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