Left to right: Erin Wilson, Liam Gay, Madelyn Thomas

Words - Erin Wilson

For over 90 years, Purdue Musical Organizations has served as an outlet for the arts at a primarily STEM-focused university, but artistic opportunities abound on campus. You just need to know where to look.

This past spring, Purdue Theatre staged a production of Bright Star, a musical written by Edie Brickell and Steve Martin, that tells the story of Alice Murphy and how her life changed forever when she got pregnant at 16. It explores themes of success, failure, love, and loss. Three PMO students were cast in the production - Liam Gay (Purdue Varsity Glee Club), Madelyn Thomas (Heart & Soul), and Erin Wilson (Purduettes).

While Bright Star allowed all its actors to engage with different types of music and a whole new community, the show served as an opportunity for people in STEM majors to engage further with the arts. In Madelyn Thomas’ case, participating in PMO and Purdue Theatre allowed her to explore creativity, emotional expression, and storytelling in ways that complement the analytical and problem-solving skills in cybersecurity, her major.

“Through the arts, I have discovered new avenues for innovation and critical thinking, while my technical background has provided me with a framework for understanding the technical aspects of production and performance,” Thomas said. “Overall, engaging with the arts while majoring in [cybersecurity] has allowed me to cultivate a more well-rounded perspective, emphasizing the interconnectedness of STEM and the arts.”

The opportunity to explore all sorts of interests, related or not to a student’s chosen academic focus, is all part of the college experience and beyond - something that Purdue Theatre Chair Rich Dionne champions in his department.

“We can be so eager to prepare students for their future that we push them to make hard choices: to study the thing that will get them a high paying job, to cut out activities that don’t directly lead to a career path,” Dionne said. “But human beings are large; we have the capacity to, as Walt Whitman once said, contain multitudes, to be engineers and singers, dancers and physicists. The students I talk to who make space for both in their lives say they are more fulfilled, and I am glad that Purdue Theatre can provide an avenue for that to happen.”

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To learn about upcoming performances and more, visit purdue.edu/theatre