Yale School of Drama Annual Alumni Magazine, 2016–17.

Shaping the Field One Play at a Time A Rep in the Right Direction

50 ! is

The Rep’s First Steps

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YALE SCHOOL OF DRAMA ANNUAL MAGAZINE 2016–17

YALE SCHOOL OF DRAMA ANNUAL MAGAZINE

James Bundy ’95 Dean/Artistic Director Victoria Nolan Deputy Dean/Managing Director Joan Channick ‘89 Associate Dean Chantal Rodriguez Assistant Dean board of advisors John Beinecke YC ’69 Chair Jeremy Smith ’76 Vice Chair Nina Adams MS ’69, NUR ’77

Ellen Iseman YC ’76

Amy Aquino ’86

Jane Kaczmarek ’82

John Badham ’63, YC ’61 Sonja Berggren Special Research Fellow ’13 Carmine Boccuzzi YC ’90, LAW ’94

David Johnson YC ’78 Asaad Kelada ’64 Sarah Long ’92, YC ’85 Donald Lowy ’76 Elizabeth Margid ’91, YC ’82

Lynne Bolton

Drew McCoy

Clare Brinkley

Tarell Alvin McCraney ’07

Sterling Brinkley, Jr. YC ’74

David Milch YC ’66

Kate Burton ’82

Tom Moore ’68

Lois Chiles

Arthur Nacht ’06

Patricia Clarkson ’85

Jennifer Harrison Newman ’11

Edgar (Trip) Cullman III ’02, YC ’97

Lupita Nyong’o ’12

Scott Delman YC ’82

Amy Povich ’92

Michael Diamond ’90

Liev Schreiber ’92

Polly Draper ’80, YC ’77 Charles S. Dutton ’83

Tracy Chutorian Semler YC ’86

Sasha Emerson ’84

Tony Shalhoub ’80

Heidi Ettinger ’76

Michael Sheehan ’76

Lily Fan YC ’01, LAW ’04

Anna Deavere Smith HON ’14

Terry Fitzpatrick ’83

Andrew Tisdale

Marc Flanagan ’70

Edward Trach ’58

Marcus Dean Fuller ’04

Esme Usdan YC ’77

Anita Pamintuan Fusco YC ’90

Courtney B. Vance ’86

Donald Granger, Jr. YC ’85

Henry Winkler ’70

David Marshall Grant ’78

Amanda Wallace Woods ’03

David Alan Grier ’81 Ruth Hendel Catherine MacNeil Hollinger ’86 Sally Horchow YC ’92

Carol Ostrow ’80

Donald Ware YC ’71

YALE SCHOOL OF DRAMA ANNUAL MAGAZINE 2016 –17

Dean’s Letter

YALE SCHOOL OF DRAMA ANNUAL MAGAZINE 2015

Dear Alumni, On whose shoulders do we stand? This is a question that has bubbled up for me on almost every day of this, the 50th Anniversary Season of Yale Repertory Theatre.

Since Robert Brustein founded Yale Rep in 1966 with the support of Kingman Brewster and Yale University, more than 3,000 alumni of the School, and thousands more guest artists, faculty, and members of the staff—a good number of whom were alumni who graduated before 1966—have collaborated on more than 300 productions at our theatre.

Think of the opportunities that the Rep has offered our students, including but not limited to: working at such a high level; bearing witness to every aspect of theatre-making including the ways that plays meet audiences night after night; and refining their own aesthetics and sense of professionalism either in alignment with, or in reaction to, strong choices on the Yale Rep stage. Like every theatre with a great history, ours is not a story of perfection—it is a story of ambition and brilliance, to be sure, but it is also a story of challenges, perseverance, and difference.

Think, too, of what the students, faculty, staff, and guests artists have brought to the world. Disruptive, pioneering, and aspirational, Yale Rep has consistently offered influential productions and practices to the field. You’ll read more about them in these pages, and you’ll get some sense, as well, of those who have given of their artistry and craft to make such influential work possible. They are your peers, of course, and though only a small number of them appear in this magazine, they represent the multitudes of you who have labored here to create extraordinary productions for more than half a century.

On whose shoulders do we stand? We will certainly all answer that question differently. Among many, I am particularly mindful of my predecessors, Robert Brustein, the late Lloyd Richards, and Stan Wojewodski, Jr.—and not just because of their admirable artistic legacies here at Yale.

I first met Bob by phone in 1977 when I was a high school senior with the opportunity to enroll in a BFA program—he advised me to get a great liberal arts education, and for me, he was right. Later, when I was a junior at Harvard, he brought much of his Yale Rep company to Cambridge to found ART, where I saw seminal productions, including A Midsummer Night’s Dream, directed by the great Alvin Epstein. The same year, Lloyd offered me a job sweeping floors at the O’Neill Theater Center and advised me not to take it, and he was right. In my first year on the faculty, 2002, he returned to my life with even more generous advice—indeed, it was so good, I cannot repeat it here: I will pass it on to my successor someday. Stan was my teacher, department chair, dean, and artistic director, and I was fortunate enough to assist him on As You Like It at Yale Rep. I revisit the lessons of his tutelage daily, and for a quarter of a century, he has been to me the model of an artistic director who knows that the theatre is only one important part of life.

YALE SCHOOL It is my great good fortune that the School of Drama and Yale Rep have been my OF DRAMA ANNUAL MAGAZINE artistic home for almost 20 years. That is a lot less time than many of our col2015 leagues have spent here so it with both joy and humility that I share this milestone with all of you. This is a great moment to look back on a host of achievements, and also to anticipate a magnificent future for the School and the Rep. It is also a moment to reflect on your inspiring lives and work far beyond Yale, captured in so many of these pages.

Making that possible is a wonderful team led by Deborah Berman, Director of Development and Alumni Affairs, our Editor. In recognition of its quality, last year’s magazine was honored with a Silver Award from the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), in the category of Annual Magazines. I am deeply grateful to Deborah for raising the standard of practice in this publication, just as we aim to do in training and production, and I thank her especially for her diligent and sensitive stewardship of our collective history.

Discovering a New Instrument

Christopher Noth... on a role Enter Flying

Sincerely yours, James Bundy ’95 2

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Contents

Features 12 The Rep’s First Steps

By Ilya Khodosh ’14, DFA ’18

18 Expanding the Vision: The

Artistry of Lloyd Richards

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By Kee-Yoon Nahm ’12, DFA ’16

26 Stan Wojewodski’s Yale Rep:

Witty, Elegant, Provocative

By Catherine Sheehy ’92, DFA ’99 (Faculty)

32 Creative Engine

By James Magruder ’88, DFA ’92, MA ’84 (Former Faculty)

36 In Their Own Words:

Facing the Issue Head On

Kee-Yoon Nahm ’12, DFA ’16 and

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Chiara Klein ’17, SOM ’17 Contributed to this article

44 Shaping the Field

One Play at a Time

By Chiara Klein ’17, SOM ’17

50 Putting It All Together:

Stage Management

Education at Yale Rep

By Emely Zepeda ’16 and Maria Inês Marques ’17

56 A Rep in the Right Direction 26

By Frank Rizzo

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Editor’s Letter Dear Friends, Only “mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun,” sang Noël Coward back in the 30s. But there I was on the streets of London in mid-July. And without a proper bonnet! (See photo below.) The occasion, appropriately enough, was the auction at Christie’s of a collection of art, including paintings by Noël Coward, that was donated to the School by Geoffrey Johnson ’55. Geoff was Noël’s friend and agent, and he decided that he wanted his friendship with Noël to continue fostering great art. The auction proceeds will fund the Geoffrey Ashton Johnson/Noël Coward Scholarship. You can read all about this in the Art of Giving section—we are extremely grateful to Geoffrey for his generosity and creativity in making this gift possible.

Creativity is in our DNA and I am no more reminded of that than by the 50th anniversary of Yale Repertory Theatre. This issue of the magazine celebrates the Rep’s spectacular history and tremendous legacy. The hands-on experience our students receive at the Rep continues to be an invaluable part of YSD training and a model for a life in professional theatre across the country and around the globe. In every theatre discipline, alumni who trained here are leaders in our extraordinary and ever-changing industry.

We kicked off the Rep’s 50th anniversary season with a number of events on campus, including a panel discussion that brought together some of the artists who worked at the Rep during every decade of our history, a dramatis personae we are very proud to call our colleagues and friends.

An exhibition of photographs, Yale Rep at 50: Daring Artists, Bold Choices, is currently on view at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. I encourage you to visit it, and to let this issue bring you back to some of the groundbreaking theatre-makers and innovative drama that have defined, and continue to define, our School and our Rep. Warmly,

Deborah S. Berman Editor Director of Development and Alumni Affairs

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YALE SCHOOL OF DRAMA ANNUAL MAGAZINE 2016–17, Vol. LVVI editorial staff Deborah S. Berman editor Alice Kenney managing editor Leonard Sorcher contributing editor Susan Clark editorial coordinator Paul Walsh editorial consultant contributors David Bruin Liz Diamond Anne Erbe Dipika Guha Ilya Khodosh Chiara Klein Sam Linden James Magruder Maria Inês Marques Kee-Yoon Nahm Frank Rizzo Catherine Rodriguez Jennifer Schmidt Catherine Sheehy Emely Zepeda design SML Design www.s-ml.org

Contents

Departments

6 On & Off York Street

62 Alumni Events 64 Yale Rep’s 50th Anniversary 68 Awards & Honors 10

72 Graduation 76 Bookshelf 77 Art of Giving 82 In Memoriam 92 Alumni Notes

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126 Donors Cover photo by T. Charles Erickson.

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A Journey Well Worth the Wait Six decades after the play’s initial publication, Yale University Press has released a ground-breaking multimedia edition of Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night, edited by William Davies King ’81, DFA ’83, YC ’77, professor of theatre at University of California, Santa Barbara. Readers can now experience O’Neill’s semi-autobiographical family drama along-

side a vast collection of supplementary materials that provide a sense of the play as it is on stage. In addition to selected criticism, historical and cultural contextual material, photographs, drafts, and diary entries, there are walk-throughs of the two houses that are so important to the work—Monte Cristo Cottage, O’Neill’s childhood home and the setting of the play, and Tao House where O’Neill lived while writing the play.

The edition includes video clips from a 2015 production at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and rehears6

al footage of the corresponding scenes, so readers can see two different performers approach the same moment. The rehearsals were coordinated and directed

by Joe Grifasi ’75 and feature a cast of fellow YSD graduates: Lizbeth Mackay ’75, James Naughton ’70, Brian Hastert ’09, and Daniel Reece ’14.

These rehearsals offer a rare and fascinating look behind the scenes. “I didn’t initially conceive of myself being in it that much,” says Joe. “But that work around the table—when the actors are creating a psychological substructure for their characters and for themselves as actors—that’s an interesting time.” Davies King agrees. “Normally actors need the privacy of the rehearsal room to be able to experiment,” he explained. “So it was remarkable and required somebody with Joe’s long experience and chutzpah to say, ‘Well, maybe I can put together a group that would trust me enough to expose the process.’”

Eugene O’Neill, who received an honorary doctorate of literature from the Drama School in 1926, instructed that Long Day’s Journey Into Night not be published until 25 years after his death; he also did not want it produced or published with editorial content. However, Davies believes that “O’Neill’s strictures make less and less sense as each generation comes along.” Students reading the play today lack the references that would have been clear to O’Neill’s contemporaries. Davies also associates Long Day’s Journey’s publication with “the violation experienced by virtually all playwrights who write a play

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in the quiet of a study and then have that horrendous experience of hearing actors and directors in rehearsal. Suddenly the play’s out there and hard to control.” But ultimately, as Joe says, “rehearsal is the other half of creating a play,” and that loss of control is part of bringing it to life.

“That work around the table—when the actors are creating a psychological substructure for their characters and for themselves as actors—that’s an interesting time.”

— j oe grifa s i ’75

The multimedia edition includes some evidence that O’Neill did envision a performance of the play.

There are audio clips of O’Neill reading from the text, giving a glimpse into how he imagined it being spoken. There are also drawings he made of the living room of the Monte Cristo Cottage with the fourth wall gone and some of the furniture moved around, as though he were planning the set.

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01 (left to right) Daniel Reece ’14, Brian Hastert ’09, James Naughton ’70, and Lizbeth Mackay ’75 with the directors, Gabrielle Demeestere and Joe Grifasi ’75.

01 With this multimedia Long Day’s Journey, drama students, actors preparing for production, and the general public can explore resources that have long been available to scholars in Beinecke Library but have been out of reach for the majority of readers. “This edition opens up a new element of the play that really is a living document,” says Sarah Miller, editor for literature, language, and the performing arts at Yale University Press. “It invites the reader to be a part of the process and to continue the play’s evolution.”

The release of this edition marks the latest milestone in Yale University Press’s 60-year relationship with Long Day’s Journey Into Night, which it first published in 1956. In

accordance with the wishes of O’Neill’s widow, Carlotta Monterey O’Neill, the royalties of the play support the upkeep of the O’Neill collection in the Beinecke Library and the Eugene O’Neill Memorial Scholarship at Yale School of Drama.

Long Day’s Journey Into Night is the first play that Yale University Press has issued in this format, and it shows what is possible for performing arts publishing. After reading the edition, James Bundy ’95 (Dean) wrote, “How fitting that one of the greatest of all American plays should give rise to this brilliant and generous work, which sets an entirely new standard for publishing in drama.”

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Charting Dramatic Structure with a Pencil, a Ruler, and Colored Markers After four years as Chair of Playwriting at Yale School of Drama, Jeanie O’Hare has moved to The Public Theater as Director of New Work, where she will continue to foment ambitious plays and champion theatre-makers as cultural leaders.

At YSD, Jeanie showed herself to be a tireless advocate of new and unconventional writers. She accepted outsiders into her tribe, looking past applicants’ educational and industry pedigrees to assess their potential as theatreartists. She brought in poets and public school teachers, social justice workers and playwrights who had never heard their work aloud before. Jeanie looked primarily at their instinct for theatrical metaphor, the urgency of their work, and the decisiveness of their calling to be a playwright above all else.

Uniquely, Jeanie teaches playwriting as a physical art. She asks her students to consider the workings of dramatic structure on the viscera as well as the intellect; the connection between the sequence and pacing of scenes and the rhythms of the body. She added courses on movement and the choreographic imagination to the curriculum, urging writers to explore the physical basis for emotional and empathetic response. In rehearsal, she directs the playwright’s focus to the work on its feet, pressing her or him to test the written line against the embodied instincts of actors. In production, she challenges 8

playwrights to be fearlessly attuned to the corporeal experience of audience members.

She does much of her dramaturgical work with a pencil, a ruler, and colored markers, charting dramatic structure on wall-length expanses of butcher paper. The image of those horizontal spans, filled with her meticulous, color-coded diagrams, captures Jeanie for me—both the rigor and the sweep of her imagination, which moves from the smallest details of pattern to the largest spiritual and political questions of our times.

Jeanie encouraged students to work on a similarly large canvas, speaking to contemporary culture

take charge of my stories. I want to be an agent of change.” Secondyear playwright Genne Murphy ’18 appreciates Jeanie’s advocacy of the playwright’s position at the forefront of culture-making, as well as “the responsibility we must accept with that platform—to our collaborators, our audiences, and ourselves. She sees the potential of theatre as a truth-seeking, visceral, and three-dimensional form.”

Even though she is leaving Yale for The Public, Jeanie O’Hare’s influence on the life and work of her students will long continue. As Genne says, “When someone like Jeanie believes in you as a writer, you’d best do the work and believe too.” — by anne erbe ’11 (faculty)

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with big ambitions, ideas, and feelings. “Since I met Jeanie,” reflects third-year playwright Miranda Rose Hall ’17, “I want to be very brave in my work. I want to

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02 (left to right) Mary Laws ’14, Hansol Jung ’14, Jeanie O’Hare (Former Faculty), and Kate Tarker ’14 during a playwriting class in 2012. Photo by Marguerite Elliott (Staff).

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A Beacon for Young Playwrights “I didn’t want to write plays or direct them,” says Sasha Emerson ’84, “but to write about them, and to produce them, and to work side by side with playwrights, as a midwife, researcher, and scholar.” For more than a decade, Sasha has done just that at the Ojai Playwrights Conference (OPC), which provides development and workshop productions for new plays. OPC plays have gone on to productions at just about every major theatre in the United States—Danai Gurira’s Eclipsed and Jiehae Park’s peerless were both staged at Ojai before coming to Yale Rep. This past April, OPC, where Sasha has served as a reader, production dramaturg, and associate artist, honored her at its annual benefit with the 2016 OPC Award, a distinction that recognized her longstanding commitment and extraordinary contributions to the development of new plays for the American theatre.

Presenting the award, playwright Christopher Gabriel Núñez ’19, who met Sasha in 2015 while workshopping his play, The Surgeon and her Daughters, described Sasha as “an invaluable beacon in the night” for young artists who “often feel like they are traversing a great desert with no knowledge of the stars, no wisdom with which to read the shifting sands.”

Sasha has mentored dozens of talented young playwrights at Ojai, including Robert Askins (Hand to God, Tony Award nominee); Ruby Rae Spiegel YC ’15 (Dry Land, finalist for 2015 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize); Aziza Barnes (BLKS, offered productions at Steppenwolf, Woolly Mammoth, and CTG); and Sarah Treem ’05, YC ’02 (Vienna’s Amaz-

ing and When We Were Young and Unafraid). Sasha served as the dramaturg for peerless in 2015, before the play was produced at Yale Rep, and also worked on Jiehae Park’s Hannah and the Dread Gazebo at Ojai in 2011. “There is a whole cabal of playwrights who feel fierce, loving gratitude toward the one and only Sasha Emerson,” says Jiehae.

“Her intelligence, passion, and force of belief in the power of plays and playwrights is an inspiration and a reminder to keep going.”

Though her career has taken her from television and film to interior design, Sasha never lost her passion for playwrights. While at HBO and New Line Cinema, she made a point of recruiting writers from the theatre. And even as her design business was taking off, she joined OPC. “My work at Ojai is intensely collaborative, and this comes directly from my YSD dramaturgical training and my internship at the O’Neill under Lloyd Richards’s tutelage. This is why it’s so important to me to bring as many YSD grads to Ojai as possible.” And of course as in Christopher’s case, to bring Ojai colleagues to the School.

As Sasha looks forward to the next summer festival at OPC, she couldn’t be more excited about the new plays she will discover and the new playwrights she will meet. Christopher thinks it’s the young writers who have a lot to look forward to. “There should be before and after pictures about meeting Sasha—like the kind they have for ab rollers,” he says, only partly joking. “Because she literally changes lives—in an instant and on the regular.”

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04 03 Sasha Emerson ’84 04 YSD alumni at Ojai in 2015. (standing) Cliff Warner ’87, Michael Manuel ’92, Jennifer Harrison Newman ’11, Nicola Rossini ’07, Elliot Quick ’12, Laila Robins ’84, and Kirsten Parker ’11. (kneeling) Greg Copeland ’04 and Sasha Emerson ’84.

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A Wonderland Farewell Last May, Yale School of Drama and Yale Repertory Theatre came together to celebrate associate costume shop manager Robin Hirsch, who retired after 32 years of dedicated service. A large group—including several of Robin’s former students from out of town—gathered in the Cabaret Studio for an Alice in Wonderland-themed tea party, organized by Jennifer Moeller ’06 and Joanna Romberg ’07 (Staff). Some of Robin’s most stunning costume constructions, from period ball gowns to an eight-foot-tall bear, were on display.

In toasts her colleagues praised her inspiring talent and ability, her vibrant sense of adventure, and the collegiality, respect, and care she showed for her coworkers and students. Although we will miss Robin’s warm personality and limitless skill with a needle and fabric, we’re grateful she’s not leaving us behind entirely! Robin will continue to serve as a lecturer in Technical Design & Production.

Everyone at YSD/YRT sends Robin heartfelt congratulations on a brilliant career.

— by sam linden ’19, som ’19

Selections from Toasts to Robin I like to say that Robin does not take a walk, she hikes; she does not hike, she rock climbs; and she does not rock climb, but she climbs to the top of Mount Washington—in period garb! …

She has made animals, light-up dresses, coats that breathe smoke and fog, coats that weep sand. She is a Costume craftsperson of rare capability.

She is always creating, always reforming always pushing herself like nobody else I have worked with. Like the really, really crazy smart, crazy creative, crazy innovative artist that she is. — clarissa youngberg, senior draper 10

06 Robin Hirsch (Faculty). Photo

by C. Nikki Mills ’14.

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Members of the costume shop team: (left to right) Deborah Bloch ’06, Nikki Fazzone, Harry Johnson, Jamie Farkas (Technical Intern), Robin Hirsch, Clarissa Wiley Youngberg, Tom McAlister (Faculty), and Mary Zihal.

Photo by C. Nikki Mills.

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Whether you are given a piece of iridescent silk chiffon, a Jane Greenwood-approved 18-ounce woolen, or a snout, pair of glass eyes and skull from an online taxidermy company, you work your magic with irrepressible passion and energy!

From the page to the stage, you give life to those pencil lines and brush strokes. Robin, you are irreplaceable, you are indespensible!!!!

— tom mcalister costume shop manager and professor adjunct of technical design & production

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It has been such a treasure that for the past 30+ years we have had a resource and a workhorse like Robin in our costume shop. No matter how bizarre the costume design, or how difficult the material, Robin could figure it out. I truly value Robin's love and support of the students. She took on the task of teaching two important classes; draping and costume construction, and soon proved to be an exemplary mentor.

— ben sammler ’74 chair of technical design & production

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Teaching the Craft Tarell Alvin McCraney ’07 will return to Yale School of Drama to serve as Chair of Playwriting, beginning in the fall of 2017. He will also succeed Paula Vogel (Former Faculty) as Playwright-in-Residence at Yale Repertory Theatre.

Tarell’s distinguished career began while he was still a student at YSD. Two plays in his critically ac-

quite like that.”

Tarell has since become a major voice in the American theatre. The Brother/Sister Plays and his other works, which include Head of Passes and Wig Out!, have had productions throughout the United States and in London, including at The Public Theater, McCarter Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre, the Vineyard The-

claimed trilogy, The Brother/Sister Plays—The Brothers Size and In the Red and Brown Water—were staged at the School’s Carlotta Festival of New Plays. Tarell believes that his experience at Yale has shaped him into an artist committed to great artistic collaboration above all else.

“There was nothing more important at the School of Drama than collaboration, coming to the table with best practices, and a generosity of spirit,” he says. “I learned that on every level. Even at the Cabaret, it was about making sure that we all had each other’s interests in mind in the work.

I’ve never experienced anything

atre, the Young Vic Theatre, and the Guthrie Theatre. He serves as a professor of Theatre and Civic Engagement in University of Miami’s Department of Theatre Arts, is an associate artist at the Royal Shakespeare Company, and has won numerous awards and grants, including a MacArthur Fellowship in 2013.

“It became abundantly clear that Tarell’s inspiring voice as a teacher, experience as a leading practitioner in the English-speaking theatre, and vision for the future of our art form, all position him beautifully for leadership of the Playwriting program,” says Dean James Bundy ’95.

From writing poetically scintillating plays to directing Shakespeare, Tarell has pushed the envelope when it comes to the theatrical craft.

At the same time, he has been a consistent advocate of bringing marginalized voices to the stage. Several of his works highlight the experiences of gay black men, including the unpublished script, In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue, which was adapted into this year’s Golden Globe-winning and Oscar-nominated film, Moonlight. He is conscious of the message that theatre sends out when it expands its field of vision to those that have been rendered invisible by society.

“Peter Brook said that theatre is really about one person walking across the stage while someone else watches,” Tarell says, “but the problem is that some of us are walking across the stage for people who may not necessarily look or identify the same way.”

Tarell also expresses concern over the financial obstacles that prevent talented young artists of color from underprivileged backgrounds from studying and working in theatre. This is something that he feels strongly about, especially because he recognizes that his training at YSD was pivotal to his development as an artist. “If others can’t go through this kind of process, we’re losing generations of working artists,” he warns.

James notes, “It is thrilling to imagine his impact on early career writers and the field in the years to come.” — by kee-yoon nahm ’12, dfa ’16 Photo courtesy of John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

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The Rep’s First Steps by i lya k h o d os h ’14, d fa ’18

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hen, in the winter of 1966, Yale president Kingman Brewster invited Robert Brustein ’51, HON ’66 to become the new dean of Yale School of Drama, Brustein turned him down. “I must tell you it did not appeal to me at all. I’m not the administrative type.” He was content with his career as a professor of dramatic literature at Columbia University and a theatre critic for The New Republic. But when his idea to establish a new professional theatre met with approval from Yale, Brustein found the opportunity irresistible. After years spent condemning banality in commercial theatre, Brustein was eager to put his own modernist aesthetics into practice. As in his first book, The Theatre of Revolt, he would honor a lineage of rebel dramatists from Ibsen to Genet. He imagined a resident theatre alongside a conservatory training program, two institutions in harmony with a shared mission. Much like in a medical school’s relationship to a local hospital, students would be apprentices, and faculty would teach by both instruction and example. “The students and teachers were coworkers—the classroom was the Rep stage,” explains Carmen de Lavallade (Former Faculty), who came to Yale at Brustein’s invitation to teach movement to the actors and to perform in the Rep company.

Brustein assembled a faculty that included Stella Adler, Arnold Weinstein, Joseph Papp, Michael Annals, and Jan Kott, alongside Gordon Rogoff YC ’52 as associate dean. Rogoff, who still teaches at YSD, remembers laughing at the invitation. Upon graduating from Yale College 13 years earlier, he was aware of the

01 The cast and creative team of Viet Rock (1966): (top row, left to right) Muriel Miguel, Kay Carney, Shami Chaikin, Roy London, Joseph Daly, Fred Forrest, Marianne de Pury, and Gerome Ragni; (middle row) Robert Brustein ’51, Seth Allen, Gordon Rogoff YC ’52 (Faculty), Paul Giovanni, Sharon Gans, Marcia Jean Kurtz, and Jordan Charney; (bottom row) Joseph Chaikin, Megan Terry, and Barbara Ralley. Photo courtesy of Gordon Rogoff.

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02 The Living Theatre's production of Paradise Now (1968). (above) Julian Beck, Judith Malina, Rufus Collins, and Henry Howard; (below) Frank Hoogeboom and James Anderson.

03 Man is Man (1978). (foregroud, left to right) Tim O’Hagan, Joe Grifasi ’75 (standing on the cannon), John Seitz, and Estelle Parsons.

04 The cover of the program for Viet Rock (1966).

05 Robert Brustein, founder of Yale Repertory Theatre.

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Drama School’s reputation as a stagnant institution whose sensibilities hewed closely to the mainstream bourgeois theatre of the early 20th century. “It was outstandingly ironic that I would end up on the faculty of the school that I had shunned.” Later, Rogoff discovered a fateful family connection to Yale dramatic history. His father, a high school teacher, had studied playwriting with George Pierce Baker (Former Dean).

“He never told me that. I was poleaxed. I was absolutely shocked.” A shared vision with Brustein and a passion for fostering avant-garde theatre compelled Rogoff to volunteer 10 months of his time before going on the payroll.

Rogoff counseled Brustein to introduce New Haven audiences to his subversive ambitions by hosting adventurous guest companies. Following an invigorating production of Beckett’s Endgame, an anti-war musical called Viet Rock, devised by Joseph Chaikin’s Open Theatre, officially launched the 1966-67 season.

Mindful of an audience that expected all-student productions, Brustein advocated postponing student actors’ mainstage professional debuts. In his program notes, he wrote, “It is our conviction that theatre

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students should be schooled as rigorously in their craft as musicians or dancers, and prepared as carefully for their careers as doctors, lawyers, or engineers.” Professionalism and experimentation set an exciting tone for Brustein’s tenure, but reforming the curriculum took time. Naturally, disagreements arose. Rogoff recalls how, months after a dispute with Stella Adler over student directors undermining the acting faculty, he encountered her holding court at the Russian Tea Room. “Rogoff! Over here!” she said. “I want you to know all is forgiven and nothing is forgotten! Come to lunch.”

Among the new skills Brustein cultivated was fundraising. “I got quite good at it. I was ruthless in what I was willing to do for it, outside of selling my body.

My ultimate fantasy was to go into a bank and say, ‘This is a stickup. I need money for the YRT.’” But zeitgeist posed the bigger challenge. It was a countercultural era of student rebellions and a mistrust of authority. An early protester against the Vietnam War, Brustein was surprised to find himself cast by the students in an establishment role. “They were terrible times. I thought the way to satirize that was through the theatre.” He YA L E S C H O O L O F D R A M A A N N UA L 2 016 –17

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was committed to polished productions of new plays like Joseph Heller’s We Bombed in New Haven and reinvestigated classics like Robert Lowell’s formidable Prometheus Bound. But he also recognized that the sweeping dismay brought on by the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the rise of Richard Nixon demanded a rougher, more radical theatre that viscerally expressed sociopolitical unrest and dissent.

To that end, in the fall of 1968, Brustein invited the Living Theatre to campus in a now-legendary watershed incident he credits with making him a tougher leader. The company’s brand of anarchic provocation disrupted Brustein’s pedagogy. When, during their production of Paradise Now, the company disrobed and took to the streets, they were arrested by New Haven police for indecent exposure.

The following evening, their performance attracted an audience three times the capacity of the University Theatre, and nearly incited a riot. Brustein found the company’s shock tactics hypocritical; their performance “didn’t allow any talk-back, and anybody who objected to what was meant to be an open, free expression was hustled offstage.” A balance between progressivism and institutional discipline proved complicated.

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sional companies. Overcrowding frayed tempers, so President Brewster loaned YRT the Calvary Baptist Church, one of the buildings purchased for the site of the future Yale Center for British Art. The church was indeed a godsend, and the loan became a permanent gift. Now that the Rep had its own facility, a healthier distinction emerged between the Theatre and the School. Brustein invited the students to view Yale Repertory Theatre as a lodestar of professional opportunity and not as a competitor for resources. The new theatre was inaugurated by Molière’s Don Juan, a risqué production featuring erotic stained-glass windows that satirized the playful desecration of the venue’s ecclesiastical origins.

Ensuing years bore witness to daring experiments and storied triumphs. In defining its identity, YRT heeded the artistic and political imperatives of a transforming culture. Even at times when students seemed to grow impatient with the formal rituals of theatre, and expressed themselves through events, protests, and demonstrations, Brustein never lost faith in theatre’s ability to answer the times. “If I stopped believing in theatre, then I would have no beliefs left. I couldn’t give up the notion of what theatre did for us. I believe that to this day. And I am proven correct none too seldom, I’m happy to say, when I see human spirits engaged in a mutual endeavor.”

08 06 Stacy Keach in We Bombed in New Haven by Joseph Heller (1967).

07 Don Juan by Molière, adapted by Kenneth Cavander, the first production in the new theatre (1970).

08 (left to right) Director Jonathan Miller, actress Irene Worth, Robert Brustein, and actor David Hurst in rehearsal for Prometheus Bound (1967).

09 The Living Theatre (1968).

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Expanding the Vision:

The Artistry of Lloyd Richards by k e e-yo o n n a h m ’12, d fa ’16 “Storytelling is an extremely important art. You not only have a responsibility to share the information in the story, but you have to tell it well, and suitably for the time.” Lloyd Richards, HON ’79 (Former Dean) wrote this in his preface to August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, when it was published in Theater shortly after the world premiere at Yale Rep in 1986. As a director, Richards was known for putting the play and the playwright above all else. “The play’s the thing,” he would repeat to his students every year, turning Hamlet’s famous line into a mantra.

Lloyd was also famous for supporting new American plays. He ran the National Playwrights Conference at the O’Neill Theater Center for more than two decades, giving playwrights in their early careers the opportunity to workshop their drafts through staged readings. His passion for new play development continued at Yale, where he served as artistic director of Yale Repertory Theatre and dean of Yale School of Drama from 1979 to 1991. Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning plays, Fences (1985) 18

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and The Piano Lesson (1987), were among the many plays that had their world premieres at the Rep during Lloyd’s tenure.

The final words of his statement, “suitably for the time,” capture an equally important contribution to Yale Rep and the American theatre. Lloyd believed that the time had come for theatre to tell stories from a more diverse range of experiences, or, even better, to let underrepresented and marginalized people tell their own stories. Without ever losing grasp of his commitment to artistry and collaboration, he developed Yale Rep into an incubator for cultural diversity and inclusion. a quiet and patient director After starting out as an actor in Detroit, Lloyd’s career took off when he directed Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun on Broadway in 1959. This was a landmark event in American theatre history. He was the first black director on Broadway, supporting the work of the first black female playwright on Broadway.

Lloyd was known to be exceedingly quiet and patient as a director. Often, he would ask actors in rehearsal to

Lloyd Richards, HON ’79 (Former Dean) in rehearsal with the cast and crew of Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (1986), with Angela Bassett ’83, YC ’80 standing behind, Cristal Coleman and Casey Lydell Badger seated, and Raynor Scheine in the foreground.

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01 (left to right) Lou Meyers, Rocky Carroll, Samuel L. Jackson, and Carl Gordon in The Piano Lesson. Photo by Gerry Goodstein.

02 The touring cast of Two Trains Running, which premiered at Yale Rep in 1990. (left to right) Anthony Chishom, Samuel L. Jackson, Angela Bassett, Charles S. Dutton ’83, Cynthia Martelle, Booky Carroll, August Wilson, Carl Gordon, Lloyd Richards, Delroy Lindo, Monroe Lee Brown, Laurence Fishburne, and Sullivan Walker.

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01 Lloyd Richards and Athol Fugard.

Photo courtesy of Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Lloyd Richards Papers, Yale Collection of American Literature.

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repeat a scene many times without giving any direction. The unstated goal was for them to make discoveries about their characters organically. Mary Alice, who played Rose in Fences, noted in a 1985 interview: “In rehearsals, Lloyd had a firm hand on the direction, but it was like you didn’t feel it. It was always there, shaping the play, but within that, within whatever he wanted, there was so much freedom allowed to the actors.” Delroy Lindo, who worked with Lloyd on A Raisin in the Sun at the Rep as well as Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone and Athol Fugard’s “Master Harold”…and the boys on Broadway, describes Lloyd’s approach as “low-key yet studied.”

Lloyd sought to help actors envision themselves in their characters’ shoes.

During rehearsals for Fences, Courtney B. Vance ’86 (who was cast as Cory while he was still a student) was stunned to find that none of the other cast members wanted to speak to him during breaks. He is positive that Lloyd was behind this, telling the others to purposefully ignore him. This experience helped Courtney understand his character better.

Isolated from the adults, especially James Earl Jones, HON ’82 who played Troy, he could appreciate what it was like to be a frustrated teenage boy. “He was the kind of director who taught by waiting until you were ready,” says Courtney.

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an engine for diversity on the american stage At Yale, Lloyd directed the world premieres of five plays in Wilson’s American Century Cycle: Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Fences, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, The Piano Lesson, and Two Trains Running. Indeed, he spent a good portion of his tenure working with Wilson. All of these productions later moved to Broadway— sometimes at the same time that the next one was going up at the Rep. This “Yale to Broadway” production pipeline, with other regional theatres along the way, was managed by Ben Mordecai

(Former Faculty), whom Lloyd invited to Yale in 1982. Ben found the additional producers necessary to fund Fences on Broadway. Learning from that experience, he pioneered a shared cost production model with other theatres for subsequent plays, a highly effective system that is still used at the Rep today. Recent plays that were coproduced in this manner include Rinne Groff ’s Compulsion (2010) with Berkeley Rep and The Public Theater, David Adjmi’s Marie Antoinette (2012) with American Repertory Theater, Marcus

“August and Lloyd and Ben became this engine for bringing diverse voices to the commerical theatre.”

— david henry hwang ‘83

Gardley’s ’04 The House That Will Not Stand (2014) with Berkeley Rep, and Paula Vogel’s (Former Faculty) Indecent (2015) with La Jolla Playhouse.

The great success of Fences, winning four Tony awards in 1987, opened doors for other theatre-artists of color.

Broadway—and the mainstream audiences that it symbolized—no longer seemed out of reach. “We think about how August Wilson’s work has influenced a new generation of writers as well as how it served to bring the African American experience to the stages of major theatres around the country,” says Shay Wafer ’89, former vice president of YA L E S C H O O L O F D R A M A A N N UA L 2 016 –17

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programs at the August Wilson Center in Pittsburgh. “That voice had not been a regular part of those theatres’ seasons.” David Henry Hwang ’83 explains, “August and Lloyd and Ben became this engine for bringing diverse voices to the commercial theatre.” The perfect combination of playwright, director, and producer made history. As Sherry Mordecai, Ben’s widow, says, “All the stars suddenly aligned at the right time.” a virtuous cycle Lloyd was often away from New Haven to oversee Wilson’s plays as they moved around the country. Some students were understandably frustrated, feeling that Lloyd ought to be more focused on the work at the School. But it is also true that Lloyd created many opportunities for students to work on a professional level before graduating. Many of these opportunities were life-changing.

Actors such as Courtney B. Vance, Angela E. Bassett ’83, YC ’80, Kimberly Scott ’87, David Alan Grier ’81, and Sharon Washington ’88 were cast in productions at the Rep while they were still students.

Moreover, Lloyd’s willingness to explore plays that dealt with racial identity and inequality meant that more actors of color were visible on the Rep stage compared to most of American theatre at the time. Lloyd’s student casting initiated a virtuous circle: the more actors of color on stage, the more likely it is that talented young people of color pursue a career in the theatre.

“Some of the greatest actors of color of our generation came out of this program,” says Tarell Alvin McCraney ’07, who was recently appointed chair of YSD’s playwriting department. “It was important for me to write with actors who were hungry and eager to work on stories intimate to the black community.”

Students also had the chance to work with some of the most important international playwrights of the time.

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bringing new perspectives and a global scope to students and audiences already interested in race relations. During the 1980s, Yale Rep gained a reputation for promoting plays that broached new and difficult subject matter on the American stage. Constanza Romero ’88, who was the costume designer on The Piano Lesson and later married Wilson, recalls the sense of privilege she felt as a student: “With Athol Fugard walking around on campus and with August getting the Tony Award for Fences in 1987, it really felt like a playwrights’ haven. I knew that important things were happening. And knowing that as design students we could work at the Rep with these fantastic playwrights, I felt: ‘How did I land here?’”

In his first year at Yale, Lloyd established Winterfest, a festival that showcased works-in-progress, including promising plays that emerged out of the O’Neill Conference and YSD’s playwriting program. OyamO’s ’81 The Resurrection of Lady Lester was featured in the first Winterfest season, and during its twelve-year history, Winterfest offered additional opportunities for students to work on plays by writers of color. Derek Walcott’s Beef, No Chicken (1982), James Yoshimura’s ’77 Union Boys (1986), Adrienne Kennedy’s Ohio State Murders (1991), and Suzan-Lori Parks’s The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World (1992) are some of the plays that the festival brought to light. the imagination is not noted by color of the skin In an interview published shortly before his death in 2005, Lloyd asserts: “Art is the creation of the imagination, and the imagination is not noted by color of the skin.” He was an idealist when it came to racial politics in the theatre, believing that the integrity of the work could transcend social barriers. Looking back to his predecessor, James Bundy ’95 (Dean) notes, “When Lloyd was first producing plays here, there weren’t a lot of robust conversations going on

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03 Lloyd Richards, Ben Mordecai (Former Faculty), and August Wilson. Photo courtesy of Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Lloyd Richards Papers, Yale Collection of American Literature.

04 Lloyd Richards and Athol Fugard. Photo courtesy of Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Lloyd Richards Papers, Yale Collection of American Literature.

05 (left to right) Charles S. Dutton, Leonard Jackson, Robert Judd, Theresa Merrit, and Jon Seneca in the world premiere of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (1984), August Wilson’s first production at Yale Rep. Photo by William B. Carter.

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06 06 (left to right) Mary Alice, James Earl Jones HON ’82, and Courtney B. Vance ’86 in August Wilson’s Fences (1985). Photo by William B. Carter.

07 Philip Moon ’87 and Natsuko Ohama in Wakako Yamauchi’s The Memento, which premiered at Winterfest in 1987.

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about race in American theatre. Lloyd was brave enough to start one.”

When Lloyd chose David Henry Hwang’s first play, F.O.B., for the National Playwrights Conference at the O’Neill in 1979, he was considering the play in relation to a larger movement.

David recalls that Lloyd anticipated an Asian and Latino wave in the American theatre to follow the steady rise of work

by African Americans. “I had a nascent sense of what American theatre should do when I met him, and he helped me develop that into a mature vision,” says David. “The idea of having that reinforced and celebrated by someone who was a great artist himself and in a position of power in the American theatre was incredibly affirming.”

Lloyd’s commitment to diversity was augmented by a clear attentiveness to issues of representation. His devotion to Wilson’s work was about more than promoting a talented African American writer. It was also a matter of representing people of color onstage differently than in the past. Wilson’s characters were complex and deeply sympathetic, in stark contrast to the racist caricatures and shallow sidekick roles prevalent in mainstream media.

Lloyd tried to give life to these delicately wrought characters by paying attention to every detail in the play.

When he saw Constanza Romero’s costume sketches for the first production of The Piano Lesson, the only comment he made was that Boy Willie (played by Samuel L. Jackson in the Rep premiere, and later by Charles S. Dutton ’83 on Broadway) should not wear denim or overalls, even though he is a farm worker in the play. Later, Wilson saw the sketches and suggested that Boy Willie not roll up his pants.

Both Wilson and Richards wanted to distance the intricate characters of the play from prevailing stereotypes of African Americans. “They were definitely of the same mind that black people should be represented with respect and integrity,” Constanza adds.

Lloyd’s vision for a diverse and inclusive theatre coexisted with his firm

belief in professionalism and the collaborative process. Unlike Wilson, who famously demanded support for black theatre institutions in his 1996 speech, “The Ground on Which I Stand,” Lloyd worked to change theatre culture from within the predominantly white establishment. He believed that the pursuit of artistic excellence could help dismantle prejudice and inequality, using dialogue and teamwork instead of conflict. Tarell explains, “Lloyd and August’s relationship was important not only because it paved the way for August’s plays to go forward. What they did for the culture was show us what collaboration could do. They showed us that people can get together, work on something in earnest, put themselves in it. ”To some, Lloyd’s approach did not seem political enough to change the status quo. But one thing is clear: Yale Rep and YSD made considerable advancements through Lloyd’s leadership. the eternal teacher Many of those who worked with Lloyd see him as a paternal figure. Courtney calls him a “surrogate father.” Sherry Mordecai describes Lloyd as “the eternal teacher.” David Henry Hwang recalls: “There was something kind of cherubic about Lloyd. I felt he was a kind of father figure, but also kind of an angel on my shoulder.” Soft-spoken and patient, Lloyd was a supportive and nurturing force to his collaborators and students.

However, it is not only those who had the privilege of knowing him in person that are under his wing. Yale Rep as it exists today is built upon Lloyd’s vision.

He turned the theatre into a home for new American work, especially work that offered perspectives outside of the dominant culture. He fostered an artistic environment where inclusion is vital to theatrical collaboration. He jump-started a conversation about equal opportunity and representation that grows more urgent as time goes on.

Everyone who enters the Rep, artists and audience members alike, inherits a share of this legacy.

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Stan Wojewodski’s Yale Rep: Witty, Elegant, Provocative 26

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by c at h e r i n e s h e e h y ’92, d fa ’99 (fac u lt y) It is an inescapable paradox that to be the head of both Yale Rep and Yale School of Drama is to be the highly visible, widely envied, but nonetheless beset, servant of two masters. So each of the four men who have held that distinction have had to work out how best to serve both without running afoul of that biblically pronounced inevitability— loving one and despising the other. And each has struck a slightly different balance. Unlike Robert Brustein ’51, HON ’66, Lloyd Richards HON ’79, and James Bundy ’95, Stan Wojewodski, Jr. HON ’92, had been artistic director of a successful regional

theatre for more than a decade before taking on the job at Yale. In fact, nothing but the tandem opportunity and challenge of running a training program alongside a major theatre could have tempted him away from Baltimore’s Center Stage. So when he took over the post from Lloyd Richards in 1991, Stan chose closer alignment, more intersection, and greater symbiosis between his two charges. In a short promotional pamphlet introducing him to the community, Stan rededicated the Rep to its important function as “master teacher” to YSD, thus the repertoire was designed to showcase a

(left to right) Craig Mathers ’93, Melody Garrett ’93 as Hamlet, Earl Baker ’95, Rico Colantoni ’93, Sean Haberle ’93, James Hallet ’95, and Tom McCarthy ’95 in Hamlet (1992), directed by Stan Wojewodski, Jr.

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The repertoire was designed to showcase a standard of writing, production, and performance that would provide a target of aspiration for everyone in the conservatory, regardless of discipline.

03 02 Adina Porter in Venus (1996) by Suzan-Lori Parks, directed by Richard Foreman ’62.

Photo by T. Charles Erickson.

03 (left to right) Carlos Funn, Djédjé Djédjé Gervais, Moussa Diabate, Kouakou Yao “Angelo”, and Nai Zou in Ralph Lemon’s Geography (1997). Photo by T. Charles Erickson.

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standard of writing, production, and performance that would provide a target of aspiration for everyone in the conservatory, regardless of discipline.

Stan believed that the creative juxtaposition of contemporary plays, modern masterworks, and classic texts placed living writers in meaningful conversation with their tradition and kept the art form vital. He not only mined the Western canon, but also presented extraordinary new writing over the course of his eleven seasons. There were plays by Tony Kushner, George C. Wolfe, Sam Shepard, David Edgar, Lynn Nottage ’89 (Former Faculty), Kia Corthron, and María Irene Fornés. Special events featured artists like Donald Byrd, Don Byron, Meredith Monk, and Lisa Kron. Shakespeare, Shaw, Molière,

and Suzan-Lori Parks with three or more productions each might be looked upon as Stan’s “house writers,” while Eric Overmyer, George F. Walker, Bertolt Brecht, David Mamet, and Tennessee Williams also made multiple appearances.

As central as text was to Stan’s aesthetic, he was also drawn to intensely physical theatre. He championed and presented work

by Minneapolis’s Theatre de la Jeune Lune, Victoria Chaplin and Jean-Baptiste Thierrée’s Le Cirque Invisible, Mabou Mines, and the Canadian clowns of horror, Mump and Smoot.

Perhaps the most unusual collaboration was also one of the dearest to him—Stan commissioned and produced the first two-thirds of choreographer Ralph Lemon’s dance-theatre Geography Trilogy.

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But I would like to make particular mention of two programming choices that fill me with nostalgia and are, to my mind, inextricably tied to who Stan Wojewodski was as artistic director of Yale Rep and dean of Yale School of Drama. One is his decision to present the graduating acting class in a full-run production as part of each YRT season. Here is where his desire to knit School and Rep is made most clearly manifest.

A class that had trained together now got to act as a company, working with a professional director under typical industry standards.

The first iteration came in the fall of Stan’s second season with his production of Hamlet.

He went on to direct As You Like It and Richard III in the series, but he also turned the reigns over to directors like YRT mainstay Mark Rucker ’92, who did Measure for Measure and a Fellini-inspired Twelfth Night; the Ridiculous Theatrical Company veteran Everett Quinton, who directed the 18thcentury bagatelle The Beaux’ Stratagem; Jean Randich ’94, who undertook the far-sighted Caryl Churchill’s verse-play indictment of banking and stock manipulation, Serious Money; Chris Grabowski ’89, who directed A Midsummer Night’s Dream; resident director Liz 3 0

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Diamond (Faculty), whose The Skin of Our Teeth was Thornton Wilder’s debut at the Rep; and Jeune Lune and commedia maven, Chris Bayes (Faculty), whose collaboration with playwright Len Jenkin produced a new version of Aristophanes’ The Birds, mingling in elements of Alfred Hitchcock’s classic of the same name. And Rep audiences would catch their first glimpses of actors like Paul Giamatti ’94, YC ’89, Tom McCarthy ’95, Sanaa Lathan ’95, Stephen DeRosa ’95, Kathryn Hahn ’01, Bess Wohl ’02, and Reg Rogers ’93.

The other choice I want to highlight was a grand plan that Stan conceived out of the early 20th-century American comedies with which I, as resident dramaturg, was constantly bombarding him. Three of them, Preston Sturges’s A Cup of Coffee, Dawn Powell’s Big Night, and Roi Cooper Megrue and Walter Hackett’s It Pays to Advertise, dealt with the burgeoning industry of selling Americans things they did not need and often didn’t even know they wanted. Written between 1914 and 1931, they were all virtually unknown but full of a mordant satire about advertising and American consumerism that unfortunately never goes out of style. Stan wanted to do the three plays over two YRT

03 Stan Wojewodski with Victoria Nolan, who has been managing director of Yale Rep since 1993. Photo by T. Charles Erickson.

04 Stan Wojewodski with Catherine Sheehy ’92, DFA ’99 (Faculty) in University Theatre during the celebration of Yale Rep’s 50th anniversary. Photo by T. Charles Erickson.

05 Paul Giamatti ’94, YC ’89 and Robin Dana Miles ’94, YC ’86 in Stan Wojewodski’s As You Like It (1994).

Photo by T. Charles Erickson.

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slots in rotating rep with three different directors leading three different casts. It was a thrilling, and ultimately far-too-expensive idea. So instead, Stan programmed the three plays in three successive seasons and held a symposium during the Powell play. Joe Grifasi ’75 cast his YSD classmates, Michael Gross ’73 and John Rothman ’75, in the Sturges play. Stan directed the other two. All were fast, funny, and fierce—a mordant and meaningful meditation on advertising, capitalism, and American culture. It was an elegant solution to a thorny budgetary problem.

Stan loves elegance. That elegance can

reside in a piece of high art or popular culture; it can be intellectual or physical grace—a line of Seamus Heaney’s poetry or the lines of one of his award-winning Irish terriers. It can be the dip and dive of a Yu Darvish curveball or the rep and rev of a Suzan-Lori Parks play. And when elegance comes in the form of wit—the Congreve verbal dexterity in Way of the World, the Shavian manipulation of bourgeois morals in You Never Can Tell, or the Dawn Powell wisecracking worldliness in Big Night—well, that is the best of all. In fact, if I had to give a oneword description of Stan Wojewodski’s YRT, that would be it: elegant.

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by ja m es m ag r u d e r ’88, d fa ’92, m a ’84 (fo r m e r fac u lt y) 32

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Creative Engine L

ast spring, I met with James Bundy ’95, dean of Yale School of Drama and artistic director of Yale Repertory Theatre since 2001, who has recently been reappointed for another four-year term. We sat down for a quick lunch before a performance of Happy Days, his dazzling and critically acclaimed revival of Beckett’s tale of existential duress, which starred Dianne Wiest. When asked whether, given the number of different hats he wears each day—manager, dean, teaching artist, director—he ever experienced professional burnout, he responded with a smile both sly and shy: “I get a lot of pleasure in making things go.”

There is, to be sure, a whole lot going on at the Rep these days. There are close to 30 new plays under commission at the Binger Center, called into being through the unprecedented beneficence of the Robina Foundation and connected to an ever-expanding network of directors, designers, and other theatres. Each season includes five mainstage plays, the Carlotta Festival of New Plays by Drama School playwrights in the spring, the Yale Institute for Music Theatre in the summer, and No Boundaries events spaced throughout the year.

Despite making art in a world where people are able to watch television shows on their phones, Bundy is confident that the resources of Yale University and the Binger Center will ensure that the Rep reaches its century mark. In this constantly evolving, on-demand environment for narrative content, the stake that Yale Rep and YSD still plants in the

James Bundy ’95 (Dean) and Dianne Wiest in rehearsal for Happy Days.

Photo by Joan Marcus.

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“I get a lot of pleasure in making things go.”

— james bundy

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ground is a reverence for the written word, which was, after all, a founding principle of the school that George Pierce Baker (Former Dean) started with his playwriting class in 1926. “We have a special competency in, history of, and passion for playwriting and the playwright/poets who illuminate the human experience,” says Bundy.

Bundy’s decade and a half of leadership have demonstrated a commitment to pushing the boundaries while honoring the legacy and identity of the School and the Rep. He and his associates feel it’s essential for Yale Rep to move the art needle rather than ring the cash register. At the same time, however, they seek a robust relationship with the ticket-buying public, as the audience is the final, essential collaborator in the theatrical transaction. Any YRT season, ideally, opens a universe of possibilities that both the artists and the audiences can be passionate about.

In planning 2016-17, Bundy gave up feeling that the season needed to touch all bases. Seven Guitars, one of the few August Wilson cycle plays that did not premiere at Yale Rep, felt like a slam-dunk. It honors Wilson’s place in the Rep’s history, and as Bundy comments, “It could have been written yesterday by a leader of the Black Lives Matter movement, which shows how far our society still has to travel to acknowledge its racist legacies.”

Three offerings are Binger Center commissions, two from pens familiar to Rep audiences: Sarah Ruhl’s (Faculty) Scenes from Court Life, or the whipping boy and his prince which opened the 3 4

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02 03 season, and Mary Jane by Amy Herzog ’07, YC ’00 (Faculty).

Playwright Aditi Brennan Kapil makes her Rep debut with Imogen Says Nothing, a revisionist hijacking of Much Ado About Nothing.

Literary japes have been something of a Yale Rep specialty since the days of Robert Lowell’s adaptation of Aeschylus’s Prometheus Bound and Christopher Durang’s The Idiots Karamazov. Happily, Bundy is committed to upholding this tradition.

Finally, there is Assassins, which not only marks Stephen Sondheim’s return to Yale after the iconic 1974 staging of his Frogs adaptation in the pool at Payne-Whitney Gym, but is also Bundy’s first time directing a musical. Assassins is a fantastical shooting gallery populated by all the Americans—from Booth to Oswald—who attempted presidential assassinations. “I really wanted to respond to this political season of angry entitlement. And here in Connecticut, which experienced Sandy Hook in 2012, I feel the need to walk toward the problem, rather than away from it.”

Bundy knows the learning curve for musicals is steep, but he relishes the challenge. And when he crosses that off his list, no doubt he’ll find the next ambitious project to take on.

01 James Bundy. Photo by T. Charles Erikson.

02 James Bundy with Charles S. Dutton ’83 in rehearsal for Death of a Salesman (2009).

Photo by Joan Marcus.

James Magruder ’88, DFA ’92, MA ’84 (Former Faculty) is a fiction writer, playwright, and translator. His latest novel, Love Slaves of Helen Hadley Hall, which is set at Yale in the early 1980s, was published this May. He lives in Baltimore and teaches dramaturgy at Swarthmore College. He served on the faculty of YSD from 1997 to 2011, and he is currently writing a book about the 50-year history of Yale Repertory Theatre.

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In

Their

Own Words Facing the Issues Head On k e e-yo o n n a h m ’12, d fa ’16 and c h i a r a k l ei n ’17, so m ’17 c o n t r i b u t e d to t h is a r t ic l e 3 6

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Since its founding in 1966, Yale Repertory Theatre has been committed to expanding the boundaries of drama.

In part, this has meant fostering a community where people of diverse identities tell their own stories, and embracing theatre’s place in movements for social change. Progress has not always been smooth, but as Dean James Bundy notes, “To face these issues head on is both timeless and timely. Since Aeschylus, theatre has returned again and again to the subject of social justice.”

In the last 50 years, Yale Rep has grappled with and fought for increased diversity. In the pages that follow, alumni, faculty, and students reflect on their experiences, both the good and the bad, of diversity and inclusion at Yale and in the field.

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02 Walter Dallas ’71 Director

01 Carmen de Lavallade Dancer & Actress Faculty 1970–79 Robert Brustein ’51, HON ’66 Founder of Yale Repertory Theatre When I arrived at Yale in 1966 as the new dean of the Drama School, there was only one Jewish faculty member—the celebrated John Gassner—at the time. My first appointments added a few more—Stella Adler, Gordon Rogoff, Joe Papp, Alan Schneider, Richard Gilman, the two Jonathan Miller’s, Stanley Kauffman. A Gentile citadel had become an ecumenical coffee house. A lot of the alumni were outspokenly anti-Semitic and opposed to Kingman Brewster’s appointment of me as dean. When the previous dean, Curt Canfield, was introducing me to guests at a cocktail party, he asked, “Have you met Bob Brustein yet?” One alumnus replied, “No, I’ve been spared that.”

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At the time there were very few, if any, black actors in the company, but Bob [Brustein] and Howard Stein (Former Faculty) worked hard to include people of color in the productions and admit people of color to the School. When you’re beginning something new, it takes a while before people realize they are welcome. It was even difficult to get an audience from the New Haven community. When we did General Gorgeous we went around to the schools to talk about the show, and the kids were all saying, “Oh we can go in there?” They didn’t know the Rep was for them. In ’74 Bob invited Adrienne Kennedy to the Rep and we did her play, An Evening with Dead Essex. We had a fabulous black director, Andre Mtumi.

It was all a big to-do because the play was so political. Adrienne’s plays always started a big ruckus.

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One night, soon after I arrived at Yale, a member of the Black Panther Party (BPP) knocked on my door. “We heard you were in town. We hear you are good. We want you to work with us,” he explained. So by the end of my first month at Yale, I was directing Chekhov for Nikos Psacharopoulos (Former Faculty) by day, and new plays for the BPP at night. When the historic Black Panther trials began in New Haven two years later, YSD decided to go forward with its Rep schedule, even after the entire University and most of the black community turned their combined focus to fight for justice. With two Black Panthers at my side, I stormed into Dean Brustein’s office and insisted that he postpone the professional Rep show, relinquish the theatre for the production of a celebration of life, diversity, and community that I would direct, and lead YSD to actively participate in workshops designed by civic and legal representatives about the issues that had shut down New Haven.

Dean Brustein accepted my requests and later wrote about these events in his book, Revolution as Theatre.

01 (left to right) Darryl Hill, Hannibal Penny, and Carmen de Lavallade (Former Faculty) in rehearsal for Adrienne Kennedy’s An Evening with Dead Essex (1974).

02 Walter Dallas ’71 03 Fran Dorn ’75 04 David Henry Hwang ’83.

Photo by Gregory Costanzo.

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Fran Dorn ’75 Actress Progress has come in waves. I have had the privilege of working in several theaters that valued diversity, such as the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, DC, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Austin Shakespeare, George Street Playhouse, and Penumbra Theatre.

It will take many decades of conscientious effort to expand the understanding of diversity in the arts that embraces then moves beyond cultural identity to include the physically challenged and the LGBTQ+ community. After years of discussion about “diversity and inclusion,” I’m pretty sure everyone knows what needs to be done.

So, I suggest that people either act or quit talking about it.

David Henry Hwang ’83 Playwright Shay Wafer ’89 Theater Manager As an African American woman working in the field I can’t help but reflect my experience through the lens of the role August Wilson’s Century Cycle played in providing opportunities for black actors. It was so significant—and it’s still being felt.

My time at the School was one of diversity, but in a quiet way. Lloyd Richards made sure there was representation of people of color in every department in the School and the Rep. I remember pitching a story to Essence magazine about “The Black Women at Yale” and when I now look at the photograph from that story I see a black woman in every department. It was a phenomenal time.

When I teach, I try to stress diversity and inclusion as some of our primary values.

Diversity involves different communities, different ethnicities, and different races, but it also includes aesthetic diversity. There’s not one way to write a play and there’s not one kind of play that we should teach.

If you look back 30 years, I think we’ve come a long way. Today, we have a rich younger generation of Asian American playwrights who are working at a really high level. Now, if you look five or ten years back, I don’t know if we’re doing that much better.

Theatre has gotten quite skilled at understanding the need for diversity. But it hasn’t been as good about figuring out a way to actually achieve it.

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06 05 Michael Potts ’92 Actor

James Magruder ’88, DFA ’92, MA ’84 Dramaturg During my years at YSD (1986-88) in the LGBTQ+ community, the gay actors were by and large closeted, for fear of never being cast once out of school. The design department was almost entirely comprised of gay men, but they were only out to one another.

We dramaturgs were another matter. I recall an extremely talented actor in my year who was “not allowed” to graduate. This seemed an outrage at the time, but I eventually learned that he was dying of AIDS, and Earle Gister, the dean of acting, kept him back so he could continue being cared for within the Yale health system.

Evan Yionoulis ’85, YC ’91 (Faculty) surprised me when she told me that she was the first female director ever hired

by Yale Rep—in 1985! And she was only the second woman to ever direct at the Rep—the first was Megan Terry, who directed Viet Rock with the guest company, The Open Theatre, in 1966. That seems unbelievable. Today, YRT is definitely in the vanguard when it comes to producing plays by women.

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Liz Diamond Chair of Directing 1990–Present Director of Suzan-Lori Parks’s first two productions at Yale Rep.

In the summer of 1987 I saw the amazing scene from Fences with James Earl Jones and Courtney Vance ’86 on the Tony Awards TV broadcast. I immediately wanted to know where Courtney Vance had gone to school because I was determined to go there—and I did!

There was a sense of excitement surrounding our productions of Suzan-Lori Parks’s The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World and The America Play.

There were walkouts by some patrons, who were shocked by the satirical use of black stereotypes and baffled by the linguistic acrobatics. But the vast majority of the audience loved the theatricality of these works and the emotional punch they packed. It was quite something to direct shows with walkouts and standing ovations. Because these plays confront deeply painful history with intensely subversive humor, because there is such sorrow and anger as well as love in the laughter, in rehearsal we had to forge a special kind of trust in one another.

We had to become very, very honest with one another about our experiences as Americans, black and white.

After my first year at YSD, I worked at the O’Neill Center during the summer. I remember Lloyd sitting across from me at the table one day. It was a little intimidating. Then he said, “How they treatin’ you?”

That was his greeting. I went on about what a great first year I’d had, what great roles I got. He listened very patiently and nodded his head, and then he looked up and said, “It’s a shame you’ll never be used that much again.” Being full of myself at the time, I thought he was talking about me personally. But, of course, he was prescient. I certainly haven’t worked as consistently and collaborated on the level that I had at Yale.

What has changed today is that there is a real conversation about inclusion. There are no excuses or justifications for not being more diverse in your casting. The drumbeat is getting louder: this cannot stand.

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05 James Magruder ’88, DFA ’92, MA ’84, at Yale in 1983.

07 Pun Bandhu ’01 08 Linda Cho ’98

06 Reggie Montgomery and Michael Potts ’92 in The America Play (1994)

by Suzan-Lori Parks, directed by Liz Diamond (Faculty). Photo by T. Charles Erickson.

09 Nico Lang ’05

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Nico Lang ’05 Theater Manager

Pun Bandhu ’01 Actor The best tool we can give graduates is the experience of interacting with and learning from people who are different from them. When I was a student, the administration did a good job of making a conscious effort to increase diversity among its students. In my acting class, we had three Asian actors, which was previously unheard of. However, very little of that diversity was on display at the Rep. The focus on classics left few opportunities for “ethnic plays.”

This, as many of my playwright friends of color are familiar with, is still the harsh reality at many regional theatres: the one ethnic slot that every playwright of color competes for.

In School shows, casting was colorblind.

But the subtle message, reflected at the Rep, was that colorblind casting was not how things worked in the “real” world. Race is not part of the story being told in most cases, but there are those who still feel that an actor’s race changes the story. We need to get beyond this mentality.

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Linda Cho ’98 Costume Designer I remember questioning our faculty about why we didn’t do more plays written by women or minorities. Their response was that they teach a survey of the Western canon of plays. In my mind I equate this with appreciating a good abstract painting—learning about the derivative legacy of a work makes the experience of looking at the painting richer. I also remember asking Ming Cho Lee (Faculty): “Don’t we have a responsibility as Asian Americans to give voice to our heritage in our work?” His response was that doing strong work in your field as an artist is in itself cultural advocacy.

I think the role of Yale School of Drama is to produce great theatre-artists. Beyond the obvious step of assembling a diverse student body, I think we can ultimately do what we have always done: teach students to tell their stories in a compelling way through invention, curiosity, and empathy.

I was one of the first students with dwarfism to attend YSD. I don’t recall any conversations ahead of arriving about necessary accommodations. It wasn’t until well into my second semester that I realized all the lowered handles on every blessed door in the UT had been put there for my benefit.

And so, if I had to sum up my experience I would have to start with two words: Bill Reynolds (Staff). My ability to move unencumbered around that building was something I never even considered. My needs had been met without even having to ask.

My second year, when I moved into an office (glamour!), it was Bill who had a false floor installed in the room so that as I stood behind my desk I was eye level with anyone who came to see me. It was a transformative moment in my professional life. A platform just like that one followed me to Cornerstone and all the way through to my current desk at MIT. The anticipation of my needs is not what I remember most though.

It was the feeling of being embraced and cared for without being made to feel singled out.

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10 Miriam A. Hyman ’12 as Posthumus Leonatus with Sheria Irving ’13 as Imogen in Yale Rep’s production of Cymbeline (2016), directed by Evan Yionoulis ’85, YC ’82 (Faculty). Photo by Carol Rosegg.

11 Lydia Garcia ’08 12 Yi Zhao ’12 13 A collection of posters from plays FOLKS has presented as part of their annual staged reading series, which has included works by Adrienne Kennedy, Tarell Alvin McCraney ’07, Suzan-Lori Parks, Sonia Sanchez, and August Wilson.

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14 Bianca Castro and Ricardo Dávila ’17 in A. Rey Pamatmat’s ’03 Thunder Above, Deeps Below, at the Cabaret (2016). Photo by Steven C. Koernig ’17.

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Yi Zhao ’12 Lighting Designer

Lydia Garcia ’08 Dramaturg To this day, I walk into a rehearsal room with the thought that we’re not just working on a play. We’re actually engaging in a deep conversation about what we value as a society. At YSD, I started to become aware of the absences in what was being taught. I realized that most of those absences reflect people like me: people of color and women.

I absolutely saw the validity of the material that we were studying, but I also felt that there was a lot that we weren’t acknowledging. Now, I feel a sense of duty to point out what we’re missing, what we could be doing better, what I feel is our responsibility as artists.

Recently, I returned to New Haven to help run the workshop Beyond Diversity: Practicing Equity and Inclusion with Carmen Morgan (Faculty). I recognize the beauty of the YSD experience, but I also have to be really honest about where we fell down, where we didn’t live up to our ideals, and where we have a lot of work to do. We have to confront our fear and discomfort.

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15 FOLKS 2015–16: (back row, left to right) Tori Sampson ’17, Leland Fowler ’17, Lauren E. Banks ’17, Emalie Mayo (Staff), Courtney Jamison ’18, Sean Boyce Johnson ’18, Antoinette Crowe-Legacy ’18, Rasean Davonte Johnson ’16, Taylor Barfield ’16, Chalia La Tour ’16, Juliana Canfield ’17, Setareki Wainiqolo ’18, and Jiréh Holder ’16; (front row, left to right) Galen Kane ’16, James Udom ’18, Jonathan Majors ’16, Curtis Williams ’18, and Julian Elijah Martinez ’16.

Looking back, YSD was where I began collaborative relationships with directors such as Lileana Blain-Cruz ’12 and Charlotte Brathwaite ’11, who have brought different perspectives to plays in the American canon written by white authors. It was obvious throughout my experience at YSD that the student population was exceptionally diverse. It probably has a lot to do with the School’s commitment to financial aid.

But the regional scene is not at all diverse, either in terms of the people onstage or backstage. Almost always, I’ve found myself being the only non-white person on the creative team, even on plays that touch on issues of different cultures. I hadn’t thought about it much until I designed Han Ong’s Chairs and a Long Table at the Ma-Yi Theater Company. The piece dramatized some of the discussions that were happening within the Asian American community over The Nightingale casting controversy at the La Jolla Playhouse.

But the larger argument of the piece was that diversity is not only a matter of fair representation, but also a matter of the arts being truthful and relevant.

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Miriam A. Hyman ’12 Actress and Hip Hop Emcee The most memorable experience for me at YSD was playing Blanche DuBois in Charlotte Brathwaite’s ’11 thesis production of A Streetcar Named Desire, which had a mostly black cast. I’m so thankful that Charlotte was bold enough to make that choice and that the School supported her decision because for me, as well as for Trai Byers ’11 who played Stanley, we don’t usually get these opportunities. It was a way for me to be me, to be in my black skin, but still be Blanche.

Last year, I was really excited to find out that I would be playing Posthumus Leonatus in Cymbeline at the Rep. I appreciate what Evan Yionoulis ’85, YC ’82 (Faculty) did with this production, providing more opportunities for women, and specifically African American women. I don’t see enough actors of color doing Shakespeare.

Who’s to say that one race or culture can perform Shakespeare better than others?

Things are getting better, and as opportunities open up more, you start to see that just having white men is not interesting anymore—if it ever was.

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Taylor Barfield ’16 Dramaturg

Tori Sampson ’17 Playwright

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Sam Linden ’19, SOM ’19 Theater Manager This past year included some exciting moments at YSD for transgender representation on stage. In November, Bianca Castro played Gil, a young transwoman, in the Yale Cabaret production of A. Rey Pamatmat’s ’03 Thunder Above, Deeps Below. It was the first time the role had been performed by a trans actress. Last February, Miranda Rose Hall’s ’17 play, The Kind Ones, was performed as part of the Playwrights’ Workshop, a class where students work on pieces in progress with professional actors.

Trans actor Jess Barbagallo came to New Haven to play Fitz. The times are changing. As YSD continues to make tremendous strides to increase diversity on campus and across the field, the School has an opportunity to foster a new generation of highlytrained transgender theatre professionals.

In my three years in the playwriting program, I’ve worked alongside twelve talented writers whom I respect dearly. They pack diverse backgrounds and perspectives, but not one of the twelve is a woman of color.

FOLKS, the black affinity group on campus, offered me the community and inspiration to develop my very black plays amongst black artists. FOLKS used to be an island.

Last year that changed, when El Colectivo, Asian and Asian American Theatre Coalition (Asian Potluck), ActOUT, Women’s Voices in Theatre (WVIT), and AMP: Analyzing and Mobilizing Privilege were founded.

There has been progress. Among other initiatives, Chantal Rodriguez, who was hired as assistant dean in 2016, heads a newly-formed equity, diversity, and inclusion working group. But history remains.

YSD’s curriculum is tailored to Eurocentric aesthetics and will take years to redefine. As I look towards graduation, I am encouraged because I’m leaving a vastly more aware environment than I entered. One day there will be two, maybe three woman of color simultaneously taking space in the playwriting department. Wouldn’t that be dope?

There is no place on campus where I felt the School of Drama’s history more powerfully than in the first floor rehearsal hall in 305 Crown Street—“Crown Up.” In that room, I could feel that it once swelled with life as August Wilson and Lloyd Richards teamed up to create some of the most iconic works of American drama.

To work at Yale Rep is to be in the presence of a black legacy in the American theatre.

It’s the legacy of Lloyd, August, James Earl Jones, Angela Bassett ’83, YC ’80, Courtney B. Vance ’86, Mary Alice, Samuel L. Jackson, Laurence Fishburne, and the countless others who performed in the five Wilson plays that premiered at the Rep in the eighties and early nineties.

When I entered the humble space of “Crown Up,” I couldn’t help but question where my work stands in relation to that legacy. Am I living up to the standard set by their art? Am I changing the game in a way that will impact the next generation of artists, the same way that Lloyd and August did for us? I don’t know. Still, “Crown Up” reminds me that I must work toward continuing the legacy built in that old room on Crown Street.

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Shaping the Field One Play at a Time

by c h i a r a k l ei n ys d ’17, so m ’17

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ale Repertory Theatre’s commitment to producing new work and championing playwrights is deeply embedded in its 50-year history. World premieres of plays by prominent writers such as August Wilson, Athol Fugard, and Suzan-Lori Parks are hallmarks of Yale Rep’s legacy, but prior to 2008, Yale had no formal program for commissioning and developing new plays.

In 2005, Jennifer Kiger (Faculty), was hired as associate artistic director of Yale Rep to address this challenge.

“A big part of my brief was to conceptualize and implement a robust program for new play development at Yale,” she says.

“Although Yale Rep had a significant reputation in the American theatre for successfully producing new work, we didn’t have a structure integrated with the operations of the Theatre, or the School, to commission artists, provide them with the resources to develop their work, and bring that work to production.”

Yale Rep began building that foundation by offering commissions, residencies, readings, and workshops to early,

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ov e r l e af Adina Verson and Katrina Lenk in Indecent (2015) by Paula Vogel (Former Faculty), directed by Rebecca Taichman ’00. Indecent was a co-production with La Jolla Playhouse, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and Vineyard Theatre.

Photo by Carol Rosegg.

01 (left to right) Hannah Cabell, Marin Ireland, and Polly Lee in David Adjmi’s Marie Antoinette (2012), directed by Rebecca Taichman. A co-production with American Repertory Theater, the play later opened at Soho Rep. Photo by T. Charles Erickson.

02 Teresa Avia Lim ’09 and Tiffany Villarin in peerless (2015), written

by Jiehae Park and directed by Margot Bordelon ’13. Photo by Joan Marcus.

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mid-career, and established playwrights. In 2008, the program received a generous gift from the Robina Foundation, created by the late James Binger YC ’38, owner of the Jujamcyn Theaters in New York. With that funding, the Yale Center for New Theatre was officially established, and Yale Rep’s commitment to new work kicked into high gear. In 2012, the program was renamed the Binger Center for New Theatre in recognition of the Robina Foundation’s gift to endow the new play program.

In its short history, the Binger Center has been a game-changer. It has funded commissions for more than 50 artists and stewarded the premieres of more than 20 American plays and musicals, which have gone on to successful productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and across the country. At any given moment there are approximately 20 commissioned projects in development. This season Yale Rep is celebrating its 50th anniversary with three world premieres, all commissioned and developed through the Binger Center: Scenes from Court Life or the whipping boy and his prince, by Sarah Ruhl (Faculty), Imogen Says Nothing, by Aditi Brennan Kapil, and Mary Jane, by Amy Herzog ’07, YC ’00 (Faculty). The programs of the Binger Center also include the Yale Institute for Music Theatre, which bridges the gap between training and the professional world for early

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03 career composers, book writers, and lyricists with a two-week summer residency at Yale for the development of original music theatre works.

Although there exist many play development centers and new play initiatives around the country, what makes the Binger Center unique is both its commitment to artists throughout the writing process and its position inside a world-class university. Though not a physical place, Jennifer says the resources of the Binger Center provide “a hub of activity that is happening year-round.

It gives artists a home at Yale.”

Commissioned playwrights, who have included Pulitzer Prize-winner Paula Vogel (Former Faculty) and nominee Sarah Ruhl, as well as up-and-comers such as Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Meg Miroshnik ’11, and Danai Gurira, receive individualized support. “We don’t lead with the project, we lead with the artist,” says literary manager Amy Boratko ’06. The result of this approach is an environment that enables artists to take risks. “We respond to artists who have urgent stories to tell about the world we live in,” says Jennifer. “But we also ask them to challenge themselves artistically.”

“New work is the main engine of the art form,” says Dean James Bundy ’95, “and Yale Rep, supported by the University, is in a uniquely strong position to manage the risks associated with producing new work.

Both the Rep and the School have a special capacity to identify and support outstanding writers, advancing

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adventurous dramatic writing to the widest possible audience. When works produced here go on to a vibrant life in the field, we reach a national and sometimes international audience.”

Through the Binger Center, Yale Rep hopes to continue to shape the American theatre. “The work that we do at Yale Rep also contributes to the training of the students at the School. Exploring how to successfully create a home for artists in the American theatre is a vital component of that education,” Jennifer explains.

“We can’t have meaningful conversations about the art unless we’re also talking about how we identify, compensate, and advance the careers of the people who are making the art.”

What does the next 50 years hold in store? James says, “I’m absolutely certain that the Binger Center will be around for generations to come, and I’m hopeful that the foresight of the Robina Foundation in endowing it will lead to our having significantly increased capacity down the road. I also hope that our successors will remain committed to artist-driven processes and to meaningful compensation for the artists—from my perspective, these stances are both competitive and ethical.”

03 (left to right) Johanna Day, Tracy Letts, Glenn Fitzgerald, and Parker Posey in The Realistic Joneses (2012) by Will Eno, directed by Sam Gold. In 2014, The Realistic Joneses was produced on Broadway at the Lyceum Theatre and received three nominations for Drama League Awards. Photo by Joan Marcus.

04 Gilbert Owuor ’07 and Maria Dizzia in Belleville (2011) by Amy Herzog ’07, YC ’00 (Faculty), directed by Anne Kauffman. Belleville opened at New York Theatre Workshop after its premiere at Yale Rep. Amy was a finalist for the 2013 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for the play.

Photo by Joan Marcus.

05 Director Lileana Blain-Cruz ’12 with actress Tonya Pinkins during a rehearsal for War (2014) by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. Photo by Joan Marcus.

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Putting It All Together by e m e ly z e p e da ’16 a n d m a r i a i n ês m a r q u es s p ec i a l t h a n ks to c h e r y l m i n t z It is a truth universally acknowledged that it takes a village to put on a professional production. What audiences often don’t realize is that there is someone who keeps the well-oiled machine of illusions, commonly known as theatre, running from the first budget meeting to the final curtain call— the stage manager. When the doorbell rings right as the character is about to leave the stage, when the leading actress appears in multiple Victorian ruffled dresses with virtually no time to change into them, or when the lighting effects are perfectly synced with the day to night transition, we all know this is not the work of the almighty, raucous theatre gods. If you turn around slowly in your chair, you are likely catch a glimpse of an indefatigable stage manager at work in the 5 0

control booth, behind the rows of riveted spectators.

Whether it’s working with the cast and director in the rehearsal room, coordinating the efforts of creative and technical teams during tech, or cuing a performance with minute precision, stage managers have countless responsibilities. In her 21st year as chair of the stage management department, Mary Hunter states, “The stage managers are central artistic collaborators from the early stages of pre-production through closing night. To that end, one of our department’s principal goals is to assist the student in recognizing and fulfilling their potential as passionate artists and effective managers throughout the entire production process.” Stage managers have to adjust their

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methods and priorities to respond to the idiosyncrasies and particular demands of each new project, and they have to maintain strong communication with every person working on the show. “The collaborators are all different voices speaking different artistic languages,” says James Mountcastle ’90 (Faculty), production stage manager at YRT. “The stage manager has to be fluent in all these languages and has to gather these disparate voices into a cohesive project. The whole team needs to be able to trust the stage manager to shepherd them through the process.”

The stage management program at Yale School of Drama is designed to prepare its students for this complex métier and to provide them with the artistic, technical,

Stage Management Education at Yale Rep Stage Management alumni reflect on the role of Yale Rep in their YSD education.

Jenny Friend ’98 stage managed Geography (1997) and Petersburg (1998) at YRT. She is now the stage manager at Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis. “I came out of my chaotic, wonderful time at YSD with a fierce ability to prioritize well, quickly, and with confidence,” she says. “I feel like I can, almost minute to minute, weigh the needs of the personalities in the room and where the process should be headed and work to effectively shape the wisest path.”

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01 Jenny Friend ’98 explaining a Peter Pan set model to student actors.

Photo by Caitlin Randolph.

In her third year, Hannah Sullivan ’14 stage managed The Fairytale Lives of Russian Girls. “My experiences at Yale Rep were truly the culmination of my training at Yale. The Rep served as a laboratory of sorts for me to apply procedures, styles, and approaches that I had derived from my classwork. It put all of my training into practical, professional application.”

02 Hannah Sullivan ’14

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03 James Mountcastle ’90 (Faculty) with second-year stage management student Caitlin O’Rourke ’18. Photo by Mary Hunter.

04 Cheryl Mintz ’87 in rehearsal for McCarter Theatre’s The Figaro Plays.

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organizational, and social competences to oversee professional theatre productions. Stage management students take classes in most of the School’s departments, which Mary says “is about learning the process and the vocabulary of their collaborators.” The core stage management curriculum is structured to include a broad range of fundamentals—from the Equity contract to a course entitled Current Stage Management Practice, taught by Broadway production stage manager Diane DiVita (Faculty). All courses are designed toward building the student’s professional confidence and skill sets.

A key element of the program’s educational philosophy is YSD’s unique relationship with Yale Repertory Theatre. “A careful combination of coursework and progressively challenging production assignments prepares our students for the professional position of the Equity stage manager at the Rep,” says Mary.

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“From the moment they arrive on campus, most everything they encounter will play a role in preparing them for the goal of working at the Rep and thus in a professional capacity.” Mary and James mentor students during their productions at both the School and the Rep, encouraging them to use their own discretion. “As a third-year student, I was given the room to be the stage manager for Tennessee Williams’s Summer and Smoke,” James recalls.

“Now, the more my fingerprints can be off the productions the better.”

Mary adds, “Our goal is to bring out their personalities and allow them to develop their own styles.” Stage managing a show at Yale Rep inspires confidence in oneself as an artist and collaborator, as a leader and critical thinker, and it encourages students to take risks and question the norms of their preconceived ideas, to challenge themselves and the theatre experience, and ultimately to realize their potential as professional artists.

Lisa Porter ’95 is teaching the next generation of stage managers. She heads University of California San Diego’s BFA/MFA program. She recently stage managed for Yo-Yo Ma’s The Silk Road Ensemble and has a partnership with director Ong Keng Sen that began in 1997. She often takes students with her on professional projects and incorporates the experience into the classroom. At YRT, Lisa stage managed Uncle Vanya in 1995, and then returned for Betty’s Summer Vacation in 2002 and The Taming of the Shrew in 2003.

05 05 Lisa Porter ’95 (third from left) in rehearsal for Ong Keng Sen’s Lear Dreaming at TheatreWorks in Singapore.

06 Julie Haber ’77

“Finding a theatrical home was the goal after graduation,” says Julie Haber ’77 of Santa Cruz Shakespeare, Magic Theatre, and MainStreet Theatre Company.

“The program was geared to regional theatre, Yale Rep being the example. I never separated the School and the Rep as learning institutions.”

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Cheryl Mintz ’87, resident and production stage manager at McCarter Theatre since 1991, recalls working on Athol Fugard’s A Place with the Pigs: “It had the first significant artistically defining impact on the course of my career.

Athol encouraged me to set my artistic goals high and because of him I have always sought out theatre with a mission and committed myself to institutions that capture my beliefs.”

07 Cheryl Mintz ’87 with Athol Fugard (right) in rehearsal for A Place with the Pigs at Yale Rep in 1987.

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08 Mary Hunter (Faculty) with Victoria Whooper ’16 during a tech rehearsal.

Photo by Joan Marcus.

09 Third-year stage management student Ben Pfister ’17.

10 Students in the stage management program during a visit to the Metropolitan Opera. Photo by Mary Hunter.

11 Cheryl Mintz ’87 (right) with director Rebecca Taichman ’00 during Sleeping Beauty Wakes at McCarter Theatre.

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Laura Brown-MacKinnon ’93 has been a member of the YSD stage management faculty since 2002.

She has served as stage manager for Broadway, Off-Broadway, and regional theatre, and has also worked in technical supervision on more than 65 Broadway productions and national tours.

“When you’re stage managing a show at the Rep, you are coordinating the design and direction of people you may have been to class with, and more than likely you are collaborating with a director who has come up through YSD ahead of you,” she says. “These are not just titles on a contact sheet.

It’s personal in the best sense of the word.”

“The Rep served as a laboratory of sorts....It put all of my training into practical, professional application.”

— hannah sullivan ’14

Paul Douglas Michnewicz ’87, director of arts and events at the Reston Community Center’s CenterStage, and co-founder and former artistic director of Theater Alliance, says, “I spent 25 years going from a cabaret type atmosphere at Theater Alliance to stage managing large scale productions at The Kennedy Center. Scaling up and scaling down is what I learned at Yale and it has served me very well.”

12 12 Laura Brown-MacKinnon ’93 (Faculty) teaching third-year stage management students.

13 Paul Douglas Michnewicz ’87 in rehearsal for the National Endowment for the Arts Heritage Awards at Strathmore Hall. Photo by Tom Pich.

Narda Alcorn ’95 has stage managed six of the August Wilson Century Cycle plays on Broadway, and in 2005 she returned to Yale Rep to stage manage Wilson’s Radio Golf. “Going to Yale had everything to do with wanting to work with Lloyd Richards (Former Dean) and August Wilson.” As head of stage management at The Theatre School at DePaul University from 2011 until last spring, Narda frequently invited current students to be part of her team on professional productions.

She has now joined the faculty of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts as head of stage management training.

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14 Narda Alcorn ’95 on the set of A Raisin in the Sun.

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A Rep in the

Right Direction by f r a n k r iz zo Frank Rizzo, former theatre critic for the Hartford Courant, knows the Rep almost as well as anybody who’s set foot upon its stages. From his customary seat on the aisle, Frank reviewed the Rep’s productions for more than 30 years, shows too numerous to mention. With an ever-critical eye, thoughtful insights, and genuine love for the theatre, Frank was always a friend to our stage—the kind of friend who knew it was important to identify both our hits and our misses.

As the Rep celebrates its semi-centennial, we asked Frank to assess the Rep through the artists and alumni who trained here. Ever the journalist, he tracked down some former YSD students and Rep alumni now working on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and in regional theatres around the country and elicited their thoughts. So, what does 50 look like? Here is Frank’s report.

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eresa Eyring ’89 looked down from the tension grid over the stage during the world premiere of Lee Blessing’s A Walk in the Woods at Yale Repertory Theatre. The year was 1987 and Teresa was a student in the theater management program. Her job was to drop leaves at the appropriate time

A sketch of actor Josef Sommer, which Teresa Eyring ’89 drew from the tension grid above the stage at Yale Repertory Theatre during the world premiere of Lee Blessing’s A Walk in the Woods.

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“When I left school and the Rep I felt very prepared but I also felt I was a part of something larger than myself. I felt I was part of the American theatre.”

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— shay wafer ’89

during the production, which didn’t always fall with the precision that director Des McAnuff wanted, one of many attention-todetail lessons Eyring learned at the Rep. It was a unique vantage point that also took in the entire workings of the theatre from audience to performance space to backstage, inspiring her to draw on a sketch pad, illustrations she kept to this day.

The Rep experience was special on the ground, too, giving her an all-encompassing professional perspective that she carried with her throughout her career, and to her current perch as executive director of Theatre Communications Group, the national service organization for non-profit theatres in America. At TCG, she has witnessed first-hand the impact the Rep has had on American theatre. “The Rep was a learning lab for everyone,” she said from her Manhattan office. “It was essential.

I knew when I graduated I could walk out of there and run a theatre.”

Eyring and other alumni working in nonprofit theatres echoed a long list of ways Yale Rep has affected the field well beyond 1120 Chapel Street. They pointed to its long history of commitment to producing new, diverse, and challenging work from young, as well as established, writers, producing more than 100 premieres. They also talked about the Rep’s commitment in making dramaturgy an integrated part of professional theatre and of the Rep’s collaborations with other theatres, giving opportunities for further development for artists and their work. But most often they pointed to the special relationship between the professional artists at the Rep and the generations of students at the School who later moved into the field, many becoming leaders in every aspect of the American theatre as well as in film, television, and opera. “I don’t know if there’s any professional theatre combined with a training program that’s quite at the same caliber,” says Eyring. “The stakes were very much higher here. We were given the responsibility—and the authority—to really function on the front lines of the Rep and that meant learning how to do things in a way that was beyond theoretical.”

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“Yale is why I went into the regional theatre system as an artist administrator to eventually run my own theatre, believing that communities thrive with strong artistic leadership. That’s the Yale Rep model and that’s what is expected from the people it has invested in.”

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— jonathan moscone ’93

Robert Brustein ’51, HON ’66 (Former Dean) wasn’t thinking about changing American theatre when he was named dean in 1966. He had a vision of simply creating a school that had a connection to a professional theatre and a resident company. “I had no idea that this would be influential in any way,” says Brustein, now 89, from his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. When did Brustein feel the synergy between the Rep and School finally come together in the way he initially envisioned? He chuckles.

“It was in the 13th year, my final year, 1979, that’s when I felt everything was working so well and that there were no forces trying to blow it away. It was all about the work and we were turning out wonderful artists who would become influential in the American theatre. The proudest thing that I have is the quality of students that came out of those years. I think the best of them have always sought the most challenging work and are very dissatisfied with the conventional.”

“The unconventional was key from the beginning,” says Lynne Meadow ’71, longtime artistic director of Manhattan Theatre Club. “There was a sense of urgency that Bob was expressing that was different from traditional theatre.” Meadow says that as a directing student the fact that the Rep did not accept the status quo “made a big impression on me about the need to create an alternative theatre—and it’s something I followed in my career. The idea that I would come to New York—the center of professional theatre—and have an institutional theatre was first painted 01 on the landscape in New Haven. I knew that theatre could be creShay Wafer ’89 (right) and Yvonne Joyner ated in all types of venues. The first play I did was at St. Clements Levette ’90, founders of Colored Girl ProChurch.” ductions, a non-profit company dedicated to Charles Dillingham ’69, YC ’65, former managing director of producing new and classic works influenced by the African Diaspora for urban youth and their Los Angeles’s Center Theatre Group, says the greatest impact of families. the Rep is something unquantifiable: “This gigantic group of Yale grads who permeate the American theatre at every level, who are 02 far better trained to work in the professional theatre and far more Teresa Eyring ’89, executive director of Theatre Communications Group, at the 2015 TCG committed, too—that’s the principal contribution the Rep has made Fall Forum on Governance. Photo courtesy of to the American theatre over 50 years.”

Isaiah Tanenbaum Theatrical.

Shay Wafer ’89, executive director of the New York-based presenting organization 651 ARTS, agrees. “When I left school and 03 Lynne Meadow ’71. Photo courtesy of the Rep I felt very prepared but I also felt I was a part of something Manhattan Theatre Club. larger than myself. I felt I was part of the American theatre.” Wafer also has a personal perspective of her Rep relationship, one that 04 demonstrates that professionalism could also embrace the human Jonathan Moscone ’93 in rehearsal for Ghost Light at California Shakespeare Theater, where he element. “I was a mother when I was at school and I had a toddler served as artistic director for 15 years. Photo by who was a year-and-a-half during the world premiere of The Piano Jenny Graham for TCG. Lesson when I was the assistant company manager.” She says her YA L E S C H O O L O F D R A M A A N N UA L 2 016 –17

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“Each artistic director at the Rep understands they’re there to take some risks, to push the envelope for the field and see where it goes. I would even say there’s an obligation to take risks and be at the forefront of innovation.” — joshua borenstein ’02

05 05 Heartbeat Opera’s founders, Louisa Proske ’12 and Ethan Heard ’13, YC ’07.

06 Heartbeat Opera presented pop-up performances at New York’s High Line in September. (left to right) Marie Marquis, Louisa Proske, John Taylor Ward MUS ’12, MMA ’13, Jacob Ashworth MUS ’13, MMA ’14, and Ethan Heard. Photo by Carlos David, courtesy of Friends of the High Line.

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daughter spent time in the Green Room with nurturing actors like Sharon Washington ’88 and Samuel L. Jackson, while she worked in the production. “It made the world of difference to me,” she says. “Fast-forward 30 years and my daughter is now an actress and even though she doesn’t remember all of it, she claims the Rep experience is one of the reasons why she pursued acting.”

After Yale, Jonathan Moscone ’93 became associate artistic director at the Dallas Theater Center and later served as artistic director of California Shakespeare Theater. Moscone says by working with the Rep “students understand their role—and career paths—as significant artists, people who have an important thing to say about where the American theatre is going.” “I went into the regional theatre system as an artist administrator to eventually run my own theatre, believing that communities thrive with strong artistic leadership. That’s the Yale Rep model and that’s what is expected from the people it has invested in.”

Ethan Heard ’13, YC ’07, co-founder and co-artistic director of Heartbeat Opera, remembers the excitement of being connected to professionals at every level of theatremaking, peeking in at the open rehearsal rooms, watching Robert Woodruff work on In a Year with 13 Moons, “and absorbing his style of leadership” and that of Liz Diamond (Faculty), who was directing The Winter’s Tale at the Rep. Ethan remembers running the light board for the premiere of Will Eno’s The Realistic Joneses and “getting into a little trouble with actor Tracy Letts because my black-outs weren’t crisp enough. It really brought home for me the idea of how sensitive the interactions between artists and crew members are and that I needed to be more specific, quick, and purposeful. I was momentarily embarrassed and rattled by it but ultimately I kind of love the story, because 06 that is theatre. It’s the detail work that can really make a dif-

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“I had the sense that I was standing among some living legends.

You see, there’s a legacy to the School—and to the Rep too. I feel connected to that. I do not take that legacy lightly.”

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— david roberts ’08

ference and it’s made me be a better director.”

Even an off-handed insight by a Rep artist can make a difference. “I was driving one day with John Rando [who was at YRT directing for the Yale Institute for Musical Theatre] and he said he wished he realized that directing is producing much earlier than he did. ‘The more you understand about producing the better director you can be,’ he said.” It was a lesson Ethan took to heart while leading the Yale Cabaret. The Rep experience “gave me confidence to assemble a team of collaborators and to raise money and to lead the charge,” says Heard. “And Heartbeat Opera was born out of Yale.”

For Shane Hudson ’14, executive director of New York’s Primary Stages, “the Rep has always been seen as one of the great institutions in American theatre but more 08 and more it’s now seen as a place of innovation, a place where emerging artists, especially playwrights, are being supported in significant ways.”

Managing director of Long Wharf Theatre Joshua Borenstein ’02 agrees. “Each artistic director at the Rep understands they’re there to take some risks, to push the envelope for the field and see where it goes. I would even say there’s an obligation to take risks and be at the forefront of innovation.”

Rocco Landesman DFA ’76 sees that commitment rooted in the very beginnings of the regional theatre movement. “For a half-century Yale Rep has been an important pillar of the resident theatre movement in the United States,” says the producer and former chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. “The leaders of this movement, Robert Brustein at Yale, Tyrone Guthrie in Minneapolis, Zelda Fichandler in DC, Joe Papp in New York, and 09 Gordon Davidson in Los Angeles, among others, believed, very simply, that the marketplace (i.e. the box office) should not be the sole arbiter of what theatrical fare the public can access. Work that 07 is risky and challenging needs the protection that only subsidy can David Roberts ’08, newly appointed director of provide.”

Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation and former managing director of the Classical David Roberts ’08, newly appointed director of Stage Directors Theatre of Harlem. and Choreographers Foundation and former managing director of the Classical Theatre of Harlem, recalls his School of Drama inter08 view with the chair of theater management, Ben Mordecai (Former Shane Hudson ’14, executive director of New York’s Primary Stages, at a celebration in honor Faculty). “August Wilson—who was there to do his last play—had of Horton Foote’s 100th Birthday. just arrived and was in the office. There was something auspicious about that beginning. I had the sense that I was standing among 09 some living legends. You see, there’s a legacy to the School—and to Rocco Landesman DFA ’76, producer and former chairman of the National Endowment for the Rep too. I feel connected to that. I do not take that legacy lightly.” the Arts.

And so the Rep is poised to continue the legacy—for at least another 50 years.

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Alumni Events 2015 NEW YORK HOLIDAY PARTY

AT THE YALE CLUB OF NEW YORK CITY

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01 Rolin Jones ’04, Laura Smolowe YC ’02, LAW ’06, and Molly Bernard ’13.

02 Milton Trexler and Lisa Carling ’72.

03 Meg Neville ’97, Leah Gardiner ’96, and Seth Gilliam.

04 Barry Grove, James Bundy ’95 (Dean), and John Rothman ’75.

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05 Tori Sampson ’17, Lileana BlainCruz ’12, Victoria Whooper ’16, and Jiréh Breon Holder ’16.

06 Annie Middleton ’16, Ato BlanksonWood ’15, Kelly Kerwin ’15, and Chalia La Tour ’16.

07 Sheria Irving ’13, Mariko Nakasone ’14, Elia Monte-Brown ’14, Chasten Harmon ’15, and Carly Zien ’14, YC ’08.

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08 Susan Horowitz ’69, David Johnson YC ’78, Mamoudou Athie ’14, Beth McGuire (Faculty), and Mahayana Landowne ’98.

09 Julian Elijah Martinez ’16, Aaron Bartz ’15, and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II ’15.

10 Eric Gershman ’15, SOM ’15, Tijuana Ricks ’04, and Evan Yionoulis ’85, YC ’82 (Faculty).

p h oto s by sa m u e l s t uar t h olle n s h e ad

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Alumni Events 2016 WEST COAST ALUMNI PARTY AT THE HOME OF STEVE ZUCKERMAN ’74

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p h o to s by j e f f lo rc h

04 Bruce Katzman ’88 and Rachel Myers ’07.

05 Courtney B. Vance ’86, Bronwyn Vance, Al Heartley ’18, Malcolm Darrell ’07, Angela Bassett ’83, YC ’80, Carmen Morgan (Faculty), Kimberly Scott ’87, Jamel Rodriguez ’08, Phillip Howze ’15, Donna Lynn Leavy ’80, Sarah Williams ’15, and Patricia McGregor ’09.

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06 Bo Foxworth ’94 and Stephen Godchaux ’93.

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01 Asaad Kelada ’64, James Bundy ’95 (Dean), and Steve Zuckerman ’74.

07 Amelia Roper ’13 and Adam O’Byrne ’04, YC ’01.

02 Aubyn Philabaum ’08 and Nick Avila ’05.

08 Bree Sherry Fabrizio ’10, Matt Moses ’09, Lisa Loen ’10, and Laura Esposito ’09.

03 Al Heartley ’18 presents Angela Bassett ’83, YC ’80 with the FOLKS 201516 T-shirt, in recognition of her role in founding the group.

09 James Bundy presents Courtney B. Vance with the 2015–16 Warfel Award.

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Yale Rep’s 50th Anniversary In October, alumni, students, faculty, staff, and friends gathered together to begin the season-long celebration of YRT’s 50th anniversary. The photos below capture some of the enthusiasm and spirit of the events, which included a reception at the President’s House, a School-wide outdoor luncheon, a panel presentation of artists discussing the history of the Rep, and a festive dinner at Sterling Memorial Library. It was an opportunity to honor our past and renew our commitment to the creativity and excellence that are at the heart of YSD and YRT.

RECEPTION AT THE YALE UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT’S HOUSE

All photos by T. Charles Erickson.

for Scenes from Court Life, or the whipping boy and his prince by Sarah Ruhl

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04 01 Stan Wojewodski, Jr. HON ’92 (Former Dean) and Carol Ostrow ’80.

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02 Ed Trach ’58 and Cathy MacNeil Hollinger ’86.

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03 Sarah Long ’92, YC ’85, her husband, David Solomon YC ’88, LAW ’92, and her father, Charles Long.

04 Yale Rep donors Barbara Feldman and Richard Feldman with President Peter Salovey GRD ’86 and Marta Moret MPH ’84.

Yale Rep’s 50th Anniversary LUNCHEON ON LIBRARY WALK 01 The All-School Luncheon took place on Library Walk, across from University Theatre.

02 Sherry Mordecai and Victoria Nolan (Deputy Dean).

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03 Early members of Yale Repertory Theatre: Tom Moore ’68, Robert Brustein ’51, HON ’66 (Former Dean), Gordon Rogoff YC ’52 (Faculty), and Joan Pape ’68.

04 Jake Thompson (Staff) and Kimberly Scott ’87. Jake has worked at the School and the Rep since 1973.

05 James Magruder ’88, DFA ’92, MA ’84 and Jane Kaczmarek ’82.

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Yale Rep’s 50th Anniversary PANEL DISCUSSION IN UNIVERSITY THEATRE

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03 01 The members of the panel discussion: (left to right) Stan Wojewodski, Jr. HON ’92 (Former Dean), Jane Kaczmarek ’82, Carmen de Lavallade (Former Faculty), Catherine Sheehy ’92, DFA ’99 (Faculty), James Magruder ’88, DFA ’92, MA ’84 (Former Faculty), Robert Brustein ’51, HON ’66 (Former Dean), Kimberly Scott ’87, Sarah Ruhl (Faculty), Michael Yeargan ’73 (Faculty), and James Bundy ’95 (Dean).

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All photos by T. Charles Erickson.

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02 Robert Brustein, founder of Yale Rep, talks with Carmen de Lavallade and Michael Yeargan.

03 Catherine Sheehy, Sarah Ruhl, and James Bundy.

Yale Rep’s 50th Anniversary DINNER AT STERLING MEMORIAL LIBRARY

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01 The dinner was an opportunity to honor the artistic and managing directors from Yale Rep’s past and present: (left to right) Stan Wojewodski, Jr. HON ’92 (Former Dean), Victoria Nolan (Deputy Dean), Rocco Landesman DFA ’76, who presented a scholarship in honor of Robert Brustein ’51, HON ’66 (Former Dean), James Bundy ’95 (Dean), Sherry Mordecai, who was honored on behalf of her late husband, Ben Mordecai (Former Faculty), Scott Richards YC ’82, who was honored on behalf of his late father, Lloyd Richards HON ’79 (Former Dean), Rob Orchard ’72 (Former Faculty), and Ed Martenson (Faculty).

04 James Bundy and Victoria Nolan with Scott Richards (center), who attended on behalf of his late father, Lloyd Richards.

02 Armando Huipe ’19 setting up for the dinner in the Sterling Memorial Library Nave.

07 Ron Van Lieu (Faculty) and John Beinecke YC ’69, chair of the Yale School of Drama Board of Advisors.

05 Rafael Galvan, Arthur Nacht ’06, Jane Kaczmarek ’82, Bruce Berman LAW ’79, and Sharee Carter-Galvan LAW ’93, senior associate general counsel at Yale.

06 Playwrights Amy Herzog ’07, YC ’00, (Faculty), Sarah Ruhl (Faculty), and Aditi Brennan Kapil. Their plays are receiving world-premiere productions at Yale Rep this season.

03 Stan Wojewodski with Amandla Jahava ’19.

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Awards & Honors 67th Annual Emmy Awards 2015 Outstanding Production Design for a Narrative Period Program Adam Scher ’94 (Art Director) Winner, Boardwalk Empire Outstanding Production Design for Variety, Nonfiction, Reality or Reality-Competition Programming Derek McLane ’84 (Production Designer) Nominee, The Oscars Nominee, Peter Pan Live!

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or a Movie Frances McDormand ’82 Winner, Olive Kitteridge Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series Liev Schreiber ’92 Nominee, Ray Donovan Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series Paul Giamatti ’94, YC ’89 Nominee, Inside Amy Schumer Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series Reg E. Cathey ’81 Winner, House of Cards Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or a Movie Angela Bassett ’83, YC ’80 Nominee, American Horror Story: Freak Show Outstanding Children’s Program Sheila Nevins ’63 (Executive Producer) Winner, Alan Alda and the Actor within You: A Young Arts Master Class

Outstanding Documentary of Non-Fiction Special Sheila Nevins ’63 (Executive Producer) Winner, Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief Nominee, Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck Nominee, The Case Against 8 68th Annual Emmy Awards 2016 Outstanding Lead Actor in a Mini-Series or Movie Courtney B. Vance ’86 Winner, The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series Liev Schreiber ’92 Nominee, Ray Donovan Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series Reg E. Cathey ’81 Nominee, House Of Cards Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series Michael Engler ’85 Nominee, Downton Abbey, Episode 9 Outstanding Production Design for a Narrative Contemporary or Fantasy Program Denise Hudson ’09 (Art Director) Nominee, American Horror Story: Hotel Outstanding Production Design for a Variety, Nonfiction, Reality, or Reality-Competition Series Eugene Lee ’86 (Production Designer) Nominee, Saturday Night Live

Outstanding Production Design for a Variety, Nonfiction, Event, or Award Special Derek McLane ’84 (Production Designer) Nominee, The Oscars Nominee, The Wiz Live!

Best Original Screenplay Tom McCarthy ’95 with Josh Singer Winner, Spotlight

Outstanding Costumes for a Variety, Nonfiction or Reality Program William Ivey Long ’75 (Costume Designer) Nominee, Grease: Live

Best Director—Motion Picture Tom McCarthy ’95 Nominee, Spotlight

Paul Spadone III ’99, YC ’93 (Assistant Costume Design) Nominee, Grease: Live Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special Sheila Nevins ’63 (Executive Producer) Nominee, Becoming Mike Nichols Nominee, Everything Is Copy— Nora Ephron: Scripted & Unscripted Nominee, Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking Sheila Nevins ’63 (Executive Producer) Winner, Jim: The James Foley Story 88th Annual Academy Awards 2016 Best Picture Tom McCarthy ’95 (Director and Screenwriter) Winner, Spotlight Best Director Tom McCarthy ’95 Nominee, Spotlight Best Production Design Adam Stockhausen ’99 Nominee, Bridge of Spies

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73rd Annual Golden Globe Awards 2016

Best Motion Picture—Drama Tom McCarthy ’95 (Director and Screenwriter) Nominee, Spotlight Best Screenplay—Motion Picture Tom McCarthy ’95 with Josh Singer Nominee, Spotlight Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series—Drama Liev Schreiber ’92 Nominee, Ray Donovan 31st Annual Helen Hayes Awards 2016 Charles McArthur Award for Original New Play or Musical Martyna Majok ’12 Winner, Ironbound Outstanding Original Play or Musical Adaptation David Ives ’84 Winner, The Metromaniacs Outstanding Lighting Design – HAYES Production Donald Holder ’86 Winner, Salomé Thom Weaver ’07 Nominee, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead Outstanding Set Design— HAYES Production Susan Hilferty ’80 Winner, Salomé

Awards & Honors Outstanding Costume Design – HAYES Production Jess Goldstein ’78 (Faculty) Nominee, Ken Ludwig’s Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery

Outstanding Sound Design Fitz Patton ’01 Nominees, The Humans

Outstanding Sound Design – HAYES Production David Budries (Faculty) and Nathan A. Roberts ’10 Nominee, The Widow Lincoln

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play Lupita Nyong’o ’12 Nominee, Eclipsed

Outstanding Director of a Play – HAYES Production Eleanor Holdridge ’97 Nominee, Queens Girl in the World Outstanding Lead Actress in a Play – HAYES Production Alexandra Henrikson ’11 Nominee, Ironbound 31st Annual Lucille Lortel Awards 2016 Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play Jeanine Serralles ’02 Nominee, Gloria

70th Annual Tony Awards 2016

Best Scenic Design of a Musical Santo Loquasto ’72 Nominee, Shuffle Along, or the Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed

82nd Annual Drama League Awards 2016

61st Annual Drama Desk Awards 2016

66th Annual Outer Critics Circle Awards 2016

Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play Jeanine Serralles ’02 Nominee, Gloria

John Gassner Playwriting Award Martyna Majok ’12 Nominee, Ironbound

G. W. Mercier ’83 Nominee, Head of Passes

G.W. Mercier ’83 Nominee, Head of Passes

Matt Saunders ’12 with Emily Orling Nominee, futurity

Derek McLane ’84 Nominee, Fully Committed

Outstanding Lighting Design Christopher Akerlind ’89 Nominee, Grounded

Outstanding Sound Design in a Play Fitz Patton ’01 Winner, The Humans Nominee, An Act of God

Distinguished Performance Award Lupita Nyong’o ’12 Nominee, Eclipsed

Outstanding Scenic Design Tim Mackabee ’09 Winner, Guards at the Taj

Donna Zakowski ’83 Nominee, Angel Reapers

Outstanding Projection Design Nicholas Hussong ’14 Nominee, These Paper Bullets!

Best Costume Design of a Play Jane Greenwood (Faculty) Nominee, Long Day’s Journey Into Night

Outstanding Set Design for a Play Riccardo Hernandez ’92 Nominee, Red Speedo

Outstanding Costume Design Anita Yavich ’95 Winner, The Legend of Georgia McBride

Outstanding Costume Design for a Musical Jane Greenwood (Faculty) Nominee, Bright Star

Outstanding Set Design for a Musical Matt Saunders ’12 Nominee, futurity Outstanding Costume Design for a Play William Ivey Long ’75 Nominee, Shows for Days Anita Yavich ’95 Winner, The Legend of Georgia McBride

Lindsey Ferrentino ’16 Nominee, Ugly Lies the Bone Outstanding Director of a Play Mike Donahue ’08 Nominee, The Legend of Georgia McBride Outstanding Actress in a Play Lupita Nyong’o ’12 Nominee, Eclipsed Outstanding Scenic Design Walt Spangler ’97 Nominee, Tuck Everlasting Outstanding Costume Design Jane Greenwood (Faculty) Nominee, Bright Star Outstanding Lighting Design Donald Holder ’86 Nominee, Bright Star

47th Annual Jeff Equity Awards 2015 Outstanding Scenic Design (Large) Kevin Depinet ’06 Winner (with Jeffrey D. Kmiec), Les Misérables Nominee, The Game’s Afoot Scott Pask ’97 Nominee, Airline Highway Todd Rosenthal ’93 Nominee, The Little Foxes Outstanding Costume Design Dede M. Ayite ’11 Winner, Marie Antoinette 47th Annual Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards 2015 Costume Design Jessica Ford ’04 Winner, These Paper Bullets!

(Yale Repertory Theatre at Geffen Playhouse) Wade Laboissonniere ’03 Nominee, Waterfall (Pasadena Playhouse) William Ivey Long ’75 Winner, Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella (Center Theatre Group at Ahmanson Theatre) 26th Annual Los Angeles Stage Alliance Ovation Awards 2015 Outstanding Direction of a Musical Robert Schneider ’94, DFA ’97 Nominee, Memphis Andi Chapman ’85 Nominee, The Gospel at Colonus

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Awards & Honors Featured Actor in a Play Tony Shalhoub ’80 Nominee, Happy Days Outstanding Scenic Design for a Large Theatre Anthony Fanning ’90 Nominee, Switzerland 61st Annual Obie Awards 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award A.R. Gurney ’58 Carmen de Lavallade (Former Faculty)

Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play Michael Rogers ’85 Nominee, The Call (TheaterWorks Hartford) Outstanding Set Design Alexander Dodge ’99 Winner, Rear Window (Hartford Stage) Nominee, Anastasia (Hartford Stage) Derek McLane ’84 Nominee, My Paris (Long Wharf Theatre)

Jane Shaw ’98 Nominee, Rear Window (Hartford Stage) Outstanding Projection Design Rasean Davonte Johnson ’16 Nominee, Cymbeline (Yale Repertory Theatre)

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Alexander Woodward ’16 Nominee, The Moors (Yale Repertory Theatre)

Performance, Ensemble Lupita Nyong’o ’12 Winner, Eclipsed Connecticut Critics Circle Awards 2015-2016 Outstanding Production of a Play Yale Repertory Theatre Winner, Indecent Nominee, Happy Days Outstanding Ensemble Yale Repertory Theatre Winner, Indecent Outstanding Director of a Play Rebecca Taichman ’00 Winner, Indecent (Yale Repertory Theatre) Jackson Gay ’02 Nominee, The Moors (Yale Repertory Theatre) Outstanding Actor in a Play Stephen Rowe ’75 Nominee, Red (Westport Country Playhouse) Steven Skybell ’88, YC ’84 Nominee, Broken Glass (Westport Country Playhouse)

Outstanding Costume Design Linda Cho ’98 Winner, Anastasia (Hartford Stage) Fabian Fidel Aguilar ’16 Nominee, The Moors (Yale Repertory Theatre) Outstanding Lighting Design Donald Holder ‘86 Winner, Anastasia (Hartford Stage) Nominee, My Paris (Long Wharf Theatre)

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Christopher Akerlind ’89 Nominee, Indecent (Yale Repertory Theatre) Andrew Griffin ’16 Nominee, The Moors (Yale Repertory Theatre) York Kennedy ’90 Nominee, Rear Window (Hartford Stage)

Outstanding Actress in a Play Elizabeth Lande ’94 Nominee, Wit (Playhouse on Park) 70

Outstanding Sound Design David Budries (Faculty) Nominee, Red (Westport Country Playhouse)

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Awards & Honors Honors Actress Shaunette Renée Wilson ’16 received a 2015 Princess Grace Award Theatre Scholarship.

Miriam Hyman ’12 was named an Annenberg Fellow by the Leonore Annenberg Fellowship Fund for the Performing and Visual Arts.

Jake Jeppson ’12 was nominated for The Relentless Award, which honors Philip Seymour Hoffman and is given to a playwright in recognition of a new play. Jake was nominated for his play, #Bros.

Kate Newman ’15 was the winner of the KM Fabrics, Inc. Technical Production Award at the USITT Young Designers & Technicians Awards 2016.

Genne Murphy ’18 won the 2016 Leah Ryan Prize for Emerging Women Writers for her play Giantess, which had a workshop directed by Jessi Hill ’07 at New York Stage & Film in July and a reading at Primary Stages this fall. Dipika Guha ’11 was a runner-up for the prize for her play The Art of Gaman.

Jacob Gallagher-Ross ’09, DFA ’14 and Joseph Cermatori ’08 were honored at the 2016 Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) Conference. Jacob won the American Theatre and Drama Society’s Vera Mowry Roberts Award for Research and Publication for his article “Mediating the Method” in Theatre Survey. Joseph received an Honorable Mention for the ATHE Outstanding Article Prize for his article “Unsettling Gertrude Stein” in Modern Drama.

Shadi Ghaheri ’18 received a 2016 Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans.

Shadi, a directing student, is originally from Iran.

Miriam Hyman ’12

Shadi Ghaheri ’18

01 Jacob Gallagher-Ross ’09, DFA ’14 receiving American Theatre and Drama Society’s Vera Mowry Roberts Award from selection committee chair Rosemarie Bank.

02 Kate Newman ’15 receiving the KM Fabrics, Inc. Technical Production Award from Paul Tantillo, President and CEO/ Principal at KM Fabrics, Inc. 03 Yi Zhao ’12 with his Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise.

Lighting designer Yi Zhao ’12 was a winner of a 2016 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Theatre.

Shaunette Renée Wilson ’16

Genne Murphy ’18

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Graduation CLASS OF 2016

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Congratulations to our newest alumni — the Class of 2016!

Master of Fine Arts/ Certificate in Drama acting Monique Barbee Andrew Burnap Jenelle Chu Paul Stillman Cooper Melanie Field Chris Ghaffari Annie Hägg Sean Patrick Higgins Galen Kane Chalia La Tour Annelise Lawson Jonathan Majors Julian Elijah Martinez Krystin Matsumoto Aubie Merrylees Niall Powderly Bradley James Tejeda Shaunette Renée Wilson

design Fabian Fidel Aguilar Asa Benally Sydney Gallas Andrew F. Griffin Izmir Ickbal Rasean Davonte Johnson Jean Kim Elizabeth Mak Christopher Thompson Alexae Visel Alexander Woodward directing Yagil Eliraz Luke Harlan Leora Morris dramaturgy and dramatic criticism Taylor Barfield David E. Bruin Ashley Chang David Clauson Nahuel Tellería playwriting Lindsey Ferrentino Jiréh Breon Holder Brendan Pelsue

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sound design Pornchanok Kanchanabanca Kate Marvin Sinan Refik Zafar stage management Kelly Montgomery Avery Trunko Victoria Whooper Emely Selina Zepeda technical design & production Michael Best Mitchell Cramond Mitch Massaro Elise Masur Krystin Matsumoto Jonathan Seiler Sean K. Walters Kat Wepler theater management Emika Abe Sooyoung Hwang Annie Middleton Libby Peterson

doctor of fine arts Tanya Dean Kee-Yoon Nahm technical internship certificate Brittany Bland Daniel Cogan Ien DeNio Jamie Farkas Matthew Fischer Bryanna Kim Jill Chandler Salisbury

Graduation CLASS OF 2016

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GRADUATION PRIZES

Prizes are given each year as designated by the faculty. ascap Cole Porter Prize Lindsey Ferrentino ’16 Edward C. Cole Memorial Award Mitch Massaro ’16 Carol Finch Dye Prize Melanie Field ’16 John W. Gassner Memorial Prize Maria Inês Marques ’17 Bert Gruver Memorial Prize Victoria Whooper ’16 Allen M. And Hildred L. Harvey Prize Michael Best ’16 Morris J. Kaplan Prize Emika Abe ’16, SOM ’16

Julian Milton Kaufman Memorial Prize Luke Harlan ’16 Leora Morris ’16

Pierre-André Salim Prize Kate Marvin ’16

Jay And Rhonda Keene Prize Sydney Gallas ’16

The Frieda Shaw, Dr. Diana Mason Obe, And Denise Suttor Prize For Sound Design Pornchanok Kanchanabanca ’16

Leo Lerman Graduate Fellowship In Design Asa Benally ’16

Oliver Thorndike Acting Award Julian Elijah Martinez ’16

Dexter Wood Luke Memorial Prize Taylor Barfield ’16

George C. White Prize Libby Peterson ’16

Mentorship Award Mitch Massaro ’16

Herschel Williams Prize Andrew Burnap ’16

01 (left to right) Chalia La Tour ’16, Libby Peterson ’16, Sean Patrick Higgins ’16, Ashley Chang ’16, Niall Powderly ’16, Andrew Burnap ’16, Bradley James Tejeda ’16, Pornchanok Kanchanabanca ’16, and Rasean Davonte Johnson ’16.

Photo by Mara Levitt .

02 (left to right) Playwriting Graduates Jiréh Breon Holder ’16, Lindsey Ferrentino ’16, and Brendan Pelsue ’16. Photo by Steven Koernig ’17, SOM ’17.

Donald And Zorka Oenslager Fellowship Andrew F. Griffin ’16 Alexander Woodward ’16

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Graduation FELLOWSHIPS & SCHOLARSHIPS

The recipients for the 2015–2016 academic year were: Nina Adams and Moreson Kaplan Scholarship Ricardo Dávila ’17 John Badham Scholarship Leora Morris ’16 John Badham Scholarship in Directing Yagil Eliraz ’16 Mark Bailey Scholarship Josh Goulding ’17 George Pierce Baker Memorial Scholarship Maria Inês Marques ’17 Davina Moss ’17 Lynda A.H. Paul ’17 Herbert H. and Patricia M. Brodkin Scholarship Eston J. Fung ’17 Patricia M. Brodkin Memorial Scholarship Kelly Montgomery ’16 Avery Trunko ’16

Cullman Scholarship in Directing Lucinda Dawkins ’18 Elizabeth Dinkova ’17 Luke Harlan ’16 Holmes Easley Scholarship Fund Izmir Ickbal ’16 Eldon Elder Fellowship Rae Powell ’17 Wei-hsuan Cross Wang ’18 Christopher Ross-Ewart ’17 Choul Lee ’18 Wesley Fata Scholarship Fund Jonathan Higginbotham ’17 Dino Fusco and Anita Pamintuan Fusco Scholarship Galen Kane ’16 Annie G. K. Garland Memorial Scholarship Emely Selina Zepeda ’16

Paul Carter Scholarship Lydia Pustell ’17

Earle Gister Scholarship Aubie Merrylees ’16

Nicholas G. Ciriello Scholarship Fund Ian Elijah Hannan ’17

Randolph Goodman Scholarship Yana Biryukova ’17

August Coppola Scholarship Emily Reeder ’17

Jerome L. Greene Scholarship Jenelle Chu ’16 Sean Patrick Higgins ’16 Chalia La Tour ’16 Jonathan Majors ’16

Caris Corfman Scholarship Shaunette Renée Wilson ’16 Cheryl Crawford Scholarship Miranda Rose Hall ’17

Julie Harris Scholarship Annie Hägg ’16

Edgar & Louise Cullman Scholarship Fund Shadi Ghaheri ’18

Stephen J. Hoffman ’64 Scholarship Jen Seleznow ’18 Sally Horchow Scholarship Fund for Yale School of Drama Actors Niall Powderly ’16

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William and Sarah Hyman Scholarship Andrew F. Griffin ’16 Pamela Jordan Scholarship Paul Stillman Cooper ’16 Stanley Kauffman Scholarship Nahuel Tellería ’16 Sylvia Fine Kaye Scholarship Dylan Frederick ’17 Jay and Rhonda Keene Scholarship for Costume Design Haydee Zelideth Antuñano ’17 Ray Klausen Design Scholarship Michael Commendatore ’17 Gordon F. Knight Scholarship Fund Fan Zhang ’17 Lotte Lenya Scholarship Fund Sydney Lemmon ’17 Victor S. Lindstrom Scholarship Michael Best ’16 Frederick Loewe Scholarship Melanie Field ’16 Frederick Loewe Scholarship for Directors in Honor of Floria V. Lasky Rory Pelsue ’18 Lord Memorial Scholarship Sylvia Xiaomeng Zhang ’18 Virginia Brown Martin Scholarship Brontë Nelson ’17 Stanley R. McCandless Scholarship Elizabeth Green ’17 Carolina Ortiz Herrera ’17

Alfred L. McDougal and Nancy Lauter McDougal Scholarship Jean Kim ’16 Julian Elijah Martinez ’16 Benjamin Mordecai Memorial Scholarship in Theater Management Flo Low ’17 Kenneth D. Moxley Memorial Scholarship Kat Wepler ’16 G. Charles Niemeyer Scholarship Fund Helen Jaksch ’15, DFA ’18 Ilinca Todorut ’13, DFA ’17 Donald M. Oenslager Scholarship in Stage Design, 3rd year Christopher Thompson ’16 Alexander Woodward ’16 Donald & Zorka Oenslager Scholarship in Stage Design Fabian Fidel Aguilar ’16 Sydney Gallas ’16 Rasean Davonte Johnson ’16 Alexae Visel ’16 Eugene O’Neill Memorial Scholarship Majkin Holmquist ’18 Mary Jean Parson Scholarship Jesse Rasmussen ’17 Alan Poul Scholarship Rory Pelsue ’18 Jeff and Pam Rank Scholarship Mitch Massaro ’16 Mark Richard Scholarship Brendan Pelsue ’16 Lloyd Richards Scholarship in Acting Leland Fowler ’17

Graduation FELLOWSHIPS & SCHOLARSHIPS Barbara E. Richter Scholarship Fund Annelise Lawson ’16 Victoria Whooper ’16 Rodman Family Scholarship Irene Iarochevitch ’18 Rodman Family Scholarship II Trent Anderson ’18 Kelly Rae Fayton ’17 Rebekah Heusel ’17 Pierre-André Salim Memorial Scholarship Pornchanok Kanchanabanca ’16 Sayantee Sahoo ’18 Fufan Zhang ’17

Leon Brook Walker Scholarship Sebastian Arboleda ’17 Richard Ward Scholarship Al Heartley ’18 Zelma Weisfeld Scholarship for Costume Design Asa Benally ’16 Constance Welch Memorial Scholarship George Hampe ’17 Elizabeth Stahlmann ’17

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Rebecca West Scholarship Baize Buzan ’17 Anna Crivelli ’17

Scholarship for Playwriting Students Sarah B. Mantell ’17

Audrey Wood Scholarship Genne Murphy ’18

Richard Harrison Senie Scholarship Joo Kim ’17

Yale School of Drama Board of Advisors Scholarship Sinan Refik Zafar ’16

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a ll p h oto s by s t ev e n k o e rn ig

Daniel and Helene Sheehan Scholarship Ruoran Li ’18 Shubert Scholarship Andrew Burnap ’16 Leora Morris ’16 Jiréh Breon Holder ’16 Alexander Woodward ’16 Libby Peterson ’16 Howard Stein Scholarship Tori Sampson ’17 Stephen B. Timbers Family Scholarship for Playwriting Josh Wilder ’18 Jennifer Tipton Scholarship in Lighting Elizabeth Mak ’16 Tisdale Family Scholarship Adam J. Frank ’18, SOM ’18

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03 (left to right) Ashley Chang ’16, Niall Powderly ’16, Avery Trunko ’16, Sooyoung Hwang ’16, Emika Abe ’16 SOM ’16, and Annie Middleton ’16.

Frank Torok Scholarship Paula Renee Clarkson ’17

04 (left to right) Acting graduates Annelise Lawson ’16, Galen Kane ’16, and Shaunette Renée Wilson ’16.

06 Ashley Chang ’16 and Libby Peterson ’16.

05 Costume Designer Asa Benally ’16.

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Bookshelf PUB L IC AT IO NS BY & ABOU T YAL E S C H O OL O F DRA MA A L U MN I

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01 Referentiality and the Films of Woody Allen Edited by Klara Szlezák and D.E. Wynter ’84 2015 Palgrave Macmillan 02 State of the Profession: Performing Arts Librarianship in the 21st Century Edited by Kenneth Schlesinger ’84 2015 Performing Arts Resources 03 Love Slaves of Helen Hadley Hall

By James Magruder ’88, DFA ’92, MA ’84 (Former Faculty) 2016 Queen’s Ferry Press

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04 Eighteenth-Century Brechtians: Theatrical Satire in the Age of Walpole

By Joel Schechter ’72, DFA ’73 (Former Faculty) 2016 University of Exeter Press

06 The Fornes Frame: Contemporary Latina Playwrights and the Legacy of María Irene Fornés

By Anne García-Romero ’95 2016 University of Arizona Press

05 The Tangled Web of the Civil War and Reconstruction: Readings and Writings from a Novelist’s Perspective

By David Madden ’61 2015 Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

07 Long Day’s Journey Into Night: Multimedia Edition Edited By William Davies King ’81, DFA ’83, YC ’77 2016 Yale University Press

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08 Measuring Museum Impact and Performance: Theory and Practice

By John W. Jacobsen ’69, YC ’67 2016 Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

09 Experiments in Democracy: Interracial and Cross-Cultural Exchange in American Theatre, 1912-1945 Edited by Jonathan Shandell ’01, DFA ’06 and Cheryl Black 2016 Southern Illinois University Press 10 Ramón Griffero: Your Desires in Fragments and Other Plays Translated by Adam Versényi ’86, DFA ’90, YC ’80 2016 Oberon Books

Art of Giving Geoffrey Johnson: A Noël Coward Thank-You Before Geoffrey Johnson ’55 was the casting director behind some of Broadway’s biggest and longest-running hits—including

01 01 Geoffrey Johnson ’55

Cats, Phantom of the Opera, and Les Misérables—he was the New York representative and longtime friend of Noël Coward. After meeting by chance when Geoffrey subbed in as stage manager during the auditions for Coward’s Sail Away in 1961, they built a professional and personal relationship that lasted until Coward’s death in 1973.

Last spring Geoffrey donated his collection of Coward’s paintings, photographs, and prints to Yale School of Drama to be auctioned in support of a new scholarship, The Geoffrey Ashton Johnson/ Noël Coward Scholarship, for students in the acting program. The collection was a part of the English and Irish contemporary art auction at Christie’s in London last July.

“My motivation for the scholarship is a simple thank-you for the three years I spent at the Drama School,” says Geoffrey. “My initial exposure to the theatre there was outstanding.

All I learned about the importance of drama from my superb acting coach Constance Welch (Former Faculty) and the entire faculty has stayed with me throughout my career.

My classmates Sue Ann Gilfillan Converse ’55 and Carol Thompson Hemingway ’55 are still very close to me, and I see them and talk with them often about the happy New Haven days.”

The scholarship is an opportunity for Geoffrey to honor Noël Coward. In reminiscing about Coward, he says, “He was always brilliant, quick, and witty, of course. However, at the same time, he was caring and considerate with very few exceptions.” Their friendship exposed Geoffrey to, in his words, “almost every major talent in the hemisphere.” The experiences, lessons, and relationships of those years with Coward served him well in the three-decade long career as a New York

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Art of Giving casting director that followed.

While reflecting on his time at YSD, Geoffrey says, “In retrospect, I never realized how much I was learning every day.”

The scholarship is his way of ensuring that aspiring theatre-makers can continue to receive that kind of education. Geoffrey concludes, “All I can say now is to quote Kevin Spacey: ‘If you have done well, then you’re obligated to send the elevator back down for others.’ That is what I would like to do with this gift to future students.”

Ted and Mary Jo Shen: Musical Theatre at Yale Even a brief tour around the Yale University campus brings you into direct contact with the generosity of Theodore (Ted) Shen YC ’66, HON ’01 and his wife, Mary Jo. There’s the Asian American Cultural Center; Yale’s state-of-the-art squash courts; and Yale University Art Gallery, where Ted has been a member of the board since 2001 and currently serves as chairman. Ted Shen has been leading the charge for Yale for nearly four decades. He has served on the President’s University Council and the Yale Investment Committee, and in 2015 he received the Association of Yale Alumni’s Yale Medal for “extraordinary devotion to the ideals of the University.”

Ted and Mary Jo are also committed to advancing musical theatre in America. Ted’s own musical, A Second Chance, was staged at The Public Theater in 2014, and his latest work, Just One “Q”, premiered in New York in October as part of the Inner Voices series.

At Yale, Ted and Mary Jo founded the music department’s Shen Curriculum for Musical Theater in 2005, which they continue to support enthusiastically. This year they have extended their philanthropy to Yale 78

Rep with a gift for Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins, directed by James Bundy ’95 (Dean).

“Ted and Mary Jo have made it possible for our production of Assassins—the first major revival in more than a decade—to include the full Broadway orchestration, so that this majestic work can be heard in all its glory at Yale Rep,” says James. “Their gift is a wonderful example of their passion for excellence and their commitment to bringing the Yale and Greater New Haven communities together through the arts.”

As long-time advocates for Sondheim’s work—28 Sondheim productions have received grants from the Shen Charitable Gift Fund—supporting Assassins was a perfect fit. “While Assassins is undoubtedly a masterpiece, it is under-recognized within

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the Sondheim oeuvre,” wrote Ted and Mary Jo. “We are excited about combining the creative inspiration of James Bundy with the artistry of Yale Repertory Theatre to produce a fresh revelation of this work.”

Ted and Mary Jo hope the production will “encourage increased interchange and collaboration among Yale’s uniquely rich musical theater elements: its acclaimed undergraduate musical theater curriculum; its esteemed School of Drama and Yale Rep;

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02 Ted and Mary Jo Shen.

Art of Giving its exceptional talent pool; and its rare musical theater archival collections.”

Rocco Landesman and Heidi Ettinger: Honoring a Mentor Rocco Landesman DFA ’76 is well-versed in the art of giving and, also, in the business of giving. As the chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts from 2009 to 2012, Rocco oversaw the federal grant-making agency’s budget of more than $155 million, providing support to the arts and arts education all across the country. NEA recipients typically include organizations devoted to the visual arts, dance, film, television, literature, and more, but there is little doubt that theatre has always been Rocco’s true love. As a Broadway producer and president emeritus of Jujamcyn Theaters, the third-largest theatre-owning organization on Broadway, Rocco has produced a long list of Broadway hits, including the Tony Award-winning Angels in America (Best Play 1993, 1994) and The Producers (Best Musical 2001).

A native of St. Louis, where his father and uncle ran the Crystal Palace, a cabaret theatre that featured the likes of Barbra Streisand, Mike Nichols, and Woody Allen, Rocco attended Colby College and the University of Wisconsin. He earned his DFA from Yale School of Drama in 1976.

As a student, and later as an assistant professor at the School, he became close friends with Robert Brustein ’51, HON ’66 (Former Dean).

This year, in recognition of the 50th anniversary of Yale Rep, Rocco endowed a scholarship in honor of Brustein, who founded the Rep in 1966. The Robert Brustein Scholarship, which includes a generous matching contribution from Tony Award-winning set designer and producer

03 Heidi Ettinger ’76, will be awarded to YSD students who demonstrate academic excellence in the study of dramaturgy.

“Bob was not only one of the founders of the resident theatre movement in the United States,” says Rocco. “He was also its prophet. He understood why, in a commercial culture, permanent, subsidized theatres were necessary, and he is better than anyone at articulating the moral and aesthetic rationale for repertory, company, and community. He has remained—I’m sure to the constant irritation of many—the conscience of notfor-profit theatre. The naming of this scholarship is a very small gesture but hopefully it serves as another reminder of Bob’s singular role in shaping the character of the American theatre as we know it today.”

03 Rocco Landesman DFA ’76 (left) announcing his scholarship in honor of Robert Brustein ’51 (seated) during the celebration of Yale Rep’s 50th anniversary.

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Art of Giving Edward Trach: A Generous Spirit Edward Trach ’58 was a directing student at Yale School of Drama, but he also managed to take a lot of playwriting courses, creating what he calls “a kind of double major.” After graduation he spent many years in television, writing and producing for The Dick Van Dyke Show and other comedy classics and for daytime shows like As the World Turns, Guiding Light, Another World, and Edge of Night.

“I gained vital experience from my work scholarship as house manager of Yale University Theatre,” says Ed. “And the training I received in those creative, production, and business disciplines proved exceptionally valuable when I went on to produce television for over three decades.”

In 2001 Ed founded PREMIERES, a nonprofit theatre group in New York that supports the development of new musical 04

“I gained vital experience from my work scholarship as house manager of Yale University Theatre.” theatre. The company has commissioned, developed, and presented ten one-act musicals Off-Broadway, and has produced staged readings of eight new musicals, including four winners of the Richard Rogers Award. Ed is also a member of the Cincinnati Playwrights Initiative, and he has written eight plays, composed five musicals, and put the words of A.R. Gurney’s ’58

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Love Letters to music as a chamber opera.

Ed has maintained a strong connection with the School throughout his career of directing, producing, and writing for stage and screen. In recognition of all that he received when he was a student, he is eager to provide support for emerging artists. A member of the YSD Board of Advisors since 2007, and the recipient of the 2005 Phyllis Warfel Award for his generosity to the School, Ed is now establishing the Nancy & Edward Trach Scholarship. “I’m pleased to set up this flexible, multi-disciplinary scholarship,” says Ed. “It will provide opportunities for students with leadership qualities, diverse interests, and aptitude in more than one theatrical discipline.”

Carol Finch Dye: A Beautiful Legacy Born in Guttenberg, Iowa, in 1930, Carol Finch Dye ’59 came to YSD from Drake University. After graduation, Carol looked forward to a promising career in acting and moved to New York, where she worked a day job as a secretary for the Institute for Advanced Studies in Theatre Arts.

However, a struggle with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma prevented Carol from pursuing her professional dreams and led to her premature death in 1962. A popular student in her cohort, she was remembered by colleagues and faculty as a talented and generous collaborator.

After her death, classmate Don Fowle ’57 and friends and other alumni contributed to a prize: the Carol Finch Dye Award, which was given in Carol’s memory at Yale School of Drama for a number of years. The award, resurrected this year with an endowed gift

by Carol’s brother, Charles, after a 13-year hiatus, will be awarded to a student in the acting program in recognition of talent and accomplishment as a performer. Mr. Finch says he is “grateful to have the opportunity

Art of Giving 04 Edward Trach ’58 05 Carol’s nieces (left to right) Julie Parker, Karen Spielbauer, and Jayne Finch, with Melanie Field ’16, the recipient of the 2016 Carol Finch Dye Award.

06 Carol Finch Dye ’59

05 and be in a position to restart the award.”

Past recipients include Meryl Streep ’75, Frances McDormand ’82, and Paul Giamatti ’94. Last May, Melanie Field ’16 was added to this list.

Jayne Finch, Carol’s niece, wrote after watching Melanie receive the award, “to see the presentation of our aunt’s award was the thrill of a lifetime for me and my sisters.”

She continues: “When we encouraged our father to re-establish the award in Carol’s memory, we did so because we felt strongly about continuing a tribute befitting her legacy. But we also recognize the widereaching contributions of the dramatic arts to our society, and understand that to be successful in acting requires empathy and emotional intelligence—attributes that can seem rare and undervalued these days.”

— by maria inês marques ’17

07 Carol Finch Dye ’59 with her brother, Charles Finch.

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In Memoriam Tim Vasen

Director and Teacher

Tim Vasen ’93, YC ’87, Lecturer in Directing at Yale School of Drama, died December 28, 2015, following an accident at his home in Brooklyn, New York. He was 51 years old.

Raised in Culver City, California, Tim earned his BA in American Studies at Yale

Tim Vasen ’93, YC ’87 (Former Faculty)

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in 1987, summa cum laude. In 1993, Tim graduated with an MFA in directing from Yale School of Drama.

After his years as a student at Yale, Tim directed plays at Playwrights Horizons, Philadelphia Theatre Company, South Coast Repertory, Chautauqua Theater Company, and the Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis. In 1997, he joined Baltimore’s Center Stage as resident director, directing new work and classics.

While at Center Stage, Tim led the

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commissioning and development of new plays by Lynn Nottage ’89, Danny Hoch, and Warren Leight; produced the “Off Center” solo performer series; and oversaw a Pew Residency for deaf theatre-artist Willy Conley. His acclaimed 2001 production of Thornton Wilder’s four one-act chamber plays inspired a revival of interest in Wilder’s shorter works.

At Princeton, where Tim taught from 2003 to 2016, he was an indefatigable champion of experiential learning. He took students in his “Staging the Greeks” course to Greece every summer, where they enacted scenes from the Greek tragedies on the stages where they premiered more than 2,000 years ago. He directed undergraduates in plays by Aristophanes, Shakespeare, Brecht, Chekhov, Ibsen, Synge, Beckett, and Williams—as well as new works by emerging student playwrights. He mentored undergraduates on their first outings as stage directors and playwrights. In a groundbreaking effort to tap into the diverse creative resources of a great university, Tim brought scholars and students together from the departments of Slavic languages, comparative literature, history, dance, and music to stage the world premieres of two unproduced Soviet-era projects, an unfinished 1930s collaboration between Prokofiev and Meyerhold on Pushkin’s Boris Godunov in 2007, and an

In Memoriam unfinished 1930s collaboration between Prokofiev and Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky on Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin in 2012.

In 2010, Tim joined the faculty of Yale

sometimes you just gotta calm down and have a beer. Tim’s full-bellied laugh was infectious. Tim was my teacher and will always continue to teach me, with his unparalleled intelligence, humor, curiosity, madness, love, kindness, and rigor.”

Lileana Blain-Cruz ’12, who studied with Tim as an undergraduate at Princeton and as a graduate student in directing at Yale, says: “Tim was a force of energy, ideas, imagination and love for the human spirit, and he inspired that same joie de vivre in me.

I am indebted to him for his insights; for encouraging me in those dark hours of creative angst and for encouraging us all to be fearless and joyful in the journey of making art.”

Tim is survived by his wife, Leslie Brauman ’92; his children, Sam and Rosie; his parents, Sally Vasen Alter and Richard Vasen; and his brother, Dan Vasen.

We mourn the untimely death of a colleague who glowed with warmth, with boundless curiosity, passion for learning and for teaching, for theatre in all its forms.

We miss him more than words can say, and are so grateful to have known him. — by l i z

“Tim guided young actors and directors so buoyantly, with such love of the process and with such playful seriousness. He was an unbeatable combination of so many things all wrapped up in one gorgeous, funny, di a m o n d . c h a i r , d i r e c t i n g human, and quintessential theatre geek.” John Ross

Designer, Teacher, Theatre Founder

— ron va n lie u (fac ult y )

School of Drama as a lecturer in directing.

Over the next several seasons, Tim oversaw the thesis productions of 18 YSD directors.

As the mentor to student directors on the single biggest project they had ever directed, Tim provoked and challenged, but, above all, encouraged his students to imagine big, lead generously, and direct fearlessly. Luke Harlan ’16 describes what Tim taught him: “Tim gave me the courage to take risks. Tim taught me how to have FUN and bring JOY to rehearsal, and that

John Ross ’63 was raised in Birmingham and graduated from the University of Alabama in 1959. He came to Yale School of Drama, where he studied theatre design and production. After two years in Hartford, Connecticut, where he served as associate designer and technical director for the Hartt Opera Theater at the University of Hartford, John returned home to Alabama and joined the theatre and dance department of UA, teaching classes in design, theatre history, and musical theatre history and survey courses in architecture and decorative arts.

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In Memoriam

John Ross ’63

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legendary,” says Edward Journey, one of John’s former students and now an associate professor in the department of visual, performing, and communication arts at Alabama A&M University. “I quoted him in one of my own classes just hours before I learned of his passing.”

John was instrumental in establishing the Arts and Humanities Council in Tuscaloosa and the Alabama School of Fine Arts. He was also a cofounder of the Tuscaloosa Community Players, which eventually became Theatre Tuscaloosa, today one of the largest community theatres in the state. Both John and his late wife, Patricia, an actress, were active members of the local theatre community.

As president, and later chairman, of the Arts Council, John led an ambitious renovation of the historic Bama Theatre, a grand old movie palace that had fallen into disrepair, into a thriving performing arts center.

“That came from his love of historic theatres,” said Edmond Williams, a former student and later colleague of John’s at UA. “He cared about all sorts of things that a lot of people don’t: proportion, line, getting it right, not just getting it, but getting it right.”

Beloved by his many students and muchadmired by his peers, John was a member of the University of Alabama faculty for more than 30 years, retiring in 1996 as professor emeritus. “For John, teaching and passing on his knowledge and insights to others were the noblest parts of his art,” says Edward Journey. “He pegged me as a teacher early on and was persistent in steering me in that direction. When I finally left professional theatre to take on a fulltime professorship, I remember thinking

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‘Okay John, you finally won.’”

In a 1970 newspaper article, John said, “I have friends who went into commercial theater, and they keep asking why I stay in Alabama with a college theater. I tell them I have done 25 plays in the last five years, and then ask them how many they’ve done.

They’ll say, maybe two. I made a very deliberate, selfish decision to return to the university to teach.” That supposedly selfish decision became a generous gift to those he taught and worked with.

John Ross died on January 27, 2016, in Tuscaloosa at the age of 76. He is survived by his daughter, Blair Ross Watson.

Julia Meade Actress

Julia Meade ’47 became one of the most famous faces on American television in the early 1950s, when she signed a contract with Lincoln automobiles to be the brand’s spokeswoman. Over the next two decades, she promoted products, such as gaspowered appliances, Hudnut hair products, Life magazine, Kodak cameras, and ITT Continental Baking Company’s Profile bread. For more than 10 years, she was a regular presence on The Ed Sullivan Show, with many describing her as the TV host’s “favorite salesgirl,” and the First Lady of American TV. Born on December 17, 1925, in Boston, to Caroline Kunz, a Shakespearean actress, and Adam Kunz, a typewriter salesman, Julia spent her childhood in New York and Ridgewood, New Jersey, where she attended Ridgewood High School. She went on to study at Yale School of Drama, graduating in 1947 and landing her first professional part in a production of The Lost Colony in North Carolina.

She moved to New York, where she did professional modelling for the Harry Conover Agency while auditioning for stage roles. Her Broadway credits include Max

In Memoriam Shulman and Robert Paul Smith’s The Tender Trap, Sidney Sheldon’s Roman Candle, Jean Kerr’s Mary, Mary, and a revival of the Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur comedy The Front Page (1969).

Julia Meade ’47 with Ed Sullivan during a celebration for the 10th anniversary of The Ed Sullivan Show.

Julia appeared on the big screen in Pillow Talk (1959), Tammy Tell Me True (1961), and Presumed Innocent (1990), a drama starring Harrison Ford.

Julia married the illustrator Oliver Worsham Rudd, Jr. in 1952. The couple had two daughters, Caroline and Alice. Julia passed away May 18, 2016, at age 90.

— by m a ria inês m a rq ue s ’17

Stewart Johnson

Designer and Youth Theatre Leader

Stewart Johnson ’70 passed away February 17, 2016, at the age of 75.

After studying scenic design at Yale School of Drama, Stewart moved to

Milwaukee to teach theatrical design at University of Wisconsin. He designed sets and props for several prominent local performing arts companies, including the Milwaukee Ballet, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, and Theatre X, as well as commercial clients like Disney World, Sea World, and the Miller Brewing Company.

However, it was among the youth of his community that Stewart left his biggest mark. Along with his wife, Diane, he founded the Modjeska Youth Theater Company, which brought together groups of young people from diverse backgrounds to stage musicals. Some former students— including Broadway’s Kyle Taylor Parker— have gone on to careers in professional

Stewart Johnson ’70

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In Memoriam theatre. The Company also provided counselling, life skills workshops, and academic support, and Diane and Stewart often opened their home to the young people they worked with. They were an unwavering support for some of Milwaukee’s most vulnerable teenagers.

In addition to his wife, Stewart is survived by two children and six grandchildren. — by s a m l i n d e n ’19, s o m ’19

Warren Manzi Playwright

Warren Manzi ’80

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Warren Manzi ’80 passed away on February 11, 2016, from complications of pneumonia at the age of 60. A native of Manchester, New Hampshire, Warren came to the School to study acting. He acted in eight Yale Rep productions, including Athol Fugard’s Hello and Goodbye and Sam Shepard’s Curse of the Starving Class, both while he was a student and early in his career. Warren also acted in New York, understudying for Tim Curry in the Broadway production of Amadeus, and appeared in the films Nuts and The Manhattan Project.

He found his greatest success, however, as a playwright. Perfect Crime, written when he was 25, has been running continuously in New York since 1987. This madcap murder mystery’s longevity defies the general critical response. The show has been described by critics as overloaded and obtuse, and the podcast Reply-All released an episode about the overwhelminglynegative reviews the production has on Yelp.

Warren edited and rewrote throughout the run, although clarity was never quite achieved; departing audience members are often so confused that the theatre hands out an answer key in the lobby following each performance. Despite these obstacles, or perhaps because of them, Perfect Crime has become a cult classic, and has

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consistently turned a profit over its long life.

Ric Elice ’79 writes, “Warren will be remembered by the world as the author of New York’s longest-running play. But I remember him as one of the best actors at Yale. He was loopy and wicked and supersuper-smart, and being on stage with him— especially in the Yale Cabaret shows we did together—was pretty wild and crazy. I learned a lot from him, about acting, and about life.”

Warren spent his last years in Lawrence, Massachusetts. His wife, Ellen, passed away in 1996. He is survived by Perfect Crime, which—at over 12,000 performances and counting—is still going strong.

— by s a m l i n d e n ’19, s o m ’19

Ken Howard

Actor and SAG-AFTRA President

Ken Howard ’69, the award-winning actor and president of SAG-AFTRA, passed away on March 23, 2016, in his home near Los Angeles. He was 71. Having appeared in more than 100 movies and TV shows, he was famous for his acclaimed role as basketball coach Ken Reeves in the 1978 series, The White Shadow.

Born in El Centro, California, in 1944, Ken moved with his family to Manhasset, Long Island, where he became a high school basketball star and performed in student productions of classic musicals. He went on to attend Amherst College, where he was a member of a choir that toured Europe and recorded two albums, and worked as an NBC page on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. After graduation, Ken enrolled at Yale School of Drama and made his Broadway debut in 1968, with a role in Neil Simon’s Promises, Promises. The next year he played Thomas Jefferson in the musical 1776, and in 1970, his work in Robert Marasco’s Child’s Play earned him a Tony Award.

Ken moved Hollywood in the 1970s, and

In Memoriam Hollywood. Last year he was re-elected for a second term. He also taught at the American Repertory Theater, Harvard University, Harvard Law School, and Amherst College.

Ken is survived by his wife, Linda Fetters Howard, and his three stepchildren.

— by m a r i a i n ê s m a r q u e s ’17

Madeleine Sherwood Actress and Activist

Madeleine Sherwood ’45 died on April 23, 2016. She was 93. Born and raised in Quebec, Madeleine began performing at a young age and honed her craft both at the School of Drama and at Lee Strasberg’s Actors Studio.

Although best remembered for her role as the Mother Superior on television’s The Flying Nun, Madeleine had a vibrant career in theatre, performing in several premieres. Elia Kazan directed her in two plays by Tennessee Williams—Sweet Bird of Youth and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. She went on to reprise her roles landed the lifechanging role of Ken Reeves in The White Shadow, which was partly inspired by his own experience as the only white player on his high school basketball team. He appeared in many other TV shows, including The Manhunter, Crossing Jordan, The Colbys, Dynasty and, most recently, 30 Rock. He won an Emmy Award in 2009 for his supporting role in HBO’s Grey Gardens and a Daytime Emmy for outstanding individual achievement in children’s programming for his voice work on The Body Human: Facts for Boys (1981).

Some of his film credits include Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon; Clear and Present Danger; In Her Shoes; Michael Clayton; J. Edgar; The Judge; and The Wedding Ringer.

Last year, he appeared in Joy, the biopic about Joy Mangano, the inventor of the Miracle Mop, starring Jennifer Lawrence.

Ken assumed the presidency of SAG in 2009 and played a vital role during its merger with AFTRA, creating the largest union in Ken Howard ’69

in the film versions of both shows. She played Abigail in the original Broadway production of Arthur Miller’s blistering commentary on the Red Scare, The Crucible, a performance that Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times described as full of “fire and skill.”

Madeleine Sherwood ’45 in 1973. Photo by Montreal Gazette.

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In Memoriam Madeleine’s life paralleled her role in The Crucible when she was blacklisted amidst the McCarthyism of the 1950s. Her activism continued through the next decade—she worked with Martin Luther King, Jr., was a member of the Congress for Racial Equality, and was arrested and jailed for her participation in a prayer vigil and freedom walk in Keener, Alabama. She was one of the first women to be given a grant by the American Film Institute to direct her short film, Good Night, Sweet Prince, and she continued to be active in feminist causes throughout her life.

After a long and successful career in the States, Madeleine returned to her native Canada. She is survived by her daughter, Chloe, two grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren. — by s a m l i n d e n ’19, s o m ’19

Carroll C. Dawes Director, Teacher, and Scholar

Carroll C. Dawes DFA ’71 was a powerful force in the development of Jamaican and Nigerian theatre.

“It is through her work that a Jamaican indigenous high art theatre emerged,” says Jamaican theatre scholar Quinton Yearde. A renowned director, Carroll staged acclaimed versions of Western classics, including Shakespeare, Ibsen, and Brecht. “She was truly a Shakespearean theatre director” says her daughter, Gwyneth Dawes. “Her favorite was Hamlet.

She directed it twice: first in 1960 for the 8 8

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Jamaica Drama League and then at Yale in 1967.” One of her most legendary productions was a staging of Macbeth set in the Dominican Republic during the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo.

Carroll was equally adept at working with contemporary playwrights like Derek Walcott and Wole Soyinka. Her 1975 production of Soyinka’s The Bacchae of Euripides opened with Dionysus in chains on top of a building, site-specific theatre before its time. A year later she directed Dennis Scott’s (Former Faculty) An Echo in the Bone. Quinton calls her staging “the Caribbean’s most iconic production.” Honor Ford-Smith, a Jamaican actress, and professor at York University in Toronto, sees one of Carroll’s most important legacies in the “creolizing process of bringing together the emerging Nationalist theatre movements with the British classical tradition.” This weaving together is evident throughout her work—two of her favorite devices were African drums and Greek choruses.

As a teacher and director, Carroll “had the ability to get phenomenal performances from students way above their training,” says Quinton. Kwame Dawes, a GhanaianJamaican poet, playwright, actor, and professor of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and a life-long friend, remembers: “One of the high points of my life as a writer was to have Carroll Dawes sit in on a rehearsal of one of my early plays. With her inimitable manner of intense and generous intellectual brilliance, she spoke of the play, but really spoke of the broader power and delight and spiritual purpose of theatre.”

Carroll Morrison was born in 1932 in the Jamaican province of Hanover. She attended the University College of the West Indies, and in 1955 married poet and novelist Neville Dawes. The couple had a daughter, Gwyneth, and divorced in 1957.

Carroll trained in England before coming to Yale School of Drama in 1966 as a special

In Memoriam Farewell

student in directing and then completing a DFA with a thesis on Peter Brook. After Yale, Carroll led the newly-formed Jamaica School of Drama and founded the National Festival Theatre of Jamaica, a company where—much like at Yale Repertory Theatre—students worked side-by-side with professional theatre-artists. In 1980, she received the Institute of Jamaica’s Centenary Medal in Theatre Arts.

In 1977 Carroll and Gwyneth moved to Nigeria, where Carroll, fondly called Mama Dawes by her many students, taught for

Richard Ambacher DFA ’65 / 07.19.2016 Harriette Austin ’62 / 08.13.2016 Ginni (Wilson) Bowie ’47 / 12.19.2015 Carroll C. Dawes DFA ’71 / 02.01.2016 Howard Feldman ’45 / 01.17.2016 Jane (Hickman) Gant ’45 / 06.06.2016 Ken Howard ’69 / 03.23.2016 Jack Jacobs ’47 / 08.03.2012 Stewart Johnson ’70 / 02.17.2016 Gerard Leahy ’67 / 09.23.2016 Allen M. Lewis ’74 / 12.02.2015 Jewett MacLise ’56 / 06.29.2016 Warren Manzi ’80 / 02.11.2016 Julia (Kunze) Meade ’47 / 05.16.2016 Marilyn (Knudsen) McDonald ’64 / 01.19.2016 Michael Onofrio, Jr. ’53, YC ’50 / 03.18.2016 Wallace Peyton ’55 / 07.16.2016 Mary (Bartlett) Reynolds ’55 / 10.18.2016 John Ross ’63 / 01.27.2016 Sanford Schaffer ’61 / 08.03.2016 Madeleine Sherwood ’45 / 04.23.2016 Robert Steele ’64 / 02.05.2016 Norman Taylor ’56 / 08.07.2016 Tim Vasen ’93, YC ’87 (Former Faculty) / 12.28.2015

nearly two decades at universities across the country. Matthew M. Umukoro, chair of Theater Arts at the University of Ibadan, recalls “her remarkable production of Sartre’s Lucifer and the Lord, which lasted close to four pulsating hours without losing steam and was a landmark production in Nigerian theatre.” During the last years of her time in Nigeria, Carroll led the Department of Creative Arts at the University of Port Harcourt. She retired in 1992 and moved to London, where she lived until her passing.

Carroll died on February 1, 2016—the eve of her 84th birthday—after a long illness, with Gwyneth by her side. In addition to her daughter, she is survived by her sister, Joyce Gayle, of Miami, Florida.

( l e ft) Carroll Dawes DFA ’71. © 1968, The Gleaner Company (Media) Limited. ( a b o ve) Carroll with set designer Clifton Campbell at the National Festival Theatre of Jamaica. © 1975, The Gleaner Company (Media) Limited.

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Alumni Notes 1940s Joan (Feldman) Kron ’48 writes: “I fear I’m one of the last survivors of my class.

But I was the youngest or next to the youngest. As I approach my 89th birthday, I’m still working. Four years after starting, I’m close to finishing my feature-length documentary, Take My Nose…Please!

Women, Comedy and Plastic Surgery, produced by my company, Parvenu Ventures LLC. Yesterday I entered a rough cut of the film into the Toronto International Film Festival and in a few days we’ll enter the Hamptons International Film Festival and others. If accepted in any of them, I hope to be the oldest female first-time documentary director. Making my first film—and such an ambitious one—has been a thrilling and scary experience. So much to learn. So much money to be found. Until late last year I was still contributing editor at large of Allure magazine. But in November, four months before the magazine’s and my 25th anniversary, the editor-in-chief was replaced and now most of us in the top echelon are gone. My last Allure article, which ran in the March 2016 issue—about the plastic-surgery marvels we can expect in the future—will be reprinted in Vogue China. I’m now attached to the new digital publication The Live Box magazine, where, in the fall, I’ll start writing, “Joan Kron’s Before and After Report.” Last month I was an invited speaker at the Museum of Modern Art’s A to Z (abecedarium) fashion conference. My assigned presentation was, “N is for Nose Job.” The question I had to answer was, “Is a nose job modern?” And in September, I’m being profiled in Galerie, a new art and design magazine. When I think back over this long and varied career, I think of how much I owe to my Drama School training. I am forever grateful that I was accepted when I was only 17 and had only one year of liberal arts college under my belt. But, because of that, after three years, I earned only a certificate. I’m still hoping for my honorary MFA. (Dream On!) Meanwhile, I am thinking about my next film. I’m optioning a biography for a 9 0

dramatic film with two starring roles for women.”

1950s Amnon Kabatchnik’s ’57 latest book, Blood on the Stage, 480 B.C. to 1600 A.D.—the fifth in a series of reference books about plays of crime-and-punishment—has received Gold Medals from the Benjamin Franklin Awards and the Independent Publishers Awards. ● Bob Barr’s ’52 10-minute play, Softly as in a Morning Sunrise, was produced at Spokane Civic Theatre in June 2016. This play has been produced in Austin, Texas; Auckland, New Zealand; and Melbourne and Sydney, Australia. He writes, “It’s my eighth short play to get produced. Not so bad at 91!” ● Gordon Micunis ’59 and Jay Kobrin ’61 are happily residing in New York City,

“When I think back over this long and varied career, I think of how much I owe to my Drama School training.”

— jo a n ( f el d m a n ) kron ’48 enjoying theatre and still designing. “We would love to hear from old friends! Get in touch through our website: www.gorjayous. com.” ● Mary Aley ’51 is now retired at age 86. “Looking back over my educational pursuits, Yale School of Drama has served me well. It taught me the importance of teamwork, sensitivity to the needs and desires of others, and the need to fully commit to the job at hand,” she writes.

“While I did not pursue acting as my life’s work, I used my experiences and training in

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drama in my roles as a teacher, realtor, and buyer for Macy’s, New York City. I have enjoyed an exciting and fulfilling time during my life’s journey thanks largely to Yale. Both my parents (Fred Aley and Marion Gifford) graduated from Yale Law School and spoke frequently of their experiences there.” ● Bill Warfel ’57, YC ’55 (Former Faculty) and Phyllis (Johnson) Warfel ’55, married 61 years on June 14, have moved to Whitney Center, a retirement facility in Hamden. Bill lives in an independent living apartment, while Phyllis is in a skilled care facility in the same building, owing to her advanced Alzheimer’s dementia. “I visit her twice a day, even though she may not know who I am any longer,” Bill writes. “Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers!” ● Robert Kalfin ’57 staged a reading of a new play, MY PARSIFAL CONDUCTOR, A Wagnerian Comedy by Yale alumnus playwright, Allan Leicht ’66, with Christopher Lloyd starring in the role of Richard Wagner. The work was presented at the John Drew Theater / Guild Hall in East Hampton, New York, on August 21, 2016. The play has been optioned for production by the veteran Broadway and Off-Broadway producer Ted Snowdon.

Robert is also involved with several theatres in the development of two additional new plays and three new musicals. ● Ruth Wolff ’57 writes: “This year I had staged readings of two of my new plays—The Outliers at Urban Stages and Stagelife at The Coffee House Club and New Jersey Rep. I recently compiled Monologues and Duologues from the 19 plays of mine published by Broadway Play Publishing. Meant for male and female actors of all ages to use in auditions and in studio work, these monologues and duologues are short and long, in many moods, for actors of all ages.”

1960s After 50 years of teaching, acting, directing, and playwriting at Hunter College, CUNY, Michael Rutenberg ’60, DFA ’65 retired in January 2016 as professor

Alumni Notes

01

02

04

03

01 Joan (Feldman) Kron ’48, first time director, tries on DP’s camera. Photo courtesy of Lotta Kilian.

05 05 Vectors, oil on canvas, by Robert Greenwood ’67.

06 Warren Bass ’67

02 Amnon Kabatchnik ’57 03 Bob Barr ’52

06

04 Allen Klein ’62 at TEDx Monta Vista.

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Alumni Notes

07

09

08 07 Mimi Turque in a reading of My Favorite Indigents by Carrie (Fishbein) Robbins ‘67.

08 David Burke ’61, YC ’58 on the Pont des Arts in Paris.

10

09 Wendy (Oehlert) Adams ’61 with her gang—(left to right) daughter Ashley, grandsons West and Ben, granddaughter Landis, Wendy, granddaughter Abby, and daughter Kendle.

10 Peter Barton ’66 with his family.

11 Lonnie Carter ’69 (left) with André De Shields and Lia Chang.

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Alumni Notes

12

13

14 12 Stefan Rudnicki ’69 at the Hugo Awards, London 2014.

13 Judy (Ebert) McMahon ’61. Photo

by Norman Wallace.

14 Dyanne Asimow ’67

emeritus. He now lives with his wife, Marietta, in their home in Boca Raton, Florida. He says, “Retirement, however, has been boring; and so, this fall I started teaching improvisation in the theatre department at Florida Atlantic University.” ● David Madden’s ’61 latest book is The Tangled Web of the Civil War and Reconstruction: Readings and Writings from a Novelist’s Perspective, published last year.

His book The Last Bizarre Tale was published in 2014 and Marble Goddesses and Mortal Flesh—a collection of four novellas—is coming out next year. David recently finished the first draft of his memoir, My Intellectual Life in the Army. At 82, he has three novels well underway. ● In May 2016, David Burke ’61, YC ’58 and his wife, Joanne Burke, launched their one-hour documentary film, Paris Noir: African Americans in the City of Light (www. africanamericansinparis.com). The same month, the second edition of David’s book, Writers in Paris: Literary Lives in the City of Light, also came out. ● Wendy (Oehlert) Adams ’61 is living and painting back in her hometown of Atlanta with family all around. “Loving every day!” she writes. ● Judy (Ebert) McMahon ’61 directs the Readers’ Theater, Southern Tier Actors Read (S.T.A.R.), which presented a production of The Importance of Being Earnest at the Cider Mill Playhouse. She played Lady Bracknell. Judy also took on the role of Yenta in Fiddler on the Roof at the Jewish Community Center in Binghamton, New York. ● In April, Allen Klein ’62 gave a TEDx Monta Vista talk. The title of his talk, which can be seen on YouTube, was “Your Thoughts & Intentions Create Your Reality.” ● “I was in Larry David’s Fish in the Dark on Broadway,” writes Janet Sarno ’63. “My original monologue, Howie and Mary, won the Wagg Warehouse Valentine Festival and my play, Dancing on Ice, is a Kaufman Award winner. Two 10-minute plays, Midnight Tryst and Playmates, were produced by Atlanta Radio Theatre Company.” ● Now in his 27th year engaged in new play development projects with NY Stage & Film, Leonard Berkman ’63, DFA ’70 had an ecstatically meaningful experience with fellow Yalie,

John Gould Rubin ’80, when staging Gretchen Law’s Turn Me Loose, drawn from the life of radical activist comedian Dick Gregory. “When this production opened to raves at Playwrights Horizons in May 2016, I’m sure the entire Turn Me Loose family could hear my outbursts of excitement from across the Atlantic, where I was serving as guest professor at University of Hamburg, Germany, but as close to the NYC production in spirit and fervor as I could be,” says Leonard. This is his 48th year of teaching at Smith College, where he also directs the MFA program in playwriting. Last May, Leonard was one of six guest artists with the Iowa New Play Festival. His most recent play, We Three/ Wir Drei is stirred by the life of German Romantic painter and theorist Philipp Otto Runge. His son Zak’s latest play, The Harassment of Iris Molloy, had its premiere at People’s Light & Theatre in June and will have a second production in Detroit in May 2017. ● Susan Barber ’63 is still involved in the tourism business, especially privately-owned hotel properties in Europe, the UK, and North America. She enjoys art, music, travelling, and going to the theatre.

Susan is also an affiliate travel consultant with NYC agency Worldview/Pisa Brothers. ● Robert Cohen DFA ’64 retired after 50 years of teaching at the University of California, Irvine. He continues to write— his book Shakespeare on Theatre came out last fall; the 11th edition of his text, Theatre, in January; and the 8th edition of Acting Professionally last summer. Robert is also continuing in his 20-plus years as a regular theatre critic for the London-published Plays International, and as an occasional essayist for Dramatics and for American Theatre, where he recently wrote about a production of Macbeth wholly performed by prisoners at California’s San Quentin Prison. ● Arthur Bloom’s ’66 essay entitled “Edwin Forrest: The Exotic American Body on the Nineteenth-Century English Stage” was published in the collection Staging the Other in NineteenthCentury British Drama. ● Peter Barton ’66 is still making movies. Women of ’69, Unboxed—a documentary he shot, edited, produced, and directed—has appeared on

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Alumni Notes Director and producer John Badham ’63, YC ’61 has had a

you’re casting someone because they’re a pretty face and using

career that is as diverse as it prolific, with films that range from the

them like a puppet, that just doesn’t work.” Instead, he suggests

gritty cult classic, Saturday Night Fever, to the touching and

creating an environment where actors are encouraged to “stretch their acting muscles, and not just do a Xerox of what they’ve done

A Life Behind the Camera John Badham ’63, YC ’61

before.”

To create that kind of environment, John starts by bonding with his actors personally: on the phone, at dinner, on the weekend, whatever works. “When you create that relationship, the actor is more willing to try anything because they trust that this director is

comical sci-fi, Short Circuit, and the high-tech action thriller, Blue

not going to let them fall.” John also invites them into the creative

Thunder. “What attracts me to a film are the characters,” he

process. Instead of shutting down ideas that don’t immediately fit

explains. “When there are strong characters that really pulls me in. I

with his vision, he lets actors try them out, experiment with them.

want to figure out how I can tell their stories in the best way.”

“In the back of my mind I might be going ‘I don’t know about this,

In his more than four decades in the field, John has learned

it sounds pretty wonky.’ But what if it’s good?” And if it’s not good? Well, John remembers Anne Bancroft saying that she appreciated a director who would let her screw up before yelling at her.

As a tenured professor at Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, John teaches a course called Acting for Directors where directors have to act in each other’s scenes. “Young filmmakers are often terrified of actors and have to be forced to experience what it feels like to act, from the inside out,” says John. “You can’t learn how to direct actors unless you’ve done some acting yourself.

You have to get up on stage and feel what an actor goes through to begin to understand the process.”

For John, learning to collaborate with actors, and really all members of a creative and production team, began at the Drama School. As a student he worked not just as a director, but also as an actor, and on every crew job there was. “At the School,

John Badham ’63, YC ’61

time and again that working

you build up a network of friends that you work with for the rest of

on the set of Supernatural.

with actors can be challenging

your life. And you’re also taking away with you an enormous

Photo by Jennifer Eckstein.

for many directors. “In film and

appreciation for all the different jobs needed to put on a produc-

television a lot of directors are

tion.”

technically trained but know

“How can I serve the material in the most interesting way?” This

very little about working with human beings,” he says. His book, I’ll

is the question John asks on each of his projects, and it is the

Be in My Trailer: The Creative Wars Between Directors & Actors

essence of his directorial style. Whether he’s helping a young John

(2006), seeks to remedy this problem, which he also discusses in

Travolta depict teenage existential angst, leading Matthew

his second book, John Badham on Directing: Notes from the Set of

Broderick through his first hit film in War Games, or capturing a car

Saturday Night Fever, War Games, and More (2013). “Actors in any

chase at just the right angle, “it’s always about doing what’s best

sensible director’s mind are creative partners,” he explains. “When

for the film.”

9 4

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Alumni Notes six local PBS stations and won top prizes at the NYC Indie Film Fest and the Queens World Film Festival. The movie profiles women of the class of 1969 at Skidmore, and is a window on the journey of a whole generation of women (including Hillary Clinton, who graduated that same year from Wellesley). His feature, The Suicide Auditions, is streaming on SnagFilms along with his experimental short, Cries from Nagasaki. Peter has been married to producer Jane Startz since 1971. They have three children and two little grandsons, all in NYC. ● Dwight Richard Odle ’66 continued his design work in the fall of 2015 by costuming Romeo and Juliet for the Laguna Playhouse Youth Theatre in Southern California. He produced and directed A Ramble Through the Deep South: 1926 for the MAMM Alliance, a support group raising funds for the performing arts at California State University, Fullerton, which featured the Andy Rau Bluegrass Band, a reading of Truman Capote’s A Christmas Memory, and a lavish buffet of southern desserts. In February, he produced and directed a reading of original poetry by the founding chairman of the University’s theatre/dance department entitled Young at Heart, which featured interludes by the world-travelled University String Quartet. Dwight’s 18,500-piece costume collection has been donated to the Dodge College of Film and Media Studies at Chapman University in Orange, California. ● After “concocting a very wonderful first year of the Spruceton Inn Writers Workshop and Retreat in mid-September 2015,” Stephen Foreman ’67 prepared another “three days of peace, calm, creative writing, and support in a hidden valley in the midst of the Catskill Mountains” for this year’s retreat. His third novel, Journey, will be published this year by Skyhorse Press, which also published his non-fiction piece entitled “The Bear That Drank My Neighbor’s Beer” in the anthology Bear Attacks last summer. ● The past few years have been truly rewarding for Robert Greenwood ’67. During a tour in Serbia and Hungary, Bob was invited teach workshops and perform Shakespeare in

Nabeul, Tunisia. There, he and his partner, Dana Luebke, met the Zendegi Theater Company from Tehran, Iran, whose director extended an invitation for them to go to Iran to teach and perform. Bob and Dana also performed in Lahijan and taught at the Nan & Aroosak Theater Group. Since returning to Canada, they’ve been enlarging the scope of Sun.Ergos: A Company of Theatre and Dance, and working to start a collaboration with the Zendegi Theater Company. Bob finished a book of poetry and has exhibitions of his art in Alberta and Quebec. He had a one-man show in Turner Valley, Alberta, in March-April 2016, and a photography exhibition at the Galerie Ame-Art du Mile-End in Montreal last July. Bob says, “Life has been and is rich with wonderful people, places, adventures, and creative possibilities that have allowed us to grow, to survive, to thrive. We are very fortunate, and we have worked hard, traveled a lot, and been able to absorb so much. We are grateful.” ● “The sense of growing vitality in locally based theatre at the historic hotels of Lake Geneva (the Baker House and the Maxwell Mansion Complex ), the Bragi Café, and the re-opened Belfry Theatre is more important than my roles acting or singing,” writes Bob Lawler ’67. The Baker House summer programs are integrating Chicago cabaret performances with the audience engagement potential of murder-mystery dinner theatre. Regional actors and musicians join local talent at Bragi Café, and the Belfry’s first season since reopening is a series of 13 musical performances by tribute groups, covering a variety of idioms from Buddy Holly to Peter, Paul and Mary, John Denver, and Michael Bublé. ● Carrie (Fishbein) Robbins ’67 designed costumes for the Fall 2015 Off-Broadway production of Sheldon Harnick/Sherman Yellen’s Rothschild & Sons, starring Robert Cuccioli. The production will be seen in London this winter. Two of her own pieces, My Favorite Indigents and Severe Clear, were presented as a staged reading at the Goddard Riverside Bernie Wohl Center, featuring Robert Cuccioli and Erika Rolfsrud.

Carrie has been invited into the 29th Street Playwrights Collective, which this year has received a grant for its collective writing from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council

and New York Department of Cultural Affairs. This past summer, her new one-act, The Actress, was chosen to appear as part of the Thespis Theater Festival 2016. ● Warren Bass ’67 received the Gold Lion Award from the Barcelona International Film Festival, the Bronze Palm from the Mexico International, the Platinum Award from the Oregon International Film Awards,

“Life has been and is rich with wonderful people, places, adventures, and creative possibilities that have allowed us to grow, to survive, to thrive.”

— robert green wood ’67

and the Award of Excellence from the Canada International Film Festival for his film The Urban World. ● “I am pleased to announce that my short story (first one written since college), Into the Wall, won the Bosque Literary Journal short fiction award and was published this fall,” writes Dyanne Asimow ’67. She’s also finishing up Stealing Home, an historical novel about the Dodger’s move from Brooklyn to Chavez Ravine, as well as delighting in grandchildren, yoga, hiking, and theatre. ● Based on extensive research and decades of experience planning and producing new museums, John W. Jacobsen ’69, YC ’67 provides both the theoretical underpinnings and the operational

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Alumni Notes pragmatics of measuring any museum’s impact and performance in Measuring Museum Impact and Performance: Theory and Practice. The book is available from Rowman & Littlefield in hardcover, paperback, and electronic versions. John is president of White Oak Associates, Inc. and lives in historic, seacoast Marblehead, Massachusetts, with his wife, the singer songwriter Jeanie Stahl. ● Howard Pflanzer ’68 had readings of his new plays—GPS Play during Medicine Show Theatre’s Jump/Start series in June and Raus in the Write Now Writers evening at the Bernie Wohl Center. His mini-opera, My Loving People, created in collaboration with Trevor Bachman and Trevor Salter, featuring Renee Hermiz as Queen Elizabeth I, was presented by Fresh Ground Pepper at the Sheen Center in October 2015. ● Jim Metzner ’69 writes: “It’s been a good year.

My radio series, Pulse of the Planet, is still pulsing after 28 years and is currently one of the top science podcasts on Stitcher.

I’m officially on the Fulbright Specialist Roster, which means overseas academic institutions can request me as a visiting expert in media, communications, soundscape studies, and oral histories. I have been awarded a 2016 Grammy Foundation grant to ‘digitize a trove of on-location field recordings of soundscapes, music, and interviews from around the world, and update an archive of the recordings in a user-friendly database.” The archive has recordings going back to the 1970’s including my first radio series, You’re Hearing Boston. It’s been great to reconnect this year with Barbara Damashek ’69 and David Ackroyd ’68.” ● Lonnie Carter ’69 writes: “My play The Romance of Magno Rubio, which received eight Obie awards in 2003 for its initial production, will be given a staged reading in Los Angeles by five Filipina actors. Stay tuned as to when and where. My new piece about the novelist and portrait photographer, Carl Van Vechten, and his friendship with Langston Hughes, is in the offing. My youngest daughter, Calpurnia, is a tap dancer with the American Tap Dance Foundation and my middle daughter, Eve, graduated from Georgetown in May 2016.”

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Carolyn Ross ’69 has retired from scenery and costume design, but is painting, doing ceramics, and making folding picture books of the areas she visits in Europe and the United States. Her website is carolynlross.com. ● Richard Olson ’69 directed Gian Carlo Menotti’s beloved opera, Amahl and the Night Visitors, with a full orchestral score conducted by his wife, Claudia Dumschat, at The Church of the Transfiguration, known as “The Little Church Around the Corner,” in Manhattan, where Claudia is the music director. The church, a national landmark, has the oldest choir of men and boys in the country and now also has a girls choir. Meanwhile, Richard is indulging his intellectual side by writing a book called Thoughts, which includes his musings on 366 various subjects. ● Stefan Rudnicki ’69 writes: “Having a great time publishing, producing, and narrating audiobooks. Most recently, in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the original Star Trek series, I produced the audio release of Harlan Ellison’s controversial WGA Award-winning episode, “The City on the Edge of Forever,” which includes Harlan’s spicy introduction and a full-cast recording of the original teleplay. Published by my company, Skyboat Media, this program is available now on our website, and was featured at the Star Trek Convention in Las Vegas in August.

Another major effort is my recording of Samuel R. Delany’s massive landmark novel, Dhalgren. Recent honors include winning the prestigious Hugo Award two years running for our work producing the podcasts for Lightspeed Magazine. To cap things off with a vote of confidence from my colleagues in the industry, I was just elected to the Board of Directors of the Audio Publishers Association.”

●

1970s Charles Turner ’70 has been a B-way Baby’ the last couple of years, joyously sharing the stage with many YSD alumni. He understudied James Earl Jones HON ’82 in You Can’t Take It with

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You and more recently, in The Gin Game.

Charles’s other shows include The Trip to Bountiful and Dividing the Estate. He guest-starred in Madame Secretary, A Gifted Man, and The Chapelle Show. “My major event occurred this summer in Dorset, United Kingdom,” writes Charles.

“The family all flew over for our son Kai’s wedding.” Charles spent six weeks traveling around Europe, where he planned to visit classmates Eva Vizy ’72, in Budapest, and Meral Taygun ’69. ● Daniel Proctor ’70 (Former Faculty) has retired. ● After 30 years of teaching at YSD, David Chambers ’71 has left New Haven and is now on faculty at Harvard University and The New School in New York. At Harvard, he is teaching avantgarde ensemble theatre in a studio course combining history, theory, and practice; at The New School of Drama, he is co-directing and curating a three-year project with Russian director Dmitry Krymov; and at the Mannes School of Music (part of The New School), he is directing a multi-disciplinary avant-garde opera by Robert Ashley. His book Analysis through Action, a Russian methodology of text analysis and improvisatory rehearsing, will come out in spring of 2017. ● Charles Steckler ’71 writes: “I’ve just completed my 45th year of teaching and set designing at Union College (Schenectady, New York) — 45 really good years! Next year will be my last; I’ll be retiring in June 2017 in order to concentrate fully on my art studio practice.

An exhibition of my collage and diorama works entitled Contrary To What Sometimes Happens is at the Mandeville Gallery in the Nott Memorial at Union College through December. Looking forward with unalloyed excitement to the next adventures!” ● Last February, Barnet Kellman ’72 did a 72-hour workshop and reading of Israel Horovitz’s new play, Out of the Mouths of Babes, at the Westport Playhouse, followed by a staged reading at Cherry Lane Theatre. This world-premiere production starred Estelle Parsons and Judith Ivey and opened at Cherry Lane in June 2016. ● Joel Schechter’s ’72, DFA ’73 (Former Faculty) new book is titled Eighteenth-Century Brechtians:

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16 15 (left to right) Steve Pollock ’76, Pam (Martindall) Rank ’78, and Arthur Rank ’79.

16 (left to right) Lisa Monde as Coco Chanel, William Otterson ’76 as Sigmund Freud, and Steve Carlsen as Salvador Dali in Dali’s Dream. Photo by Shane Maritch.

17 (left to right) Charles Turner ’70, Johanna Day, Flynn Earl Jones, and Barrett Doss.

18 Edith Tarbescu ’76 at Tamaya Resort and Spa in Bernalillo, New Mexico.

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19 Eileen Roehm as Amanda Wingfield and Daniel Kirby as Tom Wingfield in Joseph Capone’s ’76 production of The Glass Menagerie.

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20 Julie Haber ’77 and Marianne Owen-Beattie ’79 in Seattle. Photo

by Zakiya Young.

21 John Rothman ’75 as King Simonides in Pericles at Theatre for a New Audience.

22 Nicholas Hormann ’73 (left) in the L.A. Theatre Works national radio tour of Dracula. Photo courtesy of the Lincoln Journal-Star.

25 Marty Lafferty ’72 checks the video scene set up for a United States Power Squadrons Digital Media Library project.

23 Fran Kumin ’77.

Photo by Karl Seifert.

26 Contrary to What Sometimes Happens, one of Charles Steckler’s ’71 dioramas on view at the Mandeville Gallery at Union College.

24 Ten Blocks on the Camino Real in Accra, Ghana, directed by David Kaplan ’79.

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29 27 The company for Yale Cabaret Hollywood’s reading of Grip the Raven. (standing, left to right): Shuli Rayberg, Dyanne Asimow ’67, Walt Klappert ’79, Jim Knable YC ’98, and Laura Flanagan YC ’93. (seated, left to right) Rachel Friedman, Gary Patent, Corey Sorenson, and Emily Rowan. Photo by Steven Klein.

28 Andrew Carson ’79—“on the bike—my natural habitat!”

29 (left to right) Martha Lidji Lazar ’77, Dr. Jane Goodall, and Dr. Martin Lazar at a lunch at the Lazar home.

Theatrical Satire in the Age of Walpole. He continues to teach theatre history and literature at San Francisco State University. ● Marty Lafferty ’72 is serving as project manager for the United States Power Squadrons Digital Media Library production of 20 original boating safety videos on behalf of the US Coast Guard. “This effort promises to improve safe boating practices among the nation’s 88 million recreational boaters, making the waters safer for everyone, and potentially saving lives,” says Marty. ● Jonathan Marks ’72, DFA ’84, YC ’68 (Former Faculty) has been at Texas Tech for 20 years. He was the first YSD grad to join the School of Theatre & Dance at Tech, but not the last. Next came the late Christopher Markle ’79, Dean Nolen ’00, who now heads it, and as of this year, Jesse Jou ’10. The School now participates annually in the Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theater Festival, headed by David Kaplan ’79, and every summer hosts the WildWind workshop, whose visiting artists have included David Kranes DFA ’71 and Martyna Majok ’12. ● Ben Slotznick ’73, YC ’70 recently edited the YaleGALE Guide to Alumni Relations and Volunteer Engagement for the Association of Yale Alumni’s Global Alumni Leadership Exchange. ● Femi Euba ’73 directed Ayad Akhtar’s Disgraced for the Swine Palace theatre in Baton Rouge during the 2015-16 season. He is writing the final draft of his memoir entitled Experiencing Soyinka: The Making of an Artist/Scholar. ● This season, Nicholas Hormann ’73 performed Van Helsing in the live radio national tour of Dracula for L.A. Theatre Works. In September, he started rehearsals for Macbeth at the Actors Theatre of Louisville, directed by Les Waters. ● Steve Zuckerman ’74 writes: “I’ve had a very busy year. It started with six weeks in Beijing working for Sony on the Chinese adaptation of the American comedy, Mad About You, which is now the most popular comedy in China. I also directed the world premiere production of John Bunzels’s play, 63 Trillion at the Odyssey Theatre here in LA. Darlene Kaplan YC ’78 and I are producing Shem Bitterman’s The Stone Witch at the Berkshire Theatre Group, with a good number of YSD alums on the team. Laura Janik Cro

nin ’96, head of Brierpatch Productions, is our producing partner, and the design staff includes Chris Cronin ’01, Shawn Boyle ’15, and Rasean Davonte Johnson ’16. I also enjoy lecturing at Chapman College for Professor James Gardner ’84. Darlene and I were very happy to host the YSD Spring Alumni Party at our home in LA for the third time.” ● John Rothman ’75 played King Simonides in Trevor Nunn’s beautiful production of Pericles at Theatre for a New Audience.

“Great writers, great director, great cast, great experience. It was actor heaven and I was all in,” writes John. Last May, John starred in the pilot of One Mississippi for Amazon Studios. “On a personal front, my daughter Lily (YC ’08) is engaged to a fabulous guy. And I have taken over the Yale Drama School Mentor Project from Joe Grifasi ’75. I will need your help!” ● Since his retirement from the academia a few years ago, Jaroslaw Strzemien ’75 has been busy translating plays, kayaking in cool places, and directing operas. This summer he went to Italy to direct Mozart’s Don Giovanni at the Greve Opera Academy Music Festival near Florence. Last fall he directed Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro for the Connecticut Lyric Opera. “It is fun, thanks to music, but more difficult than directing drama,” he says. ● “I’m still working on a cabaret adaptation of a morality play, and one song I wrote is actually on iTunes!” writes Charles Andrew Davis ’76. “I finished my 16th year working with speeches on the Garfield H.S. Academic Decathlon Team, which finished 7th in California. I miss Howard Stein (Former Faculty), Richard Bey ’76, Ed Gold ’77, Ken Ryan ’76, and a bunch of East Coast mugs. Expecting a whopping earthquake out here. Any bets when? Gotta go walk my dogs in the Garden of Eden...before the harvest of the apple crop.” ● Joseph Capone ’76 directed The Glass Menagerie at Columbia Greene Community College in Hudson, New York, in Fall 2015. “I have been fortunate to get to direct The Glass Menagerie twice and to act in both of the male roles. Once, I was directed by John Lithgow as the Gentleman Caller,” writes Joseph. “With each experience, I continued

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Alumni Notes to gain greater insight and inspiration from Tennessee Williams’s wonderfully-written script.” ● William Otterson ’76 starred as Sigmund Freud in Dali’s Dream. Written and directed by Lisa Monde, the play premiered at the 4th Street Theatre in New York, as part of the 3rd Annual Radioactive Festival, a festival of female playwrights.

William has worked on a number of TV shows this year, including The Perfect Murder, Blood Feuds, and Callie & Izzy. He is the voice of FDR in a documentary about welfare on PBS. His film appearances in 2015-16 include Yahtzee, Dark Passenger: Volume 1, Lonely Boys, Halina, Stowaway, and Lethe. ● Steve Pollock ’76 writes: “I’ve been in touch with Kerry Comerford ’76, who left the theatre life at the Denver Center—his YSD dream job—long ago for a life off the grid, designing homes in the wilds of northeastern West Virginia.

Kerry is now disabled and we’ve talked only once, but his long-time significant other, Brooke, manages his communication, so I’ve been able to stay in touch. Kerry’s status is ‘on hold’; he’s got an inoperable brain tumor that affects his speech and motor functions. Although I’ve been his connection to the class of ’76, he’d love to get a note from those who remember him as Hunter’s mid-70s sidekick! In his inscrutable way, Kerry’s maintained purity, so no internet!! Kerry’s address: 323 Forestview Drive, Berkeley Springs, WV 25411-6232.” ● “I’m working on the design and construction of new concert halls in Massachusetts, Virginia, North Carolina, and Southern California,” writes Robert Long ’76 (Former Faculty). “My other project, the new Flea Theater building, is moving toward completion in Lower Manhattan.” ● Edith Tarbescu’s ’76 one-woman play, Suffer Queen, was produced at the Shetler Studios in New York in May 2016. “I would love to send this to an actor looking for a one-woman play,” says Edith. ● “It’s been a very busy year for this ‘seasoned’ (the current euphemism for old, it seems) stage manager!” says Julie Haber ’77. “The peripatetic life of a freelance stage manager is difficult but rewarding, filled with exciting projects and dynamic 10 0

collaborators.” Julie continues to work at MainStreet Children’s Theatre in Rancho Cucamonga, California, and at Magic Theatre in San Francisco, where she stage managed Luis Alfaro’s new play, This Golden State Part One: Delano, and Penelope Skinner’s Fred’s Diner. “The rest of 2015 and beginning of 2016 were devoted to Ayad Akhtar’s Pulitzer Awardwinning play, Disgraced, at Berkeley Rep and Seattle Rep, where I reconnected with Marianne Owen-Beattie ’79 during the opening night party, followed by Sex with Strangers at the Geffen Playhouse in Westwood, California.” ● Martha (Gaylord) Lidji Lazar ’77 writes: “This year I hosted a lunch with my husband, Dallas neurosurgeon Martin Lazar, for MediSend/International and Jane Goodall in support of a planned hospital in the Kigoma region of Tanzania. MediSend, a 501 C 3 charity, was founded by my husband with the help of Dr. Goodall and others to address a growing need in developing countries for quality medical equipment and supplies, which can be largely satisfied by recycling surplus material from the United States. MediSend also trains foreign nationals and returning U.S. armed forces veterans as certified biomedical technicians in a state-of-theart Dallas facility. I am very proud of my husband and MediSend!” ● Following an eight-year tenure as director of theatre at The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage in Philadelphia, Fran Kumin ’77 re-launched an active consulting practice based in her hometown of New York City. She focuses on executive search, strategic planning, meeting facilitation, board development, and research. Fran recently had the pleasure of helping Primary Stages, an Off-Broadway company devoted to new plays, find a dynamic executive director, Shane Hudson ’14. Shane is one of a number of Yalies she has recently crossed paths with in her work—she also had cause to collaborate with Jeremy Smith ’76, Meghan Pressman ’10, SOM ’10, and Jane Jung ’10. She was pleased to be back on campus in April 2016 to guest lecture for Andy Hamingson’s (Faculty) first-year development

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class. Fran is on the National Advisory Committee of HowlRound, a creative commons for and by the theatre community, and is on the nominating committee for the 2016–17 Tony Awards. ● Neil Mazzella ’78 (Former Faculty) received an honorary degree, Doctor of Humane Letters from SUNY Oneonta. Hudson Scenic Studio, where Neil is president, built Hamilton, Fiddler on the Roof, and 10 other shows for this year’s Broadway season. They also sent various productions to London, Sydney, Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Shanghai. ● “It has been a busy year for us here at Idlenot Farm in Clinton, Connecticut,” writes Patricia Norcia ’78.

“Continuing my work in equestrian theatre, I am directing a new music video with actors and horses for the Equus Film Festival in NYC.” Patricia also staged the exhibition for the Equine Affaire exposition in Springfield, Massachusetts, last November. ● Arthur Rank ’79 writes: “Pam and I made certain to hook up with our fellow techy and close buddy Steve Pollock ’76 on a recent visit to the Bay area. We shared memories of our great times trudging the halls of the UT and Annex, including a few stories that the esteemed Ben Sammler ’74 (Faculty), then a mere third-year student, would probably prefer to have lost to history! No worries Ben, we’re all in this together!” ● David Kaplan ’79 directed Tennessee Williams’s plays around the world in 2016: Ten Blocks on the Camino Real for the National Theatre of Ghana, performed in marketplaces in Accra; The Day on Which a Man Dies at the National Arts Festival of South Africa; and The Last of My Solid Gold Watches, the second of The St. Louis Rooming-House Plays, in St. Louis. The Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theater Festival, which David founded and still curates, is in its 11th year. ● Walt Klappert ’79 produced Speak Now, a play

by Ali Davis, at the Lounge Theatre in Los Angeles this year. With the partnership, encouragement, and instruction of Dyanne Asimow ’67, Nick Hormann ‘73, Obi Ndefo ’97, YC ’94, Bob Barnett ’89, Steve Zuckerman ’74, and Asaad Kelada ’64, Walt produced two play

Alumni Notes When you ask set designer Michael Yeargan ’73 (Faculty) about his current work, be prepared for a very long answer. When we talked last spring, he was designing for two new plays and four operas (really, seven operas because one of those was Wagner’s Ring Cycle). He also had two musicals on Broadway (The King and I and Fiddler on the Roof), and co-chairs YSD’s design department. Michael describes this full docket of work with lighthearted laughter, offering an inspiring glimpse into the wonder, humor, and joy he has found in a life in theatre.

Michael has been teaching at YSD since the 70s, and while his career includes two Tony wins and several operas at the Met, Yale Rep remains his artistic home—Michael has worked on 59 Rep productions in the Rep’s 50-year history. He vividly remembers designing for Robert Brustein’s ’51, HON ’66 (Former Dean) 1970 production of Don Juan, the first Rep show in the 1120 Chapel Street location.

The building was, in many ways, still a church, and Michael recalls, “I walked in to the rumbling of the pipe organ.

They were doing a black masque, butchering a sheep on the altar with an upside down cross. It was incredibly theatrical.”

He has witnessed YRT’s evolution under the leadership of four deans, and he explains that each brought his own style to his tenure as artistic director.

He describes the Brustein years as “artistically exciting” and “wildly unpredictable,” while Lloyd Richards, HON ’79 (Former Dean) “had a wonderful sense of calm and of how to shape a play.”

Stan Wojewodski Jr.’s HON ’92 (Former Dean) “curiosity about all different kinds of theatre” meant he was equally good with light comedy and more serious works, and Michael praises the “high caliber” of new plays that James Bundy ’95 (Dean) brings to the Rep. Listing productions that span decades—from The Idiot’s Karamazov (1974) by Christopher Durang ’74 and Albert Innaurato ’74 to Stan Wojewodski’s Edward II (1992) to more recent productions like The Winter’s Tale (2012) and Jackson Gay’s ’03 staging of These Paper Bullets! (2014)—Michael values the myriad theatrical experiences he has had at the Rep. “Every show is

completely different,” he says. “There’s a different set of challenges, and I think that’s what keeps you going.”

Even when things go wrong, Michael enjoys the process and appreciates the absurdity—he describes going into a budget meeting for a production that had no script and no model as a kind of “sadistic fun.” He also has an anecdote about an overly-explosive execution scene in Tosca, during which the 13-gun firing squad covered the tenor in gunpowder and caused violin

Design for Living Michael Yeargan ’73 (Faculty)

bows to leap up from the orchestra pit. “That was the worst,” he concedes with a genial chuckle. “I really wished that there had been a hole in the floor that I could have just disappeared through.”

Perhaps his good humor comes from the fresh approach he takes to each project. Michael likens his experience of designing a production to “an equation” with a unique combination of factors every time. “It may be the same play you have done before but this time it’s going to look completely different. You’re a different person. You’re life has changed.” — by jennifer schmidt ’14, dfa ’17

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Alumni Notes readings: Red In, by Steven Leigh Morris, former theatre editor and theatre critic for LA Weekly, and Grip the Raven, by Jim Knable YC ’98, which was directed by Laura Flanagan YC ’93. After a seven-year run, Walt has moved on from Rovi Corporation.

He used his newly acquired free time to create “Mind Music.” If you’re interested in a 21st-century device that can read your mind, and is NOT owned by Google, check out the Indiegogo campaign. ● Bill Purves ’71 continues as VP with HGP — Harris Goldman Productions. Based out of San Diego, the company produces corporate meetings events and videos for clients around the country. Bill enjoys running into YSD classmates and alumni from time to time, many of whom are involved in the vibrant San Diego theatre scene. ● Roy Steinberg ’78 brought Christopher Durang ’74 to his National Playwrights Symposium at Cape May Stage, where Roy is the producing artistic director. This year Roy will direct Sex with Strangers, Disgraced, Buyer & Cellar, and One Christmas Carol, starring Roger Hendricks Simon ’67. This past summer, Roy played Velaso in Barefoot in the Park. ● Andrew Carson ’79 used his education to segue into a construction career in 2001. “The great recession proved semi-fatal to that idea,” he writes. This has led to the rise of the obsessive hobby of bicycle building. “I now make over forty a year. And I ride. A lot. TransAm in 2014, again in 2017 I think, many many many comfortable miles...” ● Due to the tragic death of Tim Vasen ’93, YC ’87 (Former Faculty), Bob Sandberg ’77 served as the acting director of the Princeton University Program in Theater during the spring 2016 semester. “We honored Tim by creating an award in his name. The winner of the award was Evelyn Giovine ’19, who began the YSD acting program this fall,” writes Bob. His play Terra Incognita was produced by George Street Playhouse in association with the Center for Investigative Reporting’s Storyworks.

The Judgment of Bett was published in the Kennedy Center’s anthology, New Vision/ New Voices, with Dramatic Publishing. Bob has recently directed Cloud Nine and Three 10 2

Sisters at Princeton. ● Alan Marlis’s ’70 book, FDR’s Baseball Managerial Mind, was published by McNally Jackson and is available online. ● Cosmo Catalano, Jr. ’79 retired from Williams College on July 1 after more than 30 years. He says, “I’m making some adjustments, but enjoying not having an inbox full of rehearsal/performance reports, venue and budget requests, and pleas for extensions on drafting assignments.” Cosmo is stepping up his volunteer work on the Appalachian Trail, serving both locally and on their Stewardship Council. “It’s just like theatre, but we do it outside during the daytime with multiple directors and an audience of millions of visitors—and no 10 out of 12’s.” ● Andrew Jackness ’79 has been married to Candice Donnelly ’85 for 23 years. He teaches in the film production design program at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, and recently production designed the NBC series Blindspot. ● David Kranes DFA ’71 writes: “I remain busy: shaping a Playwright’s Lab at Salt Lake Acting Company—national in scope and using the model I developed at Sundance; working a recent production of my play, Nevada, in Las Vegas; mentoring writing workshops in Provence; and finishing an ever-lengthening novel, Crap Dealer. I’m still in Salt Lake City with my good wife, Carol, and loving the West.”

1980s Jane Savitt Tennen ’80 writes: “After decades of building an array of wonderful undergraduate and graduate programs in the arts, Fairleigh Dickinson University is about to consolidate them into a united FDU School of the Arts. As development director, I’m honored and excited to be dedicating my time and energy to making FDUArts a reality. We’re currently building an advisory board to help guide the formation and growth of the school and provide philanthropic support. Please reach out if you’d like more info. Here’s a link to the website for the school-to-be: http:// staging2.fdu.edu/academics/bectoncollege/arts/. ● Geoff Pierson ’80 will be

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appearing in the TV movie based on Bill O’Reilly’s book Killing Reagan, produced by Ridley Scott and directed by Rod Lurie for the National Geographic Channel. Geoff will portray Chief-of-Staff James Baker. ● Jim Gage ’80 just finished his 29th year as resident lighting designer and professor of lighting design at College Conservatory of Music at University of Cincinnati. He has recently designed in Dallas, Texas, and Tallahassee, Florida, and for the Kentucky Opera productions of Showboat and Fidelio.

Jim has also done architectural theatre designs for the Cincinnati Children’s Theatre. ● John Gould Rubin ’80 writes: “I was so thrilled to direct and produce Turn Me Loose Off-Broadway, the story of Dick Gregory, with Joe Morton playing Gregory.

This is the product of a great collaboration, and among the collaborators who have helped to make this show succeed are Chris Barreca ’83, Susan Hilferty ’80, and Stephen Strawbridge ’83 (Faculty).” ● “I’ll be completing the Iron Man Experience attraction at Hong Kong Disneyland in December as executive creative producer,” writes Alec Scribner ’80. From there, he will move to Tokyo DisneySea to produce Soarin’ Over The World for the 2019 opening. “For fun, I play acoustic guitar in a duet that is in its sixth year of performing. The other member of the duet is also a Yalie, hence our name, Blue 2th.” ● Ben Cameron ’81 is back in Minnesota as the president of the Jerome and Camargo Foundations. The first supports emerging artists in Minnesota and New York City in all disciplines and the second maintains a residency center for artists and scholars in Cassis, France—and yes, it’s as beautiful as one imagines it might be. ● Edward Grinnan ’82 is currently vice president and editor-in-chief of Guideposts Publications. His next book, Always by My Side: Life Lessons from Millie and the Dogs I’ve Loved, will be out in January of 2017, published by Guideposts/ Simon and Schuster. “I’m very proud to have had fellow alum Courtney B. Vance ’86 on the cover of Guideposts magazine this August,” Edward writes. “I’m sure our five million monthly readers loved his inspiring story.” Edward’s wife, Julee

Alumni Notes

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30 The final scene of Don Juan Returns from the War, production design by Bill Clarke ’87.

31 Anne Hamburger ’86 with Tom Pearson at the Humana Festival.

32 AZ Kelsey ’11, at work as associate producer at En Garde Arts, founded by Anne Hamburger ’86.

33 Jennifer McCray Rincon ’87, YC ’80. Photo by Catalina Rincon.

34 McCarter Theatre’s resident production stage manager Cheryl Mintz ’87 (right) in rehearsal with artistic director Emily Mann on their 30th production together. Photo by Matt Pilsner for McCarter Theatre.

35 (left to right) Amy, David, and Matthew, children of Kenneth Lewis ’86.

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Alumni Notes

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40 41 36 Cheryl Mintz ’87 calling final dress rehearsal. Photo

by T. Charles Erickson for McCarter Theatre.

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37 Jim Bender ’85, working as a missionary in Flint, Michigan.

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38 Joe Urla ’85 with his daughter and stepdaughter—“No gym membership required!”

39 Pre-nup shot of James Magruder ’88, DFA ’92, MA ’84 (Former Faculty) (left) and Steve Bolton.

Photo by Vivian Rexroad.

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Alumni Notes

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40 (left to right) Tim Douglas ’86, May Gibson ’86, and Holly Hayes ’86 in Soho, London.

41 Wendy MacLeod ’87 (left) and Rosa Joshi ’94.

42 The Subway set for Person of Interest, designed by Rick Butler ’88.

51 43 Robert Russell ’89 as “Surfing Chassid” in a print ad on the NYC subway.

44 (left to right) Andrea Smith ’89, Shay Wafer ’89, and Yvonne Joyner Levette ’90.

45 Thanksgiving 2015— (left to right) Holly Hayes ’86, Margaret Glover ’88, YC ’81, May Gibson ’86, and Tom McGowan ’88.

46 Digital design by Jim Sandefur ’85 for PROM, a concert evening for the Gateway Men’s Chorus of St. Louis.

47 Alec Scribner ’80 at the Annecy International Film Festival in Annecy, France.

50 Wendy Rolfe Evered ’89 as “Angela” on her YouTube channel.

51 Kenneth Lewis ’86 and his wife, Dr. Denise Riedel Lewis MPH ’86.

48 Benjamin Lloyd ’88, YC ’85 49 Campbell Dalglish ’86.

Photo by Catherine Oberg.

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Alumni Notes Kimberly Scott ’87 had an epiphany in the Texas A&I University library. She was an undergraduate writing briefs for a debating tournament when, she says, “I realized I could not concentrate because I was thinking about auditioning for a Cole Porter

Living Inside Each Performance Kimberly Scott ’87 revue. The light bulb came on: ‘If this is distracting you now, it will distract you for the rest of your life. Pack it up. Go home. Change your major. Get on with it.’”

When she first arrived at YSD in 1984 she’d seen only one professionally produced play. But that same year she was cast as “the third soldier from the left” in Wole Soyinka’s A Play of Giants at Yale Rep. “It was a relief to see that the professional process was not perfect,” she says. “You start to let go of any notions of perfection and see that what we do is more about grace.”

The next year Kimberly worked with August Wilson and Lloyd Richards, HON ’79 (Former Dean), originating the role of Molly in Joe Turner’s Come and Gone. Her voice fills with wonder—“How the hell did that happen? I could barely breathe for the beauty of being in the room with August. He’d watch and giggle—he enjoyed himself. Remembering that is important to me right now. That was the beauty of the Rep—I learned that there’s great value in the enjoyment of the daily work in the room.” Kimberly’s journey with Joe Turner continued. She played Molly at Arena Stage, the Huntington, the Old Globe, and eventually on Broadway, where she was nominated for Tony and Drama Desk awards. She has returned twice to the Rep—in 2009 for James Bundy’s ’95 10 6

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(Dean) production of Death of a Salesman, and in 2015 for Familiar by Danai Gurira.

Kimberly has worked extensively in film and television with directors like Oliver Stone, James Cameron, and Joel Schumacher, and her immense talent and generous spirit have made her a favored collaborator for a long list of playwrights and theatre artists, including Naomi Wallace, Lee Breuer, Liesl Tommy, and Lynn Nottage ’89. She played Mama Nadi in the west coast premiere of Ruined, Lynn’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, and last year she originated the role of Cynthia in Lynn’s Sweat at Oregon Shakespeare Festival and Arena Stage.

Kimberly’s voice softens when she talks about her tremendous career. “Tyrone Guthrie said, ‘What we do is writ on water.’ This is an art form that’s fleeting,” she says. “The question for me is are you making art? Are you leaving a legacy of creativity?” I ask if she ever feels about a performance that she’s ‘figured it out,’ but she shakes her head emphatically.

“Every day is a new journey through a play. I may have a map of the journey—that’s what we find in

“That was the beauty of the Rep—I learned that there’s great value in the enjoyment of the daily work in the room.” rehearsal—but the weather is different every night.

My experience of Lynn’s work, for example, is that she writes beautiful mountains. When places are called, I have no idea how climbing that mountain is going to go.”

Perhaps this resolve to fully live inside each performance is what gives such vitality to Kimberly’s acting. “The first line or moment is all I can think about when the lights come up,” she says. “And I always learn something new in our closing show.

Always.” — by dipika guha ’11

Alumni Notes Cruise, will be reprising her role as the chanteuse in the new Twin Peaks. ● Jane Kaczmarek ’82 writes: “I had the good fortune to record A View from the Bridge with Alfred Molina for BBC radio.” She has continued hosting and reading on Selected Shorts radio program, touring to Big Sky Montana as well as to Symphony Space in NYC and LA’s Getty Center. She recently appeared as the unlucky Rosemary LaBianca in feature film Wolves at the Door and as saucy Chief of Police in the feature remake of the 1970’s show Chips, and she returned to the Williamstown Theatre Festival for the American premiere of Tom Holloway’s And No More Shall We Part.

Jane had the opportunity to travel with WonderWorK, which provides surgeries to people living in poverty, to hospitals in Tanzania and Rwanda. “Nothing brings life into perspective like witnessing the hope and courage of children and doctors in the developing world,” she writes. Jane also visited John Lloyd ’82 at Hartford Stage when they performed in Keith Reddin’s ’81 Rear Window. “It was a bit of a 1980 Yale Cabaret Fjords of Blood reunion,” she jokes. “Kate Burton ’82 and I shared a happy afternoon with Melissa Smith ’82, YC ’79, who was in town with her 2016 MFA class from A.C.T. Kate and I made our 3rd annual trek to the Coachella Music Festival with our teenagers. They grooved to tunes in the desert while we sat in air conditioned splendor watching MSNBC, continuing the conversation we started in 1979. Kate and I also celebrated our daughters Charlotte Ritchie and Frances Whitford’s graduation from high school. Life is good.” ● Rick Davis ’83, DFA ’03 is just finishing his first year as dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts at George Mason University. He writes: “The work turns out to be a melange of dramaturgy, directing, and producing, roughly analogous to staging an opera with a cast of 1,600 or so (and no intermissions).” ● Palgrave Macmillan has published Dianah Wynter’s ’84 new collection on Woody Allen, which was released at the end of 2015. ● Joe Urla ’85 has his hands full with a young daughter and stepdaughter.

He appears as the late great boxing trainer Angelo Dundee in Hands of Stone, released August 26, 2016, which also stars fellow YSD grad Reg E. Cathey ’81 as Don King.

Joe can also be seen in the film Wilde Wedding, opening in 2017. ● Michael Engler ’85 spent most of 2015 in London, where he directed the first two episodes of Sky’s 10-part mini-series You, Me, and The Apocalypse, as well as three episodes of the final season of Downton Abbey, including the series finale. On his return to the States he directed episodes for Empire, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, and Notorious, a pilot for ABC. ● “I have left behind the glamour of LA life and moved back to my hometown of St. Louis,” writes Jim Sandefur ’85. “I’m here to take the time to spend with and take care of my parents.” At the same time, he is getting back into theatre after many years working outside the profession. “As a designer trained and actively working in a time where you drafted by hand and toted an actual portfolio to interviews, it is quite the different world out there now. It seems that everything is done on a computer.

Ming, please look the other way. I am happy to report that I have two theatre jobs right now: Alice in Wonderland for STAGES, St. Louis, and Man of La Mancha for the Weston Playhouse.” Jim has also been singing and volunteering with The Gateway Men’s Chorus, creating promotional materials and scenic concepts, as well as projections for their concerts. “This year, having most all of my design equipment still in boxes, I begrudgingly did everything digitally. It’s great to be “back home” and back in the business that is my first love.” ● Jayne Atkinson-Gill ’85 lives in the beautiful Berkshires with her husband and fellow actor, Michel Gill. Their son is pursuing acting and has decided to go away to a high school for the arts.

“Empty nesters two years early!” Jayne jokes. “This opened us up to travel. It was an amazing feeling to just let myself dream of having an adventure. We are incredibly happy and supportive of our son’s wonderful artistic spirit. We were both given that great gift from our parents—paying it forward. I’m now

looking forward to returning to New York and the Great White Way. Otherwise enjoying life, staying happy, and in love with everything.” ● Jim Bender ’85 writes: “Keeping busy as Deacon Bender at Alfred Street Baptist Church, keeping three kids on the path to joy and success (Tim, 19; Amelia, 18; Brandon, 5), providing consulting services to federal government communication programs, and really learning the joy of 25 years married to one person.” ● Campbell Dalglish ’86 is a full time professor of film at CCNY and president of the Plaza Cinema and Media Arts Center in Patchogue, New York.

Campbell recently wrote and directed a short film, Road Kill, with D’Arc Productions.

He also directed the second unit cinematography on Sacred Steps: Remembering Sand Creek, a feature documentary produced by Cheyenne and Arapaho TV. He continues to write screenplays, plays, and TV pilots, while editing two features. He lives with wife, Catherine Oberg, and 8-year-old son, Milo. ● Adam Versenyi ’86, DFA ’90, YC ’80 is in his second year as chair of the Department of Dramatic Art at UNC-Chapel Hill and continues as senior dramaturg for PlayMakers Repertory Company (PRC), where this past season he dramaturged Theresa Rebeck’s Seminar, as well as Allison Horsley ’01 and Libby Appel’s new translation of Chekhov’s Three Sisters.

PRC also performed a staged reading of his 90-minute version of King Lear as part of a marathon reading of the entire Shakespearean canon in celebration of the Bard’s 400th birthday. “PlayMakers has been going through quite a transition,” Adam reports. “We were thrilled to hire Vivienne Benesch in January 2016 as our new producing artistic director.” Adam’s translations of Chilean playwright/director Ramón Griffero’s work had readings at King’s College, London and Wake Forest University in 2015-16. His collection of 10 of Griffero’s plays in translation was published in September 2016. ● Herb Scher ’86 writes: “This year a song I wrote, Tower Records is Gone, was included in the soundtrack of the documentary film All Things Must Pass, directed by Colin

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Alumni Notes Hanks. The film provides a fascinating look at the rise and fall of the store as well as the colorful characters who built it. Aside from that I’m working as a photographer in New York and holding down the occasional gig performing as a magician!” ● Kenneth Lewis ’86 is starting his 24th season at Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts. He writes, “Denise (MPH ’86) is still at National Cancer Institute, and Matthew, our oldest son, is a senior at Penn State in technical design in theatre. Amy is a sophomore at Syracuse University in visual arts and has been accepted to the Whitman School of Business. David is heading into seventh grade and plays soccer, baseball, and saxophone.” ● Anne Hamburger ’86 reports: “En Garde Arts opened its production of Wilderness, a documentary theatre production that I devised with writer/director Seth Bockley about the “wilderness” of emotions between parents and their kids in October at the Abrons Arts Center in New York. I received an NEA grant to work with Pace University on engagement activities, and I’ll be teaching a class about site-specific theatre to playwrights, directors, and dramaturgs at the Columbia University School of the Arts graduate theatre program.” ● “What a year it has been! The twins, Bronwyn and Slater, are 10 years old now and in the 4th grade! Time is moving on,” writes Courtney B. Vance ’86. “Angela and I are well and juggling careers, school projects, and care for my mother, who is in the advance stage of ALS and can just blink her eyes. But her mind is still sharp as a tack! She has her bad days, but loves her audio books, cable TV shows, and seeing her grandchildren and friends!

God is indeed good!” ● “Theatre is thriving in London and I feel privileged to enjoy the many wonderful productions, whenever time permits,” says May Gibson ’86. “My fellow YSD compatriots, Margaret Glover ’88, YC ’81 and Holly Hayes ’86, and I continue to celebrate the American traditions of 4th of July BBQ’s and Thanksgiving feasts together.

Last year we had the pleasure of Tom McGowan ’88 and his family joining us while Tom was in town playing the Wizard 10 8

in Wicked. Prior to that, Tim Douglas ’86 came over for a visit.” May started a new job in October 2015 working for a small TV drama production company as their development executive. “It’s nice being part of a team again after so many years as a freelancer. I’m currently looking for experienced showrunners who love English/French medieval history...yes, for yet another epic historical drama. Watch this space.” ● Clayton Austin ’86 retired from George Mason University. “A theatre faculty member since 1993, my assignments included technical director, production manager, department chair, and scenic designer. I was inspired by colleagues Kristin Johnsen-Neshati ’92, DFA ’02 and Rick Davis ’83, DFA ’03.” ● It’s been a fairly busy year for Bill Clarke ’87. He designed the inaugural production, Old Town, at Northern Stage’s beautiful new home in Vermont, and then Don Juan Returns from the War, at nearby Dartmouth. “It was great to reconnect with old friends from Cleveland Playhouse, Carol Dunne and Peter Hackett, who were the respective directors,” Bill writes. Other shows included To Kill a Mockingbird at IRT, Miracle on S. Division Street at Geva and Bad Dates at Cincinnati Playhouse. Bill worked on five shows this past summer: Pirates of Penzance and Souvenir for Heritage Rep in Virginia, and The Underpants, Velocity of Autumn, and Annapurna for the inaugural season at White Heron’s new theatre in Nantucket.

This fall Bill designed for The Foreigner at Milwaukee Rep, and Macbeth, directed by Stephen Brown-Fried ’05, at Northern Stage. ● Wendy MacLeod ’87 was invited by Seattle’s ACT to the Icicle Creek New Play Festival in the beautiful Cascade Mountains to develop her new play, Mary’s Girl, directed by fellow Yalie Rosa Joshi ’94. ● Cheryl Mintz ’87 celebrated her 25th season as resident/production stage manager at McCarter Theatre, and her 30th production with artistic director and resident playwright Emily Mann with the world premiere of Sharyn Rothstein’s All the Days. Other collaborations this season included Emily’s documentary

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drama, Hoodwinked, which explores Islamist extremism, and the American premiere of her stage adaptation of Baby Doll. 2015 marked the bittersweet end as supervising stage manager for the 16th season run of A Christmas Carol, designed

by YSD faculty Ming Cho Lee, Jess Goldstein ’78, and Stephen Strawbridge 83. Cheryl served as the

“I am developing an original holiday musical using the arrangements of Fred Waring and featuring a blended cast of professional actors, high school actors, and actors with disabilities.”

— ben j a m in l loyd ’88, yc ’85 symposium production coordinator for The Ground on Which We Stand — Diversity and Opportunity in American Theater: 20 Years after August Wilson’s Foundational Speech. Cheryl is a contributor to the recently published fourth edition of Sound and Music for the Theatre: The Art & Technique of Design. ● Jennifer McCray Rincon ’87, YC ’80 has continued her work at Dada at Visionbox, a professional

Alumni Notes actors’ studio, providing Denver students and professional actors with high level actor training while developing new work for production. This year she co-directed and produced The Wild Hunt by actor/ director Bill Pullman. Phillip Baldwin ’87 designed the production and continued to work with Jennifer on the project this past summer at New York Stage and Film.

Phillip is also designing a mixed reality lab and other productions with Visionbox Studio as they enter their sixth season of operations. Jennifer leaves an invitation: “Any colleagues interested in our work and in collaborating with us, please check out our new website www.visionbox.org and write me at jennifer@visionbox.org.” ● Rick Butler ’88 continues a busy schedule, wrapping up the final season as production designer of the CBS/Warner TV series Person of Interest. His current project takes him to North Carolina for the Lionsgate TV movie Dirty Dancing. His teaching posts continue at St. John’s University and Brooklyn College Theater of the City University of New York. ● James Magruder ’88, DFA ’92, MA ’84 (Former Faculty) reports: “After 17 years, a retired mortgage, and two grandsons, Steve Bolton and I eloped on the last day of 2015 at the Baltimore City Courthouse.

Our two witnesses were the nonpareil Catherine Sheehy ’92, DFA ’99 (Faculty) and Katherine Roth ’93. We repaired to Washington, DC, for a weekend of booze and dominoes.” James’s third novel, Love Slaves of Helen Hadley Hall, which is set at Yale in 1983–84 and has a couple of YSD subplots, was published at the end of May. Yale Press and James Bundy ’95 (Dean) have commissioned James to chronicle the first 50 years of the Yale Repertory Theatre in book form, and he says he has “begun interviewing unusual suspects.” His newest play, Keep Your Forks, was part of Berkeley Rep’s Ground Floor Developmental Lab this past June. ● As executive director of White Pines Productions, a small multi-faceted performing arts nonprofit in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, Benjamin Lloyd ’88, YC ’85 recently facilitated a production of Much Ado About Nothing. “I am developing

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52 Esther Chae ’99 and Paul von Zielbauer with their daughter Lil Evon. Photo by Joanne Leung.

53 The cast of But Not For Love by Matthew Everett ’91. Photo courtesy of Workhouse Theater Company.

54 Jennie Israel ’96 (above) as Emilia with Josephine Elwood as Desdemona in the Actors’ Shakespeare Project production of Othello in Boston’s historic Modern Theatre. Photo by Stratton McCrady.

55 Elizabeth Greer ’97

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Alumni Notes

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56 Midsummer in Newtown, a documentary co-produced

by Sarahbeth Grossman ’91.

57 David Koppel ’98, with his wife Julie Yick Gilbride.

58 Daniel Elihu Kramer ’91

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59 Paul Niebanck ’97 (left) and Bobby Steggert in BOY at the Keen Company.

60 60 Un-Sheltered, a sitespecific production about homelessness produced at San Diego Mesa Collage, written and directed by Sheldon Deckelbaum ’92.

Photo by Nicholas David.

61 Joseph Fuqua ’90 in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Original tintype photograph by Jeff Kober.

62 Linda (Sithole) Kuriloff ’91

Alumni Notes an original holiday musical using the arrangements of Fred Waring and featuring a blended cast of professional actors, high school actors, and actors with disabilities.

Check us out at www.whitepinesproductions.org.” ● Jane Macfie’s ’88 daughter is now officially taller than she is, and this May they were in technical rehearsals at the same time for different shows. Jane had a fun year acting on TV with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Laurie Metcalf, and a truckload of middle school students in various TV shows. One of those was Getting On, where she got to share an episode with classmate Bruce Katzman ’88. She also got to play Amanda in The Glass Menagerie, and made an independent film called Maw-Maw, which is playing festivals. ● Robert Russell ’89 was recently seen as the “Surfing Chassid” throughout NYC’s subways in a print ad for SHYP.com. He is completing his 10th year as artistic director of Yeshiva University’s Stern College for Women drama program, where he directed the first ever production of All My Sons with an all-female cast. He can also be seen in the second episode of the new hit web series Soon By You. ● Robert Barnett ’89 writes: “I continue to balance my two professions—playwriting and freelance writer for corporate communications and themed entertainment. One guess which one pays the bills. My theatre writing continues to receive workshops and readings in New York and Los Angeles, including Olympic Notions & Supply at Write Act Rep in Los Angeles; my one-act, Social Science, at Red Shirt in New York, directed by Snehal Desai ’08; One Good Tree at Yale Cabaret Hollywood, produced

by Walt Klappert ’79 and directed by Snehal with Barbara Bragg ’87 in the cast; and God, By Another Name at New Jersey Rep. ● Shay Wafer ’89, executive director of 651 ARTS, welcomes two former classmates to the board of directors, Andrea Smith ’89 and Yvonne Joyner Lovette ’90. “It’s great to have dear friends and respected colleagues help lay the foundation for the future on this important Brooklyn cultural institution,” Shay says. ● Wendy Rolfe Evered ’89

has finally combined her acting career with her YSD degree in costume design.

“Inspired by the small ‘glitch’ of my having to completely re-learn how to walk (beginning in 2008), I started a YouTube channel where I use comedy to talk about things that people don’t want to talk about… like the Pelvic Floor. ‘The Pelvic WHAT?’ So go to my channel and meet ‘Angela,’ she will explain.”

1990s Joseph Fuqua ’90 is in his 16th season with The Rubicon Theatre Company as a company member. He has played 28 roles to date on the Rubicon stage, including Hamlet and most recently Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady. Joseph is currently playing Marshal Johnson in the U.S. premiere of Jethro Compton’s The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, based on the short story

by Dorothy Johnson. “Got to wear my first badge and gun!” says Joseph. ● Matthew Everett ’91 recently finished a four-year stint as playwright-in-residence for Workhouse Theatre Company in Minneapolis, which included a reading of his script TV Boyfriend last February and marriage equality comedy, But Not For Love, performed when Minnesota put marriage on the ballot. During that time Michael also wrote a multi-year touring show for Minnesota’s Project 515 to help jumpstart discussion around the marriage equality issue—“Until the script thankfully became a period piece both locally and nationally, and Project 515 could shut its doors,” says Matthew. His play Discreet, Straight-Acting, Disease/Drug-Free was recently shown at Freshwater Theatre. Michael squeezed in a self-production of his script, How To Date A Werewolf (or, Lonesome, Wild and Blue), in the Minnesota Fringe Festival. His short, Mistletoe #1, got tapped for inclusion in Smith and Kraus publishers’ upcoming anthology 105 Five-Minute Plays for Study and Performance. When he’s not writing plays, he enjoys writing notes to his 7-year-old goddaughter, Ursula, who is now old enough to read them herself and write back. He also travels to wherever she

and her family are for visits, be it Slovakia or Montana. ● The summer of 2016 marked Daniel Elihu Kramer’s ’91 first season as producing artistic director at Chester Theatre Company. He opened the season with the premiere of his play My Jane, based on Jane Eyre. The season also included Oh God by Anat Gov, produced in partnership with Israeli Stage Company, John Kolvenbach’s Sister Play, which Daniel directed, and Katori Hall’s The Mountaintop, featuring Jordan Mahome ’05 as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. ● Linda (Sithole) Kuriloff ’91 was asked to write a five-minute film with only one day’s notice.

Excited by the sheer lunacy of the project, she wrote her first screenplay, Jellyfish Jake. The film is about a middle-aged man who takes up swimming to fulfill a longtime wish to become an expert swimmer, only to end up dying in the pursuit. Jellyfish Jake was part of the Asian American International Film Festival 2016.

Linda also wrote a self-development book, The Charm of Confrontation: The LifeChanging Benefits of Being Frank. ● As a producer of the Tony winning musical An American in Paris, which continues its run at The Palace Theatre on Broadway, Sarahbeth Grossman ’91 is happy to announce the launch of a national tour beginning in October 2016 and a London production beginning in March 2017. In addition, her most recent Broadway production, Dames at Sea, garnered a 2016 Tony nomination for Randy Skinner for Best Choreography. Sarahbeth is also a co-producer on the documentary Midsummer in Newtown, which recently premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and was named runner-up for the feature documentary Audience Award. “Congratulations to everyone involved on all these wonderful projects,” she writes. ● Maggie Morgan ’92 designed the costumes for Tenderly: the Rosemary Clooney Musical at Center Rep; Endgame at the Kirk Douglas Theatre, directed by Alan Mandell; and the original web series, Send Me, created by Steve Harper YC ’87, which premiered with 1.66 million views on BET.com and is now on YouTube. ● Sheldon Deckelbaum ’92 wrote and directed a new play about

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Alumni Notes When Suttirat Larlarb ’97 arrived at YSD in 1994, she remembers thinking that “whatever was going to happen in the three years ahead of me, it was supposed to transform me from a feral undergrad to a professional and marketable designer.”

Over the last two decades, Suttirat has

A Well Informed Instinct Suttirat Larlarb ’97

indeed built a successful career that spans theatre, opera, and film, designing for projects like Slumdog Millionaire (2008),

Suttirat Larlarb ’97 working in India.

Photo by Mark Digby.

Steve Jobs (2015), and the 2012 London Olympics.

Influenced by the interdisciplinary training she received at YSD, Suttirat frequently challenges professional pigeonholing by working as both costume and production designer. A notable example is Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours (2010), for which she not only designed James Franco’s clothing, but also recreated the Blue John Canyon for the set. She recalls some advice from Ming Cho Lee (Faculty). “During my Iphigenia project, Ming pulled me aside and said ‘I know you came here to costume design, but you should continue to think of yourself as both 112

kinds of designer.”

Suttirat moved to the United Kingdom after graduation, and after working as a costumes and sets assistant to acclaimed designer Richard Hudson on several opera productions, including Mussorgsky’s Kovanschina and Verdi’s Ernani, she began a fruitful collaboration with British director Danny Boyle. Learning that Boyle’s movie The Beach (2000) was to be shot in Thailand—her parents’ home country— Suttirat talked her way onto the production as an art department assistant. From there it was Sunshine (2007), Slumdog Millionaire (2008)—for which Suttirat won a Costume Designers Guild Award—and,

most recently, Steve Jobs (2015).

When asked about her process, Suttirat doesn’t hesitate: “For me it always starts with the script,” a method she learned at YSD. “It’s about dissecting it to the point where you know it so well that whatever design decisions you make, you’re operating on a kind of well-informed instinct.” This method served her well during the conception of the opening ceremony for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games, for which she won an Emmy award.

Over six months of brainstorming, research and sketching, the four-person creative team, headed by Boyle, devised a vibrant fantasia that displayed Britain’s culture and history. For Suttirat, who envisioned the ceremony’s famous “dove bikes,” the discipline of script analysis proved vital in

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structuring an event that didn’t follow a conventional narrative.

A successful and sought-after designer in film, Suttirat never relinquished the

“I do find that it’s very natural for me to question why we have to make a point of introducing anything that’s non-white.” theatre. She has designed costumes for the Humana Festival, the Summer Play Festival in New York, and the National Theatre’s 2011 production of Frankenstein.

Her Broadway work includes Anne Shapiro’s revival of Of Mice and Men (2014) and the hit musical Waitress (2016), where, Suttirat says, she is “surrounded by many wonderful and talented women on the crew and creative team.”

Her experience with Waitress has been refreshing—Suttirat says of Broadway and Hollywood, “It’s changing, but it’s still predominantly a very male world.” She is also aware of how white the industry is. “I do find that it’s very natural for me to question why we have to make a point of introducing anything that’s non-white. I have a different approach. I try to employ as many women as possible, and certainly women of color. I don’t talk about it a lot, I just do it.”

With several collaborations on the horizon, Suttirat has a full agenda.

However, she keeps two dream projects on her bucket list: a Western, and a film in South America. — by catherine rodriguez ’18 and maria inês marques ’17

Alumni Notes homelessness titled Un-Sheltered. The play was sourced from over 60 hours of interviews with people who have experienced homelessness in San Diego. It was produced in a site-specific location by San Diego Mesa College in April 2016 and was nominated for the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival. ● Malcolm Gets ’92 recently appeared in Steve, written by Mark Gerard and directed

by Cynthia Nixon, at the New Group. He also appeared as Arlen Specter in HBO’s Confirmation. Malcolm is currently teaching in the NYU graduate acting program. ● Deanna Stuart ’94 is still working as the production manager for the arts at the Brooks School in Massachusetts, and is using info from Bill Warfel’s ’57, YC ’55 (Faculty) consulting class to work on plans for a new arts facility on campus. Deanna’s elder daughter, Xiu, is a sophomore at the school, while daughter Ana is in the 6th grade. ● Suzanne Cryer ’95 is living in Los Angeles with her husband, Greg, and three children. She is currently on HBO’s Silicon Valley and recurs on The Fosters for ABC. She is also briefly featured in 10 Cloverfield Lane. ● “Life on the Metro-North axis (Brooklyn-New Haven) is good!” writes Tom Sellar ’97, DFA ’03 (Faculty). “I continue to enjoy my work as editor of Theater magazine and teaching full-time in YSD’s dramaturgy and dramatic criticism program with a vibrant group of students and terrific colleagues. In addition to core courses in criticism and editing, I’ve introduced new seminars on contemporary global performance and performance curating. After writing for the Village Voice for 15 years—the last two seasons in the chief critic’s seat—I’ve decided to step down this year and have been contributing to other national publications, including Artforum. In October 2015, I served as co-curator of New York’s 2015 PRELUDE festival, an exciting venture I was happy to repeat this fall.” ● Narda Alcorn ’95 writes: “I am thrilled to announce that this fall, after five wonderful years at The Theatre School at DePaul University in Chicago, I have moved back to New York City to be an associate arts professor and

head of stage management training at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in the department of drama.” ● Anne GarcíaRomero’s ’95 new book, The Fornes Frame: Contemporary Latina Playwrights and the Legacy of Maria Irene Fornes (University of Arizona Press, March 2016), considers Fornes’s lasting influence and how five award-winning contemporary playwrights continue to contest and complicate Latina theatre. ● “It has been an exciting year for my wife, Dr. Abigail Herron, and me,” writes Donald Fried ’95.

“We were joined on August 17 by our daughter, Amelia Jane Fried, and we couldn’t be happier! Life is full of changes and all for the better.” On the work front, Donald was the stage manager for the Public Theater’s production of Lynn Nottage’s ’89 (Former Faculty) Sweat, directed by Kate Whoriskey. ● Jeff Talbott’s ’96 play The Gravedigger’s Lullaby will have its world premiere production this winter Off-Broadway by TACT at Theatre Row. His play Three Rules for the Dragon was a finalist for the 2016 O’Neill Playwrights Conference and opened the 2016 season of Premiere Stages in New Jersey, with a workshop/staged reading. An album of music written with his musical collaborator, Will Van Dyke, entitled A View of the River, was released last fall. They have just completed work on their second musical, Wintersong, and continue to write new musicals. Jeff is returning to Cleveland Playhouse this fall to reprise his role in A Christmas Story. ● Michael Gabriel Goodfriend ’96 enjoyed another season at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, where he performed in Amanda Dehnert’s production of Timon of Athens. Last year brought Michael into contact with many fellow alumni at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis and at the Folger in DC, as he journeyed in Joe Haj’s renowned production of Pericles. “These acting jobs help me sustain my real work: raising two very charismatic young thespians who portray a wide range of roles while their parents duck and take cover!” Michael jokes. ● After a lifetime of living on and off

Martha’s Vineyard, Elizabeth Bennett ’97 is being drawn to a new island—this past July, she joined Staten Island Arts as its executive director. She is excited to return to grant-making, grassroots art-making, and collaborative programming amidst a period of economic growth for the island.

“I’m beyond grateful to Andy Hamingson (Faculty) and Nicole Fix ’98 for being the pitcrew that grounded and guided me through this big transition. Preston Lane ’96 and I look forward to continuing our dramaturgical explorations at Staten Island’s many shiny diners,” Elizabeth says. ● Elizabeth Greer ’97 writes: “This past year was a good one—I had the priviledge of shooting a guest lead on the Bates Motel season premiere opposite Vera Farmiga. I also shot several other gigs, including a recent feature entitled Corbin Nash, starring Malcolm McDowell and Rutger Hauer. Stay in touch everyone!” ● “I had a Terrific Stretching Season!” Paul Niebanck ’97 writes. He appeared in Barbecue by Robert O’Hara, at The Public; The Changeling with Red Bull Theater; and BOY by Anna Ziegler with Keen Company, with Yalie Shane Rettig ’99 doing the sound design. ● Karen LordiKirkham ’92, DFA ’97 writes: “It was wonderful to return this past January to NYC and the Phoenix Ensemble to direct the world premiere of Glyn Maxwell’s adaptation of Dostoyevsky’s The Gambler.

Looking forward to the summer season at Pendragon Theatre, where I am executive artistic director. I’ll be directing The Glass Menagerie this year. Otherwise family and being a full professor at Dickinson College is keeping me on my toes! Stop by and say hi if you are in the Adirondacks!” ● David Koppel ’98 married Julie Yick Gilbride, a social studies and social justice educator, on April 10, 2016, at the Mountain Terrace in Woodside, California. Fellow YSD actor Vivian Sung Soon Keh-Hue ’98 was in attendance with her husband, Jonathan Hue. This fall, David is playing Flanders Kittredge in Western Stage’s production of Six Degrees of Separation and stage managing Fiction by Steven Dietz at the Dragon Theatre. In the winter, he will

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Alumni Notes direct Marc Blitzstein’s musical, The Cradle Will Rock, for his Citizens United Theatre Company. ● In January, Jim Hart ’99 won “Special Recognition in Entrepreneurship Education Innovation” at the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship, the largest private entrepreneurship conference in the world.

This prize was awarded for Jim’s original games for teaching arts entrepreneurship.

The director of the arts entrepreneurship program at Southern Methodist University, Jim continues to advise other universities

“After eight years trying things out in the Midwest I guess I finally decided to stay.”

— te r r i ciofa lo ’00

in establishing arts entrepreneurship programs that are unique to each institution’s culture. ● Raymond Kent ’99 was recently nominated for the Cleveland Arts Prize for his work in theatre design. ● Esther Chae ’99 introduces her baby daughter, Evon Aeri Chae-Zielbauer. “Our sparkling baby was born August 2, 2015, at a robust 9 lbs. 1 oz. The nurses called her a chubster! By the time you read this, she’ll be over a year old!”

2000s “After eight years trying things out in the Midwest I guess I finally decided to stay,” writes Terri Ciofalo ’00. “I am now the director of production at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. I get to work with KCPA production stage manager Cindy Kocher ’00, Rob Perry ’99, who

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chairs the lighting program at UIUC, and Nicole Bromley ’13, the KCPA events technical director. I travelled back to Northern Ireland this past summer with the Armagh Project as the program director for a month-long playwriting and creative writing residency for American college students.” ● “After 16 years leading the education programs at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, I am thrilled to join Theatre Bay Area as its new managing director,” writes Rachel Fink ’00. “Since starting last spring, I’ve already crossed paths with many alums, including Regina Guggenheim ’93, Jonathan Moscone ’93, Mark Blankenship ’05, Jackson Gay, Simone Nelson ’01, Erik Flatmo ’02, Barbara Hodgen ’94, Jeffrey Herrmann ’99, and Sarah Williams ’15. I look forward to engaging with more YSD-ers as I work to support and strengthen the Bay Area theatre community.” ● Alexandra Fischer ’00 writes: “After spending lots of time on the sets of TV shows, I longed to do more with my skills from YSD and my passion for people.

For the past 7 years I’ve coached CEOs, major corporations, and non-profits on how to express their greatness with ease and confidence. This month, I launched my first product—wishbeads—a jewelry making kit to empower women and girls to craft their wishes into reality. Life is good here in Santa Monica—with two growing boys and awesome Yalies all around doing amazing work.” ● “The past year has been busy with planting the seeds of Slow Theatre here in our Northern California community,” says Denver Latimer ’00.

“We had public readings of the 2015 Susan Smith Blackburn Award nominees’ plays and community acting classes, and we’re planning for Slow Theatre’s first series of theatre-making workshops in the county Juvenile Hall. We produced our annual free outdoor Labor Day weekend theatre festival, The Butcher Shop.” ● Andy Cassano ’01 writes: “Just completed my fourth year as the managing administrative director for the Zoellner Arts Center at Lehigh University and was recently named as one of the Lehigh Valley Business Forty Under 40 leaders. We celebrated the

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63 Jack Black brings 5th graders’ stories to life at Young Storytellers, where Bill Thompson ’02 is executive director.

64 Amanda Spooner ’09 and Jeff Saracco with baby Jack.

65 Denver Latimer ’00, founder of Slow Theatre. Photo by Sharon DeMeyer.

66 Christopher McFarland ’09 and Helen Frank on their wedding day.

67 Christopher McFarland ’09 as Pisanio in Yale Rep’s Cymbeline with Kathryn Meisle as Cymbeline.

68 Nanyang: The Musical at the Singapore International Festival of Arts, written and directed by Alec Tok ’03.

69 A scene from Imagining the Imaginary Invalid at La Mama in New York. In the foreground (left to right): Clove Galilee, Christianna Nelson ’05, Joe Tapper ’06, and Marylouise Burke.

70 Brian McManamon ’06 in Imagining the Imaginary Invalid at La MaMa in New York.

71 Alexandra Fischer ’00 72 Class of 2005 10th year reunion. (left to right) Lucas Howland, Jeff Barry, Adam Saunders, Amanda Leigh Cobb, Jordan Mahome, Jacob Hunter Knoll, David Bardeen, Jedadiah Schultz, and Mozhan Marnò.

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78 73 The Theater Management class of 2006 celebrating their 10th anniversary. (front row, left to right): Liz Alsina, Brigid Slipka, Emily Gresh, Carrie Van Hallgren. (back row, left to right): David Byrd, Liv Nilssen, Shira (Beckerman) Turner, Arthur Nacht.

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74 Lauren Feldman ’08 with the company of Another Kind of Silence in a February workshop, co-sponsored by New Georges. Photo by Robbie Berry.

75 Steven Neuenschwander ’08 and his wife, Tiffiany, welcomed their son, Hudson, in May. 76 Amy Povich ’92, Tom Moore ’68, Deborah S. Berman (Staff), Arthur Nacht ’06, Merle Nacht, and Janice Muirhead (Staff).

77 Clara Rice ’02 and her daughter, Lily Jane Hlavac.

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78 Alex Knox ’09 hosts the educational web series Science Talks with Alex Knox. Photo by Robert Macaisa.

79 Peter Kim ’04 and Mia Katigbak of National Asian American Theatre Company.

80 Jennifer Lim ’04 in the world premiere of Aubergine at Berkeley Rep. Photo by Kevin Berne.

83 Joi Greshman, Yaël Farber, and Drew Lichtenberg ’08 at their production of Les Blancs at the Royal National Theatre.

84 Aszure Barton’s Adam is at the Bayerisches Staatsballett. Sets and lighting by Burke Brown ’07. Photo

by Wilfried Hösl.

81 The production team for the Oklahoma City Ballet Nutcracker 2015, where Courtney DiBello ’02 is the company and stage manager.

82 Shana Cooper ’09 and 1 yearold son, Jonah, on the set of The Unfortunates at A.C.T.

arrival of our son, Jacob, in May.” ● Jonathan Shandell ’01, DFA ’06 has co-edited and contributed to the recently published anthology, Experiments in Democracy: Interracial and Cross-Cultural Exchange in American Theatre, 1912-45 (Southern Illinois University Press). His current book project, tentatively titled The American Negro Theatre and the Long Civil Rights Era, is under contract with University of Iowa Press. This book is adapted from his doctoral dissertation at YSD. Jonathan is now living with his wife, Robin, and daughters, Cecily (13) and Miranda (9), in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania and working as associate professor of theater arts at Arcadia University. He serves as co-director of the Theater Arts Program, and teaches courses in theatre history, script analysis, dramatic literature, and dramaturgy. He is finishing up a two-year term as president of the Black Theatre Association, a focus group of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education. ● Clara Rice ’02 and her husband, Andy Hlavac, welcomed daughter Lily Jane Hlavac on October 30, 2015. “Based on her singing voice and big personality, a spot in the graduating class of ’45 appears imminent,” Clara jokes. ● Courtney DiBello’s ’02 status with the Oklahoma City Ballet and Oklahoma City University has changed. In August, she began a new, full-time position as the Ballet’s company and stage manager. She continues teaching stage management to her beloved students at OCU. She is thrilled to be settling into her “new” home with her family—husband, Joe, and children, Waverly and Weston. ● Bill Thompson ’02 lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Amy, and his two sons, Theo (5) and Quinn (2).

He is currently serving in his eighth year as executive director of Young Storytellers.

Their mission is simple: they inspire young people to discover the power of their voice.

Using one-on-one mentorship, low-income students learn how to write original stories and see them brought to life on stage and in film. Thanks to thousands of volunteer mentors and actors, they work in more than 50 public schools across Los Angeles and New York City. Young

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Alumni Notes Storytellers is always looking for young, talented, passionate mentors and actors (aka Yale Drama grads). Learn more at www. youngstorytellers.com. ● Nathanael Johnson ’03 directed Noël Coward’s Blithe Spirit as part of Texas Shakespeare Festival’s 30th Anniversary Season. ● Alec Tok ’03 wrote and directed Nanyang: The Musical for the Singapore International Festival of Arts, in collaboration with third-year design students Izmir Ickbal ’16 and Elizabeth Mak ’16. ●

“I get the opportunity to implement a new national touring model while also continuing to serve early career artists.”

— elisa spe n ce r - ka p l a n ’05

Sandra Goldmark ’04 and Michael Banta ’03 had another busy year making theatre, raising kids, and working on issues of sustainability and consumption, in and out of theatre. At Barnard College, where Sandra is an assistant professor of professional practice and Michael is production manager, they launched a new sustainability initiative (with Greg Winkler ’05, Barnard’s technical director) that tracks and budgets design and production choices with an eye to environmental impact. Sandra shared some of the results of this pilot year at the ATHE conference last summer. She continues to design in New York and regionally, and in between shows and teaching, she and Michael open Pop Up Repair shops, staffed 118

with fellow backstage artists. ● Jennifer Lim ’04 appeared in the world premiere of Julia Cho’s Aubergine at Berkeley Rep, directed by Tony Taccone. The creative team included YSD alumni Wilson Chin ’03 (set design), Linda Cho ’98 (costume design), and Ji-Youn Chang ’08 (lighting design). Hansol Jung ’14 did the Korean translations. The past summer, Jennifer acted in Tumacho

by Ethan Lipton, directed by Leigh Silverman, at Clubbed Thumb’s Summerworks Festival, and in Caught by Christopher Chen, directed by Lee Sunday Evans, at PlayCo. ● Peter Kim ’04 received a 2016 Obie Award for his work as associate producer of NAATCO (National Asian American Theatre Company). ● Bradlee Ward ’05 is enjoying being back in NYC where he works for Westlake Reed Leskosky as an audiovisual and theatrical systems designer and freelance sound designer. Ongoing projects include a Broadway-style theatre in Shanghai for Nederlander Worldwide, the historic restoration of the Carolina Theatre in Charlotte, and projects at Chesterfield Center for the Arts in Virginia and Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC. Brad is also serving as the curator for Sound Kitchen at World Stage Design 2017 in Taipei. ● Roweena Mackay ’05 is living in the East Bay, Northern California. She writes, “I am the project manager for Hot Rod Shop, a scenic company on the wee island of Alameda, a board member for Teatro Nuevo Mexico in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and a freelance producer of independent film projects in various parts of the United States.” ● Chloe Chapin ’05 can’t quit school OR theatre. After getting an MA in Fashion & Textile Studies in 2015 from FIT, where she taught fashion history as an adjunct to fashion design students, she returned to the West Coast for a lovely year in the theatre department at Reed College in Portland, Oregon. She has now come back east to start a PhD program in American Studies at Harvard, still focusing on the history of men’s suits.

Chloe says, “I don’t know anybody in Boston, so please be in touch if you’re in the area!” ● Elisa Spencer-Kaplan ’05

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reports: “I joined The Acting Company as executive director in January 2016, and I get the opportunity to implement a new national touring model while also continuing to serve early career artists. On the home front, my husband, composer Russ Kaplan, and I bought a house in beautiful Maplewood, New Jersey, where we live with our 3 ½-year-old daughter, Emilia.” ● “I gathered as many of my classmates as I could in NYC in November 2015 to celebrate our 10-year YSD reunion!!” writes Amanda Leigh Cobb ’05. “I wrote and produced a web series called Pros and Cons, directed by Jeff Barry ’05, and starring Jacob H. Knoll ’05 and myself. On a personal note: I got married, and recently became a mother.” ● Brian McManamon ’06 appeared in Mabou Mines and Trick Saddle’s production of Imagining the Imaginary Invalid, at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in New York. Other cast members included Joe Tapper ’06 and Christianna Nelson ’05. Lee Savage ’05 (Faculty) designed the set, and Burke Brown ’07 was the lighting designer. ● Alex Organ ’06 is beginning his fourth season as a member of the Brierley Resident Acting Company at Dallas Theater Center, where he also serves as master teaching artist. Alex is also the artistic director of Second Thought Theatre in Dallas, which recently produced The Great God Pan by Amy Herzog ’07, YC ’00. Second Thought will premiere a new play by Blake Hackler ’06 in 2017.

Dallas Theater Center’s 2016–17 season features productions of Constellations, The Tempest (Public Works), and Inherit the Wind. ● All eight members of the Theater Management class of 2006 celebrated the 10th anniversary of their graduation at a reunion held in Washington, DC, this past April. “This class has been an especially tight-knit group, communicating in a bi-monthly class letter ever since graduation, and so a reunion seemed the perfect way to mark the occasion,” writes Arthur Nacht ’06. “We spent three gloriously sunny days in Washington, reminiscing, touring the sites, eating gelato, museum hopping, singing karaoke,

Alumni Notes and making meals together in an Airbnb apartment.” ● May Adrales’s ’06 two productions of Vietgone premiered at South Coast Rep and will continue on at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Seattle Rep, and Manhattan Theatre Club, with set designer Tim Mackabee ’09 and costume and set designer Sara Clement ’05. May directed Tokyo Fish Story at The Old Globe with a YSD design team: Nathan Roberts ’10, Charles Coes ’09 (Faculty), Ji-Youn Chang ’08, and Mikiko Suzuki ’02. Last summer, May directed Chisa Hutchinson’s new play The Wedding Gift at Contemporary American Theater Festival. ● Burke Brown ’07 and Kate Cusack ’06 have been settling into their new home in Jackson Heights, Queens. Burke recently designed sets and lighting for two new ballets by Aszure Barton—Adam is, for the Bayerisches Staatsballett in Munich, and Fantastic Beings, for the English National Ballet in London. ● Nelson Eusebio ’07 writes: “After doing TCG’s SPARK Leadership Program with Jacob Padron ’08, Snehal Desai ’08 and Karena Fiorenza Ingersoll ’12, I got to do ArtEquity with the amazing Carmen Morgan (Faculty) and Vicki Nolan (Deputy Dean). After a very dry year in 2015, 2016 kicked off with a bang—five shows, all new plays.” ● In the fall of 2015 Yuri Cataldo ’08 moved across the country to Boston, after being named the executive-in-residence director of Business of Creative Enterprises at Emerson College. This brand new major combines arts with entrepreneurship, teaching artists how to market themselves and make money from their work. He has also been working with choreographer and head of Harvard’s dance program, Jill Johnson, to design costumes for all of the Harvard dance program pieces. ● Joseph Cermatori ’08 reports: “Some exciting news. I completed my PhD at Columbia University last spring, and started work as a tenure-track assistant professor of English at Skidmore College this fall, where I’m teaching courses on modern drama, contemporary drama, and Shakespeare.” ● “I had a busy year, marked by a number of professional highs, including a full spate of

production work as the resident dramaturg and literary manager at Shakespeare Theatre Company,” reports Drew Lichtenberg ’08. “I was production dramaturg for writer-director Yaël Farber’s critically acclaimed Salome, joining an all-star creative team including set and costume designer Susan Hilferty ’80. At STC I also worked on Kiss Me, Kate, The Real Inspector Hound/The Critic, Othello (directed by former YSD faculty Ron Daniels), and The Taming of the Shrew.

Last February, I joined Yaël Farber at the Royal National Theatre in London as her dramaturg for Les Blancs, a collaboration with the Lorraine Hansberry estate. In the fall of 2015 I taught a popular course at the New School on Shakespeare’s dramaturgy, and was named a writing fellow at Yale.” ● Lauren Feldman’s ’08 Playwrights Realm fellowship culminated with a reading of her new play, Another Kind of Silence, at the Ink’d Reading Festival last May. Further workshopping of the play took place in July at PlayPenn in Philadelphia. ● Bryce Pinkham ’08 reports: “I joined PBS’s Civil War drama, Mercy Street, as a series regular. I am also appearing in a musical adaptation of Irving Berlin’s Holiday Inn on Broadway.” ● Roberta Pereira ’08 is currently the producing director of The Playwrights Realm, an Off-Broadway theatre company dedicated to supporting early career writers. In 2017, she is producing Jen Silverman’s The Moors directed by Mike Donahue ’08. ● Alex Knox ’09 began hosting an educational web series, Science Talks With Alex Knox, produced by BirdBrain Education. Alex also appeared in a national commercial for AT&T, filmed a role in a virtual reality experience that will accompany a major motion picture (released fall 2016), and played the role of Young Ebenezer in A Christmas Carol at South Coast Repertory. ● Shoshana Cooper ’09 writes: “I celebrated my son Jonah’s first birthday in San Francisco this year, while in rehearsals for a new musical called The Unfortunates at A.C.T. I’m enjoying the wild theatre/parenthood ride on both coasts—I recently opened Jennifer Haley’s The Nether at Woolly Mammoth in DC.” ●

Christopher McFarland’s ’09 year has been full of love and Shakespeare: he played Roderigo in Othello at the Pittsburgh Public, Pisanio in Cymbeline at Yale Rep, and Brutus in Julius Caesar at Opera House Arts. Most importantly, he married the inimitable Helen Frank on May 14, 2016. ● Amanda Spooner ’09 and Jeff Saracco welcomed baby Jack into the world on March 21, 2016. Parents, baby, and the dog are all doing well!

2010s Walter Chon ’10 writes: “This fall I joined Ithaca College’s theatre arts department as assistant professor in dramaturgy and theatre studies. I teach dramaturgy, theories of performance, and script analysis, and I’m in charge of building a dramaturgy program. I mentor student dramaturgs on department productions and use dramaturgy to build a bridge between the BA program in theatre studies and the BFA program. I look forward to applying my YSD education to my role at Ithaca, and am thrilled to get a chance to put my passion for dramaturgy into pedagogy and practice.” ● Aaron Moss ’10 was seen recently as Orsino in Twelfth Night at the Elm Shakespeare Company in New Haven, and as Donald Logan in City of Conversation at the Kavinoky Theatre in Buffalo, New York, which was nominated for an Art Voice (Artie) Award for Outstanding Production of a Play. He also directed Detroit ’67, at the Paul Robeson Theatre in Buffalo. Aaron now serves as an assistant professor of theatre at SUNY Buffalo State. ● Meghan Pressman ’10, SOM ’10 finished her second full season as the managing director for the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in DC. This year she was honored to be added to the national board of directors for Theatre Communications Group (TCG). In June she served as the co-chair (with fellow YSD grad Chris Jennings ’97) for the annual TCG National Theatre Conference. ● Joby Earle ’10 spent the last year traveling between Los Angeles and New York. In

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Alumni Notes 2016 has been a breakout year for Lileana Blain-Cruz ’12. This past year she has directed at some of Off-Broadway’s most prestigious venues, including New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW), Soho Rep, and Lincoln Center’s LCT3. Her production of Red Speedo at NYTW, a world premiere play by Lucas Hnath, received a “Critic’s Pick” designation from The New York Times, and she was profiled in The Times, The Wall Street Journal, and American Theatre.

Since bursting onto the New York theatre scene, she has become known for tackling challenging plays and embracing bold ideas. Red Speedo tells the story of an Olympic swimmer caught in the middle of a doping scandal. While certainly timely,

courses in acting, design, playwriting, and management in addition to directing. Working in all those disciplines made me a better communicator, and reminded me that a director is part of a large community.”

Lileana’s collaborations at YSD produced exciting results. As co-artistic director of Yale Cabaret, her productions included a multimedia rendering of Salome, a play she revisited this fall in a

The Co-Conspirator Lileana Blain-Cruz ’12

Lileana’s production also elevated the play to the realm of myth: hubris collides with destiny, and the waves of the set’s swimming pool, designed by Riccardo Hernandez ’92, evoke both the victories of Michael Phelps and the fall of Icarus.

Lileana’s other recent productions have been equally daring.

Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again by Alice Birch, which played at Soho Rep, examines the outrages of modern womanhood through an untraditional structure of eight autonomous scenes, with no guidelines as to the size or gender of the cast. Lileana’s direction was characteristically fast-paced and provocative. Last summer at LCT3 she directed the second major production of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’s War, which premiered at Yale Rep in 2014. In November her production of Suzan-Lori Parks’s The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World opened at Signature Theatre. The play premiered at Yale Rep under the

“She loved encouraging her peers to go for it, to make the risky choice, just to see what a real stretch would yield.”

— l iz dia m ond (fa c ult y ) direction Liz Diamond, chair of YSD's directing department and one of Lileana’s teachers.

The talent that has made Lileana an in-demand director was already evident during her time at Yale. Liz says, “She loved encouraging her peers to go for it, to make the risky choice, just to see what a real stretch would yield.” Lileana remembers collaboration as one of the great joys of being at YSD. “I took 12 0

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staging on Governors Island.

“The Cab was the place where we could make messes, and I love mess,” she says. In her second-year, she directed a production of The Taming of the Shrew which uncovered the viciousness and misogyny lurking underneath Shakespeare’s comedy. At the end of the production, Kate, played by Lupita Nyong’o ’12, poisoned all of the wedding guests—a gesture that stills lives on in YSD lore. Liz remembers Lileana’s leadership vividly: “Once, in rehearsal, she leaned in as she watched Lupita Nyong’o and Max Gordon Moore ’11, and then ran onto the floor to share a note with them, hugging them together as they emerged from a violent moment, erupting with them into laughter—happy co-conspirators doing something difficult and believing in one another.”

Even as her professional career takes off, Lileana still misses YSD. She recalls, “In the midst of these intense schedules, we would find time to play. A group of people decided they were going to get together in the Old Sound Room and dance in the dark—just to move. I remember going, and it was glorious. It makes me wish there were a space like that now.”

Knowing Lileana, we’ll probably see one soon. — by dav i d b ru i n ’16, dfa '20 Lileana Blain-Cruz ’12.

Photo by Sardis Delimelkon.

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85 YSD alums leading the Connecticut Repertory Theatre’s Nutmeg Summer Series: (left to right) Vincent J. Cardinal ’90, Christina Lorraine Bullard ’07, Tim Brown ’10, Michael Chybowski ’87, John Pike ’89, Mike Skinner ’11, and Victoria Whooper ’16. Photo by Matt Pugliese.

86 William Rall and Brittany (Behrens) Rall ’14 were married on December 12, 2015. Photo by Alante Photography.

88 (left to right): Margot Bordelon ’13, Palmer Hefferan ’13, and Kate Czajkowski in Prospect Park, Brooklyn.

87 (left to right) Kate Marvin ’16, Shawn Boyle ’15, Jessica Holt ’15, and Alexander Woodward ’16 after a design meeting at the Alliance Theatre.

89 Many YSD alumni, faculty, and staff gathered to celebrate the wedding of Eric Gershman ’15, SOM ’15 and Katie Liberman ’13, SOM ’13.

Photo by Romina Hedlin.

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90 Alex Organ ’06 (third from left) in Sense and Sensibility at Dallas Theater Center, with Laura Gragtmans ’12 (fourth from left).

Photo by Karen Almond.

91 Alex Organ ’06 in The Droll by Meg Miroshnik ’11 at Undermain Theatre.

92 Jenny Lagundino ’13. Photo by Jeremy Daniel Photography.

93 Blake Segal ’11 as Beadle Bamford in Sweeney Todd at PlayMakers Repertory Company. Photo by Jon Gardiner.

94 Compagnia de’ Colombari in Venice in rehearsal for The Merchant of Venice. (left to right) Paul Spera YC ’08, Davina Moss ’17, Karin Coonrod (Faculty), Reg E. Cathey ’81, and Jennifer Harrison Newman ’11.

95 Shane Hudson ’14. Photo by Christopher Ash ’14.

96 Joby Earle ’10 and Charise Smith ’10 on a trip in Tokyo.

97 Heartbeat Opera’s Ethan Heard ’13, YC ’07, Jennifer Harrison Newman ’11, Louisa Proske ’12, and Jill Steinberg.

98 (left to right) Shiloh Fernandez, Daniella Topol, Marin Ireland, Martyna Majok ’12, Josiah Bania ’13, and Morgan Spector at the Women’s Project Theater/Rattlestick Playwrights Theater production of Martyna’s Ironbound. Photo by Sandra Coudert.

99 Aaron Moss ’10 as Orsino in Twelfth Night at Elm Shakespeare Company.

Photo by Mike Franzman.

100 Mike Skinner ’11 and his wife, Andrea, and their children, LilyAnn and Jeremy.

New York, he acted in Danai Gurira’s play Familiar at Playwrights Horizons and directed both parts of Henry IV with his company Smith Street Stage. In Los Angeles, he understudied Justin Kirk in Rolin Jones ’04 and Billy Joe Armstrong’s musical These Paper Bullets! at the Geffen Playhouse. Joby also enjoyed the warm weather and incredible produce of the left coast with his wife, Charise Smith ’10. ● Michael Mitnick’s ’10 new play, The Siegel, will be produced at South Coast Rep in the 2016–17 season. ● Blake Segal ’11 was delighted to reunite with schoolmate Jen Wineman ’10 on Sweeney Todd at PlayMakers Repertory Company this past spring. ● In June, Matt Biagini ’11 appeared in How to Bury a Saint, a new play by Janice Maffei.

Exploring the lives of three generations of an Italian-American family, the play received its premiere at the Schoolhouse Theater in Croton Falls, New York. Matt had the unparalleled pleasure of playing opposite his real-life fiancée, the wonderful actress and educator Megan Mekjian. Matt is also currently teaching theatre at Saint Ann’s School, the private K-12 institution in Brooklyn Heights that he’s proud to call his alma mater. ● Michael Skinner ’11 is currently an assistant professor of technical theatre and sound design at Southern Connecticut State University. ● Laura J. Eckelman ’11 is living happily on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, where she teaches, designs, and production manages for the Washington College department of theatre and dance.

She also continues to freelance as a lighting designer, and is looking forward to upcoming projects with The Bearded Ladies in Philadelphia and Triad Stage in North Carolina, where she’s designing Preston Lane’s ’96 new play, Actions and Objectives. ● Ali Pour Issa ’11 moderated a dramaturgy panel discussion at Senoghteh Institute in Tehran in 2016. He produced, directed, wrote, set designed, and distributed his recent short fiction film, The Ground Is Breathing. So far, it has been selected for the Garifuna International Indigenous Film Festival, Nassau Film Festival, Healdsburg Flix Mix Short Film

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Alumni Notes Festival, Los Angeles CineFest, Piton International Film Festival, and Hoosierdance International Film Festival. ● Jennifer Harrison Newman ’11 is the new producing director of Compagnia de’ Colombari, the company founded and directed by Karin Coonrod (Faculty).

Colombari brought The Merchant of Venice, featuring Reg E. Cathey ’81, to Venice this past summer in commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the establishment of the Jewish Ghetto and the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death.

Jennifer, Charlotte Brathwaite ’11, and Paul Lieber ’13 recently presented The Geneva Project at JACK in Ft. Greene, Brooklyn. The piece, inspired by photo-

“There is a veritable Yale Mafia cell operating out of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago... working together to change lives through dance.”

— s u za n n e appe l ’11, som ’11.

graphs of Jennifer’s great-aunt in Depression-era South Carolina, is an exploration of race, gender, and poverty.

Jennifer is also producing director of Heartbeat Opera and reports, “Our second season started off on a high note at the beautiful Columbus Circle home of long-time supporter Jill Steinberg. The season finished with sold out performances and rave reviews of Heartbeat’s second Spring Festival at the Theatre at St. 124

Clement’s in Manhattan.” ● “There is a veritable Yale Mafia cell operating out of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, where Karena Fiorenza Ingersoll ’12 (general manager), Belina Mizrahi ’10, YC ’02 (controller), and I (director of external affairs) are working together to change lives through dance,” writes Suzanne Appel ’11, SOM ’11. “We were recently joined by Aurelia Fisher Cohen ’09 (grant writer). Come visit us in Chicago!” ● Martyna Majok ’12 premiered her play Ironbound at Round House Theatre in Bethesda, Maryland, in September 2015 and then in New York City in March 2016 at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater in a co-production with Women’s Project Theater. The play and both productions were critically acclaimed, garnering a New York Times Critics’ Pick. Martyna was nominated for an Outer Critics’ Circle John Gassner Award and The Helen Hayes Charles McArthur Award for Outstanding New Play. Martyna’s next play, Cost of Living, premiered at Williamstown Theatre Festival this past summer. The play won The Kennedy Center’s Jean Kennedy Smith Prize and The Ashland New Play Festival’s Women’s Invitational Prize. Martyna was the 2015–16 Playwrights of New York (PoNY) Fellow at The Lark. ● Caroline V. McGraw ’12 received a Tow Foundation residency at Page 73 Productions for 2016.

The grant includes a salary with benefits and augmented support of a production of her play Ultimate Beauty Bible in Page 73’s 2016–17 season. ● DeDe Jacobs-Komisar ’12 reports: “We’ve had quite a year. I started as institutional giving manager at the Huntington Theatre Company in January, and in April my husband, Yaakov, and I welcomed Uriel, our third kid. Along with his brothers, Nani (born while I was a first-year at YSD) and Itai, we’re loving life in Sharon, Massachusetts.” ● Jenny Lagundino ’13 joined Page 73 Productions in January 2016 as the company’s first managing director. ● In April 2016, Palmer Hefferan ’13 sound designed Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again at Soho Rep, directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz ’12, with lighting design by Yi Zhao ’12, sets by Adam Rigg ’13 and projections by

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Hannah Wasileski ’13. She also created original music for the national tour of Remarkably Normal, which shares stories of women who have had abortions and campaigns to build a culture of compassion and support for women’s access to basic health care. In October 2016, she sound designed and composed original music for Tiger Style! at the Huntington Theatre, directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel, with sets by Wilson Chin ’03, lighting by Matt Richards ’01, and costumes by Junghyun Georgia Lee ’01. ● Jonathan Wemette ’13 writes: “My partner, Susan Hyatt, and I were overjoyed to welcome two daughters into our lives. Susan gave birth to Delia Catherine Wemette and Josephine Sarah Wemette on March 4, 2016.

Everyone is doing well!” ● Ashton Heyl ’14 acted last spring and summer alongside Caitlin Clouthier ’08 and Richard Gallagher ’06 in The Norman Conquests, a trilogy by Alan Ayckbourn, co-produced by Northern Stage, Dorset Theatre Festival, and Weston Playhouse. Evan Yionoulis ’85, YC ’82 (Faculty) directed the second play of the trilogy. ● Brittany Behrens ’14 is now Brittany Rall! She and William Rall were married on December 12, 2015, in snowy Leavenworth, Washington.

Brittany celebrated two years as digital marketing manager at Seattle Opera in June. ● Shane Hudson ’14 was named executive director of Primary Stages, an Off-Broadway theatre in Manhattan. ● Lauren Dubowski ’14 spent the last year in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, where she explored puppet theatre and worked for a film production company as a Luce Scholar.

She is currently at work on her dissertation, which focuses on the Polish playwright and visual artist Stanisław Wyspiański. Lauren is a Fulbright Scholar. ● Sara Holdren ’15, YC ’08 writes: “I have been selected as one of the Drama League’s two Classical Directing Fellows for 2016. I’ll be spending the summer in San Diego at the Old Globe, assistant directing Macbeth for Brian Kulick and Love’s Labour’s Lost for Kathleen Marshall, as well as working on my own projects. Rachel Carpman ’15 and I have successfully pitched to the Araca Project and will mount our original adaptation,

Alumni Notes MIDSUMMER, in NYC this Fall.” ● In the summer of 2015, Jessica Holt ’15 relocated to Atlanta, Georgia, where she began a year-long directing residency at the Alliance Theatre. During the 2015-16 season, she assisted Susan Booth on One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Disgraced, directed workshop readings by Will Arbery and Bekah Brunstetter, and directed the Atlanta premiere of Significant Other by Joshua Harmon at Actor’s Express. Jessica also directed the West Coast premiere of Bright Half Life at Magic Theatre in San Francisco, collaborating with fellow YSDers: sound designer Brian Hickey ’15 and set designers Erik Flatmo ’02 and Burke Brown ’07. She also directed Ugly Lies the Bone by Lindsey Ferrentino ’16 at the Alliance Theatre in September, collaborating with designers Shawn Boyle ’15, Kate Marvin ’16 and Alexander Woodward ’16. In April 2016, she was selected as a recipient of the 2016 National Directors Fellowship with the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, the National New Play Network, The Kennedy Center, and SDCF. ● In September 2015, Molly Hennighausen ’15 became the managing director of the Dorset Theatre Festival in Dorset, Vermont.

Yale School of Drama Legacy Partners We invited you to join fellow alumni and friends who have included YSD in their estate plans or made other planned gifts to The School. Through Yale School of Drama Legacy Partners you can directly influence the future of Yale. You are eligible for membership if you have named YSD as a beneficiary of your will, trust, life income gifts, IRA or other retirement plan, life insurance policy, or other planned gift.

To learn more about making a planned gift to Yale School of Drama, please contact Deborah S. Berman, director of Development and Alumni Affairs, at 203 432 2890 or deborah.berman@yale.edu.

2016–17 YSD Legacy Partners Cynthia Kellogg Barrington* Donald I. Cairns ’63 Raymond Carver ’61 Elizabeth S. Clark ’41* David M. Conte ’72 Converse Converse YC ’57 Sue Anne Converse ’55 Eldon J. Elder ’58* Peter Entin ’71 Joseph Gantman ’53 Albert R. Gurney ’58 Robert L. Hurtgen* Joseph E. Kleno* Richard G. Mason ’53* H. Thomas Moore ’68 Tad Mosel ’50* Arthur F. Nacht ’06 George E. Nichols III ’41, YC ’38* G.C. Niemeyer ’42*

Joan Pape ’68 Mary B. Reynold ’55* Mark Richard ’57* Barbara Richter ’60* William Rothwell, Jr. ’53* Forrest E. Sears ’58 Eugene Shewmaker ’49 Kenneth J. Stein ’59 G. Erwin Steward ’60 Edward Trach ’58 Carol Waaser ’70 Phyllis C. Warfel ’55 William B. Warfel ’57, YC ’55 Wendy Wasserstein ’76* Zelma H. Weisfeld ’56 Edwin Wilson ’57, DFA ’58 Albert J. Zuckerman ’61, DFA ’62 * deceased

Stay in Touch Please remember to send us your current email to ensure you receive invitations to alumni events as well as our e-newsletter.

Visit drama.yale.edu/alumni to read past issues.

Contact the Development and Alumni Affairs office at ysd.alumni@yale.edu or 203 432 1559.

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Donors JULY 2015–JUNE 2016

1940s Robert Ellis ’44 Patricia Gilchrist ’44 Joan Kron ’48 Mildred Kuner ’47 Eugene Shewmaker ’49

1950s Robert Barr ’52 Ezekial Berlin ’53 Warwick Brown ’53 Ian Cadenhead ’58 Sami Joan Casler ’59 Forrest Compton ’53 Sue Ann Gilfillan Converse ’55 John Cunningham ’59 Philip Eck ’59 Sonya Friedman ’55 Joseph Gantman ’53 Robert Goldsby ’53 Bigelow Green ’59 Albert Gurney ’58 David Hannegan ’53, YC ’50 Carol Thompson Hemingway ’55 Evelyn Huffman ’57 James Earl Jewell ’57 Geoffrey Johnson ’55 Donald Jones, Jr. ’56 Amnon Kabatchnik ’57 Jay Keene ’55 Roger Kenvin ’59, DFA ’61 Bernard Kukoff ’57 Marvin March ’55 Beverly May ’50 David Ross McNutt ’59 Ellen Moore ’52 George Morfogen ’57 Marion Myrick ’54 Franklin Nash ’59 Kendric Packer ’52 Gladys Powers ’57 Philip Rosenberg ’59 A. Raymond Rutan ’54 Raymond Sader ’58 Stephen Saxe ’54 James Smith ’59 Kenneth Stein ’59 Pamela Strayer ’52 Edward Trach ’58 Fred Voelpel ’53 Phyllis Warfel ’55 William Warfel ’57, YC ’55 Ann Watson ’53

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1960s Richard Ambacher DFA ’65* Barbara Anderson ’60 Rita Aron ’69 Thomas Atkins ’64 Mary Ellen O’Brien Atkins ’65 Robert Auletta ’69 James Bakkom ’64 Philip Barrons ’65 Barbara Bartlett ’61 Warren Bass ’67 Jody Locker Berger ’66 Roderick Bladel ’61 Arvin Brown ’67 Oscar Lee Brownstein ’60 James Burrows ’65 Raymond Carver ’61 King-Fai Chung ’62 Sarah Clark ’67 Katherine Cline ’60 Patricia Cochrane ’62 Robert Cohen DFA ’64 David Copelin ’69, DFA ’72 Edward Cornell ’68 Peggy Cowles ’65 Stephen Coy ’63, DFA ’69 F. Mitchell Dana ’67 Michael David ’68 Mary Lucille DeBerry ’66 Ramon Delgado ’67 Charles Dillingham ’69, YC ’65 John Duran ’74 Robert Einenkel ’69 Bernard Engel ’60 David Epstein ’68 Leslie Epstein DFA ’67, YC ’60 Jerry Evans ’62 John Ezell ’60 Ann Farris ’63 Richard Feleppa ’60 William Firestone ’69 Hugh Fortmiller ’61 Keith Fowler DFA ’69 David Freeman ’68 Richard Fuhrman ’64 Bernard Galm ’63 Anne Gregerson ’65 John Guare ’63 David Hale ’61 Ann Hanley ’61 Jerome Hanley ’60 Patricia Helwick ’65 Stephen Hendrickson ’67

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Elizabeth Holloway ’66 Linda Gulder Huett ’69 Derek Hunt ’62 Peter Hunt ’63, YC ’61 Laura Mae Jackson ’68 John Jacobsen ’69, YC ’67 Asaad Kelada ’64 Carol Soucek King ’67 Marna King ’64 William Kleb ’66, DFA ’70, YC ’61 Harriet Koch ’62 Robert Lawler ’67 Peter Leach ’61 Lance Lee ’67 Irene Lewis ’66 Arthur Lueking ’66 Everett Lunning, Jr. ’69, YC ’67 Janell MacArthur ’61 David Madden ’61 Richard Maltby, Jr. ’62, YC ’59 Frederick Marker DFA ’67 B. Robert McCaw ’66 Margaret McCaw ’66 Robert McDonald, Jr. ’68 Banylou Mearin ’62 Donald Michaelis ’69 Ronald Mielech ’60 Karen Milliken ’64 Tom Moore ’68 Carol Bretz Murray-Negron ’64 Gayther Myers, Jr. ’65 David Nancarrow ’63 Ruth Hunt Newman ’62 Dwight Odle ’66 Janet Oetinger ’69 Sara Ormond ’66 Joan Pape ’68 Howard Pflanzer ’68 Michael Posnick ’69 Carolyn Ross ’69 Janet Ruppert ’63 Clarence Salzer, Jr. ’60, YC ’55 Donald Sanders ’69 Lucia Scala ’61 Georg Schreiber ’64 Talia Shire Schwartzman ’69 Paul Shortt ’68 Carol Sica ’66 E. Gray Smith, Jr. ’65 Helena L. Sokoloff ’60 Mary Stark ’61 James Beach Steerman ’62, DFA ’69 Louise Stein ’66 John Wright Stevens ’66 Douglas Taylor ’66

David Toser ’64 Russell Treyz ’65 Richard Trousdell ’67, DFA ’74 Ruth Wallman ’68 Steven Waxler ’68 Gil Wechsler ’67 Charles Werner, Jr. ’67 George White ’61, YC ’57 Peter White ’62 Albert Zuckerman ’61, DFA ’62

1970s

Sarah Albertson ’71, ART ’75 Donna Alexander ’74 John Lee Beatty ’73 Thomas Bruce ’79, YC ’75 Ian Calderon ’73 Victor Capecce ’75 Lisa Carling ’72 Cosmo Catalano, Jr. ’79 David Chambers ’71 Lani Click ’73 Joseph Costa ’74 Charles Davis ’76 Dennis Dorn ’72 Christopher Durang ’74 Nancy Reeder El Bouhali ’70 Peter Entin ’71 Christine Estabrook ’76 Femi Euba ’73 Douglass Everhart ’70 Marc Flanagan ’70 Robert Gainer ’73 Oscar Giner ’78, DFA ’87, YC ’75 Marian Godfrey ’75 David Grant ’78 Joseph Grifasi ’75 Michael Gross ’73 William Halbert ’70 Barbara Hauptman ’73 Jane Head ’79 Robert Heller ’78 Jennifer Hershey ’77 Nicholas Hormann ’73 Barnet Kellman ’72 Alan Kibbe ’73 Frances Kumin ’77 Mitchell Kurtz ’75 Rocco Landesman ’76 Michael John Lassell ’76 Stephen Lawson ’76 Martha Lidji Lazar ’77 Charles Letts III ’76 George Lindsay, Jr. ’74

Donors JULY 2015–JUNE 2016

Jennifer Lindstrom ’72 Robert Hamilton Long II ’76 Donald Lowy ’76 William Ludel ’73 Patrick Lynch ’71 Lizbeth Mackay ’75 Alan Mokler MacVey ’77 Brian Mann ’79 Jonathan Marks ’72, DFA ’84, YC ’68 Neil Mazzella ’78 John McAndrew ’72 Caroline McGee ’78 Kate McGregor-Stewart ’74 Patricia McMahon PhD ’72 Lynne Meadow ’71 Stephen Mendillo ’71 Jonathan Seth Miller ’75 Lawrence Mirkin ’72, YC ’69 George Moredock III ’70 James Naughton ’70 Richard Ostreicher ’79 Jeffrey Pavek ’71 William Peters ’79 Stephen Pollock ’76 Daniel Proctor ’70 William Purves ’71 Arthur Rank III ’79 Pamela Rank ’78 Bill Reynolds ’77 Peter Roberts ’75 Steven Robman ’73 Howard Rogut ’71 Robin Pearson Rose ’73 Mark Rosenthal ’76 John Rothman ’75 Ben Sammler ’74 Robert Sandberg ’77 Suzanne Sato ’79 Joel Schechter ’72, DFA ’73 Michael Sheehan ’76 Richard Silvestro ’76 Jeremy Smith ’76 Maura Smolover ’76 Charles Steckler ’71 Jaroslaw Strzemien ’75 Russell Vandenbroucke ’77, DFA ’78 Carol Waaser ’70 Eugene Warner ’71 Lynda Lee Welch ’72 Carolyn Seely Wiener ’72 Stephen Zuckerman ’74

1980s Christopher Akerlind ’89 Michael Albano ’82 Amy Aquino ’86 Clayton Mayo Austin ’86 Christopher Barreca ’83 Robert Barron ’83 Angela Bassett ’83, YC ’80 Michael Baumgarten ’81 James Bender ’85 Anders Bolang ’87 Mark Brokaw ’86 Claudia Brown ’85 William Buck ’84 Kate Burton ’82 Richard Butler ’88 Benjamin Cameron ’81 Jon Carlson ’88 Joan Channick ’89 Donato D’Albis ’88 Richard Sutton Davis ’83, DFA ’03 Kathleen Dimmick ’85 Merle Gordon Dowling ’81 Michael Fain ’82 Terry Fitzpatrick ’83 Quina Fonseca ’84 Anthony Forman ’83 Walter Frankenberger III ’88 Randy Fullerton ’82 James Gage ’80 Judy Gailen ’89 James Gardner ’84 Steven Gefroh ’85 Michael Giannitti ’87 Jeffrey Ginsberg ’81 William Glenn ’87 Charles Grammer ’86 Rob Greenberg ’89 Donald Harvey ’85 Allan Havis ’80 James Hazen ’83 Catherine Hazlehurst ’83 Mona Heinze-Barreca ’88 Alan Hendrickson ’83 Roderick Hickey III ’89 Catherine MacNeil Hollinger ’86 Kathleen Houle ’88 Charles Hughes ’83 David Hwang ’83 Thomas Isbell ’84 Kirk Roberts Jackson ’88 Chris Jaehnig ’85 Jane Kaczmarek ’82

Jonathan Kalb ’85, DFA ’87 Carol Kaplan ’89 Bruce Katzman ’88 Richard Kaye ’80 David Kriebs ’82 Wing Lee ’83 Max Leventhal ’86 Kenneth Lewis ’86 Peter Gray Lewis ’87 Jerry Limoncelli, Jr. ’84 Quincy Long ’86 Andi Lyons ’80 Wendy MacLeod ’87 James Magruder ’88, DFA ’92, GRD ’84 Peter Maradudin ’84 Thomas McGowan ’88 Katherine Mendeloff ’80 David Moore ’87 Stephanie Bridgman Nash ’88 Tina Navarro ’86 Regina Neville ’88 Thomas Neville ’86 Arthur Oliner ’86 Erik Onate ’89 Carol Ostrow ’80 Geoffrey Pierson ’80 Robert Provenza ’86 Carol Anne Prugh ’89 Laila Robins ’84 Lori Robishaw ’88 Russ Rosensweig ’83 Steven Saklad ’81 James Sandefur ’85 Kenneth Schlesinger ’84 Larry Schwartz ’83 Alec Scribner ’80 Deborah Simon ’81 William Skipper ’83 Neal Ann Stephens ’80 Nausica Stergiou ’85 Marsha Beach Stewart ’85 Stephen Strawbridge ’83 Mark Sullivan ’83 Thomas Sullivan ’88 Bernard Sundstedt ’81 Jane Savitt Tennen ’80 Courtney B. Vance ’86 Adam Versenyi ’86, DFA ’90, YC ’80 Craig Volk ’88 Mark Wade ’88 Jaylene Graham Wallace ’86 Clifford Warner ’87 Sharon Washington ’88 Darryl Waskow ’86

Geoffrey Webb ’88 Rosa Vega Weissman ’80 Susan West ’87 Dana Westberg ’81 Karen White ’84 Robert Wildman ’83 Alexandra Witchel ’82 Carl Wittenberg ’85 Steven Wolff ’81

1990s

Angelina Avallone ’94 Sarah Bernstein ’95 Martin Blanco ’91 Edward Blunt ’99 Debra Booth ’91 Tom Broecker ’92 James Bundy ’95 Katherine Burgueño ’90 Kathryn Calnan ’99 Robert Coleman III ’98 Aaron Copp ’98 Robert Cotnoir ’94 Susan Cremin ’95 Sean Cullen ’94 Scott Cummings ’85, DFA ’94 Sheldon Deckelbaum ’92 Michael Diamond ’90 Alexander Dodge ’99 Frances Louise Egler ’95 Cornelia Evans ’93 Matthew Everett ’91 Glen Fasman ’92 Andria Fiegel ’94 Donald Fried ’95 David Gainey ’93 Leah Gardiner ’96 Stephen Godchaux ’93 Greer Goodman ’95 Naomi Grabel ’91 Constance Grappo ’95 Elisa Griego ’98 Regina Guggenheim ’93 Susan Hamburger ’97 Scott Hansen ’99 Douglas Harvey ’95 Jeffrey Herrmann ’99 Christopher Higgins ’90 John Huntington ’90 Raymond Inkel ’95 Clark Jackson, Jr. ’97 Jenn-Jung Jiu ’93, DFA ’96 Elizabeth Kaiden ’96

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Donors JULY 2015–JUNE 2016

James Kleinmann ’92 L. Azan Kung ’91 Andrea Chi-Yen Kung ’99 Suttirat Anne Larlarb ’97 Malia Rachel Lewis ’97 Chih-Lung Liu ’94 Mary Rose Lloyd ’96 Suzanne Cryer Luke ’95, YC ’88 Elizabeth Margid ’91, YC ’82 Craig Mathers ’93 Charles McNulty ’93, DFA ’95 Robert Melrose ’96 Bruce Windsor Miller ’99 Daniel Mufson ’95, DFA ’99 Laura Naramore ’95 Lori Ott ’92 Steven Oxman ’91 Jennifer Palmer ’95, MED ’03 Alexandra Paxton ’93, YC ’85, LAW ’00 Dw Phineas Perkins ’90 Amy Povich ’92 James Quinn ’94 Sarah Rafferty ’96 Lance Reddick ’94 Reginald Rogers ’93 Melina Root ’90, YC ’83 Claudia Rosenshield ’99 Peggy Sasso ’99 Jennifer Schwartz ’97 Paul Selfa ’92 Thomas Sellar ’97, DFA ’03 Jane Shaw ’98 Vladimir Shpitalnik ’92 Erich Stratmann ’94, YC ’93 Michael Strickland ’95 Deanna Stuart ’94 David Sword ’90 Patti Thorp ’91 Paul Tigue III ’99 Deborah Trout ’94 Erik Walstad ’95 Lisa Wilde ’91, DFA ’95 Marshall Williams ’95 Lila Wolff-Wilkinson ’90, DFA ’94

2000s

Paola Allais Acree ’08, SOM ’08 Liz Alsina ’06 Alexander Bagnall ’00 Michael Banta ’03 James Bellavance ’00 Sarah Bierenbaum ’99, YC ’05 Ashley Bishop ’02 Mark Blankenship ’05

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Josh Borenstein ’02 Madeline Brickman ’09 Jonathan Busky ’02, SOM ’02, YC ’94 David Calica ’08 Aurélia Cohen ’09 Rachel Cornish ’08 Matthew Cornish ’09, DFA ’13 Sarah DeLong ’08 Theodore DeLong ’07 Greg Param Derelian ’01 Derek DiGregorio ’07 Michael Donahue ’08 Jenifer Endicott Emley ’00 Kyoung-Jun Eo ’09 Miriam Epstein ’02 Dustin Eshenroder ’07 Marcus Dean Fuller ’04 Carter Pierce Gill ’09 Sandra Goldmark ’04 Hannah Grannemann ’08, SOM ’08 John Hanlon ’04 Heidi Hanson ’09 Amy Herzog ’07, YC ’00 Amy Holzapfel ’01, DFA ’06 James Guerry Hood ’05 David Howson ’04 Melissa Huber ’01 Rolin Jones ’04 Peter Young Hoon Kim ’04 Karyn Lyman ’05 Timothy Mackabee ’09 Elena Maltese ’03 Tarell Alvin McCraney ’07 Brian McManamon ’06 Jennifer Yejin Moeller ’06 Matthew Moses ’09 Neil Mulligan ’01 David Muse ’03, YC ’06 Rachel Myers ’07 Arthur Nacht ’06 Liv Nilssen ’06 Mark Robert Novom ’00 Barret O’Brien ’09 Adam O’Byrne ’04, YC ’01 Phillip Dawson Owen ’09 Jacob Padron ’08 Maulik Pancholy ’03 Michael Parrella ’00 Laura Patterson ’03 Bryce Pinkham ’08 Jonathan Reed ’08 Kevin Rich ’04 Joanna Romberg ’07 Rachel Rusch ’05, DFA ’08, YC ’00 Tom Russell ’07 Sallie Sanders ’02

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Shawn Senavinin ’06 Amanda Spooner ’09 Frances Strauss ’09 V. Jane Suttell ’03 Carrie Van Hallgren ’06 Arthur Vitello III ’05 Elaine Wackerly ’03 Bradlee Ward ’05 Amanda Wallace Woods ’03

2010s

Emika Abe ’16, SOM ’16 Shaminda Amarakoon ’12 Zachary Appelman ’10 Celeste Arias ’15 Michael Backhaus ’13 Louisa Balch ’15 Chris Bannow ’14 Michael Barker ’10, SOM ’10 Michael Bateman ’13 Matthew Biagini ’11 Shawn Boyle ’15 Christopher Brown ’10 Prema Cruz ’14 Katherine Akiko Day ’10 Lauren Dubowski ’14 Laura Eckelman ’11 Christopher Geary ’15 Eric Gershman ’15, SOM ’15 Robert Grant ’13 Amanda Haley ’10 Ethan Heard ’13, YC ’06 Molly Hennighausen ’15 Ashton Heyl ’14 Shane Hudson ’14 Jake Jeppson ’12 Tara Kayton ’11 Kelly Kerwin ’15 Jean Kim ’16 Jennifer Lagundino ’13 Anh Le ’15 Kate Liberman ’12, SOM ’13 Lisa Loen ’10 Matthew McCollum ’14, YC ’11 Meg Miroshnik ’11 Belina Mizrahi ’10, YC ’02 Mariko Nakasone ’14 Fisher Kirby Neal ’12 Jennifer Harrison Newman ’11 Lupita Nyong’o ’12 Art Priromprintr ’11 Paul-Robert Pryce ’13 Nathan Roberts ’10 Blake Segal ’11 Anne Seiwerath ’12

Sally Shen ’15, SOM ’15 Alyssa Simmons ’14, YC ’09 Charise Kathleen Smith ’10 Sophie von Haselberg ’14, YC ’08 Sarah Williams ’15 Gretchen Wright ’17, SOM ’17 Emily Zemba ’15

friends of ysd & yrt Actors’ Equity Foundation Nina Adams MA ’69, NUR ’77 and Moreson Kaplan Emily Altman Laura and Victor Altshul MED ’60 Americana Arts Foundation Ameriprise Financial Dmitry Ananiev Anonymous Deborah Applegate GRD ’98 and Bruce Tulgan Anna Fitch Ardenghi Trust, Bank of America, Trustee Paula Armbruster MA ’64 Mr. and Mrs. B.N. Ashfield Kirk Baird, Jr. YC ’66 Emily Bakemeier and Alain Moureaux Paul Balser YC ’64 Russell Barbour FES ’02 John Beinecke YC ’69 Sonja Berggren and Patrick Seaver YC ’72 Deborah and Bruce Berman LAW ’79 Debbie Bisno and David Goldman LAW ’76 The Eugene G. and Margaret M. Blackford Memorial Fund, Bank of America, Co-Trustee Carmine Boccuzzi YC ’90, LAW ’94 and Bernard Lumpkin YC ’91 Lynne and Roger Bolton Shirley Brandman YC ’83, LAW ’86 and Howard Shapiro LAW ’85 Donald and Mary Brown James Brown Mary Bundy Stephen Bundy Alexandra Perez Cadena Anne and Guido Calabresi YC ’53, LAW ’58, HON ’62 David Chambers Lois Chiles and Richard Gilder YC ’54, HON ’07

Donors JULY 2015–JUNE 2016

Nicholas Ciriello YC ’59 Paul Cleary HON ’06 Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development Connecticut Humanities Bill Connington The Noël Coward Foundation Edgar Cullman, Jr. YC ’68 Bob and Priscilla Dannies HON ’90 Catherine and Elwood Davis Robert Dealy YC ’51 Scott Delman YC ’82 The Frederick DeLuca Foundation The Cory and Bob Donnalley Charitable Foundation Edgerton Foundation The Educational Foundation of America Roberta Enoch and Steven Canner Lily Fan YC ’01, LAW ’04 Charles Finch Barbara and Richard Franke YC ’53, HON ’87, HON ’01 Burry Fredrik Foundation Deborah Freedman YC ’82 and Ben Ledbetter Anita Pamintuan Fusco YC ’90 and Dino Fusco YC ’88 Melanie Ginter YC ’78, MS ’81 and John Lapides YC ’72 Lauren and Paul Ghaffari Jeff Glans and Louise Perkins Fred Gorelick HON ’94 and Cheryl MacLachlan Marc and Kris Granetz Donald Granger YC ’85 Mabel Burchard Fischer Grant Foundation Betty Goldberg The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Jerome L. Greene Foundation Eduardo Groisman HON ’11 Karsten Harries YC ’58, GRD ’62 and Elizabeth Langhorne F. Lane Heard III YC ’73, LAW ’78 and Margaret Bauer YC ’86, ART ’91 Ruth and Stephen Hendel YC ’73 Stephen Hoffman YC ’64 Sally Horchow YC ’92 Elizabeth and Reed Hundt YC ’69, LAW ’74 Arthur and Mary Hunt Sarah and William Hyman YC ’80 Ellen Iseman YC ’76

Frederick Iseman YC ’75 Jana Foundation Jewish Federation of Greater New Haven David G. Johnson YC ’78 Adrian Jones YC ’87 and Nina Jones YC ’87 Margaret Ann Judd Greg Kandel Unni Karunakara EPH ’95 Helen Kauder and Barry Nalebuff HON ’89 Harvey Kliman and Sandra Stein Hedda and Gary Kopf HON ’91 Richard Lalli MUS ’80, DMA ’86 and Michael Rigsby MED ’88 The Ethel and Abe Lapides Foundation Maryanne Lavan The Frederick Loewe Foundation Charles Long and Roe Curtis Linda Lorimer LAW ’77 and Charles Ellis YC ’59, HON ’97 Lucille Lortel Foundation Robert Lyons MED ’64 Wendy and Peter McCabe Deborah McGraw Roslyn Meyer YC ’71, GRD ’77 and Jerry Meyer MED ’72 Thomas Middleton George Miller GRD ’83 and Virginia Fallon Frank Mitchell David and Leni Moore Family Foundation Mary and Garrett Moran Barbara Moss and Aziz Dehkan Janice Muirhead James Munson YC ’66 Eileen and Jim Mydosh Merle Nacht National Endowment for the Arts NewAlliance Foundation Jane Nowosadko F. Richard Pappas YC ’76 James Perlotto YC ’78 and Thomas Masse MUS ’91, Artist Diploma ’92 Aram Piruzyan Alan Poul YC ’76 Kathy and George Priest YC ’69, HON ’82 Alvin Prusoff and Deborah DeRose Bennett Pudlin LAW ’78 Faye and Asghar Rastegar HON ’88 Righteous Persons Foundation Robert Riordan YC ’66

Robina Foundation Kerry Robinson DIV ’94 and Dr. Michael Cappello HON ’06 Linda Frank Rodman YC ’73, MA ’75 Abigail Roth YC ’90, LAW ’94 and R. Lee Stump Dana Sanders Ruth Hein Schmitt Dr. Mark Schoenfeld YC ’75 Seedlings Foundation Tracy Chutorian Semler YC ’86 Sandra Shaner The Ted and Mary Jo Shen Charitable Gift Fund Jonathan Marc Sherman, in honor of Dr. Ronald Sherman The Shubert Foundation, Inc. Nathan Sonnenfeld* Matthew Specter and Marjan Mashhadi Carol and Arthur Spinner Shepard and Marlene Stone Matthew Suttor Arlene Szczarba Theatre Communications Group Stephen Timbers YC ’66 Andrew and Nesrin Tisdale Don Titus Trust for Mutual Understanding Marguerite and Gregory Tumminio Julie Turaj YC ’93 and Robert Pohly YC ’94 Kara Unterberg YC ’87 Esme Usdan YC ’77 Sylvia Van Sinderen and James Sinclair Patricia and Charles Walkup Paul Walsh Donald Ware YC ’71 Vera F. Wells YC ’71 David Willson Wendy Zimmermann and Stephen Cutler YC ’82, LAW ’85

* Deceased

in kind Lynne Bolton Sasha Emerson ’84 Ellen Iseman YC ’76 David Johnson YC ’78 Darlene Kaplan YC ’78 and Steve Zuckerman ’74 Carol Ostrow ’80 Jeremy Smith ’76 Walton Wilson

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