Ventures Summer 2019 | Page 15

NURSING IN THE LIMELIGHT Ryan Clark directs SU Theatre student Maddie Howard ’22 and Chris Roberts, retired coordinator of Stevenson’s Theatre and Media Performance program, during a rehearsal of Finding Florence. Nursing in the Limelight Two Unlikely Majors Collaborate to Portray the History and Drama of Nursing BY EMILY ROSENTHAL ’16 Oftentimes, the extraordinary academic and co- Wars, and even to today’s various nursing units. curricular experiences that shape the lives and aspi- Stevenson student actors gathered information, rations of Stevenson students are achieved through researched, and interviewed nurses for real-life collaboration. The collaboration that has grown be- accounts and histories. tween Stevenson’s Nursing and Theatre and Media “Our students were on the ground with this,” Performance programs exemplifies the power of this Clark said, adding that he and Laura Holland, approach. Together, faculty and students this spring Assistant to the Dean of the School of Humanities created something for stage that had never been and Social Sciences, who served as dramaturge, done before—the history and drama of nursing. created the narrative from there. “We served as Beginning in fall 2017, SU Theatre students editors, collaging together all this material.” portrayed patients and families in end-of-life care Student Scarlet Dare ’20 chose to research simulations to help train Nursing students. From nurses during the HIV/AIDS crisis. The production those beginnings, Ryan Clark, M.F.A., Program had special meaning for Dare, who is majoring in Coordinator and Assistant Professor of Theatre, and Nursing with a minor in Theatre. Laurel Moody, RN, Assistant Professor of Nursing, began a collaboration on a larger project. Clark created Finding Florence, a play that took the “I didn’t think that the two worlds would collide,” she said. “Last spring, when the show was announced, my jaw dropped.” audience through the history of nursing from the Dare played multiple roles, including a nurse time of Florence Nightingale, through the World caring for HIV/AIDS patients, a World War II cadet STEVENSON.EDU | 13