Actors Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, the parents of Truman Hanks ’18, performed “Love Letters” at Bing Concert Hall to benefit the University’s arts program. The funds raised from this benefit will go toward bringing more performers to campus, as well as giving students more opportunities to become involved with the arts at Stanford.

The production was organized by Stanford Live, which arranges performances for the Stanford community and promotes the arts at Stanford. Tickets to the performance were sold to the public for $250 and $500, with top donors also securing a ticket to a post-show reception with the actors. The show sold 667 seats, though 150 tickets were made available to students for free through a lottery system.

Hanks and Wilson volunteered for this production as a way to both raise money for the arts program and to showcase the opportunities available in performing arts at Stanford. According to Matthew Tiews, associate dean for the advancement of the arts, the actors chose to perform “Love Letters,” a play by A.R. Gurney, because it is a story they personally enjoy.

Tiews said that he was excited to have parents be involved with the arts program.

“It’s so wonderful that Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson were willing to do this for Stanford, and it really showcases not only the fact that we have built new resources and programs and opportunities in the arts … through very generous members of our alumni community, but also through the parent community,” Tiews said.

Tiews introduced the actors at Thursday’s performance, saying that he was “thrilled and delighted and grateful” that they volunteered to put on the benefit performance. He emphasized the ongoing expansion of Stanford’s arts program, telling the audience that the program now arranges for more than 100 visiting artists and provides grants for over 1,000 students each year. Thursday’s benefit will raise money to support the growth of these programs and also served to promote the new Arts Leap fundraising campaign launched by Stanford Arts.

The performance itself was a dialogue between Hanks and Wilson in which they read aloud written correspondence to each other to tell the life stories of two friends who grew up together.

Tom Hanks fan Madison Largey ’20 entered the student lottery that opened a week before the show and was eventually selected to attend.

“I really appreciated that Stanford left seats available for students to come,” Largey said. “To hear his iconic voice in person was awesome. Overall an amazing experience, just the highlight of the quarter so far.”

Apart from the students who got to watch the performance live, Tiews emphasized that Thursday’s performance was a fundraising success and hopes to use the momentum of the event to push the agenda for the arts at Stanford forward.

 

Correction: An earlier version of this article stated mistakenly that Bing sold out all 842 seats, rather than the 667 front-facing seats.  The Daily regrets this error.

 

Contact Jack Gartland at gartland ‘at’ stanford.edu.