A Cast of Leaders

"I thought of going to business school," says Melinda Steele, "but I'm very wary of business. When I went into the meeting with Andrew Tisch, I had this mind-set that business is evil."

"I have a big problem with what I call a 'fragmentation of personal ethics,' " says Elias. "Most of the people I know who go into business ultimately adopt this suspension of personal beliefs, in which their actions are informed only by their knowledge of proper procedures. There's this idea that you are motivated by one set of values when you're at work, and by a whole other set of values when you're at play."

Heather Ruth is president of the Bond Market Association, an advocacy group representing a sector of the financial industry valued at $12 trillion. She is also a Duke alum and yet another "Friend of Bruce." One night, she and her husband, Jim Ruth, invite the students to dinner at her apartment overlooking Central Park. "Most business leaders think a great deal less about ethics on a day-to-day basis than they should," she says. "Or they think about it and can't figure out what to do about it. Or they rewrite their mission statement and have done with it. I don't think we know as much as we pretend to about how to instill 'good' values."

"This is my third leadership course," says Melinda wistfully, as if the first two just didn't take. In one of the operas that the students attend, "Moses und Aron," Melinda sees the paradox inherent in trying to teach any concept, whether it be faith or leadership, that may be ultimately inexpressible.

"Moses understands God, but he is not able to articulate what he understands," says Melinda. "His brother, Aaron [spelled "Aron" in German], understands people and communication, but not God's message. So the question becomes 'Is it possible to teach something that is a pure idea?' "

In the final moment of the opera, Moses realizes that he may never be able to verbalize the message that he carries in his heart. "O word, thou word, that I lack!" cries Moses, as he sinks to the ground in despair.

Act Three: Everyone Gets into the Act

Emanuel Azenberg claims to be 300 years old. He is one of Broadway's most legendary producers, with a list of credits reaching so far back that it includes almost every play that Neil Simon has ever written. Still, the calendar says that he's only 65. And his soul is still in its infancy.

He is a Duke parent -- his daughter graduated from Duke -- and one of several "adjunct professors" who help Payne teach the "Leadership and the Arts" class. Payne refers to him affectionately as "a professional bad influence." Azenberg wanders in and out of class wearing a baseball cap and sweatshirt, and he barks at the students as if they were his own children. The students call him "Manny," as does everyone on Broadway.

His job here is to talk to the students about the business of producing Broadway shows, and about the meaning of those shows. But that lesson plan is often abandoned so that he can entertain them with backstage gossip and assorted tidbits of wisdom -- which he often delivers as if he were smacking them upside the head. "Passion! Your lives are shit without passion!" he preaches. He tells them what Neil Simon once told him: "You gotta live your lives as if Gershwin wrote the score."

Along with actor Kevin Spacey and four other people, Azenberg is producing one of the most widely anticipated productions of the new season, "The Iceman Cometh," and he has arranged for one of the Duke students, Kara Medoff, to serve as a production assistant for the show. Along with running errands, she is "on book," cuing actors during rehearsals whenever they forget a line. It's a dream internship. For Kara, the most magical moment of the semester came during "Iceman"'s first rehearsal, when Kevin Spacey walked onstage and said his first line, "Hello, Gang!" "The job didn't seem real to me until that moment," she says, "and then I suddenly realized that this was really happening."

The students have seen one "Iceman" dress rehearsal, and they will see all four and a half hours of it again at a benefit performance for the "Leadership and the Arts" program. Over the past few weeks, Azenberg has brought several cast members to class to talk about the show, but he won't let the students meet Kevin Spacey until they've seen the play a second time.

Today, the students are in trouble with their teacher. Last week, Azenberg gave them a script to read, a show about a conspiracy within the Vatican and the assassination of a pope. He's thinking about bringing it to Broadway. "Anybody here Catholic enough to object?" he says, provoking them.

Only a few students have gotten around to reading it, and those who have are guilty of the most serious violation in the Azenberg rule book: They have no opinion. "I'm gonna shake your brains!" he shouts. "Give me some outrage or something!"