File photo. New Brandon University Professor Meryl Streep. (Vincent Luigi Molino / Google Images Commons)
(This article was written for The Quill’s April Fool’s Day edition, The Swill, and is therefore entirely fictitious in its content.)
The number of applications to Brandon University has skyrocketed since the announcement that Academy Award-winning actress Meryl Streep has joined the drama department as a sessional instructor for the 2013-14 winter term.
The 63-year-old actress has decided to take a hiatus from acting due to the lack of fulfillment that she has received from her film career.
Ms. Streep will be teaching 20:173 Theatre and Identity, as well as 20:379 Twentieth-Century American Drama.
Although registration has not begun at time of print, it is expected that both courses will be full and will have many students on waiting lists within minutes of registration, which begins on Monday, April 1st for returning students.
There have been talks among members of administration to find larger classroom settings for her two courses, including conversations about using the Healthy Living Centre gymnasium or the Westman Centennial Auditorium. However, Ms. Streep is said to have rejected the idea of enlarging the class-sizes, preferring to keep both classes under thirty students.
This will be Ms. Streep’s first time teaching as a professor. She reports that she decided to pursue a career in academia in order to regain her passion for the arts by engaging with students on the art of acting and drama.
Ms. Streep selected BU due to the small class sizes and the tight-knit community, but also in large part because she is preparing for a role in an upcoming film, where she will play a middle-aged woman living in an agrarian, mostly-religious community.
Born in Summit, New Jersey in 1949, Ms. Streep earned her Bachelor of Arts in Drama in 1971 at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York. Subsequently, she earned her Masters of Fine Arts in Drama from the Yale School of Drama in New Haven, Connecticut.
Ms. Streep has won three Academy Awards for her work in film, with recognition for Best Supporting Actress in 1979 for “Kramer vs. Kramer”, Best Actress in 1983 for “Sophie’s Choice”, and Best Actress for “The Iron Lady” in 2012.
Ms. Streep has received seventeen Academy Award nominations, in addition to twenty-seven Golden Globe nominations, winning eight Golden Globe wins. She has received more nominations for either award than any actor in the history of both respected awards.
Republished from The Swill print edition, Volume 103, Issue 27, April 2, 2013.