CLASS NOTES
ROWAN POPE ’99 AND BLY POPE ’99 RETURNED TO BLAKE’S UPPER SCHOOL ART ROOM THIS YEAR — THIS TIME AS TEACHERS.
MELISSA DIRACLES ’01 CELEBRATES HER OCTOBER WEDDING TO EDWARD GONZALEZLASTRA WITH FELLOW CLASS OF 2001 ALUMNAE EMILY HUTCHINSON, MAGGIE MOORE NOLAN, CAROLINE STEPHENSON BOUCKAERT AND MAXINE KAYE BÉDAT.
Playwright Uncovers Hidden Gem
POPPY HARLOW ’01 AND HER HUSBAND, SINISA BABCIC, WELCOMED DAUGHTER SIENNA IN APRIL.
Minnesota and are finishing up their fourth original screenplay together. You can check out their work at popebrothersart.org. (Also see In Print & Production)
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Liz Tietz and her husband, Rob Windle, welcomed a son last year, Thomas Windle. The family lives in London. REUNION
Mayank Keshaviah ’92 (middle) with the cast of “The United States vs. Bhagat Singh Thind”
In 1923, the United States Supreme Court ruled that all immigrants of South Asian origin be stripped of their citizenship, a decision not completely overturned until 1946. This year, playwright Mayank Keshaviah ‘92 set out to tell the tale of the United States vs. Bhagat Singh Thind with a note from his director: “Keep it fun.” Inspired by Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Broadway hit “Hamilton,” which features rap battles between Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton, Keshaviah breathed new life into the final scene of his play by turning the testimony into a Supreme Court rap battle. Audiences loved it. Commissioned by the East West Players, the country’s oldest AsianAmerican theater, the play toured Los Angeles-area middle and high schools as part of the organization’s Theatre for Youth program, which annually presents a play that explores AsianAmerican history. Keshaviah found himself in uncharted territory writing for adolescents but drew on his
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experience as an educator to create an engaging piece that would connect with younger audiences. “The best part was seeing the students’ reactions to the injustices faced by the main character,” Keshaviah says. “Many of them come from immigrant families, so it resonated with them strongly. And they had some great questions in the talkbacks after the performances.” As a child of immigrants from India, Keshaviah says he also felt a strong connection to the main character, whom he knew little about before the play’s commission. “Part of my fascination with Thind came from the fact that he does not occupy a place of prominence in the Indian-American diaspora,” Keshaviah says, “so I felt as if I were uncovering a hidden gem of a story.” Though its initial run has ended, Keshaviah hopes his play will be produced elsewhere so Thind’s story can continue to connect with a wider audience.
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Melissa Diracles was married to Edward Gonzalez-Lastra last fall at the Colony Palms Hotel in Palm Springs, California. The two met in graduate school at the Southern California Institute of Architecture. Melissa is an architect at Frank Gehry Partners in Los Angeles. Breaking news from CNN’s Poppy Harlow in New York: “My husband, Sinisa Babcic, and I are thrilled to announce the birth of our daughter, Sienna. Sienna was born April 10 (on her due date — making deadline like a true journalist!) She was 8 pounds, 5 ounces when she was born and is keeping us very busy in the best way. We are over the moon and can’t wait to watch her grow up.”
Christina Saunders moved back to the Twin Cities from New York City in 2011 to become the special education director at KIPP Minnesota. In 2014, she became the executive director of the educational nonprofit ACES. She writes, “It’s an organization that provides tutoring and mentoring services for fourth through eighth graders in low-income schools and in the Boys and Girls Clubs of Minneapolis and Saint Paul. We have a unique partnership with professional sports teams in the Twin Cities (Vikings, Twins, Wild, Timberwolves, Lynx and United FC), which provides our students awesome curriculum and field trip opportunities. Brigitte Zimmerman married Scott Seim on New Year’s Eve at the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis. Andrea Kay McFarland was maid of honor, and classmates Jenny Fields, Soraya Darabi and Sonia Farber attended. Brigitte and Scott live in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where Brigitte is an assistant professor of public policy and Peter Thacher Grauer Fellow at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
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Cassidy Blackwell was named one of Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business 2016.