When members of the Broadway League gathered at the Millennium Broadway Hotel Times Square on Tuesday, May 15 for their annual Spring Road Conference, Fordham junior Ellen Goldberg was there to greet them.
Goldberg, a theater major at Fordham College Lincoln Center specializing in set design, spoke to roughly 100 attendees on a panel about attracting new theatergoers. As part of her appearance, she read excerpts from two blog entries she wrote in late March for Broadwayworld.com.
The posts detailed what it was like to be one of 15 students who were invited to take a peek backstage for two at the technical rehearsal of the production of Clybourne Park, which is currently playing at the Walter Kerr Theater. She was joined by the play’s producer and director.
“I thought being part of the creative process was fantastic, and Clybourne Park is one of the shows that I do theater because of, and I encourage everyone I see and meet to see it,” she said.
The production, which Goldberg described as a sort of reverse of A Raisin in the Sun, and tackles sticky issues of reverse racism. The two days she was able to spend at the tech rehearsal altered her perception of the people who work on Broadway, which she called her ultimate goal.
“I thought they’d be more like super heroes, and these crazy insane untouchable people, but they’re just normal people,” she said.
“It’s very similar to the tech rehearsals we have at Fordham, they just have a bigger budget and they have more people working on it.”
Along with Goldberg, Fordham contributors to the blog included: Anna Abowd, Jake Ahlquist, Zoe Allen, Emilie Amar Zifkin, Emily Auciello, Victoria Bausch, John Bezark, Quinn Coughlin, Jordana De La Cruz, Sarah Ford, Sierra Fox, Dan Geggatt, Megan Lang, Jenni Meador, Nora McNally, Sofia Montgomery, Lindsey Norman, Jacob Sexton, Emily Tabachuk and Andrew Watkin.
To see their blog posts, visit Broadwayworld.com.
—Patrick Verel
