Forty years ago four Miami University of Ohio acting students performed in a production of Waiting For Godot. Four decades later, those performers are reuniting for lived stage readings of the play Wednesday, March 19 at Northern Illinois University and Monday, April 21 at Miami of Ohio.
The NIU performance will be held at 7:30 p.m., March 19, free of charge, in the Music Building’s Recital Hall.
Paul Kassel, dean of the NIU College of Visual and Performing Arts initiated the project and will be joined by three of his fellow Miami of Ohio alumni. “As I look past my time as dean (Kassel plans to retire from the position at the conclusion of his second term in 2026), I’m returning to my roots as an actor and theater artist,” he said. “This reading seemed like a wonderful way to not only re-create one of the best roles of my life, but a way to reconnect to my friends within the profession.”
Kassel, who has served as dean since 2016 is a published author on the craft of acting, has edited a journal by and for actors and teachers of actors, worked on and off-Broadway and several films and television shows. He remained active in his professional career during his time in academia. He is joined in Waiting For Godot by Tony Freeman who has appeared in more than 250 plays including 24 years in The Lion King as part of Broadway, national and international tours. Eric Hissom is a playwright, actor and director based in Washington DC, and has New York credits that include a national tour of The 39 Steps and the off-Broadway production of China: The Whole Enchilada. Dion Graham played Rupert Bond on HBO’s The Wire, and has appeared in other TV series that include Madam Secretary, The Blacklist, Elementary, The Good Wife, Gossip Girl, NYPD Blue and more. He is also currently the series narrator for The First 48 on A&E.
The New York World-Telegram describes Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot: “Godot cannot be compared to any other theater work, because its purpose is so different. Two dilapidated bums fill their days as painlessly as they can. They wait for Godot, a personage who will explain their interminable insignificance, or put an end to it. They are resourceful, with quarrels and their dependence on each other, as children are. They pass the time ‘which would have passed anyway.’ A brutal man of means comes by, leading a weakling slave who does his bidding like a mechanical doll. Later on he comes back, blind, and his slave is mute, but the relationship is unchanged. Every day a child comes from the unknown Godot, and evasively puts the big arrival off until tomorrow…It is a tragic view. Yet, in performance, most of it is brilliant, bitter comedy…It is a portrait of the dogged resilience of a man’s spirit in the face of little hope.”
This live staged reading of Waiting For Godot is stage managed by Cornelia Reed, an M.F.A. acting student in the NIU School of Theatre and Dance.
Visit the NIU Arts Blog for a program with full cast and crew biographies.
