Students serving in and affiliated with the military came together on March 6th to watch the opening night of A Few Good Men at Tower Fine Arts, with a special reception hosted by Transfer and Veteran Programs before the curtains parted.
Students and faculty came together for the reception with food, drinks and speeches from veterans about the importance of the play and honoring those who have and still serve in the forces.
Chair of the Department of Theater and Music Studies Ruth Childs emphasized how important events like these are for SUNY Brockport.
“Military students are a really important part of our campus community and the community at large. This is just a way to honor that and so they can all come together and connect at a social event,” Childs said.
A Few Good Men is a play by Aaron Sorkin, first produced on Broadway by David Brown in 1989. It tells the story of military lawyers at a court-martial who uncover a high-level conspiracy while defending their clients, two United States Marines accused of murder.
The military focus of this play in particular made its key part of involving active military and veterans in the arts. Ticket giveaways to show appreciation for their service was one way they helped recognize the military personnel at the event. This also helped military students get a taste of the arts that they might not have the opportunity to get in their individual programs.
“Theaters are a really important piece of liberal arts education, the goal was to purchase a certain number of tickets that we could give away for free to military – affiliated students. We were able to give away all 50 tickets, which is amazing,” Childs said.
The Department for Theater and Music has collaborated with the Academic Success Center to make this event happen. Transfer and Veteran programming Coordinator Matt Wilson was at the helm of this collaboration.
“Military affiliates, as in siblings or wives or husbands of people who serve, sometimes they feel that they still go through a regular process of being a college student, it’s easier for them to identify as this and do normal things,” Wilson said.
The organizations at SUNY Brockport responsibly for this collaboration wanted to emphasize that military affiliated students are valued and that they deserve to have a student life just like any other student.
“My goal was to say ‘Hey, listen, we appreciate your service. You belong at Brockport college and I want to make sure that you feel comfortable in this environment,’” Wilson said.
As for the play itself, the students performing in the play were all united by their collective love for the craft of theater. Tyler Dredd played the roles of Santiago and Judge Randolph was one the students excited about combining the concepts of military and performing arts.
“I’ve been wanting to do a show for the longest time, and why not? I feel like a lot of the play, the veterans might be able to relate back to it, in terms of military court cases. You don’t get much of that action usually in life,” Dredd said.
Those who wish to be a part of future projects honoring those in the community are encouraged to go to open auditions and attend the next plays to hit the Tower Main Stage.
