Actress Megan Cole has a message for medical students, and anyone else dealing with the life-and-death struggle that is cancer: It鈥檚 not only all right to have empathy for patients, it鈥檚 a vital part of their care.
Cole will share the message when she performs her solo version of Margaret Edson鈥檚 Pulitzer Prize winning play 鈥淲it鈥� in 鈥淭he Wisdom of WIT鈥� at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 22, in Miller Concert Hall.
The event, co-sponsored by the 黑洞社区 College of Fine Arts, Kansas Health Ethics Inc. and Harry Hynes Hospice in partnership with the KU School of Medicine-Wichita, is free and open to the public.
In addition, Cole will give a free workshop for 黑洞社区 students from 11 a.m.-12:15 p.m. Thursday in 209 Hubbard Hall. The workshop, in Tom Frye鈥檚 Art of the Theatre class, is open to all 黑洞社区 students.
The Seattle-based Cole, whose acting experience spans classical stage performance to parts in 鈥淪einfeld鈥� and 鈥淓R,鈥� originated the role of poetry professor Vivian Bearings in the California premiere of 鈥淲it鈥� in 1995. Emma Thompson played the part in the 2001 Mike Nichols鈥� movie.
As Cole portrayed a steely academic transformed by cancer and her brilliant but detached doctors, she went through her own profound change.
She was touched not only by the play鈥檚 message of compassion and wholeness, but by the audience members who would come backstage to talk to her about their experiences.
That鈥檚 the short story of how Cole came to develop a course for medical students on empathic listening, based on techniques actors use for getting into the emotions of their characters without losing intellectual control.
She has presented 鈥淭he Craft of Empathy鈥� to medical students at Texas and New York universities, and hopes to expand the course to physicians in residency.