On Wednesday, March 12, History, Music, and Communication students hosted a new and unique theatrical show called “Letters Live!” This special event brought history to life through dramatic readings and musical performances, offering a vivid reminder of how deeply personal and engaging the past can be. Using letters that spanned nearly 4,000 years — from 3,800 BC to 1984 — the cast delivered word-for-word readings of real historical letters, infusing them with dramatic interpretation and an infectious enthusiasm that captivated the audience.
Historical letters are not usually the first-place people think to look for entertainment, but “Letters Live!” challenged that notion.
“It is so common for people to view history as dry and boring,” said Dr. Alex Mayfield, Assistant Professor of History, “but letters from the past show us why nothing can be farther from the truth. Letters connect us to the human drama of history. They are superfluous and social, full of sweet nothings, inside jokes, petty complaints, and a whole lot of juicy gossip. Sometimes, they’re just objectively funny!”
The show delivered on its advertised promise to “Laugh and Hear History,” as students breathed new life into historical figures who might otherwise be confined to textbooks. The audience met a particularly cranky Mesopotamian teenager, a flirtatious Alexander Hamilton, and the delightfully gossipy novelist Flannery O’Connor.
Led by history majors Nichole Sherry ’25 and Meghan Cabe ’25, the cast included students from across the school. The evening also featured a potent and emotional musical interlude that underscored epistolary themes of the night. Faith Alford ’25 delivered a moving solo performance of “Burn” from the hit musical Hamilton. The song, which recounts Eliza Hamilton’s heartbreak upon discovering her husband’s infidelity, offered a potent and emotional reflection on the way historical people continue to shape our understanding of them.
One attendee, Ethan Bonow ’28, enthusiastically summed up his experience: “Letters Live was a tremendous hit! I would go to something like that every week.”
Ultimately, the event was not just about entertainment—it was an exercise in historical empathy. The letters offered a unique glimpse into the lives of those who came before us, revealing their joys, frustrations, and personalities in an intimate way that history books often cannot. They showed us that history is not just about wars and politics but about people’s everyday experiences, their loves, their losses, and their voices.
Sponsored by the the Social Science and History Department, the Music Department, and the School of Communication Arts, “Letters Live!” encapsulated the best of Christian Liberal Arts tradition, and it demonstrated the ways Asbury students remain engaged in creative and cross-disciplinary approaches to the study of history.
“History came alive for the audience,” said Mayfield, “and I could not be prouder of how our students made that possible.”