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Sixteen students from Oglethorpe’s theatre department, led by Director Deborah Merola, spent an enthralling weekend in New York City before classes started this January. Students were given the opportunity to see several theatrical productions on a street renowned for its stages, Broadway. Read an account by theatre major Brent Rose ’07 below.
The Lights Are Much Brighter There…
 We were a group of trendy, young jetsetters, arriving in the city on Saturday morning and leaving it the following evening. It was a short weekend in a city where time flies, but our resulting memories will last a lifetime!
Immediately after touchdown, we caught a bus to the middle of Times Square, checked into the Ameritania Hotel (located right next door to David Letterman’s studio), grabbed a slice of pizza and walked the ten blocks to Lincoln Center to catch a matinee, the first part of playwright Tom Stoppard’s newest epic, The Coast of Utopia: Voyage. The play was phenomenal, an exegesis of revolutionary philosophy in Russia shortly before the fall of Nicholas I as told through the story of Michael Bakunin, his dysfunctional but very human family and Michael’s philosophic-turned-revolutionary circle. As if the play weren’t exciting enough, afterward we were greeted by Stoppard himself and welcomed to speak with the show’s remarkable cast which included actors Ethan Hawke, Billy Crudup, Martha Plimpton and Josh Hamilton!
We were encouraged to see another play Saturday night. Mike Willis and I chose to see David Hare’s new play entitled The Vertical Hour. More than a simple story of proud-American-woman-falls-in-love-with-young-boy-only-to-meet-his-volatile-father, The Vertical Hour was an incredibly relevant study of current political thought, examining the consequences of torture, the lack of legislative and military procedure and the impossible end to an engagement in another country’s civil war. The cast was lead by Julianne Moore and Bill Nighy, who were gracious enough to speak with Mike and me after the show.
Other students attended such productions as Chorus Line, Company, Spring’s Awakening and Avenue Q, an adults-only Sesame Street.
Museums and shopping were on the agenda for Sunday afternoon. There was so much to do but so little time! Before we knew it, we found ourselves back on a plane, heading home, looking ahead to the inevitable return to school on Wednesday.
On behalf of the Oglethorpe University Playmakers, I express immense gratitude to the Oglethorpe Student Association for granting us this amazing opportunity.
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