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Alumni Newsletter
Newsletter
Issue No 9, Fall 2016
Faculty Notes
2016 Graduates Page 6
Faculty and staff want to
keep up with majors,
alumni, and friends of the
department on current and
past events.
off the stage. Therefore, we spent time last year
thinking about necessary adjustments to who we
say we are and what we do. The result is a revised
mission statement, which is as follows:
A Message from
our Chair
Hello Alumni! It’s that time of year again to share
our comings and goings in the Department of
Theatre and Dance. As the following pages will
show, we’ve had another busy and productive year.
Each of my colleagues and some of our students will
share their successes about their work on and off the
stage, so I’ll just mention a couple of changes in the
coming year that you may be interested in knowing.
But first I want to say thanks to all of our Theatre
and Dance alumni who shared a clip for our
Department video (https://youtu.be/
O7dmyzTBY7k). Guided and designed by Dale
Seeds, the video highlights the best aspects of our
program as seen through your successes, and there
are a number of departments and programs that
hope to follow our lead in creating their own videos
with our style in mind.
Now for the changes. As the needs of our students,
faculty and staff change over time and in
relationship to the world in which we live, so too
should the mission of the work we do both on and
Theatre and Dance, as studied at The College of Wooster,
emphasizes the relationship between scholarship, artistry,
and advocacy through an investigation of the range and
depth of the human experience in our coursework and
stage productions. In this world, the artist/scholar must
be an advocate for the arts, as well as contribute to a
movement for social justice and activism through
artistic expression. Similarly, the department's
productions reflect a commitment to sustainability. The
Theatre and Dance Major and Minor curricula offer a
broad range of knowledge designed to examine acting,
directing, dance, design and technology, history,
literature, playwriting, theory, and artistic activism
and social justice focusing in each area on the importance
of analyzing texts in their various modes: written, visual,
and physical. While the Theatre and Dance student may
choose to specialize in one of these particular areas of the
discipline for their Senior Independent Study, the
departmental philosophy remains dedicated to the liberal
arts belief in developing, through its interdisciplinary
curricular structure, a combination of historical and
critical analysis in relationship to the study of various
performance texts, resulting in the creation of the artist/
scholar/advocate. Festival of New Works
Follow%us%on%Facebook!%
Alumni Newsletter
We would love to hear from
you. Please email
[email protected]
And did you know we’re on
Facebook? Like us for the
latest news in the Theatre and
Dance Department.
We hope you find this
newsletter a reliable source
of alumni news and
events.
Page 2
Featured Alum - Maggie Popadiak ’05, page 3
Alumni Updates
Page 7
As should be clear, our addition of advocacy as
central to our pursuits comes at a time when the
necessity for a liberal education, and the arts more
specifically, are being challenged. Advocating for
the arts has and always will be a part of our charge.
Perhaps more importantly, however, is the need for
each of us to communicate clearly the role that
theatre and dance play in advocating for justice,
ethics, and morality in a world full of increasing
change and growing fears.
Finally, on a more personal note, change has come
into my life as I have accepted a one-year Chair
position for the Department of Music in addition to
providing leadership in Theatre and Dance. I am
excited by this new challenge, and I look forward to
finishing up my administrative duties before going
on leave in the spring of 2017-18 and back to
India!!!! So as always, we have an exciting year
ahead of us! We hope you’ll stop by for coffee or a
meal whenever you’re in Wooster, or let us know if
you would like to see a show. We’ve always got a
ticket or two set aside just for you!
Peace,
Shirley
Festival of New Works
Festival of New Works
Fes/val%of%New%Plays%(2016)%
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Faculty Notes
Kim Tritt, Professor
2015-16 was another exciting year of fabulous
students and dance events at Wooster. During the
fall semester and independent from our annual Fall
Dance Concert, we were pleased to host fabulous
guest master class teachers Pam Pribisco and Nelson
Carson. Ms. Pribisco, in addition to teaching at
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I have also been fortunate this year to work on all
new productions, having served as lighting
designer for Latins in La La Land, and The Fall
Dance Concert directed by Theatre and Dance
faulty members Jimmy Noriega and Kim Tritt
respectively. I also continue to serve as a visual
artist for the Dallas based performance group, Dead
White Zombies. I’d like to share the following
thoughts and experiences with all of you.
This past November, I worked on the production of
DP92, sort of an immersive philosophical/spiritual
journey, set in a 50’s Sci Fi sensibility. DP92 was
produced in the aforementioned abandoned ice
house from the 1940’s. On opening night, I took my
place among the first 20 audience members and
recorded these impressions (Note: each performance
admits 20 people at a time, each taking different
guided paths through the space. At the conclusion,
all 60 audience members are brought into a single
large space.
Jacob’s Pillow and Steps On Broadway, was a
company teacher for Alvin Ailey American Dance
Theatre and served as ballet mistress for Les Ballet
Trockadero de Monte Carlo. Capoerista Nelson
Carson, an instructor for T.A.B.C.A.T. in Columbus,
Ohio, returned for the spring semester to teach
capoeira during my spring semester leave.
November, 2015
During my leave I had so many marvelous
experiences as I conducted research in the
examination of indigenous and/or traditionally
focused dance artists and their practices that reveal
a rooted cultural placement in Aotearoa/New
Zealand and Hawai'i. Furthermore, I interviewed
and explored in those regions the work of
indigenous artists who also create and/or perform
contemporary choreography that is shaped by their
current cultural landscape. My travel activities
provided valuable sources of research relative to my
teaching the course, Dance in World Cultures, in
addition to forthcoming artistic endeavors in
choreography. Connections made in Hawai'i, in
particular, initiated an even wider scope of contacts
for future research endeavors there as well as in
Aotearoa/New Zealand and other Asia Pacific
regions…I look forward to a time when I can return
to both islands. Until then, you all know where to
find me so that I can hear where your life travels
have taken you!
Dale Seeds, Professor of Theatre/Designer
This spring 2016, I was privileged to have Wooster
alum Maggie Odle (Cherokee) return to campus to
speak to our Native American Performance class.
Maggie was in the first offering of the class in 1995
and subsequently served as a Teaching Assistant.
She spoke to a combined audience of the Native
American Performance and Native American Religions
classes, sharing insights into her journey navigating
between an indigenous world view and
contemporary society. Students were clearly moved
by her personal story.
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Dead White Zombies emerged from the fertile
imagination of writer and director Thomas Riccio,
producer Lori McCarty and actor Brad Hennigan in
2011. The Zombies employ site-specific productions
in the area of West Dallas known as Trinity Groves.
The performances are clearly immersive, perhaps
resembling Punchdrunk’s, Sleep No More, with the
addition of language. The productions are
developed and produced on a shoestring budget,
with scripts written by Riccio and developed
collaboratively by their respective casts. They have
produced in a defunct iron works shop, an empty
warehouse, a former crack house, and an industrial
icehouse.
The transformation of the neighborhood and the
repurposing of these urban spaces into performance
venues is meant to be temporary. Dead White
Zombies avoid altering the performance space and
specifically avoid attempting to turn it into a
recognizable formal theatre performance space. As a
member of the group, we look for ways the found
space suggests performativity on its own terms. So,
for example a warehouse is still a warehouse, we
don’t try to turn it into a black box space with a
complete lighting rig. Likewise, any gentrification of
the neighborhood by the audience is also hopefully
temporary. It’s not clear how long this will be the
case; a new apartment complex is currently under
construction in area.
The Ice House space, sits like an island in a cross
current of exit ramps, freeway entrances and urban
boulevards The traffic moves quickly, endlessly,
punctuated by the occasional police siren, the squeal
of tires or the revving of a high performance engine.
Behind the building is a steep embankment that
composes the flood control plain of what was the
Trinity River. Beyond that, the glittering Dallas
skyline sits like a misplaced aurora borealis, winking
in the night.
Entering the empty space, one feels part trespasser,
part voyeur, with a touch of archeologist thrown in
for good measure. This might have been the way
Carter felt when he opened King Tut’s tomb? The
space is filled with a detritus of fetishized objects,
that somehow take on new and mysterious
meanings. A mummified opossum, dog-eared
stuffed animals from the basement of a long
forgotten taxidermist, nutcracker dolls; obsolete
electronic equipment, and suitcases filled with
objects that remind one
of Marcel Duchamp’s
museum pieces.
Miscellaneous
industrial and
machine parts left
over from the
building’s past life,
help complete the
post-industrial
aesthetic.
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Each room merges into another, as videos and
soundscapes waft in and out of each space. Each of
these spaces has a permeable boundary. You can
hear some of the dialogue and sounds from the
neighboring rooms, until we are all brought
together for the ritual climax of the evening.
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performed the show in Freedlander Theatre upon
our return. In April, we staged the production for
two nights at a professional theatre, Intermedia
Arts, in Minneapolis. In total, the play has now been
I recently returned from Dallas, to, along with
DWZ director and creator Tom Riccio, scout a new,
more intimate, performance venues for this
November’s production of Holy Bone. I’ve been
advised to fasten my seatbelt securely; this is going
to be another wild ride!
Jimmy Noriega, Assistant Professor
The 2015-2016 academic year was an extremely
memorable and productive one! In the fall I taught
The Physical Text and Directing; and in the spring I
offered Acting for the Stage and Theatre for Social
Change. These classes were full of exciting
discussions, collaborations, scene presentations,
papers, and final projects. I also had the honor of
advising Stephanie Castrejón and Summit J. Starr on
their phenomenal I.S. projects. Both women created
new shows and presented them to the public during
I.S. Weekend and I.S. Symposium. These
extraordinary and talented artists made me so
proud and I am excited to see all of the great things
that they will continue to do!!
In the fall I also directed the world-premiere of
Migdalia Cruz’s Latins in La-La Land. The cast,
design team, and crew worked hard to bring this
show to life and we were honored to be chosen as
the theatre to present this show to the public for the
first time. Cruz even joined us and helped us to
celebrate the process.
Women of Ciudad Juárez continued to have success in
its third year of touring. The production was
selected for presentation at a prominent
international theatre festival in Belgium in February.
It was chosen by juried selection from hundreds of
entries and was staged at The Royal University
Theatre Festival of Liège, which is one of the oldest
and longest-running theatre festivals in the world.
We had a fun and exciting trip and were lucky to be
joined by the playwright, Cristina Michaus. We also
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performed 28 times to over 6,500 people in 17
locations in three countries. We add our fourth one
to the list—Colombia—when we take the play to
South America for a theatre festival this September.
For more information on the company (Teatro
Travieso) and the show, please visit:
www.facebook.com/teatrotravieso
This spring I also debuted another Teatro Travieso
production, Joto!: Confessions of a Mexican Outcast.
Over the course of two years, I worked with Carlos
Manuel Chavarría on the development and
direction of the new piece (I as dramaturg/director
and he as writer/performer). The show explores
what it means to be a queer, undocumented Latino
living in the United States. It is based on interviews
and the playwright’s autobiography, and touches
upon the difficulties of living on the margins of
multiple communities, as well as the impact of law
and social stigma in the areas of education, family,
love, and the arts. It is the first play to explore the
intersections of mixed-status (undocumented/
citizen) gay relationships in the wake of the
Supreme Court ruling on marriage equality. The
production
had two
performances
for its debut
in Wooster in
April 2016
and will be
performed in
the San
Francisco Bay
Area in
December.
The plan is to
continue to
tour the show.
The semester
ended with a
trip to Greece,
Croatia, and
Bosnia & Herzegovina with the Hales Group.
Shirley and I had an amazing time, especially as we
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walked around and performed in the ancient Greek
theatres that we teach about in class!
Charlene Gross, Costume Designer
I just wrapped up my 12th season with Ohio Light
Opera this summer. I designed sets and costumes
for The Mikado, directed by Ted Christopher and
finished the season with my largest ever costume
design for The Dancing Years (just shy of 200
costumes!), directed by Steven Daigle. I presented a
Lunch and Learn at OLO's Festival Symposium on
Production Managing OLO and briefing a room at
maximum capacity about the ins and outs of
backstage of the opera. During work on
presentation, I discovered I completed my 45th
design with the company. I was pleased to work
with Stefanie Genda '08 (costume designer/ head
of crafts), Kent Sprague '14 (Lighting Designer),
Zoe Madden '16 (lead stitcher), Shannan Burrows
'17 (props artisan), Hannah Smith '19 (stitcher/
wardrobe), Olivia Hall '19 (run crew), Laura Pratt
'19 (run crew), Emma Farrenkorph '19 (run crew),
Lindsay Fannin '18 (wardrobe), & Libby Nardi '19
(run crew). I am thrilled to continue to bridge OLO/
COW and bring great alum and current students on
the wacky wonderful ride known as a summer of
lyric musical fun. During the first week of the opera season, I was
honored to be part of the Digital Faculty Fellows.
Over the course of the week we dove into
technology the school has and is acquiring. We
explored new technologies we want to be made
available to our classes, labs and our students. The
most exciting part (after playing with ozbots and
Apple Pens) was 3D printing. Oh what fun to build
designs, learn the programs and print out our own
pieces. Get ready THTD 302-Costume Construction,
there's 3D printing heading your way this fall and
new printers through education technology to print
out ideas. And did I mention the new interactive
smart boards in our classrooms? I'm so excited to
start incorporating this all into design and
construction classes, as well as the shop. Over spring break (2016) I presented at the United
Stated Institute of Technical Theatre (USITT) on the
el wire costumes from Kim Tritt's Spring '15 piece Luminese. The presentation was the hit of the
costume poster session. I was approached by TCG
magazine editor to write an article with Kim on our
process and use of El Wire. Watch for the article in
this coming year. But before all the chaos of this summer and
conferences, the long awaited full length production
of Peter Mowry's electronic opera Sangreal was
produced by the theatre and dance department.
Shirley Huston-Findley was at the helm, directing
the premier of the two act opera all composed and
played digitally by Dr. Mowry himself in the pit. I
designed sets & costumes and Kent Sprague '14 flew
in from NYC to design lights. And before opera
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Featured Alum: Maggie Popadiak ’05
It’s May 2005 and I graduated from The College of
Wooster with a degree in Sociology (What?, Not
Theatre? Why are you writing this feature?) and I’m
working for Albany Park Theater Project in Chicago
(Oh.) Albany Park Theater Project or APTP, is a teen
theater company whose youth artists devise
original multidiscipline performance inspired by
real life stories. One of the many beautiful facets of
my job includes working with teens to tell
important stories from immigrant and working
class people often overcoming great odds and
obstacles in the face of xenophobia, hate, ignorance;
inspiring audiences to envision a more just and
beautiful world by having them witness our
storyteller’s resilience and humanity; and instilling
a sense of power into the lives of young people who
often find themselves powerless. Theater is the
catalysts that connects all these facets of my job but
so does ethnography. Among the many hats I get to
claim through my work with APTP, I get to be a
youth worker, an ethnographer, and theater maker
and my time at Wooster prepared me to do all of
this in the world.
Let me tell you how.
I was one lighting class from minoring in theatre but
Freedlander and Wishart were my home. I spent the
most amount of my time here surrounded by art,
actors, dancers and choreographers, directors,
designers, and self directed and driven students
crafting their own productions. A a freshman, I
performed in Jennifer Boring’s Independent Study
performance of The Fisherman and His Wife - a
participatory children’s morality play on the evils of
greed. I choreographed with my partner in crime,
Kate Anderson (she majored in theatre!) and
together we created: Tuesday. 5:15pm, Brown Line - a
dance that took me back to Chicago and combined
modern and hip-hop and several dance pieces then
after. I was cast as a female understudy and
assistant stage manager in Shirley Huston-Findley’s
How I Learned to Drive - a play directed by a
powerful woman and theater maker, stage managed
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by a woman, written by a woman about a time
when a young girl was found to be placed in a
powerless situation.
In my sophomore year, and this time I’m in a class
with Shirley for Realism and Beyond. I’m in love
with everything we are reading, but I felt like I was
reading a lot of outdated plays. Having been an
ensemble of APTP myself as a teen, I questioned
why we were reading irrelevant plays that had
nothing to do with the present. The past was behind
us, let’s tell the stories of now. The “DUH” lesson I
learned was to appreciate the history and
understand the historical contexts in which these
plays were written, the language the author used,
the metaphors to describe historical situations that
challenged people’s psyche and the way they saw
the world after wars, traumas, and revolutions. The
part of me that loved learning about history fell in
love with these plays and made me further
understand art as a reflection of those times those
authors lived in. That shapes me as an artist and
writer now.
But the real lesson came in that same class when it
was time to write a paper for Shirley. This terrified
me. I knew I was unprepared for college. The fear
that I was going to fail plagued me daily as a
student. Being the daughter of
a single Polish immigrant,
having attended one of the
most deprived schools in the
country, being the first person
in my family to attend college,
I knew I was behind my peers
and that hung over me
constantly often stifling my
writing, creativity, and
intellectual curiosities. I
entered Wooster not really able
to write a decent paper. My
college essay was a crash
course in writing and I poured
my soul into that essay. I went
to Wooster
knowing I was
going to write a
thesis at the end of
my four years but
then I was there
and I was petrified.
My first paper for
Shirley resulted in
a meeting where
she told me I
wasn’t going to
pass her class if I
continued to write
like that. I
remember sitting
across from Shirley
in her office, purging my life story, telling her I
wasn’t prepared, that I didn’t know what I was
doing, and that it was my high school that failed to
prepare me. She looked at me calmly and said,
“Well, you’re here now. Let’s move on and work.”
She then told me her story, that she too was a first
generation college student, that she at some point
felt similar and a giant weight was lifted. She knew
what I was going through and gently told me to
stop using my lack of experience as a crutch. I was
at Wooster now and I needed to move forward and
work. She proposed a weekly solo tutorial session.
She assigned me reading outside of class and we
met and reviewed my writing. She observed my
writing language and style, made comments on my
writing I never realized, like how my sentences
often didn’t allow the reader to breathe and that it
wasn’t a good thing. The change didn’t happen
overnight but I improved and it sparked a fire and a
new mentality in the way I approached my work
from then on. I was encouraged to use the resources
of the college to better myself - that the resources
were there and at my disposal, but I needed to stop
with the excuses and I needed to get to work.
I think of my experience with Shirley when I work
with our youth artists now - how I approach them,
how I challenge them, and how I prepare them as
future college students who grew up in the same
neighborhood as these young people, who attended
the same schools, and who will be exposed to kinds
of privileges they didn’t think they had access to.
At the same time as I was taking theatre classes, I
was taking classes in sociology and anthropology.
Growing up in Chicago in an immigrant
community, I wanted to understand the injustices of
the world and study the institutions that shaped our
humanity. I wanted to know who was responsible
for these injustices, how and why did things get so
bad, and how we can rid the world of it. As an
APTP ensemble member in high school, I was an
ethnographer even before I knew what that was. In
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college, I became a confident ethnographer
listening to people’s stories as an interviewer,
learning about people through qualitative research
methods but really, being a social scientist that
listened and recorded human experience. In my
sophomore and junior years, I became a research
assistant to Anne Nurse and listened to the voices
of young incarcerated fathers who told stories of
how the institution of prison prevented and
perpetuated and estranged relationships between
them and their children. I wrote my Junior I.S. on
youth attempting to attain power and the
American Dream through gangs, and how often it
was their only choices. By senior year, I brought it
back full circle and I conducted ethnography on
undocumented Polish domestic workers - an
occupation that often brings shame but was the job
that provided a roof over our heads and helped my
mom be a single mother of two.
I know I’m supposed to live my live without regrets
but I do have regrets - I’m Eastern European so it’s
in my blood. I regret not double majoring in theatre
and sociology. The path I created was the path I
needed in order to be a successful college student. I
learned not to stretch myself so wide, I needed to
devote myself to writing my thesis, be a successful
researcher, and master a way of telling a story
through writing. I got to do that through my I.S. I
wish I could’ve told that story in Shoolroy though. I
learned vital lessons that shaped me as a youth
worker, writer, theater maker, ethnographer, and
storyteller. You can’t imagine the joy I felt when I
returned last year to witness Wooster and APTP
alumna, Stephanie Castrejon, perform in her own
devised performance alongside fellow APTP
alumni and current Wooster junior, Vincent
Meredith. I wish I could’ve devised an original
performance that told the stories of the Polish
undocumented women I wrote about in my
thesis. And yet...I do that now as an adult director
at APTP.
It’s now the present: July 2016. It’s opening
weekend of Albany Park Theater Project’s and
Third Rail Project’s, Learning Curve and I’m in a
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dream state - thrilled, awed, and inspired by what
we’ve created and I’m also sleep deprived. I’m
staring at the faces of these beautiful and soulful
people: one of those people is Stephanie Castrejon.
The two of us catch a glance at Gustavo Duran in
the circle, an APTP veteran who is about to
perform in his last show before he heads to Ohio
to be part of the Wooster class of 2020. We’re
thrilled and excited about where his journey will
take him and we celebrate this latest achievement
in Learning Curve. We’re proud and overjoyed at
this two-years-in-the-making immersive show that
takes 40 audience members through the hallways,
classrooms, administrative offices, bathrooms, and
closets of fictional high school Ellen Gates Starr
High. Audience members become students again as
they find themselves in scenes with students being
bullied; counselors overwhelmed with their
workload; well intentioned first year teachers
unprepared for the unpredictable; teachers dealing
with brilliant students struggling to communicate in
a foreign language. We are telling the stories of
Chicago Public High School students as they
navigate a volatile world as their school’s fate hangs
in the balance, as failures to pass budgets bring on
insecurity among the teachers and administrators
working to improve standardized test scores, bench
markers that can force a school into closure. This is a
monumental achievement being the only original
immersive production performed by teenagers in
America and in a couple weeks I’ll be sharing it
with more of the Wooster community for an alumni
event. I look forward to sharing with some of the
Wooster alumni, board, and new president Sarah
Bolton, just how important my Wooster education
was at getting me here.
race
Violence
history
Scandal
evil
Crucible
Church v State
FBI
salem
HUAC
October 27, 28 & 29,
2016 - 7:30 pm
terror
witch
Deception
The
Benghazi
McCarthyism
1692
un-American
fear
Puritan
9/11
WAR
Impeach
Christianity
deceit
Issue No 9 Fall, 2016
Trials
gossip
Alumni Newsletter
bigotry
black list
Red Scare
Watergate
by Arthur Miller
Directed by Shirley Huston-Findley
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2016
Muslim
Almost,
democracy
Freedlander
Theatre
Maine
DEPARTMENT OF THEATRE & DANCE
2016-2017 Performance Season
by John Cariani Directed by Jimmy A. Noriega
Stage Door:
Directed by Kim Tritt
Weekend
Spring
Freedlanderin-the-Round
DEPARTMENT OF THEATRE & DANCE
2016-2017 Performance Season
Directed by Kim Tritt
Concert
By Adrienne Kennedy
Directed by
Tashiyanah Hutchins
February 10 & 11,
2017 - 7:30 pm
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FREEDLANDER
Theatre
Dance
Funnyhouse
of a Negro
March 2, 3 & 4, 2017
7:30 pm
7:30 pm
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7:30 PM
Freedlander Theatre
Fall Dance
Concert
November 17,
18 & 19, 2016
Senior
APRIL
13, 14 & 15, 2017
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Shoolroy Theatre
DEPARTMENT OF THEATRE & DANCE
2016-2017 Performance Season
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DEPARTMENT OF THEATRE & DANCE
2016-2017 Performance Season
DEPARTMENT OF THEATRE & DANCE
2016-2017 Performance Season
For ticket information for the 2016-17 production season please visit: wooster.edu/
academics/areas/theatre-dance
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Class of 2016
Emily Baird
I will be pursuing my Zumba certification,
Labanotation certificate, moving to Chicago and
eventually grad school. Stephanie Castrejon
I am moving back to Chicago to find theatre
internships/jobs and work at Immigration Coalition.
Emily Donato
This summer I will be working at Ghost Ranch
Conference Center in New Mexico as a youth
programmer.
Zoe Madden
This summer I will be working for OLO as a lead
stitcher, in the fall I will be entering grad school at
UNLV.
Emily Baird (above) made us all
proud as one of two students chosen
to speak at the 2016 Graduation
Ceremony.
Summit Starr
I will be acting at Trumpet in the Land and then
auditioning for everything...forever.
Public Relation News
This past school year, the Public Relations department of (Shirley Huston-Findley, Patrice Smith, Lindsay Fannin, and Nora Nguyen) was very busy finding new
ways to increase patronage for the season. From buttons for Latins in La-La Land to tabling for the Fall Dance Concert, and even special invitations for Sangreal: An
Electronic Opera the PR department was tirelessly working to put more butts in seats. This idea led to the inception of the campaign “Butts for Bucks” where the
department of theatre and dance, partnered with Spoon Market, donated a prize of $1000 for the student group that had the most votes on ticket stubs over the 3
shows and 11 performances of the second semester. The winner of the $1000 and the accompanying trophy was Xi Chi Psi, a fraternity on campus that won with 72
votes. We plan to do this same competition over the entire season this coming school year. The Department also sought to raise awareness for the gender pay gap
during March, which is Women’s History Month. Women received reduce priced tickets to the Festival of New Works, candy, and a button and could fill out a card to
decorate around the box office that said the name of a woman who inspires them. Make sure to follow COWTheatre on Twitter, cowtheatreanddance on Instagram,
and College of Wooster Theatre and Dance on Facebook!
Alpha Psi
Omega Seniors
Raising awareness for Women’s History Month
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The fraternity Xi Chi Psi was presented a trophy
and a check for $1000.00 for winning Butts for
Bucks.
Alumni Newsletter
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Alumni Updates
Jonathan Becker ’86
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while doing 8 to 12 productions per year. If anyone
is in the Houston area please look me up.
[email protected]
My studio added country 46 to the number of
countries I have sent masks to and I continue to
travel and teach all over the world.
Erica Daun ’15
I am currently at the University of Colorado
Boulder completing my MA in Theatre and my
MBA! I have been working in the costume shop at
CU as a stitcher and as the Costume Stock
Coordinator. I have also been a Teaching Assistant
for the Intro to Theatre class this past academic year
and got to guest lecture a class on Latin@Drama!
Over the summer I worked as the Costume Design
Assistant for the Colorado Shakespeare Festival and
had a blast! I’m really enjoying the Colorado
mountain life, but definitely miss the Wooster
Theatre Department!
Looking forward to making my way back to the
Midwest soon!
Kellee Roston Edusei ’07
Director of Member Services and Board Liaison,
Dance/USA
Whitney Huss Sherman ’05
In May, I graduated with my Doctorate in
Educational Leadership with an emphasis on
Education Psychology from the University of
Southern California. I also had a baby in November
2015 named Ivy Louise Sherman. It’s been a busy
few months!
R
George Myatt ’11
I just came back from 10 months in China (Beijing
and Shanghai), where I was conducting my doctoral
fieldwork from University of Hawaii at Manoa. I am
now writing my dissertation, while also planning
my wedding to fellow Wooster graduate, Andy
Moskowitz (’04), for next summer in our home state
of California. It’s been an exciting year!
Sarah McGraw (Krushinski) ’85
Prester Pickett ’87
I’m proud to report that the Wexford Acting Studio
is thriving
and actors
are taking
part in the
Pittsburghbased acting
studio in
two summer
camps, and
the fall
show/10month
program
starting
September.
The
Pittsburgh
area is
culturally
rich and there is a demand for good training to
accommodate your performers, which is a boon to a
teacher like myself. Our fall show is already shaping
up to be our most exciting production yet: Les
Miserables, Student Edition. We have an incredible
cast, and the production values are high for such a
project. I have done $120,000 shows in the past and
most times, it is not about the budget...it is about the
talent and the heart of the talent that makes an
incredible show. If you are in the Pittsburgh area the
weekend of October 9th-30th PLEASE come see Les
Miz at the Masonic Theatre. Contact me and I will
take care of you, Woo Alumni!!
This past year I was busy with my production of
Fragmented, which is a play about a drive-by
shooting and gang violence that has had a life of 25
years with a production history that spans across
the State of Ohio. This work was originally
recognized through a play writing competition
conducted by the University of Akron and the Ohio
Arts Council in 1991. The Fall 2015 production of
Fragmented received a CSU Faculty Civic Innovation
Grant to enhance my instruction of a Black Studies
course on Black Culture that I was teaching through
the Department of Criminology, Anthropology, and
Sociology. I have also been able to benefit with my
career as a Thespian by instructing a course in the
Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs at
CSU in addition to serving as the Coordinator of the
Howard A. Mims African American Cultural Center
at CSU.
Additionally, I was fortunate in the Spring of 2016 to
be afforded an opportunity to write a new play on
the life of Pastor Sal Perez from Tuscan, Arizona-Someone Saved My Life Tonight. This play dealt with
his experience of re-directing his life from crime
toward a positive lifestyle that includes helping
others through his ministry. It was a wonderful
experience to have this piece produced by the
Cleveland Treatment Center, which was responsible
for my play, Seasons to Win: Against All Odds, last
year on the life of Ted Ginn, Sr. receiving an
audience at the Hanna Theater at Playhouse Square
in Cleveland. They received a grant from the Ohio
Commission on Minority Health and was supported
by the Alcohol Drug Addiction Mental Health
Services of Cuyahoga County to produce Someone
Saved My Life Tonight, which also was produced in
the Juvenile Justice Center and a local church,
Community of Faith Assembly.
I often think about the investments that Annetta
Gomez-Jefferson made in my life and enjoy the
fellowship with several Wooster Alumni who knew
her and continue to support me by attending my
plays. The discipline that Ray McCall encouraged
and the experience of having Vincent Dowling,
former Artistic Director for the Great Lakes Theater
Festival, serve as my I.S. advisor is another
reflection that I definitely use to motivate my work
as a playwright, director, and actor. As an actor I've
Ray Inkel ’88
In 2012 I left the Utah Shakespeare Festival after 12
years to take the Production Manager position at
the Alley Theatre in Houston, TX. The Alley just
completed in 2015 a $56 million renovation to their
1968 building which included adding a fly tower
and automated rigging, a raised thrust stage that is
fully trapped, totally redone catwalk system, and
upgrades to all lighting and sound systems. During
the renovation the Alley performed offsite at The
University of Houston. In my short time at the Alley
we have managed to clean out our main building,
set up in a borrowed theatre, vacate the borrowed
theatre and move into our renovated space. All
E
I have been promoted to Staff - Business Process
Analyst at Charles Schwab in Austin, where I
continue to provide internal IT support through the
model of IT service management. In addition to
creating posters and brochures on the side for
various organizations, I will be dancing in
Dragoween this October to benefit an LGBT charity
organization local to Austin. I also recently
revamped my website, georgemyatt.com which
showcases a preview of my artistic work and my I.S.
Yining Lin ’06
Artist/Owner, TheatreMasks.com; Artist
Director, the Northern
American Laboratory
For The Performing
Arts; Assistant Professor
of Movement and Acting, Ball State University.
T
I could have never embarked on my current
directing career after my long performing career (I
am getting up there in age) without the incredible
base of education, attention, and brilliance and
dedication of my profs and mentors at Wooster.
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Pickett
recently appeared in a short that was featured
during the Greater Cleveland Urban Film Festival
2015 and I've had the privilege through my status as
the Coordinator of the Howard A. Mims African
American Cultural Center to introduce several
films for the Cleveland International Film Festival
(2016).
Meanwhile, this summer will allow me a chance to
try to assemble a webpage to account for the
progress that I've made with my career in Theater. However, a Liberal Arts background from the
College of Wooster just recently afforded me an
opportunity to serve as the moderator for an
engagement with Chautauqua-In-Chagrin. Since I
also recently served as a panelist for the Cuyahoga
County's Fatherhood Initiative Conference at the
Wyndham Hotel, I'm thinking about crafting
another play about a father who returns home to
reunite with his family after a period of
incarceration. Obviously, I have reason to try to
finish my play that celebrates Cleveland's history,
which can now include a scene about our NBA
championship.
In conclusion, all is well in "Believeland," for a
fighting Scot who dared to dream of advancing a life
in Cleveland with a career in Theater in a nontraditional way as an "Edutainment" specialist. My
motto for my production company, Pickett Line
Productions, is "everybody has a story to tell, but
everyone doesn't know how to tell it. " I'm glad that
I have a story and my story can be told because of
the skills that I acquire at the College of Wooster.
I'll see what I can do about getting some photos to
you, but you can possibly reach out to the Cleveland
Treatment Center and explain your interests to see if
they have some photos that they can send to you. They can be reached at (216) 861-4246. Ask for
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Pierre Betts or Len Collins. Meanwhile, thanks for
staying in touch and wanting to know what I've
accomplished over the past year.
In my other life, I’m chair of science and physics
here: http://utahmilitaryacademy.org/
Kent Sprague ’14
Nora Yawitz ’15
I moved to Brooklyn last fall and have been working
as an assistant lighting designer and lighting
programmer for a variety of theatrical production in
NYC. I have also been working as a lighting
designer for corporate events and weddings with
Kaynelive Productions. I should probably sign up
for frequent flyer miles to Akron/Canton airport, as
I seem to be returning every few months. I was very
pleased to come back to Wooster to design the
lighting for their spring production of Sangreal, in
conjunction with Professor Mowrey of the music
department. It was something outside the norm for
the department and I think it was very well
received. I also designed the Ohio Light Opera’s
season opener of Kiss Me, Kate. Even though I’ve
worked a full summer there before, I’m still amazed
they can present seven shows at one time. I’ll be
coming back yet again to explore The Crucible with
Professor Huston-Findley. That should be a very
enjoyable ride, so get your tickets now!
http://kentsprague.wix.com/portfolio
I have been back home in NYC since graduation last
May. Last summer I worked as the assistant stage
manager for a play at FringeNYC before starting an
internship at the New York Musical Festival (NYMF)
in late August. As the producing intern, I helped
organize and manage the non-profit’s 12th annual
gala auction. It was an extremely rewarding
experience, especially seeing the live auction items I
put together to be presented by Bob Saget and Tony
Award winning actress Beth Leavel in front of
members of the Broadway and New York theatre
community, and knowing the money raised has
funded some of the incredible new shows, concerts,
and readings being presented at this summer’s
festival.
Chris Strompolos ’93
Currently on tour promoting the Drafhouse Films
release, RAIDERS! THE STORY OF THE GREATEST
FAN FILM EVER MADE! by Jeremy Coon, Tim
Skousen and Kyle Newman. It is my life story
growing up remaking Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=ZvtCpE7j0RY&list=PL5YJj_i9xLh4OnedGN6CV1
PNLGgST_3ZG
Tour info here: www.raidersbuys.com
Justin Vann ’97
Since April, I have been working as the assistant to
the general manager at the Circle in the Square
Theatre on Broadway, where the 2015 Best Musical
winner FUN HOME is playing until September 10th
(FUN HOME starts its national tour in Cleveland
this October! Try to see it - it is such a poignant piece
of theatre). This fall, a new musical with an A
Cappella score, IN TRANSIT, will open at Circle. It
will be fascinating to be in the midst of one show
closing and another one opening. (IN TRANSIT was
actually a show at the 1st New York Musical
Festival, in 2004- it all comes full Circle, mind the
pun.)
I don’t think I could have gotten this job without the
independent research I worked on at Wooster with
the amazing guidance of the Department of Theatre
and Dance. Knowing I completed I.S. gives me
confidence to go after my goals, career or otherwise.
I cannot wait to see what comes next!
This is what I’m up to right now: http://
www.mnbeethovenfestival.org/
Visit our website
wooster.edu/academics/areas/
theatre-dance
for updated news & events.
AND
Email: [email protected]
2015-2016 Theatre and Dance Majors
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to send your updates for the
2017 Alumni Newsletter
Alumni Newsletter
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continued from page 3 - Faculty Updates
entered the Freedlander stage, I was thrilled to
mentor the costume design student designers
through the third New Works Festival. During
these productions, Hannah Smith '19 & Maria
Senoo '17 both designed and realized costumes for
the first time with great success. Zoe Madden '16
finished her IS on costume technology techniques
and accepted a graduate assistantship in Las Vegas. This past January, I escorted (only!) design and
technology students to KCACTF in Milwaukee,
WI. Presentations were extremely well received
and once again Wooster students realized their
faculty and staff do know what we're doing. We
saw terrific shows, ate some good food and made
new friends- without getting buried in the snow. December
(2015)
brought
winter break
and while
everyone
was snug
and thinking
of festive
thoughts, I
was off in
Fort Myers,
Fl at Florida
Repertory
Theatre
trying not "to
shoot my eye
out" designing costumes for A Christmas Story
directed by Jason Parrish. I must admit dressing
for Floridian children in winter gear and explaining
that "yes you do need gloves and a hat and a scarf
and a jacket" was more humorous than frustrating. And to kickstart this year of premiers and firsts,
Latins in La-La Land took Freedlander stage directed
Alpha Psi Omega Seniors
L-R: Madeline Lipkin, Emi Donato, Emily
Baird, Caroline Breul Abigail Helvering
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by Jimmy Noriega. Cross dressing, famous starlets,
the Mendez brothers all mean a good time for us
down in the costume shop. I had a makeup team of
Emily Altop '16 and Zoe Madden '16 who designed
the Bondo prosthetics (dimensional temporary
tattoos) that were applied in the 10 second
onstage blackout for the double murder, 4 person
quick change. On the family front, gardening, sailing and chasing
Max are still going on in the Spoonamore clan. Max
takes great pride when he gets to help with
shopping or crafts for the Theatre & Dance
Department.
Mike Schafer, Technical Director
I thoroughly enjoyed my first year at Wooster. The
students, faculty and staff here all treated me as one
of their own and I already feel at home. Before
talking about my time here at Wooster, I figured I’d
start by introducing myself to all of you. I consider
Iowa my “home” and that is where my parents and
siblings still live. My venture into theatre began
late in high school after I decided it was more fun
than running distance running and hurdles on the
track. I dabbled a bit in acting but the technical
theatre side always had my heart. I ended up
receiving my BA degree at St. Ambrose University
and took the liberal arts approach to my degree
May, 2016 the fourth class of the National Theatre
Honorary Society, Alpha Psi Omega, was inducted in
Freedlander Theatre.
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experience. After graduating, I spent a few months
being a teacher’s aide in a special education
preschool until I entered graduate school at
Northern Illinois University. I was part of the
second set of graduates in a newly created Technical
Direction program and was able to adapt the study
to include some focus in teaching, management and
design. While there, I did some work in rigging &
learned a bit about flying people. After obtaining
my MFA, I moved down south to Alabama and
spent eight years at Troy University teaching,
running their shop and TDing many shows,
designing and stage managing a few. During my
time there, the program grew from 30 to 90 majors,
added a BFA in dance and received many awards
both regionally & nationally.
Here at Wooster this Fall, I designed the scenery for
Latins in La-La Land. This was a unique experience
for me due to my lack of experience in Latin
American theatre or history. The Fall Dance
Concert in-the-round was also unique to me as my
experience with dance was always standard
proscenium set up. Working under Dale’s plot, I
ended up designing lights for a couple of the pieces.
In the Spring – my focus turned towards being
technical director for Sangreal while providing some
mentoring to the students working on Senior
Weekend & Festival of New Works.
My year ahead will include a heavy focus on
technical directing & stage management while
attempting to bring more students backstage. I’ll be
working on the scenic design for Almost, Maine &
helping to mentor design students both semesters. I
have already created a long to-do list of things to
look at, learn and teach with my shop employees
and anyone else who decides technical theatre is
cool. Finally, the hope is also to get myself back into
the classroom by offering a stage management
course in the Spring.
2016-2017 Alpha Psi Omega Officers
L-R: Maira Senoo, Maria Witt, Lindsay Fannin
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Fall Dance
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Latins in La-La Land
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Sangreal: An Electronic Opera
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