DAVID GEFFEN SCHOOL OF DRAMA AT YALE CELEBRATES
THE CLASS OF 2026
Monday, May 18, 2026
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 of Student Life
Elizabeth Diamond, 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 Degree s
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 2026
Technical Internship
Antonina Carton
Emily Anne Donegan
Susan Elizabeth Gibbs
Kai Hancock
Master of Fine Arts
Lolade Agunbiade
Andreas Andreou
Jessie Baldinger
Patricia Maria Bergmann
Emilee Beth Biles
Steven Blasberg
Mara Saulite Bredovskis
Emily Nina Breeze
Jasmine Brooks
Hiếu Ngọc Bùi
Claudia Campos
Jennifer Yuqing Cao
Catherine Chance
Joy Xiaoyue Chen
Matthew Chong
Tyler Loren Clarke-Williams
Shannon Dodson
Rosie Victoria Donoghue
Constant Kwame Dzah
Wiktor Maria Freifeld
Gib Gibney
Lilliana Leigh Gonzalez
Doctor of Fine Arts
Jisun Kim
Henriëtte Rietveld
Jay Axel Korter
Gabriel Landes
Skylar Dane Linker
Michaela Janae Meyer
Rethabile Headbush
Amrith Jayan
Daria Kerschenbaum
Elliot April Lee
Ramona Muyi Li
Zoey Xi Lin
Sarah C. Lo
Steph Lo
Karen Loewy Movilla
Juice Mackins
Gretta Lucia Marston-Lari
Victoria McNaughton
Destyne R. Miller
Thomas Francis Minucci
Francisco Augusto Morandi Zerpa
Allison Morgan
Tamara Joy Morris-Thompson
Thomas Nagata
Isabel Lula Adesuwa Orobaton
Larry Stephan Ortiz
Georgia Petersen
Gregory Matthew Phillips
Eli Maraist Oremland
Naomi Esther Rodriguez
Sarah Elizabeth Webb
Anna “Red” Wehrmann
Nicholas Stephen Ruizorvis
Emily B. Sorensen
Caileigh Aleny Potter
Lyle Laize Qin
Abraham E.S. Rebollo-Trujillo
Andrew Rincón
Anthony Salvador Robles
Erik Manuel Robles
ty ruwe
Lara Priya Sachdeva
Michael Saguto
Sarah Saifi
Darius Sakui Christaan Bunce
Max Corey Sheldon
Kavya Shetty
Tia Eve Taiwo Smith
Emma Rosalyn Steiner
Kristen Taylor
Henita Telo
Iyanna Huffington Whitney
Yun Wu
Ke Xu
Taylor John Ybarra
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.
