CAMDEN – Creating posters or Facebook pages aren’t the only ways Rutgers–Camden students are expressing their opinions on the proposed merger with Rowan University. For Cherry Hill resident Cooper Gorelick, the live political drama has inspired his most recent creation.

“Stop the Takeover!” is a series of episodic vignettes written in the style of “agit-prop” theater, similar to that of Clifford Odets' famous 1930s play “Waiting for Lefty.”

Gorelick, who was honored by the National Playwriting Program at the Kennedy Center’s American College Theater Festival, will stage his new short play at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 14, in the Campus Center’s Multi-Purpose Room and 12:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 16, in the Black Box Theater, located in the Fine Arts Complex on the Rutgers-Camden campus. Both the Campus Center and the Fine Arts Complex are on Third Street, between Cooper Street and the Benjamin Franklin Bridge.

The Rutgers University Singers will also join the program to sing the Rutgers–Camden alma mater. Actors in the play include Rutgers–Camden students Brian McAndrews; Sean Quinn; Belinda Kopko; Rich Lanci; Tom Milicia; Angel Purnell; Alex Sheinberg; Jake Hufner; and Cristina Chillem. Alumni of the Rutgers-Camden theater program will also be participating.

According to Gorelick, people should see theater, because it is art that reflects life. “That’s not just for this agit-prop play, either. Most theater is made to teach people or entertain them or both…to show them faults in their society that should be fixed,” says the student playwright. “Everyone on the Rutgers-Camden campus has a duty to their school to be involved. This play will hopefully be a rally cry for those who have not been fighting this merger and bolster those who have been fighting it for some time.”