Juan Rodriguez
contributing writer
Dominican University students are awaiting the visit of Chicago’s “Hamilton” star, Miguel Cervantes, who will be visiting on Nov.13 to talk about personal identities of race, career, disabilities and more.
“Hamilton” is a musical created by Lin-Manuel Miranda that depicts the life and journey of one of the U.S founding fathers through its use of rap and an ethnically diverse cast.
“Hamilton” quickly went on to become the current most popular Broadway show, winning 11 Tony awards, including best musical of 2016. Tickets for the show sell for up to $600.
Dallas-native, Miguel Cervantes, currently plays the role of “Hamilton” in the Chicago production. Miranda had the part in the New York original. He was personally casted by Miranda to play the part.
Nathan Payne, who worked for the Office of Student Involvement over the summer, made the suggestion to bring Cervantes to Dominican University. “I wanted to bring a Hispanic Speaker that was able to speak on overcoming adversity,” Payne said, “ Cervantes is well known in the Chicago Community and helps raise a lot of awareness to issues such as epilepsy.”
Junior Tessa ChehrehTab said, “I see Cervantes’ visit as an honor because so many people would love to see the play, so having the star visit our school is incredible.”
Theater-insider Andre Payne shared the sentiments about Cervantes coming to the DUPAC, or Dominican University Performing Arts Center.“It means so much to have an astute performer such as Miguel Cervantes come to Dominican,” Payne said, “It’s such a powerhouse of a show and its introduction of hip hop to Broadway is particularly impressive.”
Cervantes will be discussing intersecting identities of race, ethnicity, career and disabilities given that cervantes is an advocate for epilepsy cure research in the Chicago Community. One of his key points is the topic of epilepsy, which affects his young daughter.
Although Dominican student Everett Krause has not seen the show, he thinks, “It’s pretty cool that he’s coming. It’s become such a big deal now that everyone is somewhat familiar with the show.” “Hamilton” is known for casting people of different ethnicities to play white historical figures. “With all the fighting and problems going on around the world, it’s important to talk about diversity so that we can learn how to get along.” Krause.
Krause sees the show’s message as “positive and cool because it breaks stereotypes by having minorities play the roles of the founding fathers.”
“The show promotes a sense of community and diversity. I hope that Cervantes can inspire students at Dominican University,” said ChehrehTab
“Hamilton’s power lies into how this adaptation of the life of our founding [fathers] has been used to empower minorities and women,” said Payne, “It has connected a lot of people.”
Cervantes will be giving his talk on Monday, Nov. 13 at 6:30 p.m in the Lund Auditorium and the event is free boderich@my.dom.edu
rodrjuan@my.dom.edu