Theater Students Break a Leg for the Inauguration

By: Nouran Allam
@nouranmallam

A group of students from the theater department took the Malak Gabr stage on October 16, to perform a collection of classical and cotemporary monologues as part of the pre-inaugural events taking place across campus.

The students performed seminal pieces by authors ranging from Shakespeare to Tom Stoppard to Nina Shengold in the presence of AUC’s newly appointed President Francis Ricciardone.

“The preparations for the monologues took place since day one of the Fall semester. The monologues were chosen to challenge each and every one of us,” said Bassem El Kahki, one of the performing students.

Kahki, as well as the rest of the performers, had previous experience on the AUC stage, taking part in productions such as Tartuffe and The Crucible.

“Choosing our monologues was the hardest part because we didn’t want a [particular] theme. We wanted to showcase a snapshot and tell a little story with every monologue,” said Jason Will, Adjunct Faculty at the Department of the Arts, and director of the showcase.

At the end, however, the performers came together, joined by Professor Mahmoud El Lozy, to perform a group piece for President Ricciardone.

“Us getting together on stage was improvised; what you saw today was improvised,” another performer Sara El Shazly told The Caravan.

El Shazly said: “I was only a student at AUC when Lisa Anderson was president, but I distinctly remember professors saying that presidents weren’t very interested in the theater world so to have one that shows interest is major news to us.”