Around the World possible in California. Bill continues as VicePresident of Harris Goldman Productions in San Diego, producing industrial shows for corporations and associations nationwide. Bill writes: “I enjoy running into the many YSD alums that regularly cycle through the theatres of San Diego.” Bob Sandberg ’77 directed The Heidi Chronicles by Wendy Wasserstein ’76 for Princeton Summer Theater. He also directed The Cage for the McCarter’s Youth Ink Festival and Fires in the Mirror at Princeton. He writes that after eleven seasons, George Street Playhouse finished the final tour of his play In Between. His newest play, IRL (in real life), focuses on friendship and cyber-bullying, and will continue to tour for George Street (see Bookshelf, p. 48). Michael Sheehan ’76 tells us Sheehan Associates celebrated its 29th anniversary in August. Michael’s oldest son, Ben, graduated from New York University with an MBA in Music Business. His younger son, Jonathan, finished his junior year at Wesleyan University, as a Government major and starting second baseman on its baseball team. In addition to his business clients, Michael continues to consult for major speeches and interviews at the White House with President Obama and Vice President Biden. He was the recipient of the Freeing Voices, Changing Lives lifetime achievement award from the American Institute for Stuttering, along with actor Harvey Keitel and journalist Clarence Page. The award was presented to Michael by his long-time friend George Stephanopoulos, and there was a special filmed message by former President Bill Clinton law ’73. Professor of Theater and Resident Designer at Union College in Schenectady, NY, Charles Steckler ’71 was recently appointed to the Dwane W. Crichton Professorship. During the past academic year Charles designed the sets for Brian Friel’s Dancing at Lughnasa, Carlo
Michael Sheehan ’76 consulting with President Barack Obama. Photo courtesy of Michael Sheehan.
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Goldoni’s The Servant of Two Masters, and an original dance/performance concert, Red-Roja, created by choreographer Miryam Moutillet. Charles writes to tell us that last June he received a fellowship to attend the Vermont Studio Center where he spent the month creating shadowbox dioramas: “These were the childhood source of my fascination with the mystery of theatrical space.” Charles is married to the award-winning pipe-cleaner artist Ginger Ertz, with whom he shares a studio in Schenectady, NY. He can be found on Facebook and at charlessteckler.com. The world premiere of Charles Evered’s Class was directed by Roy B. Steinberg ’78 at Cape May Stage, where he is the Artistic Director. The play starred Heather Matarazzo and Thaao Penghlis, with a set designed by Sarah Lambert ’90. Roy also directed Lynn and Ron Cohen in Samuel Beckett’s Happy Days, and David Birney in Paul Rudnick’s I Hate Hamlet. Jaroslaw Strzemien ’75 directed Tchaikovsky’s Onegin for the Connecticut Lyric Opera last year, and will direct Tosca in April. He is living in Branford, CT, which is close to Yale, his daughter Anya in New York, and the Long Island Sound, where he kayaks. He still teaches part- time at Central Connecticut State University, translates American plays into Polish, and every winter takes students on theatre trips to London. It’s been a busy year for Charles Turner ’70, performed at American Repertory Theatre in the musical Johnny Baseball. He acted in Horton Foote’s The Orphan’s Home Cycle at Hartford Stage and the Signature Theatre in New York City. Prior to that he replaced James Earl Jones in the Broadway production of On Golden Pond with Leslie Uggams, and played opposite Marian Seldes in Edward Albee’s The Play about the Baby off-Broadway. He went to Athens with the DC Shakespeare Company’s Oedipus Plays. In London, he was the Narrator with the BBC Symphony Orchestra for The Gospel According to Broadway and toured England with his one-man show about Frederick Douglass. He also played in Scott Joplin, King of Ragtime at the Avignon Festival. His daughter, Dr. Shairi Turner-Davis, is Deputy Secretary of Health for the State of Florida, and his son, Kaigani, is an independent website architect working on the 2012 London Olympics. Charles has two grandchildren, Khari, seven, and Aaliyah, five. He can be reached through DBA Agency in New York City or chazzeturn@gmail.com. Acting Executive Director Carol Waaser ’70
YSD 2010–11
England
May Wu Gibson ’86 developed all the stories and scripts for the BBC’s long-running crime drama, Silent Witness. Pictured are Margaret Glover ’88, Gibson and Holly Hayes ’86, celebrating Thanksgiving at May Wu’s home in London.
has been on the staff of Actors’ Equity for the past 27 years. In 2008 she served as one of the lead negotiators on the Broadway Production Contract. Working for the actors’ union has given her the opportunity to be involved in legislative efforts, as well as meet with politicians on the local, state and federal levels. This past March she caught up with friends at the West Coast Alumni Party at the house of Steve Zuckerman ’74. Carol retired this fall, and plans to be a tourist in New York City (where she lives) in addition to cycle-touring all over the world. A Tony Award nominee for lighting design for the Broadway musical Fela!, directed by Bill T. Jones, Robert Wierzel ’84 also designed the lighting for Fondly Do We Hope…Fervently Do We Pray, a dance-theatre piece by the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, and is slated to do the lighting for Lucia Di Lammermoor at the Seattle Opera, The Tender Land by Aaron Copland at Glimmerglass, Macbeth, the opera by Giuseppe Verdi at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, The Tosca Project, an original dance-theatre piece at American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, and Still Moving, a dance piece with the Pilobolus Dance Theatre, with art and projections by Art Spiegelman.
80s
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After 20 years in Los Angeles, Bob Barnett ’89 turned over leadership of Yale Cabaret Hollywood to Walt Kappert ’79, and moved back to New York. He tells us that relocating has given him the opportunity to reconnect