My November Blog: “Envisioning a Master Script for Our Play”

Dear Students, Faculty, and Staff,

Earlier this month, my wife and I attended an on-campus musical theater performance by Baruch students of And Then There Was Us. This amazing two-hour production featured students from a variety of majors—international business, marketing, psychology, journalism, art administration—all of whom acted and sang with a passion no less compelling than professionals. The original music was created by Tony Award–winning artist and playwright Stew Stewart—and, get this, the show was written in collaboration with six Baruch student-playwrights as part of the Sidney Harman Writer-in-Residence Program.

There are so many dimensions of this experience that were thrilling and inspiring to me. First, this was the very first time that musical theater was incorporated into the Harman Program—the production brought together two great programs to achieve something remarkable. Second, you may be surprised to learn that the show began its life in an online course Stew taught in Spring 2021—with him actively collaborating with Baruch students in the creative process. As you can imagine, this was no ordinary online course—the profound exploratory component shows what is possible when you engage students in an inquiry-driven, experiential form of learning. Third, the show portrayed young New Yorkers experiencing their lives from a wide array of perspectives with vivid and raw emotion. Stew said it perfectly, “These students are living out their young lives on this starkly lit pandemic stage, trying to figure out what theater could mean in these overtly theatrical times. It will give off a distinctly New York vibe, simply because it consists of so many different voices crowded into one small space all trying to express what it feels like to be alive.” Finally, we often talk about taking advantage of Baruch’s location in the heart of New York City, the cultural capital of the world. Students and faculty collaborating with a Tony Award–winning playwright to create an original musical theater production seems to be a pretty compelling example.

While watching the play, I thought of the theater metaphor I used in my May blog “A Dress Rehearsal for the Future,” where I encouraged our community to adopt a fresh, exploratory mindset as if we were actors participating in a dress rehearsal for our future. I realized that the student production was a great example of the kind of adaptability and fresh mindset required to make our future shine.

Please read this month’s post, “Envisioning a Master Script for Our Play,” and join the conversation—comment, subscribe, and sign up for notifications. I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

S. David Wu
President, Baruch College