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0000017c-60f7-de77-ad7e-f3f739cf0000Arts & More airs Fridays at 7:50 a.m. and 4:20 p.m.Theme music: "Like A Beginner Again" by Dan Barry of Seas of Jupiter

K-College Alum's Play Uses Humor To Deal With Family Tragedy, Holocaust

Kalamazoo College student Grace Gilmore performing part of the 2.5 Minute Ride monologue in WMUK's Takeda performance studio
Rebecca Thiele, WMUK

Saturday night, Kalamazoo College student Grace Gilmore will perform the one woman show 2.5 Minute Ride by award winning playwright and K-College alum LisaKron.

The play flips between a day at Cedar Point amusement park with Kron’s colorful family and Kron’s visit to Auschwitz with her father. Along with several other German teens during World War II, Kron’s father lived as a refugee in the United States while his parents were sent to a ghetto and later the concentration camp. Grace Gilmore says Kron’s show is all about finding the humor even in the darkest places.

"It's really honest writing because I think that's how...you know, I don't think we all just react to an event in horror," says Gilmore. "I think we react to it in a multitude of emotions and I think she finds a really great wide range of those."

Poland_monologue.mp3
Hear a short piece of 2.5 Minute Ride performed by Grace Gilmore

The Rollercoaster Metaphor

The play is called 2.5 Minute Ride because that is the amount of time it takes to ride a certain roller coaster at Cedar Point. Gilmore says there are moments on roller coasters where you feel waves of terror and relief in such a short amounts of time and that's how we see Kron react to some of the things she sees in Auschwitz. Gilmore says Kron looks death in the face as if she's looking straight down on a roller coaster.

Challenges of a One-Woman Show

Unlike some monologues, Gilmore says she lucked out with 2.5 Minute Ride. Because the work features so many members of Kron's family, Gilmore has plenty of characters to tap into. But Gilmore says it's still a difficult show to put on - there isn't that constant feedback you get from a group performance. 

Connecting with Lisa Kron

Gilmore says performing a Kalamazoo alum's piece is a lot of pressure. The show is very personal - after all, all of the events Kron describes happened to her and her family. 

"It's interesting to be on the stage that she was on at one point, to be in spaces that she was," says Gilmore. "And to hear stories from my parents and people who graduated with her that I've been around since I was little. And kind of hearing those personal stories about her and being like, you know, she loved to improvise, she loved comedy, and kind of finding out where our styles really jive."

Grace_Gilmore_Full.mp3
Hear the full interview with Kalamazoo College student Grace Gilmore

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