Theatre Students Travel to NYC to See Alum Lupita Nyong'o in Eclipsed
Hampshire theatre students and faculty recently traveled to NYC to see alumna and Academy-Award winning actress Lupita Nyong’o perform off-Broadway in Eclipsed, which is set to have its Broadway debut in February. The group, which included students from Professor Talya Kingston’s Division III Theatre Seminar, enjoyed a performance of the sold-out run at the Public Theater.
Written by Danai Gurira, who plays Michonne on Walking Dead, Eclipsed tells the story of six women whose lives tragically intersect during political upheaval in Liberia. Nyong’o has been generating enormous praise for her performance. The New York Times said of Nyong’o, her “tremendously accomplished performance cuts to the bone.”
Nyong’o, who graduated from Hampshire in 2007, will also appear in the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Awakens. She received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 2014 for her role in 12 Years a Slave.
During the trip to New York City, the playwriting theatre students also met with three professional playwrights, Hampshire alum Chana Porter 02F (Besharet), Mashuq Deen (Draw the Circle), and Aurin Squire (To Whom It May Concern).
Professor Natalie Sowell, who served on Nyong’o Div III committee, also attended the trip. She said these experiences are important for theatre students because “they need to see live professional theatre and meet the people that do this work daily. That this is their passion and their profession is important to see. And that you can be an artist. You can make a living being an artist.”
The trip was funded through alum and television writer Sarah Goldfinger 94F’s Playwriting Practicum endowment, which helps current students experience professional theatre and meet with playwrights and screenwriters. Previously, Goldfinger’s gift funded student trips to see Splendor at Company One in Boston, MA, War Horse at the Lincoln Center Theater on Broadway, and Porgy and Bess at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, MA.
Links to Eclipsed Reviews
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