Alumni Notes Wendy Bensinger Dana ’68, passed away last October after more than 46 years of marriage. On a brighter note, Mitchell writes, “The children are doing well, as are the grandchildren, and my health is good.” Mitchell retired from Rutgers University at the end of June, but will work part-time for two more years. He is looking to design more and hopes to travel and to continue as vice president of United Scenic Artists and trustee of its pension fund. ● Most recently, Robert Greenwood ’67 toured in Croatia, Serbia, Hungary, Mexico, India, and Tunisia. He performed, taught, and researched the folktales, myths, legends, arts, crafts, and histories of these countries. He is planning a return to Great Britain and a trip to France, while continuing to perform in festivals, communities, and schools internationally and in the United States. He and his company, Sun.Ergos, have created 62 shows in 37 years. The company’s mandate is to celebrate the differences and recognize the similarities among peoples and cultures, through timeless stories in theatre, dance and the visual arts. In 2014, Robert celebrated 68 years in theatre, 46 as a professional actor/ director. ● Stephen Hendrickson ’67 has completed five years as production designer for the CBS award-winning prime-time drama, The Good Wife. He and his design team are looking forward to next season. Stephen and his wife Calista are grandparents to three little ones, and live in New York City, with spare time spent in Pennsylvania. ● Ray Klausen ’67 recently designed the set for Vanya & Sonya & Masha & Spike at Asolo Rep. Ray produced La Sargento de la Concepcion, an opera in Spanish composed by Patricio Molina. He also produced a Broadwaybound musical called Cold as Ice and recently had a video made of over 60 images from his set design career. Ray has begun lecturing on set designing, his career, some of the interesting people he’s worked with, and how students can be better motivated and more successful. To date he’s lectured at Temple University in Japan, St. Bonaventure University, Florida State University (where he was awarded
the Hoffman Eminent Scholar Chair), and Stockton College. Ray finds it rewarding to give back some of the knowledge he’s gained along the way. ● This May and June, Sawbones and The Diamond Eater, two one-act plays written by Carrie (Fishbein) Robbins ’67, based on true stories from her late husband, RD Robbins, MD, appeared in full production at HERE Arts Center. Directed by Tazewell Thompson, the ensemble of actors included Erika Rolfsrud, Wynn Harmon, Tony Naumovski, and Greg Marlow. Each play is set within a war, 100 years apart, and demonstrates the individual human cost of war. The Times Square Chronicles review noted: “In a year of mostly badly written plays, Sawbones and The Diamond Eater stand out.” ● Since stepping down after 20 years as managing director of Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles (Mark Taper, Ahmanson and Kirk Douglas Theatres), Charles Dillingham ’68, YC ’65 has been active as vice president of Arts Consulting Group, providing management advice to a variety of non-profit arts groups. He has also done a lot of traveling, including China, Venice, Galapagos Islands, India and Spain. ● Howard Pflanzer’s ’68 new play, Luddite, was given a staged reading at Medicine Show Theatre directed by Joel Bernstein, in the Jump/ Start play series in May 2014. Walt Whitman Opera, Howard’s adaptation of Whitman’s poetry—performed by George Tynan Crowley ’90, with musical settings of selected text by composer A.C. Menes, and sung by Beth Griffith—was presented under Howard’s direction in July 2014 as part of the undergroundzero festival in New York. Part poetic recitation, part song and part remix, this hybrid performance celebrates New York City’s most famous poet and the 19th century composers and operatic superstars he loved. ● Frank Boros ’69 has done a lot of traveling, including China, the ancient ruins of South and Central America, Europe, and the magical kingdom of Bhutan; he has also created a body of art work from this trip. Frank had a one-man show at the Greenlane Gallery on the Île Saint-Louis in Paris two years ago. He lives and works in
a small yet unique atelier on New York’s Upper West Side on the corner of 74th and Columbus. Great light, high ceilings, doorman, elevator and rent stabilized. ● Robert Einenkel ’69 has been teaching at Nassau Community College for 25 years. During that time he has mounted at least two productions a year at the school. His training and experience at YSD have been no small part of his ability to do all of this. ● Thanks to The Irish Rep in New York,
“And I was afraid retirement would be boring!” — j a m es berton ha rris ’66
Linda Fisher ’69 designs about one show per year. She designed the clothes for Transport, a new musical, with book by Thomas Keneally and music and lyrics by Larry Kirwan. Transport is about Irish female convicts transported to Australia in the 1830s. ● In March 2014, Richard Olson ’69 directed Benjamin Britten’s chamber opera, The Burning Fiery Furnace, at Manhattan’s Church of the Transfiguration (a.k.a. The Little Church Around the Corner), where in 2012 and 2013 he staged the other two parts of the trilogy, The Prodigal Son and Curlew River. He also continues to perform improvised movement to tracks of music he’s never heard before, along with talking to the audience about the experience. Meanwhile, he is developing a dance/theatre collage, grounded in a nursing home, with a chorus of non-speaking dancers and four actors playing various roles. ● In response to the massive changes in publishing and entertainment technology and aesthetics, Stefan Rudnicki ’69 is shifting gears from audiobook production to audiobook publishing and performance. Named a “Golden Voice” by AudioFile Magazine, Stefan added a second Grammy Award to his collection in 2013 for producing Janis Ian’s autobiography, Society’s Child.
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