The 2012 Galens Smoker: “Thrombin Hood and His Merry Meds”
“Thrombin Hood and His Merry Meds,” the 94th Galens Smoker, took place March 2 and 3 at Lydia Mendelssohn Theater in the Michigan League. The annual production is a U-M Galens Medical Society tradition in which medical students parody a popular film — or in this case, the fairytale legend of Robin Hood — and portray their professors and school administrators as characters in the show. But it’s all in good fun! As stated in the program: “We take some pretty liberal liberties with our characters, the faculty of UMMS, whether it is their speech, mannerisms, appearance, or fashion sense. To outsiders this might seem inappropriate, but in reality it comes from the deepest love and admiration. We consider it an honor to be Smoked and we hope you do too; mockery is the sincerest form of flattery after all!”
More than 150 medical students worked for six months to brainstorm, write, rehearse, choreograph, and paint and build sets for the show. Students Joe Church, Sky Halverson, Arwen Johnson and Eric Krause served as the “Smoker Czars” in charge of direction and production.
In keeping with tradition, following the final performance of the Smoker on Saturday night, the Silver Shovel Award is presented to a faculty member selected by the students for his/her popularity and teaching ability. This year’s recipient was Rishindra Reddy, M.D., assistant professor of surgery in the Section of Thoracic Surgery.