Move Over Princeton and Yale

While the majority of Harvard students were choosing their fall classes last week. Debbie Copaken '88 flew to New York on business--shooting her scene in "The Key Exchange", a Twentieth Century Fox movie to be released next March.

Copaken has a small part in a romantic comedy about relationships in the 1980's, which stars Daniel Stern (Diner, Breaking Away, Blue Thunder) and Brooke Adams (Dead Zone, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and Lace, a made for TV movie).

Here and There

Of her somewhat disjointed first week of classes at Harvard, she says. "This was all so new and then to go to that (New York) which was also new was numbing."

This is the first time the Potomac, Md. native has acted in or even auditioned for a movie. Although she was vice-president of the thespian troop at Churchill High School, Copaken never even thought about auditioning for movies until she met C. Thomas Howell, a teenage idol from the movie "The Outsiders". As Copaken's sister points out, it was the realization that "he was a normal kid too" that made Debbie think about becoming an actress.

Unlike other Ivy League actresses such as Yale's Jodie Foster and Jennifer Beals, Copaken currently has no plans to take time off from school to act in other movies. While she might try out for movies that have summer filming schedules, she plans to confine her interest in drama to Harvard productions, such as "Princess Ida" in which she has a chorus role for this fall.

For Copaken, being a fulltime student meant missing the cast party held in New York last night to catch up on her course work.

Her Matthews Hall roommates seem to take Copaken's outside commitments in stride. "At first I was overwhelmed to have some one so talented in my room," says Tilar Olive '88, adding. "But it has worked out great--she is just like the rest of us."