NEW YORK -- David Feldshuh, professor and artistic director of the theater department at Cornell University, presented his Pulitzer Prize-nominated play, "Miss Evers' Boys," on the stage of Uris Auditorium at Weill Cornell Medical College (WCMC) Sept. 29. The staged reading was this semester's first event in the Humanities and Medicine series at WCMC.

Feldshuh, a medical doctor and theater arts professor, personifies the wide range that the Humanities and Medicine series hopes to achieve. One hundred twenty scientists, faculty, staff and students had the opportunity not only to enjoy the performance of five highly talented actors, including Tony Award-winning Kathleen Chalfant and Seret Scott, the original Miss Evers from the Center Stage production, but also to hear about the play's genesis from playwright Feldshuh.

"Miss Evers' Boys" is based on a true historical event, the U.S. government's 1932 Tuskegee study in which black men suffering from syphilis were left untreated for years in order to study the disease. The study ran for 40 years and was discontinued only after a U.S. Senate investigation. In 1997 Feldsuh's play was made into an HBO movie, initiating a broad public debate and forcing the White House to issue an apology to the study's participants and their families.

Chronicling social ills in the arts has an illustrious history in New York City and at Cornell. Fifty years ago, Arthur Laurents' (A.B. '37) first play, "Home of the Brave" opened at Broadway's Belasco Theatre. Like "Miss Evers' Boys," the play deals with the effects of bigotry. (Laurents went on to write the books for such smash successes as "West Side Story" and "Gypsy," and recently the Cornell Council for the Arts named him the winner of its Cornell Distinguished Alumni Award.)

The purpose of the Humanities and Medicine program is to broaden the context in which illness and suffering and the patient's story are understood -- largely through an appreciation of the arts and humanities. The series started in 1999, sponsored by Debra Gillers, associate dean for academic affairs and registrar. "In an informal forum, Humanities and Medicine programs also provide a valuable opportunity for students, faculty and staff to get to know one another through their mutual interest and appreciation of disciplines other than medicine, such as literature, art, music, film, photography and theater," says Gillers. "I wanted to be able to give students more access to the richness which is part of this institution."

Presenting the arts as a means for outreach has a significant history at Cornell. Alexander Drummond, professor of speech at Cornell from 1912 to 1952, is credited with the creation of the theater department in 1934. He also created the New York State Playwriting Project as a vehicle for ferreting out local rural talent. Drummond advertised in agricultural journals for farmers who might be interested in writing plays about their lives and their communities, and assisted them with the writing and producing of these plays.

Not surprisingly a Cornell education prepares students for arts outreach. A case in point is Megan Lemley, who immediately after graduation in 2003 came to New York City to work in the New York Pops Education Department under the direction of conductor Skitch Henderson.

As a psychology and music major, Lemley spent three years with the Cornell Chorus, which was a unifying experience for her. "There are those moments when you are so much more than the sum of parts. It's enough to make you believe in anything," she says. Which is why she now helps to introduce music to children in New York City's five boroughs, providing them with free music lessons, free admission to rehearsals and concerts, and free classroom programs through the New York City Pops. At the end of each academic year, more than two dozen students are selected to perform on the Carnegie Hall stage at the New York Pops gala concert.

When Lemley is not arranging students' concert debuts she is on stage herself, singing in choruses at Avery Fisher Hall, Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall and on national television.

Brenda Tobias '97 is on assignment in New York City, reporting on Cornell's many connections and collaborations in the Big Apple. The CU in the City column appears monthly. To suggest an item for coverage, e-mail Tobias at bnp1@cornell.edu.