Over Family and Friend’s Weekend earlier this month, the Boston University Stage Troupe put on a production of Grease at the Tsai Performance Center, offering visiting parents, friends, and BU students some live entertainment in the form of the classic 1950s musical. Starring in the role of Sandy was junior Morgan Cope, whose performance doubled as her debut on the Boston University stage after a hiatus from her high school theater days. So what persuaded Morgan to return to the theater, and even more, jump right back into a leading role? We asked Morgan about her life at BU, her Grease experience, and whether we can expect an encore performance in the future.
Morgan, who is originally from Doylestown, Pennsylvania, is an international relations major, minoring in public health. She’s also extremely active on campus, and has been involved with several academic organizations like the IR Review, the Boston University International Affairs Association, Diversity in Law, and the International Women’s Academy. Even with all that, Morgan still makes time to be an active member of the Greek Life community as a Panhel Delegate and sister of Alpha Epsilon Phi.
Despite her full plate of extracurricular obligations, Morgan decided she couldn’t pass up an opportunity to return to the stage and perform in a musical she’d always wanted to take part in.
“I used to do theater in high school but decided to move on from that once I came to college,” said Morgan. “I just auditioned because I kind of missed singing and acting, and I love Grease.”
After landing the lead role of Sandy, Morgan was thrown right into rehearsals, where she got to collaborate with people she might not otherwise have met on campus. While being the lead role meant time-consuming rehearsals and long hours of memorizing lines, Morgan says the whole experience was definitely worth the work.
“My experience in Grease was really exciting, and I feel like I met a lot of really interesting people that I would never have met if I didn’t do Grease. Being the lead was definitely a little stressful and the rehearsals were pretty long, but it was definitely worth it in the end.”
As far as the future of her career on the Boston University stage, Morgan says her reunion with the theatre was more of a limited time engagement.
“I don’t think I will continue doing theater at BU since this was kind of a one-time thing, just because I loved Grease so much,” said Morgan. “But I will definitely continue to come out and support the theater groups across campus!”