DAVID GEFFEN SCHOOL OF DRAMA AT YALE CELEBRATES
THE CLASS OF 2024
Monday, May 20, 2024
University Theatre
Ceremony
James Bundy, Elizabeth Parker Ware Dean
Florie Seery, Associate Dean
Chantal Rodriguez, Associate Dean
Carla L. Jackson, Assistant Dean
Nancy Yao, Assistant Dean
Paul Walsh, Faculty Marshal
Ariel Yan, Registrar
Welcome
Land and Labor Acknowledgment
Remarks
Presentation of Distinguished
Presentation of Prizes
ASCAP Cole Porter Prize
Edward C. Cole Memorial Award
Carol Finch Dye Prize
John W. Gassner Memorial Prize
Bert Gruver Memorial Prize
Allen M. and Hildred L. Harvey Prize
Alan Hendrickson Award
Lawrence and Rita Holder Lighting Design Award
Pamela Howard Prize
Morris J. Kaplan Prize
Julian Milton Kaufman Memorial Prize
Teaching Awards
Jay Keene and Jean Griffin-Keene Prize
Leo Lerman Graduate Fellowship in Design
Dexter Wood Luke Memorial Prize
Donald and Zorka Oenslager Travel Fellowship
Pierre-André Salim Prize
Bronislaw (Ben) Sammler Mentorship Award
Frieda Shaw, Dr. Diana Mason OBE, and Denise Suttor Prize for Sound Design
Oliver Thorndike Acting Award
George C. White Prize
Herschel Williams Prize
Presentation of Certificates and Degrees
Reception
Please join the graduates for a reception immediately following this ceremony at the Iseman Theater, 1156 Chapel Street, New Haven.
A very special thanks to David Chu of c2 inc. for providing today’s live captioning.
Class of 2024
Technical Internship
Nicole Isabella Goldstein
Amani Jaramoga
Destany Page Langfield
Cheuk Kit Lau
Certificate in Drama
Robert Michael Salerno
Suet Laam Tsang
Annie Wang
Rolanda Burnett, Jr. Eugenio Sáenz Flores
Master of Fine Arts
Omid Akbari
Garrett Carter Allen
Risa Ando
Whitney Andrews
Nakia Shalice Avila
Nicolas Cy Benavides
Aholibama Madai Castañeda González
Alexus Jade Coney
Michael Allyn Crawford
Samanta Yunuen Cubias
David DeCarolis
Jason Dixon
Samuel Woodhull Douglas
Giovanna Alcântara Nacif Drummond
T.F. Dubois
Diego Sebastián Eddowes Vargas
Forest B Entsminger
Safwon Farmer
Rebecca Diane Flemister
Sydney Raine Garick
Hannah Fennell Gellman
Karl J. Green
Annabel Guevara
John Anton Horzen
Gabrielle Samantha Hoyt
Jacob Avi Hurwitz
Lucas Frazier Iverson
Malik Tyreece James
Luanne Jubsee
Karen Anne Killeen
Natalie Anne King
Chloe Beth Knight
Joseph Patrick McAvoy Krempetz
Stefani Chiayi Kuo 郭佳怡
Xiaonan Liu 刘晓南
Janiah Lockett
Miguel Angel Lopez
Nat Lopez
Augustine Lorrie
Charlie Éilís Lovejoy
Stanley Arthur Mathabane
Max Monnig
Bobbin Alexis Marie Ramsey
Carolina Reyes Rivera
Doug Robinson
Rebeca Lauren Robles
Alan Kinnebrew Roy, Jr.
Suzu Sakai
Jacob Daniel Santos
Kiyoshi Patrick Shaw
Yu-Jung Shen 沈毓融
Samantha Lindsay Skynner
Danielle Stagger
Luke Tarnow-Bulatowicz
Léa Tubiana
Cameron Waitkun
Michael Winch
Amelia Windom
Samuel Jackson Zeisel
Kim Zhou
Yichen Zhou
Land and Labor Acknowledgment
Yale acknowledges that indigenous peoples and nations, including Mohegan, Mashantucket Pequot, Eastern Pequot, Schaghticoke, Golden Hill Paugussett, Niantic, and the Quinnipiac and other Algonquian speaking peoples, have stewarded through generations the lands and waterways of what is now the state of Connecticut. We honor and respect the enduring relationship that exists between these peoples and nations and this land. We also acknowledge the legacy of slavery in our region and the enslaved African people whose labor was exploited for generations to help establish the business of Yale University as well as the economy of Connecticut and the United States.
History of the School
Yale University founded a Department of Drama in the School of Fine Arts in 1924 through the generosity of Edward S. Harkness, B.A. 1897. In 1925, while the University Theatre was under construction, the first class of students was enrolled. George Pierce Baker, the foremost teacher of playwriting in America, joined the faculty to serve as the first chair of the department, and the first Master of Fine Arts in Drama was conferred in 1931.
In 1955, by vote of the Yale Corporation, the department was organized as a separate professional school, Yale School of Drama, offering the degrees of Master of Fine Arts, Doctor of Fine Arts, and Certificate in Drama (for those students who complete the three-year program without having the normally prerequisite bachelor’s degree).
The School is now David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University in celebration of a $150 million gift made by the David Geffen Foundation in 2021 to support tuition remission for all degree and certificate students in perpetuity.
Iconography of the School
The shield of David Geffen School of Drama, designed by Theodore Sizer, incorporates the gold spear from William Shakespeare’s coat of arms on a gray background with gold footlights and a red stage curtain drawn back by three decorative gold buttons and a gold tassel.
The David Geffen School of Drama mace, designed by Ming Cho Lee, is an interpretation of the comedy and tragedy masks that are established symbols of theater—tangible representations of the act of taking on a character. As the central idea of his design, Professor Lee foregrounded the elevated emotional value of these icons to highlight theater’s eloquence in expressing the range of human experience.
Yale