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MINDING YOUR
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| TAKING
CENTER STAGE By Catherine Leitch |
Randolph-Macon
Woman's College, a small liberal arts school in
Lynchburg, has put a new twist on raising the
school's profile. It has gone beyond hiring a
well-known professor or creating a flashy
brochure. Instead, it's backing an off-Broadway
show. |
 artwork by Michael Goodman |
Randolph-Macon
has a 50 percent interest in a one-woman play
about its most famous graduate -- Nobel
Prize-winning author Pearl S. Buck, who earned
her degree in 1914. The college's board of
trustees invested $100,000 in the play, "All
Under Heaven," which stars Valerie Harper of
"Rhoda" TV fame. The board is hoping
the production will put the college in the
spotlight and boost enrollment. The investment
seems to be paying off. In a November review, the
New York Times called the play "a well-drawn
portrait." Better yet for Randolph-Macon,
the article mentioned the college. After
"All Under Heaven" premiered in
Lynchburg in November and hit the Big Apple a few
weeks later, national publications such as The
Washington Post, The New Yorker, Variety and
Newsday ran stories about the play. |
| When Randolph-Macon signed the
contract to back the show, it stipulated that the
college would be mentioned in the play's script.
That, together with the media coverage, has
boosted name recognition of the school.
"It's getting undreamed of publicity,"
says Kathleen Gill Bowman, president of
Randolph-Macon. "Harper mentions the college
during interviews on national television
programs." Though the college isn't receiving any proceeds from "All Under Heaven," the school held an opening gala in New York City to benefit an exchange program in honor of Buck. The event raised about $20,000, which will be used to create a student-exchange program between Randolph-Macon and Chinese institutions. Bowman says Randolph-Macon decided to fund the play to show people that Buck is an alumna of the college and that her efforts to increase understanding between Asia and America are symbolic of the school and its values. The exchange program, she says, is an extension of that. The school's investment in "All Under Heaven" doesn't end on Broadway. The production is now in Florida, with confirmed dates in November in Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale. But the most convincing results are being tallied in the college's admissions office: Applications for admission in 1999 rose 10 percent from last year. "It's always hard to determine why" the number of applications rises, Bowman says. "But we have a hunch that the publicity from the play was a factor."
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