‘William Jordan Currin ‘1913 and the Great War’

The Global Studies Seminar welcomes Denison faculty members Cathy Dollard and Mark Bryan presenting ‘From the Archive to the Stage: William Jordan Currin ’13 and the Great War.”

In late summer 1914, William Jordan “Hike” Currin left his job in Cleveland and moved to Canada to join the Canadian Expeditionary Force on its way to the Western Front. While deployed, “Hike” exchanged letters with his Denison classmates. Denison’s main stage theatre production takes those letters from the archive to the stage as playwright-in-residence Jennifer Schlueter and students evoke the tedium and tragedy of the Great War. This seminar explores the transformation of the archival sources into a theatrical production.

Denison University’s Global Studies Seminars are interdisciplinary intellectual forums to discuss and debate academic and policy issues of global importance.