At Denison University, most productions take place under the stage lights of the Eisner Center. Nora Cashman ’25 staged her latest play somewhere more unexpected — the parking lot.
The unconventional choice of venue wasn’t born out of necessity; Denison’s first theatre arts building, Ace Morgan Studio Theatre, once stood on the site. Cashman’s play pays tribute to the friendship between Leroy “Ace” Morgan ’42 and Hal Holbrook ’48, a relationship she discovered in a digital humanities class.
While doing research during her junior year, Cashman stumbled upon a three-page letter written by Holbrook in 1956. Titled, “In Appreciation of Ace Morgan,” it offered vivid glimpses into college life, which Cashman found paralleled her own friendships and experiences at Denison almost 80 years later.
The letter painted snapshots of the authentic college life of student artists. Cashman — who has been an assistant director, stage technician, and theatre fellow at Denison — was struck by how familiar it all felt.
“We perhaps think people our age back then were more mature or more reserved,” she says. “That’s not true, they were the same people.”
From that emotional resonance, About My Friend, or the Parking Lot Play took shape — a blend of memory and imagination, building a bridge between generations of Denison theatre students.
The play took nearly a year to bring to life. Cashman immersed herself in research and made repeated visits to the Denison Archives, where she uncovered a trove of information about Morgan, Holbrook, and their theatre professor, Ed Wright.
The result is a production that blends fragments of Denison’s theatrical past with Cashman’s own memories — moments with friends, shared creativity, and the emotional landscape of student life.
Cashman says her play is dedicated to young theater artists, friends, and their commitment to the act of creation.
Though the play marks the final chapter of Cashman’s undergraduate journey, she doesn’t see it as hers alone. She is quick to point out the community at Denison that contributed to its making, from the professors who guided her vision to the staff who provided support, and all the student actors who bring the story to life. “It’s a labor of love for so many people,” she says.
She envisions a future rooted in the same passion that has guided her at Denison.
“I want to keep theatre a part of my life no matter what.”
