Pride and Prejudice at Gonzaga

So I'm under the weather, wondering if it's H1N1, or R2D2, or whatever it's called.

But my wife gets tickets to Pride and Prejudice put on by students at Gonzaga.

Just great. I'm sick and I've got to sit through a chick-flick (well, a chick-play) put on by a bunch of Bulldogs. I envision a high-school-like auditorium, missed lines, amateur stage settings, achy eyes and a low fever on the rise.

Nothing of the sort. I was totally impressed by the performance.

Not a single missed line in a complicated and sophisticated production. The Magnuson Theater was intimate, featuring a peninsula plan with three-quarter-round seating. We were so close to the actors you could reach out and touch them, which I refrained from doing. The lighting was an integral part of the production, woven into the fabric of the scenes.

The young lady who played Elizabeth could easily be a convincing understudy at Ashland or Stratford.

And Mr Collins -- played by a freshman -- will for me be one of the few performances I've seen anywhere (the gestures, the comport of the character, the depth of psychology conveyed) seared into my memory for years to come. Kudos.

He deserved an Oscar or Emmy (I don't know the difference) much more than some deserve Nobels.

The whole thing re-vitalized my sagging confidence in undergraduate education. This was not sham mediocrity passed off as "learning."

This was true excellence.

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Philippians 4.8 ... Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right. Think about things that are pure and lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.