Why I Was Late to Class: Too Much Volcanic Ash

Colorado College’s drama in London class is experiencing more drama than might be indicated by the syllabus.
CC has 18 students enrolled in Andrew Manley’s Drama 330 course titled “Drama Away – London,” which runs April 19 through May 12. Many students, however, were late for the start of class, stranded across the United States and Europe by the volcanic ash that disrupted air traffic throughout northern Europe.
Manley says the students are scheduled to see 20 performances – mostly plays, but some dance – while studying in London. He arrived a week before the students, and has been busy trying to exchange tickets for later performances, in hopes that the students will eventually make it to class.
And it looks as though they will. By Monday, April 26, all the students but one were expected to be in London, with the last student arriving on April 27, and only one student dropping the course.
“It isn’t the end of the world,” Manley said via cell phone from London. “There are worse things than cramming in a lot of great theater.”
One of his biggest concerns was that some students may not arrive in time to see “Jerusalem,” a new comic play that is billed as “wildly original.” Their playbill also includes the “Pirates of Penzance,” “Enron,” “Spymonkey’s Moby Dick,” and several Shakespeare plays.
“People have been really, really good about working with me, and have been willing to exchange the tickets we have for other days. They realize this is a natural disaster,” Manley said.
Manley’s hope that all the students would arrive in London by the second week of the Block seems to have been granted. And it looks like most of the students will have had plenty of experience in drama by then.