2008 Woodie Awards
Theater in the grand round
Zhi Xiong - The Daily Iowan
Issue date: 4/25/08 Section: Metro
Halfway through the rehearsal, Loreen Herwaldt's tissue was crumpled and damp in her fist.
Herwaldt, a UI professor of internal medicine and epidemiology, on Monday watched a dress rehearsal of the one-act play "Grand Rounds," which she co-wrote with UI family medicine Associate Professor Marcy Rosenbaum.
The play's title invokes the weekly educational meetings in which physicians, residents, and medical students hash out clinical cases.
Five spunky cancer patients, including a physician, teach a na've, bespectacled medical resident - played by UI theater student Sarah McDermott - how to interact with them and become a more compassionate doctor.
Each character details her or his experience with diagnosis and treatment, delivering some truly poignant lines about facing the possibility of death and showcasing the sometimes tortuous path to recovery. One scene includes a patient vomiting from chemotherapy, which Rosenbaum mused might induce similar reactions from the audience.
"I'm a pacifist," one character said. "I have a hard time attacking my cancer, even in my head."
Herwaldt and Rosenbaum sketched the characters based on patients they once knew. Throughout their careers, the two compiled thousands of pages of transcribed notes from speaking with dozens of cancer patients.
"Sometimes, it's hard to watch the actors become these people," Rosenbaum said.
The transcripts took shape in a string of monologues and small group interactions, but they were too much for a general audience to absorb, she said.
She and Herwaldt turned to Iowa Writers' Workshop graduate and playwright Austin Bunn, who also created the university's Patient Voice Project, a program that teaches patients to write creatively.
The play is intended to be educational - theater can be an effective teaching tool, Rosenbaum said. Students find it more "strengthening and memorable" than PowerPoint presentations, she said.
"Students come in with natural empathy skills," said Herwaldt, who had personal experience with emotional burnout. "But they start to lose it if you don't help them."
Herwaldt, a UI professor of internal medicine and epidemiology, on Monday watched a dress rehearsal of the one-act play "Grand Rounds," which she co-wrote with UI family medicine Associate Professor Marcy Rosenbaum.
The play's title invokes the weekly educational meetings in which physicians, residents, and medical students hash out clinical cases.
Five spunky cancer patients, including a physician, teach a na've, bespectacled medical resident - played by UI theater student Sarah McDermott - how to interact with them and become a more compassionate doctor.
Each character details her or his experience with diagnosis and treatment, delivering some truly poignant lines about facing the possibility of death and showcasing the sometimes tortuous path to recovery. One scene includes a patient vomiting from chemotherapy, which Rosenbaum mused might induce similar reactions from the audience.
"I'm a pacifist," one character said. "I have a hard time attacking my cancer, even in my head."
Herwaldt and Rosenbaum sketched the characters based on patients they once knew. Throughout their careers, the two compiled thousands of pages of transcribed notes from speaking with dozens of cancer patients.
"Sometimes, it's hard to watch the actors become these people," Rosenbaum said.
The transcripts took shape in a string of monologues and small group interactions, but they were too much for a general audience to absorb, she said.
She and Herwaldt turned to Iowa Writers' Workshop graduate and playwright Austin Bunn, who also created the university's Patient Voice Project, a program that teaches patients to write creatively.
The play is intended to be educational - theater can be an effective teaching tool, Rosenbaum said. Students find it more "strengthening and memorable" than PowerPoint presentations, she said.
"Students come in with natural empathy skills," said Herwaldt, who had personal experience with emotional burnout. "But they start to lose it if you don't help them."
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