{"id":24652,"date":"2023-04-06T16:14:50","date_gmt":"2023-04-06T20:14:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/?p=24652"},"modified":"2023-04-07T13:16:48","modified_gmt":"2023-04-07T17:16:48","slug":"the-open-road-leads-alum-back-to-playhouse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/the-open-road-leads-alum-back-to-playhouse\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The Open Road\u2019 leads alum back to Playhouse"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Jay Oney \u201978<\/a> first saw \u201cThe Ingles Open Road<\/a>,\u201d he knew he had seen the series\u2019s host before.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t remember every student from 25 years ago,\u201d said the professor of theatre arts, who joined the Furman faculty in 1996 and plans to retire this spring. \u201cBut it was easy to recall Chris.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"From

From left: Chris Bainbridge \u201902, Karl Feierabend<\/span> \u201901 and Megan Prewitt Koon \u201902 in the Furman Theatre production of \u201cOur Town\u201d in November 1999.<\/p><\/div>\n

Long before he started appearing seemingly everywhere in the Southeast, taking viewers on dozens of day trips<\/a> to locations served by the Ingles Markets chain, Chris Bainbridge \u201902 was seemingly everywhere on Furman\u2019s campus. A double major in communication studies<\/a> and political science (now known as politics and international affairs<\/a>), he hosted a popular FurmanTV segment, competed in Mock Trial<\/a>, and was a member of FUSAB and the Pauper Players musical theater group. He also played what Oney described as \u201cmajor roles\u201d in Furman Theatre<\/a> productions of \u201cAntigone\u201d and \u201cOur Town\u201d in 1999.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike so many other interesting Furman students, Chris was a busy guy,\u201d said Oney, who directed \u201cOur Town.\u201d \u201cHe had a lot of stuff that he was doing, and he made time for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018A little bit of magic\u2019<\/h3>\n
\"Chris

Chris Bainbridge \u201902 (right) visits with Jay Oney \u201978, a professor of theatre arts, at the Furman Playhouse. \/ Credit: Chris Bainbridge<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThe students involved in theater at Furman are doing it because they really love it,\u201d said Bainbridge, whose \u201clong-term love affair\u201d with the stage began in high school. \u201cYou really end up forming a bond with the other students who are there working with you. There\u2019s always a little bit of magic that happens when you do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t surprised to see that he had done well,\u201d said Oney. \u201cI just thought, \u2018This is a great fellow. I wish we could have had him over here more.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

And so, the professor emailed Bainbridge, asking, \u201cWhy not visit your old friends at the Furman Playhouse?\u201d<\/p>\n

Within 20 minutes of hitting \u201csend,\u201d Oney had Bainbridge\u2019s response.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt takes a brilliant mind like Jay\u2019s to come up with an idea like this,\u201d Bainbridge said. \u201cA day at Furman is really a special outing for anyone in the region. We wanted to show what it would be like to live like a Paladin for a few hours \u2013 take an Ingles picnic out to the lake and take in the beauty of nature, and then head over to the Playhouse and take in some amazing theater.\u201d<\/p>\n

Old friends, fresh energy<\/h3>\n

On a sunny afternoon in late March, Bainbridge came back to film \u201call the quintessential beautiful Furman places,\u201d including the lake, the Bell Tower, the Rose Garden, the quad outside Johns Hall and Paladin Stadium. The highlight of the visit was the small theater building<\/a> tucked between McAlister Auditorium and North Village.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I walked back in the doors of the Playhouse, having not been in there for many years, all the memories came flooding back,\u201d Bainbridge said. \u201cThe smells, the creak of the floor under your feet, the feel of the handle on the door when you\u2019re opening it up \u2013 it\u2019s all right there. All those spirits of the theater are still floating around, and they\u2019re old friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Rehearsal

Rehearsal for “Our Tempest” at the Furman Playhouse<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThe Ingles Open Road\u201d crew visited the Playhouse during rehearsals for \u201cOur Tempest<\/a>,\u201d which runs April 11-16. The play, by Jake Brasch in partnership with The Farm Theater College Collaboration Project and sponsored in part by the Furman Humanities Center<\/a>, is directed by another alum, Caroline Davis \u201913<\/a>, a visiting lecturer in theatre arts and education. Bainbridge plans to have the segment running on local TV stations concurrently with the run of \u201cOur Tempest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even though more than 20 years have passed since \u201cOur Town,\u201d the Playhouse \u201cfeels very much the same,\u201d Bainbridge said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat energy on stage, and the attitude of having fun but still being serious about it and attempting to do your best work,\u201d he said. \u201cFor me, that\u2019s what Furman is all about \u2013 you\u2019re doing the absolute best that you can, you\u2019re trying to grow, you\u2019re trying to get better. I very much see that happening on stage for these kids just like it did for me a long time ago.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chris Bainbridge \u201902 takes TV viewers on a road trip to his alma mater and the stage he performed on more than 20 years ago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":265,"featured_media":24660,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[60,51,67,32,41,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-profiles","category-communication-studies","category-mock-trial","category-politics-and-international-affairs","category-theatre-arts","category-top-stories"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/265"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}