FAIRFIELD, Conn.—Thirteen members of Sacred Heart University’s theatre arts program—including students, faculty and alumni—performed a play written by Grace Curley ’23 at the world-famous Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland this summer. The 2023 festival boasted nearly 3,500 productions for the season.
Curley, who majored in theatre arts and English, wrote Your Children Will Follow, a play that examines the lives of four family members as they adjust to their children growing up and pursuing their own paths. “They all think they are doing the right thing—at the expense of the others. I’ve always had this play sitting in me,” Curley said, adding that the opportunity to attend the Fringe Festival presented the perfect motivation to write it.
“I’m so lucky,” Curley continued. “Every moment in my life aligned to lead me to Sacred Heart and to fall in love with playwriting. And now, taking a play of mine abroad, how wonderful is that?”
The SHU group performed the play nine times during the festival, and Curley found reassurance in the form of reviews and nominations. British Theatre Guide gave the play three stars, saying, “Grace Caroline Curley’s play shows remarkable restraint in unspooling this mess of familial issues. This is a play about people navigating the complexities of their love of each other as well as their own needs in figuring out who they are.” The prestigious Derek Awards Edinburgh declared the play “a powerful drama,” while giving it four stars and nominating it for best new writing and best overseas show awards.
“This was different from anything we’ve ever done before,” said Nick Rubano ’24, who is double majoring in theatre arts and strategic communication, public relations & advertising. He played the character Milo (a boyfriend) in Curley’s play. “When we’re performing at SHU, we have the support of our family, our friends and the rest of our program. At Fringe, we had to build our audience from the ground up. Plus, having to set up our space within five minutes every night was huge.
“Fringe is the world’s largest connection of artists,” Rubano continued. “People had the same dreams as ours, but they were also different from us. The exchange of culture and ideas with people coming to our show, then us going to see their shows, was unlike anything we’ve experienced.”
The cast and crew used marketing skills to attract their audience. Each member distributed flyers and talked up the play to build a nightly audience. “We were in the same boat with a lot of other performers, trying to get people to come to our show,” said Jordan Pita ’24, a marketing major who played the character Adam (the brother) in the play and designed the set projections. “About two hours before showtime every night, we would stand on the Royal Mile (the stretch of streets between Edinburgh Castle and Holyrood Palace and the busiest tourist area in the Old Town section of Edinburgh) and ask people to come see our show. We were very grateful to have some decent-sized crowds every night.”
When not performing, Pita wanted to see as many shows as possible. “The challenge was choosing which ones, since there were so many. We often went to see the shows of people who came to see ours. We would stumble across a production that was really incredible and probably not something we would have seen otherwise.”
“As a young performer, I found the community aspect of Fringe very exciting,” DeGennaro said. “When you see a play in New York, for instance, there is a disconnect between the audience and the performers simply because it’s on such a large scale. At Fringe, everyone is on a level playing field, and you are reliant on people who are there putting on their own shows to support you. And they need you to support them, too.
“We had so much support from each other and the school; we are so grateful to have had this opportunity,” she added. “This is an experience that very few people, and even fewer students, get. It has added immeasurably to our education at Sacred Heart. I’m still in disbelief that we were so lucky to be able to participate.”
The cast stayed after each performance to receive audience feedback. They said they were touched by the number of people who saw themselves in the story.
The cohort from SHU’s Theatre Arts Program—recently included in The Princeton Review’s 2024 list of best college theatres—was the only university-funded production from the United States presenting at Fringe. “The University is proud of our students, and we put our resources where our mouth is,” said Jerry Goehring, Sacred Heart’s executive director for performing arts.
Goehring has had the Fringe Festival in his sights since starting at SHU, but he needed to wait for the right time to send a SHU group. “The theatre department has wanted to showcase student-written pieces beyond Fairfield County for years. With the generous support of sponsors on campus, we were finally able to feature our students’ work on the international stage. The cast and crew that went to Ireland lived up to everything the University had hoped for.”
Goehring’s goal is to continue to bring student productions to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. “This puts us on the international radar of writers, performers and artists around the world,” he said.
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About Sacred Heart University
As the second-largest independent Catholic university in New England, and one of the fastest-growing private doctoral institutions in the U.S., Sacred Heart University is a national leader in shaping higher education for the 21st century. SHU offers nearly 90 undergraduate, graduate, doctoral and certificate programs on its Fairfield, Conn., campus. Sacred Heart also has a campus in Dingle, Ireland, and offers online programs. More than 10,000 students attend the University’s nine colleges and schools: Arts & Sciences; Communication, Media & the Arts; Social Work; Computer Science & Engineering; Health Professions; the Isabelle Farrington College of Education & Human Development; the Jack Welch College of Business & Technology; the Dr. Susan L. Davis, R.N., & Richard J. Henley College of Nursing; and St. Vincent’s College. Sacred Heart stands out from other Catholic institutions as it was established and led by laity. The contemporary Catholic university is rooted in the rich Catholic intellectual tradition and the liberal arts, and at the same time cultivates students to be forward thinkers who enact change—in their own lives, professions and in their communities. The Princeton Review includes SHU in its Best 389 Colleges: 2024 Edition, and Best Business Schools: 2023 Edition. Sacred Heart is home to the award-winning, NPR-affiliate station, WSHU Public Radio, a Division I athletics program and an impressive performing arts program that includes choir, band, dance and theatre. www.sacredheart.edu