Muhlenberg College’s theatre program can be summed up in one word: AND. You can read about why on their website . It’s a mission statement that’s actually worth a read. Seriously!

It’s one of the few mission statements I’ve read that really takes an expressive stab at what it means to educate students in the arts. Here’s my favorite part:

And is synergy: theatre and dance, Broadway and avant-garde, action and theory, principle and practice, jazz hands and pathos. It’s finding the whole that exceeds the sum. It’s making connections.

This Festival is about synergy, don’t you think?

Director and professor Troy Dwyer is a Plays for Presidents veteran, having directed a very successful production of 43 Plays… several years ago for Theatre Outlet in Allentown, PA. We’re glad he can direct the show again with his students at Muhlenberg.

For the video project, Muhlenberg has chosen Pennsylvania’s son: James Buchanan, otherwise known as “the bachelor president.” Buchanan was probably our first gay commander-in-chief. Andrew Jackson, nasty bully that he was, referred to Buchanan and the man he lived with for 15 years, Rufus King, as “Miss Nancy and Aunt Fancy.”  And many referred to them behind their backs as “Buchanan and his wife.” Before Buchanan assumed office,  King died, making the mourning Buchanan the truly solitary “bachelor” President he would be until his death.

A singularly interesting President will be highlighted by a theatre deparment with a singularly interesting mission. Welcome aboard, Muhlenberg.