DAVID GEFFEN SCHOOL OF DRAMA AT YALE CELEBRATES
THE CLASS OF 2025
Monday, May 19, 2025
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
Joan Channick, Faculty Marshal
Ariel Yan, Registrar
Welcome
Land and Labor Acknowledgment
Remarks
Presentation of Distinguished Teaching Awards
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
Elizabeth Rhodes Holloway Prize
Pamela Howard Prize
Morris J. Kaplan Prize
Julian Milton Kaufman Memorial Prize
Presentation of Certificates and Degrees
Reception
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) and Laraine 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
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 2025
Technical Internship
Gabriela Ahumada Mier Y Concha
Laurel Capps
Nawinda Chanmalee
Gwendoline Kuan-Jen Chen
Certificate in Drama
Cindy De La Cruz
Master of Fine Arts
Fanny Abib-Rozenberg-Chasman
Kino Alvarez
Edoardo Benzoni
Patrick Blanchard
Rea J. Brown
Steph Burke
Caroline Campos
Sophia Louise Carey
Silin Chen
Anne Ciarlone
Joyce Patricia Ciesil
Josephine Elizabeth Cooper
Mariah Lorraine Copeland
Ida Elizabeth Cuttler
Hope Binfeng Ding
Nickie Dubick
Lawrence Dunford III
KT Farmer
Adam Taylor Foster
Cian Jaspar Freeman
Sarah Machiko Haber
Messiah Cristine Hagood-Barnes
Adrian Alexander Hernandez
Chloe Howard
Hao-En Hu
Shyama Iyer
Keira Aisling Jacobs
Doctor of Fine Arts
Ryan Adelsheim
Kari Rebecca Olmon
Angela Lee Hause
Ru-Ho Hsiao
Eunyeong Kang
Jada Rose Pinsley
Constanza Eugenia Etchechury López
April Salazar
Jacob Wrand Thompson
Eden Wyandon
Tyler Zickmund
Kemar Jewel
Hannah Louise Jones
comfort ifeoma katchy
Erik R. Keating
Christian Nader William Killada
Hana Kim
Minjae Kim
Ariyan Kassam
Jeremy Andrew Landes
Matteo Lanzarotta
Matthew Harry Lewis
Aura Michelle Dylke Magnien
Alexandra Erin McNamara
Martin Montaner Valdivieso
Juliana Morales Carreño
Jahsiah Mussig
Micah Elizabeth Ohno
Adi B. Orme
Doaa Ahmed Ouf
Chinna Palmer
Ankit Pandey
Pattida Panyakaew
David Patrick Phelps
Shawn Matthew Poellet
Tojo Rasedoara
Grayson Francis Richmond
Austin Riffelmacher
Sophia Helmi Siegel-Warren
Alex Noel Vermillion
Marcese Lorenzo Roberts
Anna Leigh Roman
Colleen Marie Rooney
Roman David Sanchez
Vintre Scott
Kamal Ahmed Sehrawy
Rajiv Shah
Maya Louise Shed
John Lawrence Simone
Kyle Elliott Stamm
Mikayla Michelle Stanley
Yung-Hung Sung
Monsuntorn Surach
Alex Theisen
Caroline Maria Tyson
Andrew Aaron Valdez
Marlon Alexander Vargas Carrara
Ellora Elizabeth Venkat
Karoline Vielemeyer
Lauren Fallon Walker
Timothy “TJ” Wildow, Jr.
Arthur Warren Wilson
Alexis Kulani Woodard
Irene Yaro Yarashevich
Yiyang 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.
