Janie Miller '26
Apr 25, 2025
On Friday, April 18, Kelly Dowling took a group of students to the Arena Stage in Washington D.C. to see a new play called Fake It Until You Make It. The play centers around rivals business owners, one Indigenous and one white. The show’s farcical style makes it enjoyable to everybody.
The virtues of live theater was a constant theme among attendees.
“Being patrons to shows like this is helping places like Arena Stage, places that put on smaller shows that otherwise wouldn’t have been able to be seen by the general public,” said Luct Barker ’28. “The entire show was amazing. The representation was amazing. I felt seen–I’m pretty sure most people would feel seen. It’s hilarious and I will be obsessing over this play for the next three to five years,” said Lucy Barker ’28.
Ary Small ’27 believes in the importance of live theatre. “We’re able to access many other forms of media on campus, but with Stony Batter only putting on three shows a year, it’s always good to go out and see other professional actors perform,” said Small.
Dowling agreed, saying, “I think theatre, like a lot of the entertainment industry, definitely has work to do. I listen to our students talk about what theatre they're familiar with, and in a lot of ways, it's really homogenized. So I think it's super important to kind of dig into plays that you're not familiar with and look for work that you don't actually know a lot about so that you can experience it. And maybe you'll love it, and maybe sometimes you'll hate it. I think there's value in both of those things.”
Dowling’s claim was backed by comments of Academy Award-winning alum Benicio del Toro ’85, who in a recent return to campus, said: “I think participating in entertainment in a group, having the audience response, is just such a special experience. We've become, as a culture, so independent with our screen viewing and looking at things on our phones. I hope that all of our students and community members will keep experiencing entertainment in a group and having that audience dynamic, because I think that's something really special that only performing arts can do.”
Students at Mercersburg Academy are extremely lucky to have the recurring opportunity to view live performances off campus. The school has a longstanding partnership with alum Andrew Ammerman ’68, who funds these excursions. Much like Small, Dowling, and del Toro, Ammerman believes in the importance of live theatre.
Dowling explained, “Mister Ammerman has been on the board of the Arena Stage for a very long time. He's the one who initially approached the school about donating funds to the school, specifically to attend Arena productions. And then, as scheduling got more difficult, he expanded that to any reputable D.C. theater. So every year, there's a certain amount designated, thanks to Ammerman, that we get to use to take students to DC to see theatre productions. I'm not sure the students realize that that's a former student who is not an actor. He's just a person who loves theater and believes that exposing people to theater is valuable for their kind of development. So he wants to make sure that students who are like him have the chance.”