College senior Cecilia Corrigan might have an academic lineage, but her antics over the past four years would suggest otherwise. From turning an off-campus house into a free-spirited arts venue to producing her own play for last year’s Philadelphia Fringe festival, her time at Penn has been uniquely her own.
Street: Tell us about performing in last year's Philly Fringe Festival. Cecilia Corrigan: The play was called Moth in Love. It’s about true love between humans and insects, and senseless death at the hands of a Trader Joe’s employee. The cast was full of geniuses. My little sister Anna was the stage manager, “the mother hen,” if you will. She kept the production running smoothly.
Street: There are two types of people at Penn... CC: People who have their own printers and people who have to print at the library.
Street: Most underrated thing about Penn? Overrated? CC: Underrated: I don’t understand why people don’t use the swimming pool/jacuzzi center on the roof of Huntsman. Open to all, guys! Overrated: I’m gonna have to say Henry Kissinger.
Street: Least appreciated thing about Philadelphia? CC: Benjamin Franklin. Scientist, inventor, statesman, printer and philosopher.
Street: You’re walking into a friend’s party. What is playing in the background? CC: I think it would probably just go silent.
Street: Tell us about running your former arts venue, the Haunted Cream Egg. CC: Manya Scheps and I were puppetmasters of an entire society. There was a lot of sweet lovin’ and sensorineural damage. I did steal some of my roommates’ Earth Balance, though I’m not ashamed anymore. Did you ever read any H.P. Lovecraft? It was kind of like that.
Street: What is one of your guilty pleasures? CC: Temper tantrums.
Street: Who is the coolest person you have ever met? CC: My dad [professor Timothy Corrigan]. He has an earring. Second place is Ruth Bader Ginsberg.
Street: Speaking of parents, what is it like going to a school where both of your parents are professors? CC: Wonderful. They are both good-looking and charming people who sometimes let me make photocopies. Being their daughter also makes me a second-degree professor so I can issue “demerits” or “gold stars” to other students when I see good or bad behavior.
Street: What goes in your Chipotle burrito? CC: I like that other one, Mexicali. They have the best music.
Street: Best Van Pelt alternative? CC: Wine & Spirits.
Street: Favorite thrifted item? CC: My glass eye.
