Last night, I had the pleasure of attending The Public Theater Presents The 24 Hour Plays®:A Bennington Alumni Tribute to Nicky Martin as a guest of Bennington and it was such a fun night. To give a little background, Bennington is a small college in Vermont that I visited last spring. You can read more about that here.
The concept of last night is that the participants had 24 hours to write, produce, stage, and perform 10-minute plays. I haven't attended this kind of theater since I was in college, so that alone was a treat. More than that though, it gave me a peek into just what makes Bennington tick. There was a palpable energy that was still so present in the alumni (some of whom graduated over 30 years ago). The identity that Bennington had then is, clearly, still alive and well.
The plays that were put on also had a nice dose of college inside jokes and ribs (Williams is a clear nemesis: noted), which made attending as a college counselor even more fun. Bennington knows it is unique. It knows that it isn't for everyone. It knows that it is for dreamers, and thinkers, and free-spirits. But I get the sense that if a person went there who was none of those things, they would still be welcomed with open arms because it isn't a place where judgement is part of the itinerary.
I saved the program not only because Peter Dinklage and Tim Daly were part of the cast (they are both alums), but because the talent I saw from the rest of the performers leads me to believe a few of them could be household names in the future.
To donate to Bennington to endow the Nicky Martin scholarship, click here.
Image
Posts
