Northern Michigan University students and faculty pose next to a statue of Shakespeare in 2023 at the Stratford Festival in Ontario, Canada. (Journal photo by Antonio Anderson)

MARQUETTE — A week before nearly every fall semester since 1998 at Northern Michigan University, a group of undergraduate students are bused across the border to Canada.

They do this to attend multiple theater performances in Stratford, Ontario, at an event called the Stratford Festival. To get in, they must apply with a letter that is read and decided upon by the head of the English Department.

“Northern’s Stratford Festival trip — to Stratford, Ontario, Canada — which I have been co-leading every summer with NMU history professor Dr. Chet DeFonso since 2009 (excepting two COVID years), offers the very best of what we in educational circles refer to as high-impact-practices,” said head of the English Department at NMU, Dr. David Wood.

This faculty-led trip abroad comes at very little cost to the participating students. Traveling fees, tickets to the many theater performances and a couple meals a day are entirely provided by NMU. The only costs that fall upon the students are a required abroad health care plan from NMU and a passport, or other ID required, to cross the Canadian border.

“Created in 1998 by NMU Professor Emeritus Bob Dornquast, the NMU Stratford Festival Endowed Fund enables us to bring 10 students on this trip, and thereby introducing them to the joys of world-class repertory theater,” said Wood. “We study six plays together before we depart from Marquette, and then spend a week enjoying all six productions as well as two theater and wardrobe tours.”

Daily, the students keep a journal while they are in Stratford, to write their ideas and thoughts on the plays. By the end of the trip, the students will have until the end of the fall semester to produce a 15-page paper with a topic relating to one of the theater performances shown in the Stratford Festival.

“This year, the plays ranged from classics by Shakespeare (‘Twelfth Night’ and ‘Cymbeline’), Ibsen (‘Hedda Gabler’), and Dion Boucicault (‘London Assurance’); to the American musical (‘La Cage aux Folles’), and the world premiere of a play by Arthur Miller (‘Salesman in China’). The sweep of these plays is breathtaking, and watching excellent students of all majors witness this range of drama is breathtaking, too,” Wood said. “As an instructor, but also simply as a human being, watching students come alive to the possibilities of dramatic art is such a reward. I spoke today with our ‘Benefactor Bob,’ who is retired in Arizona, just to let him know how much that gift continues to matter both to me and to our NMU students. Honestly, heading up a trip like this one is hands-down the highlight of my professional year.”

Students as well find great importance in this English Department-headed trip. Some find lasting friendships, foundational college memories or even find a love of the theatrical arts. President of the student organization, Future Educators of Northern Michigan University, Claire Branding is studying to become a teacher and she discovered profound inspiration as a future educator from this trip, as well as a great many other things.

“I have loved theater all of my life. My father is a high school teacher, and as soon as I was old enough he would take me to see his students perform in the school plays,” said Branding. “After every show, I walked out of the theater absolutely awe-struck by the talent I had just witnessed. From the flashy theatrical wonder of ‘La Cage Aux Folles’ to the bone-chilling horror of ‘Hedda Gabler’, each show allowed me to walk away feeling changed, enlightened, or at the very least thoroughly entertained. Our tours allowed an inside look at the world of theater production that I had never seen before.”

Antonio Anderson can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 550. His email address is aanderson@miningjournal.net.