MGSA Graduation 2023

Approximately 270 students participated in the MGSA convocation ceremony on May 11 downtown at the State Theatre. Afterward, the group gathered in the atrium of the Civic Square Building to eat, drink, embrace, take teary selfies, and enjoy live music provided by a student jazz ensemble.

BFA filmmaker DeVonna Brockman wove a poem into her speech and reminded her fellow grads of their resilience: “We are all destined for greatness because we continue to answer when art calls. We continue to create through any circumstance—we continue the legacy that is art.” Tony-nominated BFA acting alum Kevin Chamberlin (aka Bertram on the hit Disney Channel sitcom Jessie) gave a speech to the graduates packed with advice about how to maintain their humanity and succeed in the world of work—on stage, back stage, in the gallery space, the corporate world, and beyond. One salient piece of advice was simple: “Lift up and support each other as you head out into that jungle.”

And on May 14, Tony-nominated alum Sheryl Lee Ralph (aka Barbara Howard on ABC's hit comedy Abbott Elementary) addressed the Rutgers–New Brunswick class of 2023 in a speech that praised their resilience, saying: “We need people who have been through something and still have so much to give and share—that’s you.”

View more photos and watch the ceremony at go.rutgers.edu/mgsamag.

Visit

BFA Art & Design alum and Newark-based muralist Layqa Nuna Yawar was one of just two artists commissioned to create work now on permanent display in Newark Liberty International Airport’s Terminal A. “The airport is a theater,” the painter told The New York Times “It’s like a soapbox, a place where you can reach the whole world.” His 350-foot-long mural, Between the Future Past, features famous and not-so-famous people connected to New Jersey. View a video about Yawar's commission at go.rutgers.edu/mgsamag

See

Tony-nominated theater alum Moritz von Stuelpnagel is set to return to the Great White Way this fall: von Stuelpnagel will direct Danny DeVito and his daughter, Lucy, in a new play by Theresa Rebeck, I Need That, presented by Roundabout Theatre Company. The comedy, about a widower grappling with how to let go of clutter after his wife’s death, is “a very humanistic, characterdriven, slice-of-life story,” says Lucy DeVito. “The themes speak to loneliness and love, and the hardships you experience with your family while getting older.” The show opens in October at American Airlines Theatre.

Listen

In April, NPR Music’s Tiny Desk Concerts video series of live concerts marked 15 years. The concept: Bands performing in All Things Considered host Bob Boilen’s cramped Washington, D.C., workspace. The series has drawn music royalty, including Lizzo and U2’s Bono and the Edge, but MGSA has contributed plenty to Tiny Desk’s history, too: You can catch archival video of Tiny Desk concerts by Rutgers University’s homegrown Screaming Females, led by Art & Design alum Marissa Paternoster, Music alum Cristina Pato and The Cristina Pato Trio, and Music alum Peter Martin’s Third Coast ensemble, from 2012, 2013, and 2018, respectively. View