"Katrina Hits the Stage"
Nick Marinello
mr4@tulane.edu


In the 1950s, Marlon Brando introduced the nation to the Louisiana Napoleonic Code during a monologue in A Streetcar Named Desire. Forty years later, in the Pelican Brief, Julia Roberts convinced the world that a brilliant Tulane law student could unravel the motive behind the assassination of two Supreme Court justices. In an upcoming theatrical production that will take place on campus, first-year law student Mary Nagle may not be aiming so high, but she and a group of law students who will be staging a production of Katrina stories are aiming deep.

"There needs to be a way for us to communicate with each other what we've all been through," says Nagle, who is collecting Hurricane Katrina stories from members of the Tulane law school community. With the help of Otis Towns and Morgan Williams, she is stitching these stories into a script that she says will remain factual and document what the contributors experienced. Fellow student Lauren Checki will direct.

Nagle, Towns and Williams are regularly meeting on the script in their city of exile, Washington, D.C. Nagle says the idea was hatched during a conversation she had weeks ago with Tulane law professor Oliver Houck, who was visiting the nation's capital. "We were talking about student morale and how everyone has experienced some kind of loss," she recalls. "And I said that doing a play about it would be awesome." Houck agreed.

Nagle has since been in touch with Tondra Netherton, assistant dean of students, and the Tulane Student Bar Association and has received their support and advice. She says her group hopes to have something ready for one free performance in the early part of the spring semester. They will rely on student actors. "We have a lot of students who are interested in performing," she says. "You don't have to be a Broadway actress for this."

Nagle, who has solicited stories through an e-mail to law school students, faculty and staff, says it's important to have input from across the school's community.

"I'd like to give voice to the entire community," she says. "I really want it to be an opportunity for students to understand what the faculty went through. We sometimes forget that they have families and homes."

Nagle says she already has a commitment from Larry Ponoroff, law school dean, to share some of his stories. She's also thinking about working in some remarks the dean delivered to first-year students even as Katrina lurked in the Gulf of Mexico. "He joked that at least we would have the third floor of the library," she says. Any member of the Tulane law school community who wants to contribute stories should contact Mary Nagle at mnagle@tulane.edu.

 
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December 14, 2005