Experiential Learning in Theatre: Harold Pinter’s Old Times and Memory

Video produced by Ryan Broussard, Graduate Assistant in the Office of the Dean of the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences.

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For months, students in Wake Forest’s Theatre Department have been reflecting on memories: what they are, how they show up in daily life, and what it means for one’s memory to be distorted by the present.

In Harold Pinter’s Old Times, directed by Dr. Cindy Gendrich, Professor of Theatre, students engage with these themes in a way that extends far beyond memorizing lines and rehearsing choreography. As a psychology major with minors in neuroscience and theatre, Assistant Director Nancy Huang (’27) invites the whole team — from the cast members to the stage crew — to explore the play from an interdisciplinary approach, bridging research with the embodied experience of bringing a character to life on stage. The result is a powerful production that connects classroom learning with real, lived experience.