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There was scarcely a dry eye in the house at
Radio City Music Hall in New York as members of the drama
department at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School sang "Seasons
of Love" from the popular musical "Rent" at the annual ceremony
celebrating the best in Broadway theater.
Some 17 students and educators were shot dead when a former
student opened fire on February 14 at the school in Parkland,
Florida.
"What a thrill to be in the same house as those amazing
children. Weren't they marvelous?" said British actress Glenda
Jackson, 82, accepting a best actress Tony award moments later.
Several of the surviving students, most of them from the
school's drama department, later spearheaded a national movement
to end gun violence, including a "March for our Lives"
nationwide event in March that attracted tens of thousands of
people.
Drama teacher Melody Herzfeld, who sheltered scores of students
in the school's drama room for more than two hours during the
February shooting, was also in the audience on Sunday to accept
a special Tony award for educators."Theater is transformative —
it has the power to celebrate the best of times, and it has the
power to help heal us and comfort us in the worst of times,"
Broadway League president Charlotte St. Martin and American
Theatre Wing president Heather Hitchens, who organize the Tony
awards, said in a statement recognizing Herzfeld's efforts.
(Reporting by Chris Michaud and Jill Serjeant)
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