A group of students from Honors Freshman Colloquium traveled to Playhouse Square to watch the national tour of “Hadestown” on Saturday, Feb. 18.

Hagan Whiteleather is an Honors College staff member who teaches one of the freshman colloquium classes entitled “Welcome to Death.” With a love for musical theater and knowledge that an award-winning show was coming to town with similar themes, Whiteleather knew it would be an amazing opportunity for her students.

“Our fall semester starts off with how to have a good death,” Whiteleather said when explaining the topic of her colloquium. “The reason I chose this colloquium was because it’s a little subversive and it was kind of a taboo topic.”

Whiteleather said the class continues with themes of how to face mortality, different portrayals of death and the afterlife and how to have a satisfying or engaging life.

“Hadestown” is a Tony and Grammy award-winning musical currently traveling the United States on a national tour and playing at the Walter Kerr Theatre in New York City. The musical centers around the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, along with popular Greek gods as side characters such as Hermes, Hades, Persephone and the Fates.

The story follows Orpheus as he tries to save his love, Eurydice, from the Underworld. Simultaneously, Orpheus works on a song to fix the seasons and restore the world. “Hadestown” has several themes that surround the idea of mortality such as death itself, grief and the afterlife. The show ran at the Connor Palace at Playhouse Square from Jan. 31 until Feb. 19.

Lily Young, a freshman Honors student at Kent State, was excited to see the musical for class. She is interested in Greek mythology and has been a fan of the show since listening to an off-Broadway recording.

“I really loved it, the singing was amazing. I didn’t expect the cast to be so small. I didn’t really know exactly what to expect,” she said. “I loved how they had the band on stage.”

Young also appreciated having the experience of connecting with her class outside of designated class times.

“I hadn’t really had most of those experiences where like you can take your learning to the next level, which I feel like is what college is usually all about, you know, it’s like the big stuff,” Young said. “So it was really cool being able to you know, get really affordable tickets because I’m in this class and then being able to go see something that I already really enjoyed, but that it also ties into the class it was just a really cool opportunity.”

Whiteleather, who saw “Hadestown” on Broadway while on a trip to New York City, thought the show would be a great opportunity for her students to connect with their material on another level.

“Why I really wanted this for our class was because we talk so much about our perceptions of the afterlife,” Whiteleather said. “The Orpheus and Eurydice story, that’s hundreds of years of telling mythology of what we think happens in the underworld or in the afterlife. So, I really liked that we are getting a grander connection to how we perceive or imagine the afterlife, beyond the life that we’re living now.”

Young found it very easy to connect the musical to what she had learned in her class so far this year and enjoyed seeing topics and themes she had discussed come to life before her on stage.

“I think it worked really well,” Young said. “I think what it does pretty well is also talking about grief, which I know is what our semester is about. […] It also is the kind of devastating realization that you can’t come back from the dead. Even if you die, it’s just not possible. Even though you hope that you can see the people that you’ve lost once again, you can’t.”

Young said she was glad to see the show at a more affordable group rate. She believes Kent State should provide more opportunities like this in the future.

“I think that’s one of the most important parts about college is being able to experience such things and also because you’re in college, it’s cheaper than it’ll ever be in real life,” Young said. “One of the most important things about college is making experiences. It’s so much about learning to be an adult and being able to take cool opportunities while you’re transitioning into adulthood.”

Whiteleather also vocalized her support for outside-the-classroom experiences because the experiences add to the material being taught in class. She also spoke on other outside-the-classroom experiences she’s provided for her students in the past.

“When I was teaching this class at Iowa State University, we had an on-campus cemetery,” Whiteleather said. “We would go on a field trip and tour the cemetery together and some students had said they’d never been to a cemetery before, and their perceptions were changed.”

Lex Ogilvie is a reporter. Contact her at [email protected].