All-Alumni Summer Reunion Next Weekend

NMU will host an all-alumni summer reunion next Thursday-Saturday, June 23-25. Advance registration is required for all activities planned during the celebration, except for the free community concert, "An Evening with Jeff Daniels." The actor and Michigan native will share his singing and songwriting talents at 6:30 p.m. Friday at the Marquette Commons. Attendees are encouraged to bring their lawn chairs. The concert is sponsored by Cliffs Natural Resources.

According to his website, Daniels has been writing songs for more than 30 years, or about as long as he has been a professional stage and film actor.

“I don’t write hits. I don’t send out demos to famous singers. I just write songs,” wrote Daniels. “They’re my diaries. I had everything I’ve ever written in this big, black notebook. Some of them were typed, some were in long hand, but all of them had a time and a place that marked some moment in my life. If you really wanted to get to know me, you’d find me in there.”

Daniels has five albums to his credit: Keep It Right Here with Brad Phillips and Dominic John Davis, Live at the Purple Rose, Together Again with fellow Circle Repertory actor Jonathan Hogan, Grandfather’s Hat and Live & Unplugged. He has played to sold-out audiences across the United States and headlined annual benefit concerts for the Purple Rose Theatre Company he founded in 1991 in his hometown of Chelsea.  

“We were very fortunate to receive support from Cliffs Natural Resources to bring well-recognized and popular entertainer Jeff Daniels to town as our marquee event,” said Deanna Hemmila (Alumni Operations). “We really want this to be a community celebration.

“When you talk with alumni nationwide, they all say the same thing: they love Marquette in the summer. Homecoming is designed to get alumni back to town, but we know not everyone can travel in the fall. With the great national recognition Marquette has received as a Distinctive Destination—a contest in which thousands of alumni voted—we decided this was the year to put together a summer reunion. Hundreds of people have registered so far and some events are sold out.”

For more information and the full schedule, visit Reunion.