Streep, Pauley to attract full crowd Friday

Fontaine Syer canceled her Friday afternoon class — but not because she had to.

The associate professor of acting and directing said many of her students were planning to skip, all to wait in a standby line at 2:30 p.m. outside the IU Auditorium for “An Evening of Conversation with Jane Pauley and Meryl Streep.”

“They will all be down there to be first in line,” Syer said. “I wish they had a smaller venue. I wish that Ms. Streep was coming to talk to my class.”

Tickets for the 4:30 p.m. event, which were given out for free at the IU Auditorium box office Nov. 1, were gone the following day. The public may still possibly obtain a seat by waiting in the standby line the day of the event.

If ticketholders are not in their seats by 4:15 p.m., the remaining seats will be filled by those waiting in the standby line between then and 4:30 p.m.

Syer said the sellout of tickets was not surprising. Streep, she said, generates an unmatched excitement in the theater community and for her students.

“She is a unique figure in the world of acting. She not only is a movie star, she is a remarkable actress,” Syer said. “She occasionally does stage work, and she is splendid in both.”

Streep’s career began on stage in New York before moving to film. She received her bachelor’s degree from Vassar College and master’s degree from Yale and has garnered more nominations than any other actor in the history of both the Academy Awards and Golden Globes.

Pauley, who was awarded the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism in 2007, is a prominent journalist and former news anchor for both NBC’s “Today Show” and “Dateline NBC.”

Friday’s event will feature an introduction by IU’s first lady Laurie Burns McRobbie and an informal discussion between the journalist and actor, as well as a question and answer session with audience-submitted questions.

“I’m hoping she will talk about acting and her work and share some things about how she approaches her work,” Syer said. “But I can tell you, even if she and Jane just exchange recipes, the students will still be incredibly turned on.”

The visit by Streep and Pauley is sponsored by the IU Foundation’s Kate Benns Sturgeon Fund, named for the 1928 graduate.

Both Streep and Pauley boast IU connections — Pauley graduated from IU in 1972 with a degree in political science, while Streep’s husband, Don Gummer, studied at the IU-Purdue University Indianapolis Herron School of Art in the ’60s.

Stephen Watt, associate dean for undergraduate education in the College of Arts and Sciences, said Pauley has shown strong dedication to IU as an alumna.

This year, he said, Pauley and her husband donated $10,000 for the college’s sustainability themester.

The money, Watt also said, was used to help more than 700 high school students see Cardinal Stage Company’s production of “The Grapes of Wrath” for free.

The funds also helped the theater company create a 40-page student handbook to complement the Great Depression-era play.

“Jane is someone who is giving back to her home state and school,” Watt said. “I think she sets a great example for everyone about loyalty to an institution that was, and still is, extremely important to her.”