Encore Summer 2023 Newsletter fostering and encouraging alumni engagement in performance arts and live entertainment for all elizabethtown college blue jays

The College's 120th Commencement exercises occurred on May 13, on the Dell. The senior class activity days, baccalaureate celebration, and graduation each went smoothly. President Betty Rider led the ceremony, with Milton Hershey School President Pete Gurt J.D. providing the commencement speech.

Gurt became the 10th president of Milton Hershey School in 2014, previously working in various academic administrator and leadership roles at the school including senior vice president and chief operating officer. He serves on the Commission for Accreditation for the Pennsylvania Association of Independent Schools. President Gurt resides in Hershey with his wife, Jane Gurt, a 1983 alumna of Elizabethtown College.

The complete Commencement recap is available here.

When did you graduate and what did you study?

Chris: I graduated in 1998 with a BA in Communications. We did not have a theater major when I was at Etown. There was only a minor. I attempted to try and fulfill all of those credits, but missed one because my main academic focus was television and radio. In fact, along with my friends, Anthony Bosco and Kevin Yardley, we created a television sketch comedy show called Please Laugh which ran on ECTV40 for three years when we were at Etown and then for another five years after our time there.

What did you mostly do for theatre productions?

Chris: I acted in the One-Acts and also in two mainstage productions: Fashion, or Life In New York directed by Gene Ellis, and Jesus Christ Superstar, directed by Michael Sevareid, which was the first musical to be performed in Leffler Chapel.

How has being involved with theatre impact you?

Chris: Theater has had such a positive and integral role in forming and developing my sense of self and identity. As an adopted Asian-American who attended a predominately Caucasian private Catholic school, it was really tough to find those experiences that allowed me to be me, and not just be seen as that Asian guy.

One day the few friends I had convinced me to audition for our high school’s One Act Festival. From there I was hooked. I found a place and group of people that were diverse, weird, creative, and accepting. The growth I experienced from doing theatre in high school, allowed me to understand that I needed to continue down that path in college.

Etown theater just blew my mind in terms of what theatre can be as an artform. They never did the “traditional” or “normal” theater, and if it was a “traditional” show, they were always putting fresh spins on the productions to make people think.

With Jesus Christ Superstar, which has been my favorite musical since I was in 2nd grade, Michael Sevareid found a fresh new spin that did cause a bit of controversy, but also connected with audiences because of its approach. Jesus, Judas, and the disciples, were all female identifying students, while the Priests, Herod, and Pilate, were all male identifying students. It was set in this non-descript environment, and incorporated live video and other still projections, to help put the themes of sexism classism, and greed, on full display. My time at Etown, as well as my time as the Marketing Manager at the Wilma Theater in Philadelphia, all helped show me the endless possibilities of theater.

Has theatre helped you with where you are today?

Chris: All of these experiences helped shape me into who I am today. Without my time at Etown, I would never have moved to Los Angeles and spend 3 years trying to do the “Acting” thing. Those experiences in LA, helped me become more in tune with my “director and vision” side, and once I moved back to Delaware in 2008, I divided into balancing acting with directing and have spent 12 years directing at local community theaters which have allowed me to take on traditional plays and musicals, giving fresh new approaches to them, and also non-traditional plays and musicals.

I’ve been able to bundle everything I had done in high school, Etown, New York, Los Angeles, and Delaware, and use those to become the Drama Director at Mount Pleasant High School, a local public high school in Wilmington, Delaware. With our program, we have an adult staff who mentor the actors, but also mentor the tech crew so when it comes time for the performances, the staff lets them run everything. This gives the students educational experiences in to build leadership, organizational, and problem solving skills, which they can use in their ever day life.

All of our initiatives helped our program become selected to represent Delaware in The United States of Frozen: Love is An Open Door competition. It was a competition led by Disney Theatrical, Educational Theatre Association, and Music Theatre International, affording one high school in each state the rights to perform Disney’s Frozen: the Broadway Musical before any one else, except for the tour and the production in the West End. This was the full two-act production that was seen on Broadway, and now on tour. (It wasn’t Frozen Jr.)

Our school won and we just performed to sold out houses this past March. With this production, we wanted to set out to make sure everyone knew that while this was still Frozen, it was our production of Frozen. We ended up casting two female identifying black students in the role of Elsa and Anna. We knew that going into this production that many kids would need to see those “iconic” things associated with Frozen. While we made sure to include those, we also ensured that our students had the freedom to bring their own identity to the production.

Both Anna and Elsa opted to buy wigs, which were wigs that allowed them to continue to represent their own background. They weren’t the typical blonde and red wigs, you.ve seen on Anna and Elsa. Rather, they were wigs that represented their own natural hair. I wish you could have seen the look on all the kids who came to see the show and saw an Anna and Elsa that looked like them as they have been underrepresented for so many years. Needless to say it was very successful and has shown the Wilmington, Delaware community the power of theater.

Do you have a favorite theatre memory?

Chris: My favorite theater memory at Etown was our production of Jesus Christ Superstar. I played Annas, one of the high priests, and confidant to Caiaphas.

Outside of Etown my favorite theatre memory was when we were able to bring Anthony Rapp to Mount Pleasant High School to speak to our students prior to our production of Rent: School Edition, which was a Delaware premiere.

My wife, Kimberly, and I, went to see Idina Menzel and Anthony Rapp in If/Then on Broadway. There was a Broadway Cares auction afterwards where you could bid to sing on stage with Idina and Anthony. Well we won and spent a good fifteen minutes talking to Anthony afterward.

Kim then decided to reach out to him on Facebook and they started a nice Facebook friendship. Once we knew we were doing Rent: School Edition, she decided to reach out to Anthony and see if he’d come down and talk to our students. Which he agreed to do for a small stipend and travel.

We picked him up in our CR-V, had dinner with him at Two Stones Pub in Wilmington, and then had a successful evening of history and Q&A for our students and their parents.