Alumni Notes
28
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
YA L E S C H O O L O F D R A M A A N N UA L 2 016 –17
99