Class of 2003 spends first weekend at U.

Frosh, faculty discuss play "How many of you read it?" he asked, raising his eyebrows. Without hesitation, all 15 freshmen raised their hands, and in the next 60 minutes, as they tried to answer Conn's second question -- the one posed by the play -- the freshmen successfully completed their first academic assignment at Penn. Conn's group, made up of students living in Community House, where he is interim faculty master, was one of many that gathered on Tuesday's rainy afternoon to discuss Copenhagen's central question: Why did German physicist Werner Heisenberg visit Danish physicist Niels Bohr in Copenhagen in 1941? In this fictional account based loosely on historical events, Conn explained, the two physicists' conversation during that particular visit was crucial to the end of World War II and the fate of the world. The characters in the play touch on the moral implications of building the atomic bomb. The students, circled around a square table, appeared to have done their summer reading, offering well-informed responses to Conn's leading questions and coloring in a conversation that flowed without even a pause. One reason the project committee, chaired by College Dean Richard Beeman, chose the play was for its theme, which explores the responsibility that comes along with acquiring extensive knowledge. Besides being asked to read the play, freshmen attended a staged reading of the work performed by three Penn faculty members on Monday. During the reading, a lecturer in the Theater Arts Department, James Schlatter, read the part of Niels Bohr; English Professor Cary Mazer was the voice of Heisenberg; and another Theater Arts lecturer, Rose Malague, spoke for Bohr's wife, Margrethe. The goal of the 9-year-old Penn Reading Project is to "bring students and faculty together for a shared intellectual and academic experience," Project Director David Fox said. Organizers have long hoped the project would provide fodder for community-building, intellectual exchange and discussion. Conn said that this year's reading project met those goals. "It was terrific," said Conn, who has led discussion groups in all but one of the years the reading project has existed. For the most part, students also agreed that the project was a success. "The Reading Project allowed friends to discuss academic issues in a different setting," College freshman Alex Bush said. However, when asked if students really talk about the play on their own time, Wharton freshman Nicole Schreier said,"I guess if you're stuck for a topic of conversation." Copenhagen is currently running for its second year in London's Duchess Theatre, and will open on Broadway for the 1999-2000 season. University students were among the first Americans to receive copies of the play and hear it performed.

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