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