{"id":8660,"date":"2026-02-26T12:13:46","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T17:13:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/?p=8660"},"modified":"2026-02-26T12:13:46","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T17:13:46","slug":"theatre-program-receives-transformational-gift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/2026\/02\/26\/theatre-program-receives-transformational-gift\/","title":{"rendered":"Theatre program receives ‘transformational gift’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"aA nearly seven-figure gift from the late mother of an alumna will have a dramatic effect on the University\u2019s Theatre Department<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis gift means a great deal to the program,\u201d said\u00a0Andrew Papa<\/a>, chair of the Theatre Department and an associate professor of Theatre. \u201cWhile we hope this will lead to increased visibility of our program, the department is especially excited about the increased opportunity it will provide for our prospective students.\u201d<\/p>\n

Every year, the Theatre Department engages with hundreds of students at recruiting events and in workshops and at high school nights for Detroit Mercy Theatre Company productions, Papa says, but one of the biggest inhibitors for students to attend Detroit Mercy is the cost.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis gift will allow us to support more students for many years to come, and we are immensely grateful,\u201d Papa said.<\/p>\n

It comes at a propitious time as Detroit Mercy Theatre Company is celebrating its first season in the University\u2019s new Black Box Theatre, bringing live theatre back to the McNichols Campus.<\/p>\n

The gift from the estate of Christine Leonard revives and endows a long-dormant scholarship for theatre students created in 1995 and named for her daughter, Geraldine Regal. The scholarship was set up shortly after Geraldine \u201994 died when the car she was in was hit by a driver who had been drinking. She was 23.<\/p>\n

Geraldine\u2019s father, David Regal, was the founder of University of Detroit\u2019s Theatre Company and was on the faculty at the University for 44 years. When she was young, he put her in small parts in The Theatre Company productions, but \u201cas soon as she got old enough to know what she wanted to do, it was no dice.\u201d Geraldine graduated with a bachelor\u2019s degree in Psychology.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe knew everybody in The Theatre Company very well and was always volunteering to help, but she didn\u2019t want to be on stage,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Christine Regal became Christine Leonard in 1993 when she married acclaimed crime novelist Elmore Leonard \u201950. She was known for her cooking and her deep and varied knowledge of politics, travel, flowers, music, theatre, movies and art. She died in 2022 after a short illness.<\/p>\n

Regal described his former wife Leonard as a \u201csuperfan\u201d of Detroit Mercy\u2019s theatre program. \u201cShe really dug The Theatre Company, and I think she\u2019s shown that by the donation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The scholarship, which could begin disbursements as early as this fall, will be awarded to full-time students majoring or minoring in Theatre, with good academic standing with a preference for students who demonstrate financial need.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis gift is truly transformational, and will make a difference long into the future,\u201d Papa said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A nearly seven-figure gift from the late mother of an alumna will have a dramatic effect on the University\u2019s Theatre Department. \u201cThis gift means a great deal to the program,\u201d said\u00a0Andrew Papa, chair of the Theatre Department and an associate professor of Theatre. \u201cWhile we hope this will lead to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":8661,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[4,10,30],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/88\/2026\/02\/theatre-full.jpg?fit=1900%2C655&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8Kcng-2fG","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8660"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8660"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8660\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8662,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8660\/revisions\/8662"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}