Senior Spotlight
Interview
Student Gallery
A Little Night Music
A NEW CHAPTER
with Julia Charette Poole
A LETTER FROM
the editor:
Going into the 2024-2025 academic year the Albright AM executive board looked out into our campus community and saw an environment dictated by transition or change. We had a new administration stepping up to lead the college and a host of institutional and academic changes. The defining questions of our executive team's earliest meetings were: How can we uplift student voices? How can we give a platform to student creativity? How can we wake up the arts?
The following magazine, in many ways, is a response to those questions. In addition to reaching out to student leaders and clubs on campus, we spoke with institutional leaders and even went outside the university to bring our readership industry professionals. Also, we worked to bolster our social media and digital presence.
The magazine you're about to read is reflective of our efforts to capture the diversity, magnificence and beauty of student creativity and artistry. It's made by students for students and it tries, we think, to represent a portion of our artistic community. It's not a complete picture, we're happy to say, but we hope these efforts inspire you to go out and find and rejoice in the creatives not seen, to plunge into our community headfirst and, hopefully, to continue to wake up the arts.
Treasurer Taylor Meachum
Secretary Abigayl Blasco
STAFF
Head of Layout/Design
Social Media Chair
Maya Burdick
Editor-in-Chief
Ryan Elmore
Daniel Reyes: The Music Within Maya Burdick: On Her Terms
Exposures
By: Elizabeth Churchill (25’)
“A lot of music, a lot of arts, a lot of craziness.”
Approaching the end of his time at Albright College, Daniel Reyes reflects on his dedication utilizing the most of his theatre and vocal performance co-major. Albright Chorale and Ensembles, Domino Players, Improv, and Lion Records are a few of the organizations Reyes has found himself in.
“I’ve been in a bunch of plays and musicals, mainstage shows, I would just crank them out. Sometimes it would be all of them, sometimes just two a year.”
While fond of the realm of performing, Reyes also has scene shop experience in constructing set designs of various Domino Players
the music within
productions. In his own time, he is working on an album to be released by Lion Records. In the local sphere, Reyes has performed with Berks Opera Company, who has partnered
with students from Albright’s Vocal Performance co-major for productions such as Amahl and the Night Visitors, Hänsel and Gretel, and Little Red’s Most Unusual Day. Arriving as a psychology and political science co-major, Reyes admits he found himself on this path due to a lack of understanding of the depth of Albright’s arts programs, and a concern to find careers post college in more ‘applicable’ fields.
He thanks Professor Jeffrey Lentz, M.M for initially meeting him, representing the theatre department, and helping him to find his path of interest.
“I’m not the first musician in my family, but there was ’this can be a hobby’...’why not just take lessons on the side’...’be a teacher and then do shows in the summer’...one of the hardest things was having to prove myself, and they were
Reyes as Witch in Hänsel and Gretel with Berks Opera Company and Albright College Vocal Performance Program
Lauren Altheah
supporting me but it they had no way to understand.”
With the guidance of Professor Tamara Black, M.M, Reyes studied at the Austrian American Mozart Academy in Salzburg, Austria over the summer of 2024. “That kind of cemented my love of opera and that part of musical arts, just because everyone had so much passion and it showed me that it’s not a dead art. There is a career after college.”
Reyes credits his adaptability to the voice lessons, German language study, and performances he was able to experience by enrolling in a liberal arts college. He says that being at a school like Albright allowed him to grow in all areas, not only in musicianship. This helped him stand out among his peers at AAMA.
“Because you’re not in a conservatory, you don’t have a huge list of repertoire, and you haven’t only been doing music and theatre —but there’s general academics and acting training. The benefit [of conservatories]is you have things to pull from and a deep knowledge of music, but there’s a lack of broad experience.”
Reyes’s performed in his final mainstage show from April 11-14. He played the role of Henrik Egerman in Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music directed by Jeffrey Lentz. Additionally, he’ll be performing in the Melodies of Spring choral concert on May 3. While he searches for graduate schools, he plans to continue performing both in the immediate future and well beyond.
Reyes and the cast and production team of Mozart's Der Schauspieldirektor (above); Reyes as Bobby Strong in Urinetown (left)
By: Ryan Elmore (26’), Editor-in-Chief
Earlier in the semester, when Albright AM reached out to different department heads to inquire about seniors to profile for senior spotlights, we received many names. The one name that came up considerably more than most was Maya Burdick. One department head said this was because she’s written and illustrated three children’s books over the last two years and will be receiving a gallery exhibiton. Another said she “made full use of [her] freedom here to explore the interdisciplinary nature of [her] artistic gifts.”
Burdick is an extremely accomplished student at Albright and over the past four years she’s tapped into her artistic talents in bold and varied ways. In addition to the three children’s books she’s created, Burdick has produced and sold digital and physical artworks, performed as a standout vocalist in choral and opera settings, performed on-stage in educational and professional theaters, and
on her terms
currently acts as the head of layout and design and social media chair of this magazine.
Creative from a young age, she recalls her first experiences making art as a child. “When I was little, I was always drawing andmpainting,” she said sitting behind the desk in the Freedman Gallery – the Albright art gallery where she works part-time. “I wanted to be an author. I would always write one paragraph and design the cover for hours, and then the document would never get touched again.”
Her parents and teachers took note of her talents early on and encouraged her development “I was never shielded from the arts. It’s been something that was welcomed.” She believes the support and encouragement was instrumental to her development.
When later she developed an infatuation for performing as well, she was sure she wanted a career in the arts. After coming to Albright and receiving scholarships based off her artistic promise, her passions were invigorated further. Now, as a digital studio art major and theatre minor, she’s happy to let her passions coalesce.
“I think Albright has made it easy for me to get excited about my art,” Burdick said.
What she appreciates most about her Albright education is her ability to create on her own terms. “You can always come to a professor and say, I’m really passionate about this project, I want to work further on it. I found it liberating being able to mold the curriculum to myself.”
With this mindset, Burdick was able to produce work that she was passionate about. Her first book, Have You Seen My Hat?, was largely inspired by her own childhood.
“I wanted to write a story that was reminiscent of the books I had read as a child; the ones that comforted me and had that kind of classic illustration look.”
Inspired by creatives like John Tenniel and Beatrix Potter, Burdick infused ele ments of her own life into the story. The main character and her titular red hat were inspired by Bur dick’s own childhood self and adorable little hat. As was the story’s dog Chester in spired by her real-life dog
John Pankratz
Phineas.
Her second book, she undertook as an ACRE. Titled “Visual Theories and Methodologies in Children’s Book Illustration,” she studied children’s books as well as theorists like Perry Nodelman and Roland Barthes to analyze concepts like color theory, visual rhetoric, and semiotics.
“[I studied] the way texts and images interact [and saw] how readers engage with them – How it makes them think, how it informs their views of the world and themselves. It was interesting to learn ways people tend to interact with images.” Her research resulted in Pumpkin – a story about a neighborhood cat.
With her third book, Anywhere A Cat Can Go, Burdick wanted to make a didactic piece that could be educational while still entertaining. Through another animal protagonist, Burdick teaches children about prepositions in her cat’s adventures.
She’s gained exposure from these books within the Greater Reading community. Self-published, she’s been able to sell her books directly to her audience. She’s also been able to leverage one talent to sell another. Earlier this year, audiences who came out to see Hänsel and , the Berks Opera production made up of Albright vocal performance co-majors, were able to buy copies of Burdick’s books in a pop-up shop in the lobby. This is after, of course, seeing Burdick herself play Gretel.
April 11 – May 11 called Maya Burdick: Tales in Illustration. The exhibit will showcase the work she’s created for young audiences in her books.
In addition to her work as a visual artist, Burdick is an accomplished performer. Throughout her time in college, she’s worked in various styles in different productions. Whether it be opera singing or Shakespearean performance, Burdick is unafraid to stretch herself. Later this spring, she’ll be performing as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet at Ephrata Performing Arts Center from May 15 - 31.
After college, Burdick hopes to get a job working in digital design. She intends to keep performing as well, as maintaining both all facets of her creativity, she believes, helps to inform and bolster the others.
She did something similar when she starred as Little Red in Little Red’s MostUnusualDay, another children’s opera produced by Yocum Institute.
She’ll receive her own gallery exhibit in the Freedman Gallery from
Her advisor and mentor Heidi Mau said of Burdick, “In seeing her artwork and performances it all seems so effortless, but as her instructor and in working on an ACRE together I’ve seen the level of commitment, work, and sheer hours Maya puts into these efforts. We all want to learn her time-management secrets.”
Ultimately, the thing that motivates Burdick most is freedom through her own expression “I always like the process more than the finished product... it’s almost therapeutic, it makes me calm. It feels a lot like rediscovery.”
Burdick's art exhibit (left); A childhood photo of Burdick in the titular red hat (above)
Burdick poses for a selfie backstage as Little Red (left); Burdick on the Albright stage as Wendla in Spring Awakening (right)
DW Gregory on Intimate Exposures
By: Ryan Elmore ('26), Editor-in-Chief
DWGregory, the acclaimed playwright and author of Radium Girls, premiered a new play, Intimate Exposures, on November 8 that ran through November 17. Set in 1892, the play, commissioned by Reading Theater Project and directed by Jody Reppert, tells the story of a real photographer named William Goldman who operated in Reading and embarked on a project of photographing local prostitutes.
The play follows Goldman’s fictional relationship with one of his muses, Edie, and lets audiences experience a Reading brothel, and the characters who patron and profit from it, juxtaposing the brothel environment with the stifling social standards of the gilded age.
The play was first imagined when Vicki Haller Graff, the artistic director of Reading Theater Project came across the book Working Girls: An American Brothel Circa 1892 which contained some of Goldman’s photographs. “I was initially intrigued by the subject
matter,” Gregory said, “Vicki, the producer, she and I talked about applying to a grant available for ensemble theaters to develop a play and she presented this project to me,
something she had already been thinking about.”
Although skeptical at first, Gregory was struck by how subversive the photographs were. “I was driven by the curiosity of these photos because they’re really not what you would expect. Somebody is taking pictures in a brothel, and you expect a lot of ‘dirty’ pictures but that’s really not what he was doing,” she said. “He was looking at these women through an artist’s eye.” After they received the grant, Gregory got to work.
Gregory was certainly familiar with writing historical fiction. Her most popular work, Radium Girls, which has been produced over 2000 times tells the story of a group of women who were poisoned while working for the
United States Radium Corporation and the lawsuit that followed. Her plays typically call attention to systemic power imbalances and injustice and seek to represent voices that have been historically marginIntimate
is no different. After familiarizing herself with Goldman’s photographs, she had meetings with other creatives of the Reading Theater Project to discuss what the project would become. She said, “We talked about the photographs, what they conveyed to us – it was really a conversation around theme. One of the things we did was a writing exercise where you pick a word and put it at the center of a paper and then whatever next word comes to mind you write down and you develop a branch of words.”
At the end of these brainstorming sessions, the collaborators were left with two words that stuck out among the rest: elevate and dignity. “This
informed my thinking about the play. [Goldman] really does give them their dignity, they’re not degrading. In some cases, there is this sense that he’s doing honor to some of these women with these images and there is a sense of elevation.”
When it became clear where
“It’s easier to deal with what we’re wrestling with now by going to the past.”
-DW Gregory other
people
Gregory wanted to take the play, she began her research. With exceptions like Goldman and Sal Shearer, a real woman who operated the brothel wherein much of the action of the play takes place, many of the characters are made up for the play. Although there were many women photographed, not much was known about those specific women. Goldman never disclosed this project and never kept a journal, so Gregory needed to imagine the details of the women photographed.
“The driving question for me was ‘how does it change you if someone looks at you in a way you’ve never really seen yourself,” Gregory said. “It’s easier to deal with what we’re wrestling with now by going to the past.” She felt the story carried truths that still rang true today. “It was a time of great income inequality, as we have today. [There was] the growth of the millionaire class in the gilded age. Today it’s the billionaire class. [There were] a handful of very wealthy people who had a lot of resources and money and then a lot of working people who feel like they were locked out of the country’s prosperity.”
Many present-day social issues, she believes, make the play relevant. “With the Dobbs decision, the revoking of Roe v. Wade, suddenly we’re back having a conversation about things that we thought had been settled 50 years ago.” She notes a building culture that encourages repression, saying “There’s so much energy being put into a lot of anti-Trans bills and even an-
A collage of photos by Goldman (left); Lady Strongman as Clayton shares and intimate moment onstage with Cat Whelan
ti-LGBTQ legislation in certain parts of the country that I feel like there’s a push from certain sectors to dial us all back … What I would like to show people with this play is that the past they’re longing for is not such a great place.”
She consulted many books that revealed the culture of the brothels at the time such as Ruth Rosen’s The Lost Sisterhood: Prostitution in America, 1900-1918. She drew on research and firsthand accounts of the time to understand these women in a way that wasn’t stereotypical. These insights helped her form the characters. For example, after learning that in some cases women who worked in department stores were considered vulnerable to taking work in brothels, she gave a supporting character, Lizzie, a backstory that evoked this. “It’s really about pulling in as many details as you can and then starting to hear their voice and get a sense of them,” she said, “and there’s a little bit of alchemy that’s hard to explain.”
After researching, Gregory got to work on early drafts of the play. “When it came time to write the play, I went away and wrote a series of drafts, and we had readings of successive drafts.” Their first reading was in August 2023 when Gregory showed RTP her first 60 pages to get early input. December 2023, she returned once again with a completed draft of the play that was revised once again for a reading in March of 2024. In total Gregory and her collaborators had five readings of the play. “Once you get into rehearsal with a new play, you’re always going to make discoveries.”
Up through the rehearsal process, the script was continually
Andrew Pochan
Andrew Pochan
Andrew Pochan
being altered. “A lot of it, for me, is finding places to tighten it up,” she says. These could’ve been technical changes or alterations to certain beats within the show. She described one instance where she produced more dialogue for a scene when it became clear an actor would need more time to change before the next scene. In other instances, changes were made to amplify the emotion or pace of a scene.
The play also has a significant musical element to it. Although it’s not considered a musical, characters will routinely break out in song. It contains original arrangements by Chris Heslop and period music repurposed for the play. Grego ry wrote the lyrics for the original pieces and created new ones for the existing songs. “I liked the idea of using music as a commentary … It’s a Brechtian device. They pull us out of the story and ask us to reflect … It’s breaking up the intimate and naturalistic scenes with more pre sentational scenes.”
Her advice to young cre atives looking to make a career in theatre is to find a communi ty where theatre can thrive. Also, she encourages people to acquaint themselves with all aspects of the atre. “I think everybody, no matter what you’re doing in theatre, should understand all the other elements of theatre … take an acting class, take a playwriting class – understand all the moving parts and get involved in as many productions as you can.”
Her advice to playwrights is the same. They should be entrepre neurial, driven and ready to fail but most of all, they should be writing. “You can only develop those skills by exercising those skills. You’re not
going to be a director unless you direct. You’re not going to be an actor unless you act and you’re not going to be a playwright unless you write plays.”
Now that the play has closed, Gregory still feels there are revisions to be made but largely she’s gotten what she wanted out of it. After making her revisions, she’s shifting her attention to her next project –A musical adaptation of her most popular work
Clairea Newman Williams
WHO HAVE YOU BEEN
Emerson Campbell 27'
The Voidz
Emily Sousa 27' Dijon
Ilaria Catania 27'
Sabrina Carpenter
Angel Leon 27'
Bad Bunny
LISTENING TO? MUSICIANS
Jamier Faison 28'
Sean McNicholas 25' Blink 182
Dynasty Roque 25'
Amy Winehouse
Luke Perkins 25' Laufey
VAGINAMonologues
SITTING DOWN WITH DIRECTOR JULIA CHARETTE POOLE
Interview by: Taylor Meachum (' 27), Treasurer
Graphics curated by: Jenna Shallop ('25)
Note: This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity
Taylor Meachum: I want to start by asking what inspired you to take on the role as the director of The Vagina Monologues, and how did you know you were ready?
Julia Poole: It was definitely a hard decision. When the faculty approached me, it was after I had already assistant-directed for Julia Matthews in the fall for The Glass Menagerie. So, I knew the space. I also knew that I could rely on the faculty members. I've been meeting consistently with Julia Matthews and Jeffrey Lentz this semester, sharing what we've been working on and my concepts, and they have listened and talked with me. So, I knew that even if I hadn't done it before, I was surrounded by the support of people that I needed. My experience in rehearsal rooms my entire life allowed me
to feel like I could really put myself out there and try something new. I'm really proud of the work that we've created here so far.
TM: That’s amazing. After this show, would you direct another one?
JP: Absolutely. I always say my one true love is performing. The next show I'm in is Night Music so that's what I'm gearing up for right af ter this. Something I like to say about myself is I want to create a career for myself in the theatre arts world, whether that's costum ing, production work, working in the booth, being a director, or be ing a performer. If I'm working and creating in a theatre space, I will be fulfilled as an artist, which is why I wanted to go to a lib eral arts school in the first place. So absolutely, I
could see myself doing it again in the future.
TM: Well, as you said, you're no stranger to theatre at Albright
alone. Does your experience in theatre play a big role in your directing style?
JP: Yes. When I came into this directing space, what I had to rely on was my skill as an actor. I had to think of directing moments, good and bad, throughout my entire middle school, high school, and college directing experience. I'm very thankful that in my acting studio classes both Julia Matthews and Jeffrey Lentz sprinkle a little bit of directing in. Also, it's good to be able to see things from different perspectives. I think, honestly, what really helped me as a director most was all of the backstage and pre-production work that I've done. I was able to take my experiences as an actor and see, okay, this is what my actors need, and I was able to apply that. It was like, what do I need as an actor? Okay, how do I deliver that for my actors?
My work as a dramaturg really drove a lot of my creative process for this. Jocelyn McLaughlin did our dramaturgy work for this show, which was incredible. We rooted a lot of the inspiration and design elements of the 1970s feminist art movement and the second wave of feminism. Digging into that historical research was really important to me. It's important that we remember what's happened, or else it's going to happen again. Jenna Shallop created a beautiful projection design for the show, which has historical elements of newspapers and moments in time.
TM: Awesome. How has directing this production challenged you and changed you as an artist and an individual?
JP: I have had to prioritize time management in ways I've never had to before, especially being a full-time student. I have a job on campus, I'm in the choir, and I do this. Plus rehearsing—you know—my own music. So being able to rely on my team around me was very important.
I was so grateful to have the most incredible cast of actors who memorized their stuff in an incredibly fast amount of time. These are no short monologues. These are feats of monologues. I'm very proud of them. My stage management team all were able to really work together. These student designers put on an entirely student-designed and student-run production with help from the faculty.
One of the greatest things was also Angel Alvarado, our scenic de-
signer. When we wanted another assistant stage manager—we were a little late in the process to get one—to be able to help our actors run lines. Angel was like, “Let me come in, let me be your rehearsal ASM. I'll be able to see my scenic design in action.” And he came in and was an incredible addition to the team. So truly, the biggest thing for me is learning to rely on the people around you because you can micromanage everything, but I have an incredible team here and I couldn't have done any of this without the people that I had.
TM: That's amazing. What was your directorial vision for this year's production, and how did you bring it to life?
JP: From middle school on, I've always been the feminist in the class. When we were learning about history, I was always really fascinated and angered by women's history. When this show was introduced to me, I was like, this is everything I love and more. A
collection of theatrical feminist monologues? Sign me up 7,000 times.
I really wanted to root my research in the feminist art movement of the 1970s. I was looking at women's history, relying on women's rights movements and trans rights activists like Sylvia Rivera, Mar-
and a box of props.” And he went, “Okay, let's make it work.” And he made it work. He created this beautiful space of chairs with different heights and textures. We have this dark wood table, which created this beautiful texture for the actors to play in. Daniel Lior, who is our props designer, worked with the actors directly as they
sha P. Johnson, and Gloria Steinem. I was drawn to the conversations of prominent feminists in the feminist art movement in the 1970s. Particularly, I was drawn to the work of Lucy Lippard. I read an article featuring her and other prominent female architects, designers, and poets discussing female imagery. That was the first thing I sent to my designers.
Working with Hannah Martin, our costume designer, she really heard that and ran with it. I went to Angel and said, “I want chairs
were doing their mono logues. Cer tain actors have props that they work with throughout the scene that are relevant to what they're talking about. They created this beauti ful space of the props on the ta ble that we see. Everyone worked together in this really beautiful way to allow everything to flow together nicely. I'm so, so thank ful for the team we have here.
TM: Right. So there are a lot of fairly new actors in the show. How did you create a safe and supportive environment for the performers to not only feel comfortable on stage, but explore such personal and powerful topics?
JP: So, these monologues are conversations and stories. These are open and honest dialogues both between the actor and the audience, but also between the actor and the monologue itself. When I first stepped into the process I gave the actors their monologues. I asked everyone to read over—to start memorizing as much as they could. I started to rely on if something makes you
times we touched on the monologues in the space and I wanted the actors to feel safe. We also emphasize checking in. The actors do check-ins for physicality. If on Monday you say yes, you can touch my shoulder, it may not be how you're going to be on Tuesday. That's totally fine. And it can change within the minute or the hour. These are real conversations and—as I'm sure many people who come to see the show will feel—these aspects of this text will affect each person in a different way. That's the beauty of it. It’s important to allow everyone to feel how they need to.
TM: That’s amazing. The Vagina Monologues has been performed worldwide and since 1996. Why do you think it remains relevant today?
JP: Well, it's been performed in all 50 states in 130 countries worldwide, which says enough. We still have a lot of work to do. There's a lot of fight to keep fighting. Something I keep coming back to is the biggest defense in times of discomfort—unbridled, unbroken and openly shared joy. We have to laugh together. We have to be together. We have to have these uncomfortable conversations together. If we don't start to think about why we feel the way we do and why the interactions with people make us feel a certain way, then we can't go forward.
TM: Right. What do you have to say to or about the people that may feel uncomfortable about the
critical themes of the play?
JP: That discomfort is the first step, that means you're thinking about it. I encourage, if you saw that bright purple sign that said The Vagina Monologues, and you were like, oh, I know I'm not going to see this show, I think that that urges the conversation to come see it even more. Curiosity, I feel, tops all at the end of the day. And even if you come in and you're like, this was not for me, the fact that you and your perspective were in these seats is what matters most. I'm just thrilled for there to be an audience of people to share their energy with us in this space.
TM: That was beautifully said. Did you incorporate any new elements or adaptations to make the show more inclusive or relevant?
JP: Absolutely. We emphasize that this is a show about vaginas, not a show about women because there's so many people in the world who have vaginas who are not women. So really emphasizing pronouns and allowing space for conversation about that, knowing that these conversations are not just women's conversations is important. V, the author of this play, said that one of the most impactful and influential productions of this play was an entirely transgender cast. People were so upset. It got horrible reviews. V was like, you missed the point. They got it. So, trying to keep the perspectives of the actors and the people in the cast is really what helped keep this production as open as we could
have it.
TM: Is there anything else that I didn't ask that you'd like to cover?
JP: You're good at your job. No, I just think that it's really important right now to support all aspects of the arts. I think that protecting, valuing, and engaging in the arts and the sciences is more important than ever. So, I'm just going to say go to the Freedman Gallery, go to Improv, go to Lion Records, go support Club Vogue, go support the choir. Support arts because that is what's going to keep us going. We can fight all day, but we have to dance at night if we're going to continue to thrive as humans, as activists, and as people.
TM: That was amazing. Thank you so much for sitting down with me.
JP: Thank you so much for having me.
"The Vagina Monologues" director Julia Charette Poole
Kiara Cruz
STUDENT
mom lulls me with forgotten words whispered in song songs of the dirt, the pain, the mundane, transformed into the beautiful, the spirited, the wonderous, stories of her womanhood and girlhood before she lost them to motherhood
Campbell '27
The Weight of Others
Olivia Narodowski
-Emerson
Jesus my Superstar Lillian Tuffy '27 27
Untitled Miles Roberts '28
Shrinkage of Antarctica since the 90's
Noelle Cruz '25
Untitled . Miles Roberts '28
I am not Icarus
I do not have wax wings to fly, nor do I wish that I did
I am not Icarus
I will not betray the things that I care about now for the future that I long for I am not Icarus
I am not brave
I am not courageous
I am not Icarus
I am steadfast
I am true
I am fierce and refuse to let go when something matters to me
I am not Icarus
I couldn't be
Because I would make wings for the people I care about so that they could fly with me
GALLERY
-Amara Fabry '26
The Impossible Dream Maya Burdick '25
Untitled Daniel Lior '27
Duality of Man
Lillian Tuffy ' '27
Bubbles Sarah Chernis '25
A CONVERSATION WITH CH IP KIDD
Interview by: Maya Burdick ('25), Layout & Design/Social Media Chair
Note: This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity
Maya Burdick: We read your book Go in my digital illustration class!
Chip Kidd: Oh great!
MB: Yeah! I guess I’ll start with that. You marketed that book to readers as young as 10 years old. What prompted you to speak to such a range of audiences and how did you keep it applicable to such a large group of people?
CK: So, the story behind that is that I got a phone call one day by a woman who is an author who goes by R.J. Palacio [author of bestselling children’s novel Wonder]. The book jacket “community” is remarkably small. She’s very, very good— very talented.
I get a call from her one day, and she says, “Do you want to have lunch to talk about something?” and I said, “Sure.” I just assumed she wanted me to design a book cover for her. Instead, she said, “As far as I know there is no book to teach graphic design to kids” and as soon as she said it this ‘idea bomb’ went
off in my head and I thought, she’s right! I can’t think of one! That part of it was very appealing to me—scary, but appealing. It completely put me out of my comfort zone, as did making a book for kids. So I said, how can I say no to this?
We determined: who is our audience? My soundbite was, “I don’t know kids, I don’t have any kids, and I don’t like
kids.” So, these are barriers to overcome—the last one being sort of sarcastic. Talking to a child, usually, what I do is just talk like they’re grown up, which is the way I approached the writing in this.
The last sentence in The Cheese Monkeys [Kidd’s debut novel, an autobiographical coming-of-age book]—the teacher is telling his students, they are about to graduate—the last sentence is, “Ready, go.” I liked that idea of, okay— you’ve learned all you’re going to learn here, so go and use it. I can’t even remember thinking about considering another title. I was going to interview the brilliant Milton Glaser [legendary graphic designer behind the ‘I NY’ logo] at the Cooper Hewitt Museum, and backstage, I told him that I was working on this. His face just lit up and he said, “That is such a great idea.” And I said, “Well when we have a first draft, can I
"Go" written and designed by Chip Kidd
send it to you, and could you give me a quote?” Usually, you don’t put quotes on the front— you put them on the back—but I was definitely going to lead with that because, in the graphic design world, he is Picasso. It was tough to figure out what goes in it, but also what doesn’t go in it. Theres a lot of examples of uses of graphic design that I did not want to introduce to a ten-year-old. Which was fine. That freed me up to concentrate on what graphic design is, how it works, the history of typography, how images work with text, etc. I think we did fine without any of that.
MB: You said about what not to introduce to kids. I remember you talking in a lecture about the many covers you submitted
for the book You Better Not Cry and their critique of Santa looking inappropriate for readers. I wonder if you have a collection of covers that weren’t accepted or didn’t make it to print?
CK: Oh my god yes! I show rejected stuff if I think it should not have been rejected. There are times when something gets rejected, and then you have to really be resilient and bounce back from that and decide, alright, I’m going to start over and do something better than what I initially did. That’s the goal. And I think sometimes I attained it, and a lot of times, I didn’t. I hate to give up—I really hate to give up. [You Better Not Cry] is a perfect example, I thought a lot of those covers were really funny—
MB: I did too!
CK: —and smart, and there’s a lot of them, and they just ended up not using any of them. It’s disappointing, but you just have to soldier on. One thing I’ve been very, very fortunate about in my career is that, because I’m on staff at Knopf Doubleday Publishing, there’s always a next thing to work on. In fact, there’s always about six next things to work on, and that, over the years, I have found really sustaining and helpful. Sometimes you do feel like you’re on a hamster wheel, but I bring it up
because it makes failure a little easier to accept. It’s like, okay, I didn’t get You Better Not Cry, so what’s next?
MB: That’s a great way of looking at things. Circling back to getting involved with content for young audiences. You did the poster on Walt Whitman for National Poetry Month. It connects so physically with those seeing it and I wonder if you have any other work that you feel relates so substantially to the physical world?
CK: This is probably a cop-out answer, but the book is a physical thing that you hold, so I’ve always approached it that way. The interesting thing with the Whitman poster is I had given that cast of Whitmans hand to my husband as a Christmas present one year.It seemed natural then to use it on the poster. This is how big his hand really was; this is at 100% size, and you can compare his to yours. It seemed like a natural, involving idea.
Semi-non sequitur—
What I wanted to emphasize about Go is that I was also really, really conscious of that fact that I didn’t want to make this about teaching kids how to sell things. If a kid reads this and they major in graphic design and they go work for an ad agency. Fine. Good for them if they enjoy that. But I didn’t want to make it about designing something so that somebody buys something so that a company makes more money. I mean, that is our society, but that’s not what
"The Cheese Monkeys" written and designed by Chip Kidd
"IT'S ABOUT GETTING YOUR IDEAS ACROSS IN THE MOST INTERESTING AND DIRECT WAY
-Chip Kidd
and
"The City
Its Uncertain Walls" written by Haruki Murakami and designed by Chip KIdd and Eric Baker (above); “National Poetry Month Poster: Walt Whitman” designed by Chip Kidd (right)
the book is about. It’s about getting your ideas across in the most interesting and direct way.
MB: You talk about clarity a lot and I read your book Judge This [Kidd’s book on visual clarity and graphic design] too. You also mention your “psychic Drano” and the way you find inspiration around New York. Could you share the most recent thing you’ve found around you to set off creative inspiration during a creative block?
CK: That is a really good question. New York is a very different place than it was when I wrote that. As everywhere is. It all depends on the project.
This isn’t quite the same thing, but I saw an illustrator’s work in a magazine, and I thought this might be right for this book I’m working on, which is a novel about intrigue in the opera world. And I went on his website, and I contacted him. I just explained what it was and what I was looking for, and he did it. That’s always like magic to me—working with an illustrator or photographer and saying, this is what I’d like to see, and then they make it.
MB: Definitely! I’m often inspired by other artists I discover!
CK: Yes! And it’s also very important that they get credit for it. I always look for the name. There was this designer who I’ve known forever. He started making these photo collages that have line art over them. His name is Eric Baker. He made a physical mailer; he made a book
out of these things and sent them to his friends. I looked at it, and I was absolutely blown away. They were really, really smart and interesting.
I designed books for Haruki Murakami [internationally acclaimed author of Norwegian
doing. It just never would’ve occurred to me.
So I guess the takeaway there is it doesn’t hurt to send out mailers of your work, or the equivalent these days is, here is a link to my website, which is totally understandable.
Wood and 1Q84] for over 30 years, and there was a new novel coming up, The City and Its Uncertain Walls. And I thought of him. I said, here, here is the manuscript. Read it and see what you think. See what comes to mind. And long story short, we got it done, and I think it looks great. But he’s so grateful, and I said, well, I never would’ve called you had you not sent me that sample of what you were
By the way, if you read Judge This, there’s also a TED Talk linked to that. They wanted to start an in-print, and the concept was: what if a TED Talk was a book and you could sit and read it and be done with it in like a half an hour and get all these ideas from it? For me it was a challenge. The editor there was great too. Initially, I wanted to make it about failure and how to bounce back from it, but she said, and I think wisely, that there’s a lot of that out there. This really should be something more unique and moreoriginal. And so, it became what you see. I don’t even know how I came up with it. Some things are clear, and some things are not. And what should be clear and what should be mysterious, and what happens when they switch—there seemed to be a book there.
I also very much wanted it to be a visual book, so it’s di-
"Judge This" written and designed by Chip Kidd
vided the way it is. The first half is, Here are some objects and things that I think are beautifully designed and here’s why. Then the second half is the inspiration thing—the, here’s what I had to do. I looked at this thing. It inspired me. And then you turn the page and see what I did. When I do a slide lecture, you throw up a slide, usually with just the title of the book on it, and talk about what it’s about, what’s required, etc., etc., and let the audience think in their minds, So what would I do? Then click on what it came out to be.
My point being, that whole thing in the first TED Talk of the drawing of the apple and the word—I’ve really tried to apply that as much as possible to what I’m doing.
MB: "Say it or show it" is such a great thing to carry through all your work— and for anyone reading the book to apply to their creations.
CK: I think graphic designers pay attention to things in a different way than non-graphic designers. We look at typefaces, we look at the spacing of the typefaces, we look at—oh look, somebody stretched this on a computer—that looks terrible, but no one seems to care.
MB: Do you have a certain typeface you typically gravitate toward?
CK: I keep my options open. When I first started working in 1986/87, there were a couple of graphic designers that
became like superstars because of their innovation of typography—Neville Brody in England and David Carson in the States. I would look at their work with envy because I just thought, I can’t design that way. My brain just doesn’t work this way.
My typography, for the most part, is pretty straightforward. I want it to be elegant and do what it has to do. It can be very loud when it needs to be loud, and it can be quiet when it needs to be quiet. But I’m looking at typefaces all the time. Very often, the default serif font is Bodoni, and the default sans-serif font is Futura. There are a lot of variations of both. But that said, I don’t only use Bodoni and Futura. If you’re starting out and you’re learning, those are good places to start because, in their own way, they are both classic.
Part of the other thing about being very experimental with typography is that most of the time, my project is a hard cover book. I would think, okay how is this going to look in five years? How is this going to look in ten years? How is this going to look in fifteen years? Because people don’t throw hardcover books away. They’ll give them to somebody, or they’ll donate them, but it feels wrong to throw a hardcover book into the trash. It just does, to me anyway. So I think that’s why, typographically, I’m a little bit more—I guess you’d call conservative—because I don’t want it to look like, Oh that’s so 2002. Sometimes it’s hard to escape that, but I try to transcend that if I can.
MB: And they do. I guess to finish up the interview, is there anything you want to design or that you wish you could design in the future that you haven’t gotten the chance to yet?
CK: I think where I’ve “branched out creatively” is writing. Most writers have a love-hate relationship with it, although some claim to love getting up at six in the morning and writing for three hours.
I’ve been very fortunate to publish books of my own where I’m the author and designer, and it’s always about something that I’m very passionate about. I’ve written an Avengers graphic novel for Marvel that’s going to come out in August. It’s drawn by a guy named Michael Cho. It’s called The Veracity Trap. If you’re a fan, you’ll be familiar with all the characters in it and their distinct personalities, and there’s this sort of existential element to it.
It’s been a tough slog— it’s been four-and-a-half years in the making—but I think it’s pretty much exactly what I want it to be and what the artist wants it to be. I’m excited about that. We’re wrapping up Fall of ‘25 books at Knopf, and we’re about to launch Spring of ‘26. “And the world goes ‘round” as Kander and Ebb said.
MB: Well, I look forward to reading your Marvel graphic novel. Thank you so, so much for taking the time to talk to me.
CK: Thank you.
professor black: style icon
a moment for the crocs
STYLE SAMPLE
Albright's Campus
the cutest earmuffs
A LITTLENight Music CLOSING OUT 100 YEARS
Interview by: Maya Burdick (' 25), Layout & Design/Social Media Chair
Article by: Ryan Elmore ('26), Editor-in-Chief
Thursday April 10 in Albright Theater Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s A Little Night Music had its first performance before an audience. Directed by Albright Artist-in-Residence and Alumni Jeffrey Lentz, audiences reveled in the production’s four shows and in the talent exhibited by student creatives on and off the stage. The production marked the final show of the Domino Players’ 100th Anniversary Season.
“It’s a piece I longed to do for many years,” Lentz said, “and it requires a certain level of vocal ability, and it seemed like the perfect piece to continue the work we’ve been doing with the vocal performance co-major.”
Lentz, who is a classically trained vocalist and teaches vocal pedagogy, knew it was a piece that demanded a lot of its singers. “It requires a certain level of vocal ability ... the concentrated time just thinking about vocal production and support and then thinking about the incredible score by Sondheim – it all calls on really
trained performers.”
Additionally, Lentz had creative challenges to overcome. Set in turn of the century Sweden, work needed to be done to transform the Albright Theater into the space Lentz had envisioned. What resulted was a set that was able to convey the serious emotional stakes of the piece while leaning into a presentational design. Complete with steel beams filling in as trees, hanging lanterns as stars and a giant elevated platform lined with LED lights, the stage offered something never seen before by Albright audiences.
This construction has allowed the show to tell its story in unique ways. Lentz said, “We were able to organize the space in such a way that was a wonderful touchstone for the performers because once [they understood] they were being supported [by the design] they could feel grounded.”
Another challenge was making the characters – largely Swedish aristocracy from a hun-
dred years ago – relatable and arresting for Albright audiences. “When you strip it bare and when you have young people performing [the show] who are having to explore the faults and foibles of human beings, it reveals a common experience.”
With the show’s four performances, Albright students as well as members of the Greater Reading community were seriously impressed, having connected with the show in unexpected ways. Some audience members cited the show’s idiosyncratic design and stellar performances from cast members such as Mara Nagle who played Desiree Armfeldt and Isabella Tewfik who played Anne Egerman.
Luke Perkins, also hailed for their per for-
mance as Fredrik Egerman, enjoyed exploring each character’s complexity. “All these characters are real – they're human,” they said. “They all have flaws, none of them are these perfect people you aspire to be like and that’s true to the real world.”
Looking back on the show a week after its full run, Lentz is still riding the production’s high. "More than anything, I was looking forward to introducing our theatre/vocal performance students and our audiences to the musical splendor of this amazing work ... our company of singing actors and our amazing crew far exceeded even their own expectations.”
The costumes, elegant formal wear complete with tailored dresses and tuxedos, were designed by Liz Polley. The stylized lighting design was created by Jen Rock in her final production at Albright College. The set was designed by Mike Rhoads and constructed by Adam Kissinger. The show saw eight musicians making up the show’s orchestra led by music director Jimmy Damore. Amara Fabry acted as the production stage manager and Murphy McCabe acted as assistant director.
“This was definitely one of the most, if not the most, delightful rehearsal processes I've ever experienced,” Lentz said. “It was that magic amalgam of a brilliant work and a brilliant team! I'm so grateful. “
Ian Poole
Ian Poole
Ian Poole
Mike Rhoads
Ian Poole
Ian Poole
Ian Poole
Ian Poole
Mike Rhoads
Mike Rhoads
Mike Rhoads
The Albright Arts Magazine (AM) reports on all things artistic happening on campus and in the greater Reading community. As a diverse, student-run organization, we are dedicated to uncovering the art that exists in everyday life. Our publication covers theatre reviews, interdisciplinary arts, campus concert series, and spotlights on student artists, musicians, dancers, and more.
Our team is made up of journalists, photographers, graphic designers, visual artists, and editors who work tirelessly each semester to produce a high-quality, professional publication. From writing and editing to layout and printing, our staff plays a hands-on role in every stage of the process. Beyond print, AM also champions the arts through blogging, website development, and social media. Spring 2025
Maya Burdick ’25, Elizabeth Churchill ’25, Ryan Elmore ’26, Taylor Meachum ’27
