A group of 35 students is putting on a production for children with illnesses and disabilities today.
The White Coat Company, a student-run organization through UF’s College of Medicine, will give its last showing of “Beauty and the Beast” at 7 p.m. at the Stetson Medical Sciences Building Auditorium, situated at 1345 Center Drive.
The play started Tuesday on the pediatric floor of UF Health Shands Hospital.
The plays the White Coat Company performs are typically Disney productions and are full musicals, including live instrumentalists, singing and dancing, said Rachel Butts, a first-year UF medical student. In the past, they’ve put on “The Little Mermaid” and “Aladdin.”
The UF College of Medicine provides the company with a stipend, and the students create and gather the props, sets and costumes, Butts said.
Performances are free for children and their families.
Butts plays Belle in this year’s production of “Beauty and the Beast.” She said the group is excited to be able to perform for the children.
“It just brings so much joy to the kids,” the 23-year-old said. “The first performance we did on the pediatric floor, the kids’ faces were so in awe.”
Butts said the medical students in the company have been practicing during their lunch breaks in between classes almost every day since October.
John Mayfield, a first-year UF medical student, plays the Beast. Mayfield said he believes it is important for medical students to do more for patients than the purely technical aspects of medicine.
“Medicine is a combination of science and art, and a lot of times in the classroom, we lose the art,” the 37-year-old said. “It’s nice to have the pure art every now and then to balance our lives, because we do so much technical work.”
Mayfield said he enjoys performing for the children in the pediatric unit of Shands and for disabled children and adults, such as those at Tacachale, a center for people with developmental disabilities. They did a performance there Wednesday.
“The most rewarding part is the children,” Mayfield said.
Mayfield, who has an almost-2-year-old daughter, said he wants her to see him act. He said he wants children to enjoy theater as much as he does.
“In the pediatric hospital, when I do my roar as the Beast and a little boy does the roar back, or when a little girl is giving me the stink-eye because I’m yelling at Belle to come down for dinner, that’s the best stuff,” he said.
Rachel Butts (left) plays the part of Belle in “Beauty and the Beast” alongside John Mayfield who plays Beast. Both first-year UF medical students, the pair performs with The White Coat Company, a student-run organization through the College of Medicine, on the pediatric floor at UF Health Shands Hospital.
