FACULTY HONORED AS 2011 UNITED STATES ARTISTS FELLOW
Kirk Lynn (MFA 2004) Earns Prestigious Award
Kirk Lynn, Department of Theatre and Dance lecturer of playwriting and directing, has been honored as one of the 2011 United States Artists Fellows. This prestigious award grants 50 of America’s finest artists with individual fellowships of $50,000. Past winners include Austin-based choreographer Deborah Hay, Anne Bogart (artistic
director, The SITI Company), Ping Chong, Bill Rauch (co-founder, Cornerstone Theater Company), and award-winning actress and playwright Anna Deavere Smith.
Rude Mechs has produced 23 original pieces that have been presented nationally and internationally and earned over 180 local and national awards and nominations.
In addition to his work at The University of Texas at Austin, Lynn is the playwright-in-residence and one of six co-producing artistic directors of Rude Mechs. Formed in 1995, Rude Mechs is an ensemble-based company based in Austin, Texas committed to the collaborative creation of new works for the stage. With the Rude Mechs, Lynn has written and adapted more than a dozen plays, including Lipstick Traces, Cherrywood, The Method Gun, and I’ve Never Been So Happy, a Western Operetta. I’ve Never Been So Happy received the NEA New Play Development Award and was recently performed at the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. and Center Theatre Group’s Kirk Douglas Theatre in Los Angeles. Since the company’s inception,
Lynn holds a bachelor of arts and master of fine arts from The University of Texas at Austin. In addition to his teaching, Lynn serves as a co-producer for the Department of Theatre and Dance’s Cohen New Works Festival, presented by the University Co-op. Founded in 2005, United States Artists is a national grant-making and advocacy organization committed to investing in America’s artists and illuminating the value of artists to society. USA Fellows are chosen through a highly competitive nomination and peer-review process. Lynn and the cohort of 2011 USA fellows represent some of the most innovative and diverse creative talents in the country.
IN MEMORIAM : 2011 Edward L. Cannan III, BFA 1967 Hildegarde T. Erwin, BFA 1954 Mark Hunter, PhD 2005 Louise E. Nixon, BFA 1942 Louise S. Pope, BFA 1951 Paul D. Reinhardt, MFA 1953 William L. Rentfro, BFA 1979 Sandra “Scottie” Wilkison, BFA 1957
Remembering Dr. Paul Reinhardt (1929-2011) Dr. Paul Reinhardt passed away on April 29, 2011, in Silver Spring, Maryland. He served The University of Texas at Austin for twenty-eight years as a professor and student advisor in the Department of Theatre and Dance, during which time he also served as head of the department’s costume design program, supervisor of the costume construction shop and curator of the historical clothing collection.
Dr. Reinhardt received his bachelor of arts degree from the University of Tulsa, a master of fine arts degree in theatre history and costume from The University of Texas at Austin, and his doctorate in theatre history from the University of Iowa. He was a student of Lucy Barton and B. Iden Payne, and was a colleague of many theatre luminaries, including Oscar Brockett, Angus Bowmer, Douglas Russell, and Alvina Krause. Dr. Reinhardt was one of the leading authorities on the history of clothing and design, with many published articles and countless public lectures on costume history, costume design, period movement for actors, and the history of “blue jeans” (his specialty) to his credit. In addition to his work at The University of Texas at Austin, Dr. Reinhardt’s academic credits as professor and designer included Richmond Professional Institute, Northwestern University, the University of Iowa, California State University at Fullerton, the University of Oregon, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, James Madison University, and Western Michigan University. Dr. Reinhardt designed for Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the Northwestern Repertory Theatre, the
Scott Actor’s Repertory in Fort Worth, Texas, and the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts in Santa Maria, California. He also served as principal designer at the Texas Shakespeare Festival for ten years. He consulted for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and was honored with several exhibitions of his work at a variety of venues, including the United States Institute for Theatre Technology in 1998. A man of great presence and charisma, Dr. Reinhardt will be remembered for his great intellect, greater talent, and even greater heart. His design aesthetic can best be defined as elegant; he employed deceptive simplicity and flamboyant restraint to say the most with the least. More than anything, Dr. Reinhardt was a consummate educator and mentor. His former students work all over country in a myriad of venues. Many are educators themselves, and they, and their students, and their students’ students, perpetuate his legacy of thorough scholarship and refined sophistication in the field of costume design. Memorial contributed by Joel Ebarb
Photo : Rino Pizzi 6
finearts.utexas.edu/tad
ENCORE SPRING 2012
7