Northwestern’s incoming first-year class to receive free ‘Hamilton’ tickets

College Majors Musical Theater Major
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Clearly our kids graduated too soon. :slight_smile: But seriously, I think this is a great way to – among other things – help build future MT audiences by showing a large group of tomorrow’s leaders how excting and relevant live theatre can be.

All of Northwestern’s incoming first-year class to receive free ‘Hamilton’ tickets

May 23, 2017

The entire incoming first-year class will receive free tickets to see “Hamilton” in Chicago as part of Northwestern’s One Book One Northwestern program, the University announced Tuesday.

According to a news release, the class — which has approximately 1,900 students — will be split in half to attend two showings of the musical. The first half will attend a matinee performance Oct. 4 and the second half will attend a matinee Oct. 11, the release said.

“We felt that the chance for our students to see ‘Hamilton,’ which also considers the issues raised in ‘Our Declaration,’ presented a unique opportunity,” history Prof. Geraldo Cadava, faculty chair of the 2017-18 One Book Steering Committee, said in the release. “Both the book and the play have injected new perspectives into the study of the American Revolution, and both unquestionably will challenge and engage our students.”
Written and composed by Lin-Manuel Miranda, the award-winning musical combines hip-hop music, dance and dynamic storytelling to narrate the life of Alexander Hamilton, one of America’s founding fathers.
According to the release, all students in the incoming class will receive a copy of “Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality” by Danielle Allen. The book re-examines the Declaration of Independence and argues that liberty and equality are interdependent, the release said.
“Every year the One Book program provides the Northwestern community, especially students who are new to campus that fall, an opportunity to join in a shared experience,” said Nancy Cunniff, director of the One Book program, said in the release. “I’m confident that next fall’s experience will be one those students will remember.”

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Great deal. That cast is AH-MAZING!!!

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As I said in the discussion of this in the Hamilton thread in the café, whomever wrote that email/article should have eliminated the word ‘free’ from the title and article. When students are paying ~$72,000/yr at Northwestern, tickets clearly aren’t free. :slight_smile:

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Point taken, but the tuition would be the same without the tickets and, in my experience, NU’s financial aid is extremely generous for those with demonstrated finacial need. Plus it’s nice to see this money directed towards the Arts instead of athletics for a change.

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@alwaysamom

There’s nothing wrong with the usage. It’s just a matter of perspective. Arguably nothing is free if you really nitpick; in that case, you would not use that word for anything.

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My point is that it is superfluous. If the class is receiving tickets, they obviously are not being asked to pay for them. There is no need to include the word free.

My comment about the tuition was really just an aside. Sorry that it seems that I hit a nerve with NU folks.

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Didn’t really hit a nerve with me… in fact when I initially read the headline I laughingly internally switched the ‘’ from ‘Hamilton’ to ‘Free’, so clearly great minds think alike. :wink:

That said, I’m more excited about 1900 freshman students seeing Hamilton than renting Six Flags or seeing yet another game (which they will probably also do).

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My S is excited to see it :)!

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I like to use ‘included’ rather than ‘free’ when talking about tickets, concerts, movies, etc. my kids get with their student ID’s. Admission to football games is included with their student fees Concerts on campus are included.

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Trust me. Someone out of the 1900 admitted is bound to ask if the tickets are free or not if the word “free” wasn’t included. Doesn’t matter what other synonyms were used in its place