Multi-talented students deliver a message of family and humanity
HOLDEN Thorp started playing guitar in high school, set up a garage band, co-founded two biotechnology companies, and wrote musicals. He is now a part-time bass player while performing his duties as executive vice chancellor for academic affairs at Washington University in St Louis.
He is known as “the cool provost.”
“Provost is very similar to being a bass player,” said Thorp during a recent trip to Shanghai. “Provost’s job is to make the whole university work while staying in the background, just like a bass player ensures the band sounds good without standing out.
“A lot of bass players become provosts.”
Thorp recently brought a student band and a musical play to Shanghai instead of talking about academy and buildings.
“I think it’s a lot more fun than watching some dry speech. People get a better idea about what the university is like,” said Thorp.
The production included “Seasons of Love” from Rent, “Put on a Happy Face” from Bye Bye Birdie, “No One Is Alone” from Into the Woods, “You Will Never Walk Alone” from Carousel, “You and Me” and other 12 classic musical clips, with styles ranging from disco, rock to Broadway.
Devised and wonderfully performed by multi-talented students and staff from the performing arts department, words like “family” and “not alone” dominate the list.
“We thought this is an interesting time — a time when our country is sending some signals that I want to push back. I want to send a message that there’s another way of seeing this world,” said Jeffery Matthew, who chose the songs and was the coordinator of acting and directing. “That message of walls is very concerning to me right now and I thought if that’s what the Washington University community brought to people. I think people are worried about it.”
Ten students majoring in science, architecture, humanity and other departments weaved an enchanting spell among the audience. On May 25, about 150 alumni attended the event at Grand Central Hotel Shanghai in Huangpu District. The performance was later staged in Beijing.
The band had spent only 30 hours together for rehearsals.
“I’m very touched and mostly impressed how well they performed. It’s amazing that they turned personal interest into a professional performance,” said Wang Weiqi, a graduate in quantitative finance.
Thorp hoped that even if they became brain surgeons, or something equally important, they would still be at the community theater. He believes that art is an important vehicle to teach the students how to interact with each other, understand different backgrounds at a time when the world was divided.
“The theme is we are a family, that even though we live in two different countries we are connected somehow,” said Hayley Emerson, who is majoring in psychiatry and wrote “We Are Not So Far Away” with her twin sister.
“We have these differences, but we are connected in so many different ways. We want to convey this meaning to everyone. We are all human and we share love, friendship and family.”
Thorp hoped that the performance would make people feel that Washington University was a place that welcomes people from all over the world, and not just for students with wealthy backgrounds.
The university is considered an elite private school with a US$62,000 fee per year.
Thorp has worked to change the idea of a wealthy enclave, successfully boosting the percentage of students from lower-income families eligible for Pell Grants from 6 percent in 2013 to 13 percent today.
Now he’s working on diversifying faculty body.
“We desperately need to increase the number of Asian or Asian-American faculty in humanity and social sciences. With 27 percent of Asian and Asian-American students, they deserve to see people in front of them who look like them,” he notes. “Across the country, we don’t have nearly enough Asian or Asian-American in the administration.”
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