," they read the script separately, but when they came together, they realized that they both wanted a lot of clouds for the set.
"I don't think we have a psychic connection or anything," Christopher said. "People have asked ‘If I pinch you, will he feel it?' No, that's never going to happen."
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