Feb. 25, 2018 – Students, colleagues and friends of Rodney Gilbert are gathering to celebrate his life as a Drew University professor, mentor and community leader in the arts.
Gilbert, a gifted actor and director who passed away in November, taught at Drew for nearly 20 years, mentoring students in the school’s nationally ranked Department of Theatre and Dance. Gilbert also partnered with professors Chris Ceraso and Lisa Brenner to create Advantage Arts, a program that brings high school students from Newark to Drew, where they work with college mentors to create original works and perform plays commissioned from professional writers. In addition, Gilbert founded and led Yendor Productions in Newark.
Drew’s Memorial Gathering for Rodney Gilbert will take place Feb. 25 at the Thomas H. Kean Black Box Theatre, inside the Dorothy Young Center for the Arts. It will begin at 6 p.m. and a reception will follow.
Also in honor of Gilbert, Drew is accepting donations for Advantage Arts, which continues in partnership with the Marion Bolden Center in Newark. A gift may be made online here or mailed to Drew University, Office of University Advancement, 36 Madison Ave., Madison, NJ, 07940, with a note indicating that it’s in memory of Gilbert.
A key outcome of Advantage Arts is to make college more accessible to Newark youth, with many participants earning college credit and later pursuing higher education. The program also provides Drew students with out-of-the-classroom learning experiences. For more information, please click here.
About Drew University
Drew, a Phi Beta Kappa liberal arts university, includes the College of Liberal Arts, the Drew Theological School and the Caspersen School of Graduate Studies. Drew is located on a beautiful, wooded, 186-acre campus in Madison, New Jersey, a thriving small town close to New York City. It has total enrollment of more than 2,000 students and 145 full-time faculty members, 94% of whom hold the terminal degree in their field. The Theological and Caspersen schools offer MA and PhD degrees and the College of Liberal Arts confers BA degrees in more than 30 disciplines.
Drew is dedicated to exceptional faculty mentorship, a commitment to connecting the campus with the community and a focus on experiential learning. Particularly noteworthy opportunities for undergraduates include the Charles A. Dana Research Institute for Scientists Emeriti (RISE), home of 2015 Nobel Prize Winner for Medicine and Drew Fellow William Campbell, the Drew Summer Science Institute (DSSI), the Center for Civic Engagement, New York City Semesters focusing on Wall Street, the United Nations, Contemporary Art, Theatre, Social Entrepreneurship and Communications and Media and several international semester programs. Drew also houses the Center on Religion, Culture & Conflict, the Center for Holocaust/Genocide Study and The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, an independent professional theater, as well as the United Methodist Archives and History Center and one of the country’s leading concentrations of materials on Willa Cather.
