Daveed Diggs, the Tony Award-winning actor and musician who originated the role of Marquis de Lafayette in “Hamilton,” and college President Nicole Hurd go way back.
“Normally, the way these things go is like, I meet 1000 people and I’d never see them again,” said Diggs of meeting Hurd at a previous college engagement.
Instead, the pair developed a bond, and Hurd later asked Diggs to join the board of College Advising Corps, a nonprofit organization founded by Hurd working to increase the number of underrepresented students in higher education.
Their friendship grew into a creative collaboration, culminating in a docuseries chronicling the 2020-2021 school year at a high school in California’s Bay Area that will premiere in spring 2025. Diggs visited campus on Tuesday to present the first preview of this work to Lafayette students, faculty and alumni.
“The Class” follows a College Advising Corps guidance counselor as he navigates guiding six seniors in pursuit of higher education. The COVID-19 pandemic served as a complication rather than an inspiration to the story as plans to film at the high school were set before the outbreak.
“There’s mental health issues in there, there’s school staffing issues in there, there’s real life,” Hurd said about the show.
Diggs, who announced on Tuesday he will be joining the cast of “The Boys,” feels drawn to speculative fiction and projects that are future-orientated.
“I think it’s important to imagine the future in both utopian and dystopian and just more practical ways as well because they give you goals,” he said.
“I was really encouraged to play and to pretend and to read things and imagine myself in other situations,” Diggs continued. “That has always proved to be really useful for me.”
Diggs and Hurd were joined by director Jaye Fenderson for a screening of a trailer and the first eight minutes of “The Class” to a packed crowd in Colton Chapel.
The beauty of liberal arts colleges is “that they’ve drawn people from all over the place, and to see how – if and how – they feel like their stories are reflected in this little bit of this piece that we’re showing,” Diggs said of showing the docuseries to Lafayette community members.
Jessi Kleiber ‘27 lined up two hours early to get a front-row seat at the screening. She walked away from the event with a signed Lafayette pennant — a tribute to his character in “Hamilton.”
“It was enjoyable to hear everything that they had to say,” Kleiber said. “I don’t have the greatest attention span, so it was a little bit long for my liking, but I was very happy to wait and he was kind enough to stick around and sign our stuff.”
Kleiber thought that “The Class” was “completely different” from what she thought Diggs and Hurd were working on. Sonali Shah ‘26 echoed this sentiment.
“I’m a year younger than those students, but it’s still relatable,” Shah said of the docuseries’ subjects, emphasizing her interest in the show.
“I think that it’s a documentary that I don’t think any people would have considered talking about, and so I do want to continue watching it,” she added.
In addition to screening the series for the campus, Diggs visited a “Theater and Social Justice” first-year seminar to talk to students about his experiences.
“He spoke a lot about race in general and how he himself is writing these stories, like TV shows and movies, that talk about different social topics, but how it’s always done in a way that people will actually want to watch it,” said Shah, whose theater class was invited to join the seminar.
Diggs said he enjoys meeting students learning theory without the pressure of theater being their job yet.
“Talking to students in these spaces reminds me of the kind of creative openness of it,” Diggs said. “The only thing I can promise to give them is that I try not to lie.”
Diggs also stopped by the first dress rehearsal for “Lift Every Voice,” a senior project directed by Ronnie Ward ‘25. Diggs watched a bit of the performance before taking a picture with the cast and creative team, which Ward called “nerve-wracking, but exciting.”
The track team also got a surprise visit from Diggs, who was a hurdler during his time at Brown University.
“He talked about having to balance doing track, which is a big commitment, and then also doing theater,” said Marin Rosser ‘27, a member of the track team. “Finding time to balance everything, he was like, ‘It was really hard,’ and I totally relate to that.”
Diggs ended his visit with a private student and alumni concert at the President’s House. Among the performers were Sold Out Six, Damoi Morgan ‘25 and the Prestigious Pardettes.
When Téo Rodriguez ‘24, a rapper in Sold Out Six, met Diggs after his performance, the actor was singing the hook to Rodriguez’s original song.
“Just to be able to do that and get that recognition and those positive words from him definitely does mean a lot,” Rodriguez said of Diggs’ compliments. “It’s something I’ll think about a lot when I’m ever in doubt of myself.”
In high school, Morgan was selected to perform an original piece on the “Hamilton” Broadway stage before seeing the show. On Tuesday, he performed music from the musical on the steel pan. Morgan was joined by Image Patterson ‘25 to perform a new original track.
“I’ve done a lot of performances, so this one was honestly just another one, but in front of a really cool guy and President Hurd,” Morgan said about Diggs. “But honestly, they’re just people with drive. The celebrity status – he doesn’t carry himself like that.”
Hurd promised that Diggs will be back on campus in the future, along with other surprise guests.
“I’m going to have fun bringing some people I love to campus,” Hurd said.
