From left to right: David Henne, Maddie Perkins, Peter Gershon, Leah DeHaemer and Associate Dean Adria Marlowe celebrate the first installment of Live from Studio A. // Alexis Friedman / The Hofstra Chronicle.
The atmosphere in Studio A of the Lawrence Herbert School of Communication (LHSC) on Friday, Sept. 23, was electric as notable alumni, industry professionals, faculty and students were welcomed to the paramount production of the “Live from Studio A” speaker series.
“I think my favorite part was just kind of being there in the middle of the chaos,” said Maddie Perkins, co-producer of the series and junior television production major. “I love live television and the live stress of it.”
Rishi Rajani, the CEO of Hillman Grad Productions and the series’ first guest speaker, spoke to students and faculty about the importance of diversity in storytelling and his experiences in the film and TV industries.
“Content that reflects the diversity of our plan pushes the culture for the kinds of stories that would have meant the world to me as a kid,” Rajani told the audience in Studio A and viewers of the livestream. “That’s why I did what I did, because representation matters.”
The show doubled as not only a TED talk but also as a production for communications students to produce and crew while learning from industry experts and LHSC alumnus Adam Mancini. Mancini works as a director for NBC, and his recent directing credits include “The Today Show” and “The Evening News with Lester Holt.”
Peter Gershon, the faculty coordinating producer for “Live from Studio A” and the faculty advisor for the Hofstra Entertainment Access Television (HEAT) Network, had Mancini in his classes when he attended Hofstra. Even though Mancini was a student in Gershon’s classes, the two had never worked together on a production since the HEAT Network is only 10 years old.
“When your alums come back and they do stuff like this – I don’t know how to describe what a pleasure that is as a teacher, but it doesn’t get much better,” Gershon said.
Alongside Gershon, LHSC dean Mark Lukasiewicz, associate dean Adria Marlowe and David Henne, the director of student media engagement and content strategy, worked together to conceptualize and produce the “Live from Studio A” series.
“We recruited students representing a variety of majors within the Herbert School, who provided us with suggestions early on in the planning stage and are now spearheading various aspects of the project this semester,” Marlowe said. “Members of the faculty also contributed suggestions for the guest speakers, including professor Aashish Kumar, who put us in touch with our first guest speaker, Rishi Rajani.”
Marlowe and Henne worked alongside current students Leah DeHaemer and Maddie Perkins, the series’ student producers, to bring their vision to life in Studio A. They also brought back recent alumni to help with the production, including Eliza Moseman, Victoria Chong and Nerys Muller.
While the idea was conceptualized by Marlowe and Henne, they wanted to make sure that students were able to be involved as much as possible.
“It was a lot of figuring out their vision, how we can make it adaptable to our studios and then how we can prepare the students who have worked on HEAT shows and things like that for a show of this size,” said Perkins.
While the TED talk-style production and opportunity to work with NBC’s Mancini was a brand-new opportunity unlike anything Herbert School students had done before, Christian Miller, a senior film and television studies major who worked as the lighting operator and assistant to the engineer in chief, said, “It felt both foreign and like one of the shows we regularly work on at the HEAT Network.”
The show’s first production was “a really good crash course in taking this big idea, big vision and big blueprint that we’re given and figuring out ways to scale it down while also putting on an incredible production like we did the first time,” Perkins said.
The “Live from Studio A” series continues with sports commentator Michael Smith as the next guest speaker on Friday, Oct. 7. Another guest will be announced soon for the final show of the series this semester taking place on Nov. 18.
“I hope that people outside of the Herbert School who watch the series come away with a sense of how special this school is,” Marlowe said.
