Professor helps young actors navigate 9/11 play

“Recent Tragic Events,” the first Cave show of the year, immerses the audience into the day immediately following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, but its young cast had to make special preparations to capture the reality of the tragedy. 

Two characters in the play, Waverly and Andrew, have a blind date prepared for Sept. 12 and decide to go through with it despite the circumstances.

The play's director sought the guidance of a faculty member with personal ties to 9/11 — Michael O’Hara, the associate dean of the College of Fine Arts and a professor of theatre and dance.

O'Hara lived within an hour of New York City throughout his childhood and adolescence. It was the place he'd go on school holidays to visit museums and grab a solitary lunch.

There was no question that's where he would attend college, and O'Hara enrolled at Fordham University after graduating from high school. 

He left New York in 1983 to attend graduate school in Washington D.C., but by that time, O'Hara had created a solid network of friends—some of whom took jobs at the World Trade Center. O'Hara's network only grew as he began teaching at Ball State and his students moved to the city to pursue their careers.

The day of 9/11, O'Hara spent hours watching media coverage in a Ball State building.

"I kind of just sat there stunned, watching it all unfold," he said.

Information about friends and family trickled in slowly for several days afterward. It would take him a while to find out who made it and who hadn't. 

He still remembers how some losses affected him. 

"I was really upset for a while because I couldn't remember my roommate who had died," he said. "I couldn't see his face."

These personal stories, O'Hara's human connections to 9/11, were the things that the play's director, Andrew Dalton, wanted him to share with the cast.

“Given that most of the cast had little memory of that day, my account humanized the news event and gave them some sense of the emotions that are embedded in the script,” said O’Hara in a separate interview with the Daily News.

Amanda Walker, who plays Waverly, and Nate Shumate, who plays Andrew, were both young during the 9/11 attacks.

“Making a strong connection to it wasn’t necessarily difficult, but it was gut-wrenching and emotional,” said Shumate, a sophomore acting major.

O’Hara described sharing his experience with the students as “the closest I’ll ever come to giving birth.”

He said that he recognizes the value of assisting these students, but the process became emotional at times.

“I tend to forget that there are painful part until I’m in the middle of telling it, and then the tears come,” he said. “It takes a bit out of you, but it’s a bit that gets stronger and better each time it’s given away.”

In the play, Waverly and Andrew engage in an “existential debate on choice and free will and how much freedom we really have to make our own choices,” said Dalton, a senior theatre directing major.

He explained that the show delves into the causality of 9/11 and the ways that different people experienced that day in regards to their individual life experiences and perceptions.

Dalton said he has been grateful for the trust placed in him as a student to direct a production about “something as delicate as Sept. 11."

Walker noted the emotional toll this show could take on their audience.

“It’s hard because you don’t want to bring up those terrible feelings of mourning, confusion and chaos again, but you also don’t want them to forget,” said Walker. “I want people to see this as a tribute to all of the lives that were lost and the time of tragedy that our country went through.”

O'Hara won't forget. He visits New York City every year. He goes to watch Broadway shows, of course, but he also reconnects with friends and family. His network is still strong.

On his last visit, O'Hara visited Ground Zero for the first time. He and his wife spent five hours there, weeping most of way through. 

The 9/11 museum impressed O'Hara. It focused on the people affected by the attack, he said.

"And that’s what that day is for me," he said. "It’s about the people I know and loved and cared about.

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