Seventy-two UF medical and physician assistant-school students will take a break from their textbooks for the next two weeks to put on a series of musicals for hospital patients, and adults and children with disabilities.
White Coat Company, the UF College of Medicine’s theatrical troupe, will debut “Hercules,” its annual Disney musical, tonight for friends and family at UF Health Shands Hospital before kicking off a five-show run.
They will perform for about 600 adults with disabilities at Tacachale, a Gainesville-based developmental disability center; about 20 patients at the Shands pediatric ward; and about 200 students at the Sidney Lanier Center, a school for developmentally challenged children.
Ly Velez, a UF first-year medical student, will play Meg, the lead female role.
“It’s an opportunity to meet people in a different setting where you’re not super stressed or talking about molecules all the time,” Velez, 21, said, adding that she’s excited to perform for the children.
Sonora Williams, a UF second-year medical student, was an actress in last year’s “Beauty and the Beast” musical and is the director of this year’s show.
The kids at Shands are Williams’ inspiration to work in the musical because she dreams of becoming a pediatric neurosurgeon someday, she said.
“I didn’t want to do this,” the 23-year-old said, “but I realized that for some people that were in the play last year, this is all they had. This was their only outlet from medical school.”
