FALL 2012
Mashirika Performing Arts and Media Company from Kigali, Rwanda, visited the School in September for a three-day event.
Performers Spread Healing Abroad with Africa’s Hope Tackling tough issues early on in the fall semester, the School of Dramatic Arts explored the topic of arts and genocide with a three-day event that featured guest artists from an African performing arts troupe. Comprised of Rwandan artists, actors, musicians and dancers, the group known as Mashirika Performing Arts and Media Company was invited to USC to share their artistic talents, as well as their firsthand experience as young people combating a stained history of genocide and how they have found healing through their work. “With theatre, it helps you heal because you understand that you can overcome things,” explained Mashirika performer Angel Kabanguka Uwamahoro. The company’s visit from September 19 to 21 exemplified what the School teaches through its Applied Theatre Arts program – the theory and practice of applying theatre skills as supplemental tools for therapists, cultural field workers and activists. The long-anticipated event, organized by the School and presented by USC Visions and Voices: The Arts and Humanities Initiative, opened in Bovard Auditorium with the first American performance of Africa’s Hope: A Story of Survival and Hope – a powerful piece that recounts the narratives of Rwandan genocide survivors and shares the hopes of the country after decades of trauma. “Mashirika’s vision, as told through Africa’s Hope, desires to create a new world where the voices of the dead are revived again through the poetry of meaning, movement, dance and song,” said Director of Applied Theatre Arts Brent Blair, who spearheaded the idea of inviting Mashirika to USC for their first visit to the United States. “This is what is so compelling about bringing Africa’s Hope to urban L.A. This play explores multiple accounts of genocide from many different cultural experiences, and gives them poetic voice through a chorus representing Rwandans who are either ghosts or survivors,” he added. continued on PAGE 5
A Message from the Dean
Inspiration: to breathe (life) into; to exert an animating, enlivening, or exalting influence on; to influence, move or guide; to spur on. That is what the dictionary tells us ‘inspiration’ means, but if you were lucky enough to be at the School these past few months you would have witnessed the reality of it. Each of the stories in Callboard is an illustration of the power of our art and the artists who create it to inspire us – in every sense of the word. This issue captures and communicates the aesthetics, values and ethics which give our art its power to reach beyond geographic and temporal boundaries: The courage and fierce beauty of the Mashirika Company’s recounting of the horrors of the Rwandan genocide and then, in the same evening, joyously leading us to a celebration of the beauty of their country and their belief in art’s capacity to heal; Gordon Davidson’s vision and determination, which reshaped a city’s cultural landscape and helped redefine an entire art form; Professor Meiling Cheng’s passionate devotion to her students – and to the exploration that only art makes possible – and to the success of her student, Xin Yi Bao, as a result of that devotion; And Luis Alfaro’s work in his community leading him to a contemporary retelling of the stories that are buried deep in our cultural subconscious so that they may live and breathe again for us. Speaking deeply personally, I found each of these stories truly inspiring. I hope you will as well and I hope you will share with me the pride I have that our School has gathered these artists and these stories together over the last several months.
Dean Madeline Puzo
Introducing Our Class of 2016 In a spirited welcome to the latest additions of the Trojan Family, the School of Dramatic Arts held the annual New Student Barbecue on August 23 for new undergraduates. On the stage and the back patio of the Bing Theatre, the freshmen and transfer students met with faculty, staff and returning undergraduates for a lunchtime meet and mingle. Above, the Class of 2016 took its first family portrait outside of the Bing Theatre. Fight On!
New Assistant Dean, Director of Development Fuses Fundraising with Theatre Sara Fousekis has been named Assistant Dean, Director of Development for the School of Dramatic Arts. Before arriving at USC, Sara was the Associate Vice President of Development at Segerstrom Center for the Arts, overseeing the Center’s over $9 million Annual Fund campaign and raising nearly $40 million cumulatively in three years. Sara’s primary focus at the Center was developing the Board, expanding the donor base, growing volunteer participation and building new stewardship programs. Previously, Sara spent 10 years at the Tony Award-winning Berkeley Repertory Theatre, where she was the Director of Development, Campaign. In her tenure at Berkeley Rep, Sara raised over $50 million for the Theatre and directed two major capital campaigns. Her areas of expertise include board and staff development, fundraising training, donor upgrades/acquisition, and corporate and foundation relations. She was instrumental in attracting dozens of new corporate and community leaders to the Board, created a new $250,000 donor
Sara Fousekis
club and launched a new corporate program at Berkeley Rep that now attracts dozens of annual sponsors. Sara has consulted for several non-profit organizations, conducting fundraising assessments and developing institutional growth plans. She has presented extensively at fundraising conferences and business roundtables throughout the country. Most recently, she was a featured presenter at the James Irvine Foundation Peer Exchange Meeting of 20 California arts non-profit Executive Directors in Spring of 2012. She has chaired several political events and fundraising activities. Sara holds a bachelor’s degree with high honors from Kenyon.
Visiting Professor of Theatre Practice Gordon Davidson discusses his life in the theatre at a Q & A forum.
Gordon Davidson
George Burns Visiting Artist and ‘Godfather’ of L.A. Theatre Before the Music Center of Los Angeles County and the Center Theatre Group (CTG) became one of the largest and most highlyregarded performing arts destinations in the country, and well before two-hour traffic jams were even conceivable, Gordon Davidson remembers a time when downtown Los Angeles wasn’t as vibrant and treasured as it is today. “It was possible to drive from Westwood to downtown in 15 minutes. I used to be able to finish my office work at 6 p.m. and get in the car and drive home – have dinner with my wife and two kids, read them a story, sing a song, kiss them good night and go back in time for an 8 p.m. curtain,” says Davidson, a 2012 School of Dramatic Arts George Burns Visiting Artist. It was the 1960s. Downtown was a place of business, muscled by the manufacturing and finance world; Angelenos didn’t live “in the city”; and the Music Center was just a standalone complex, amongst a number of tall structures promising much but never quite delivered. “There were very few theatres that had yearround activity. The theatre scene, as I encountered it, consisted mostly of small storefront theatres with actors who performed showcase productions,” recalls the Founding Artistic Director of the Mark Taper Forum. “Everything west of St. Louis seemed like a big, flat nothing,” Associate Professor of Theatre Practice Eric Trules chimes in. “And that’s what people thought of the culture of Los Angeles when Gordon arrived.” Sharing stories likes these as he experienced them, Davidson is collaborating with Trules in teaching a new course this fall called “A Life in the Theatre with Gordon Davidson.” “I must say I didn’t know what I was going to encounter because I didn’t know the students’
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backgrounds and majors,” Davidson says about the class. “I just said I would go in open to what comes. I’m very pleased, especially with their intelligence and enthusiasm. They are smart and determined and that makes me feel good and challenged.” Davidson, who mentored the School’s 2012 New Works Festival Year 3 playwrights, adds: “I like that the students just call me ‘Gordon.’” The course delves into the contemporary history of Los Angeles theatre and Davidson’s role in its development, specifically his legacy at CTG – leading the Mark Taper Forum for 38 years, the Ahmanson Theatre for 16 and producing the inaugural season at the Kirk Douglas Theatre. The class also examines Davidson’s creation of an identity for a cohesive, lively and distinctive Los Angeles theatre. Davidson, a Visiting Professor of Theatre Practice, has worked with such theatre luminaries as Martha Graham, Leonard Bernstein, Tony Kushner, Alan Alda and Al Pacino, among others. He has been critically acclaimed on both coasts for his creation of L.A.’s most prominent regional theatre and for his direction since the ’60s. He has garnered the most prestigious prizes in theatre – including Tony, Drama Desk, Obie, Ovation and Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle awards. In his career, Davidson sought to find and develop plays that dared to ask rich questions. It was this social consciousness, sense of the political
moment and responsibility to the community that led directly to his success in his career, spanning four decades in the theatre world. “I did a lot of things that were crazy. I didn’t do them to be crazy. I knew there was risk involved, but it seemed to me that the value superseded the risk. That’s what made it worthwhile and a great satisfaction.” Among his accolades, he directed The Shadow Box by Michael Cristofer in 1976 for which he and the play won Tony Awards. It was also the first play that premiered at the Taper to win a Pulitzer Prize. Subsequently, two more plays originating at the Taper, Angels in America and The Kentucky Cycle, were also awarded Pulitzers. He also commissioned Children of a Lesser God by Mark Medoff, the first play to bring signing as a language to the stage, which also earned two L.A. Drama Critics Circle Awards. It later went on to Broadway and Davidson was nominated for a Tony and a Drama Desk for his direction of the production. “I did those plays not to get to Broadway. It didn’t even enter my mind … it was to say something about the lives being lived by citizens in an ‘unheard’ community and to change the conventional perceptions of that community. Theatre was the place to do it.” Before finding his life’s passion in the theatre, Davidson intended to pursue electrical engineering as an occupation. continued on back page
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School Welcomes IMAX Executive to Board Greg Foster, Chairman and President of Filmed Entertainment, joined IMAX Corporation in March 2001. Foster’s primary responsibility is to oversee all aspects of the company’s global filmed entertainment activities – including creative, production, film distribution, business affairs, marketing, sponsorship, studio relationships and the revolutionary IMAX DMR® process. Foster has successfully repositioned IMAX’s film business, which has resulted in the IMAX brand becoming an important “must” in the Hollywood blockbuster industry. Under Foster’s leadership, more than 60 Hollywood event films have been released in IMAX’s premium format – including the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh installments of the Harry Potter franchise, The Dark Knight, Avatar and many other top-grossing Hollywood releases.
During his tenure at IMAX, Foster championed the concept of allowing filmmakers to experiment with IMAX’s growing suite of technologies, enabling them to create new ways for audiences to experience their films. Directors such as Christopher Nolan (Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises), James Cameron (Avatar), Michael Bay (Transformers 2 & 3) and Joseph Kosinski (TRON: Legacy) have all incorporated the use of IMAX cameras, theatre and screen geometry – as well as digital remastering technology in ground-breaking ways, resulting in a completely different cinematic experience. Foster has also championed IMAX’s original 3D productions with award-winning documentaries such as Deep Sea 3D (narrated by Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet), Hubble 3D (narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio) and Born to be Wild 3D (narrated by Morgan Freeman). A seasoned Hollywood executive,
Donor Marquee
Gary & Karen Lask Christine Marie Ofiesh Sally & Howard Oxley The USC School of Dramatic Arts would like to recognize in honor of Dean the tremendous generosity of the following individuals Madeline Puzo and organizations whose cumulative giving has exceeded Teresa & Byron Pollitt $1 million. Their foresight and commitment to the arts Cynthia & Jan van Eck and higher education have helped transform the School Jim & Leslie Visnic into a leader in dramatic arts education: Luanne C. Wells Visionary Circle
Dr. & Mrs. Peter Bing and the Anna H. Bing Living Trust George N. Burns Trust
DIRECTORS
Katherine B. Loker Auen Foundation Robert & Elizabeth Plumleigh David Anderle in memory of Karen Tate Donovan Plumleigh Cortney Margaret Eagle & Eli Rapaport Joan Gardner We are grateful to those who have given wisdom, talent, Michael Gilligan & time and financial resources to the benefit of the School’s Anne Helgen Annual Fund in addition to scholarship support. The Susan A. Grode following members have made pledges of $1,000 or Dianna & Earnest Harris more over the past year: Donna Isaacson Jimmy & Cheryl Miller SEASON SPONSORS PRODUCERS Leslie & Michael Richman Eric T. Kalkhurst & Anonymous Robert R. Scales in Nora K. Hui Inger A. Armour Ong memory of Suzanne John & Leslie Burns Grossmann Scales EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS Mary & Richard Covington Michael Solomon & Roger & Michele Dedeaux Kimberly Nunes Michael & Debbie Felix Engemann Allison Thomas & Gary Ross Elizabeth & Mark Kogan Rik Toulon Sheila & Jeff Lipinsky Claudia & Lee Trevino 4
Foster spent 15 years at MGM/UA, where he served in various senior management posts, including Executive Vice President of Production and Senior Vice President of Motion Picture Marketing and Research. During the course of his career at MGM/ UA, Foster played a key role in the production and/or marketing of over 150 films – including hits such as A Fish Called Wanda, Get Shorty, Kingpin, Moonstruck, Rain Man, Species, Thelma and Louise, Untamed Heart and several from the James Bond 007 series. In 1999, Foster founded uMogul, a financial services company offering retail investors’ competitive market returns via mutual funds comprised of entertainment industry assets. He held the positions of Chairman, Co-founder and President of uMogul. Foster is a 1984 graduate of Georgetown University. He and his wife have three sons and live in Los Angeles.
PATRONS
Michele & Arlen Andelson The Emanuel Bachmann Foundation Angela & Amir Bozorgmir Barbara Cotler Marcy & Roger Hahn Paula Holt Liz & Ira Krottinger Laura Langford Alexander LoCasale Steven Nagelberg Susie & Alex Pilmer Nancy Ritter Ruth Tuomala & Ernest Cravalho Nancy & Peter Tuz Suzanne Bruce, MD & Malcolm Waddell ANGELS
Annette & Gary Angiuli Randolph P. Beatty Joan Beber Dr. Rosula A. Bell in honor of Luisa Somoray Andaya-Alberto Susan & David Berck Yvonne Bogdanovich Kathryn & Lawrence Bryan Caroline Choi
School of Dramatic Arts Board of Councilors Richard Weinberg (Chair) Michele Dedeaux Engemann (Founding Chair) Patrick J. Adams David Anderle Lisa Barkett Todd Black Tim Curry Lauren Shuler Donner Tate Donovan Michael Felix Greg Foster Michael Gilligan Robert Greenblatt Patti Gribow Susan A. Grode Paula Holt Donna Isaacson Mark Kogan Gary Lask Sheila Lipinsky Laurence Mark Martin Massman Jimmy Miller Madeline Puzo Thomas Schumacher James D. Stern Andy Tennant Allison Thomas Rik Toulon Joe Tremaine
Sara Bancroft-Clair & Pierson Clair Dennis Cornell Gabrielle & Richard de Forest Lauren Shuler Donner & Richard Donner Gail & Jim Ellis David Emmes & Paula Tomei Freddie & Andrea Fenster Debra & Gary Fields Catherine Gousha Shelley & Ashley Grant Eleanor Grossman Debbie & Terry Hammer Molly & David Helfet The Bridges Larson Foundation Stephen M. Moloney Robert & Debbie Myman Elizabeth Noble Mary & Oscar Pallares Teri & Gary Paul Vicky & David Porter Dean Madeline Puzo Ana & Dale Rech Aileen & James Reilly Andrew J. & Irene Robinson Meredith & Drew Rowley Rick Silverman Nancy Sinatra, Sr.
Sherry & Vald Svekis USC Parents Association Council Lynne & Stephen Wheeler Alan & Hope Winters Woodell-Mascall Family
We have taken care to list names and gift designations accurately. If you believe there has been an error or omission, please contact Development Assistant J.D. Brown at 213.821.4262 or jeffrey.d.brown@usc.edu. Thank you for your support.
We hope you will consider becoming a member by joining these supporters. Please take a moment to return the enclosed reply envelope. For more information about giving to the School of Dramatic Arts, please contact Sara Fousekis at 213.821.4047 or fousekis@usc.edu.
The schedule of events continued FROM COVER also included an intensive workshop on art and transformation at the Massman Theatre in which more than 25 participants, from computer science majors to professors, learned the company’s techniques in play-building and conflict resolution. In addition, it featured a panel of experts at Doheny Memorial Library discussing how the arts can create understanding about genocide and offer pathways to healing and reconciliation. “The genocide is not behind us. We live with it. It’s in our social life; it’s in our everyday life,” panelist and Mashirika performer Eliane Umuhire said at the discussion. Co-hosted by the School and the USC Shoah Foundation Institute, the panel included moderator Ange-Marie Hancock, Associate Professor of Political Science and Gender Studies and Associate Director of the Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration; Stephen Smith, Executive Director of the Shoah Foundation; Beth Meyerowitz, Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs and Professor in the Department of Psychology; Blair; Mashirika Artistic Director Hope Azeda; Uwamahoro; and Umuhire. At the discussion, Azeda shared what the impact the genocide had on her life and her work as an artist, as well as how she would translate the stories of survival and hope into the production. “We cannot just stop at memory, there has to be a will to move on. For the testimonies that we used [in the performance], we also had to go into what the hopes and dreams of these survivors were,” said Azeda. “As many residents of L.A. struggle with issues of oppression, Mashirika’s message and methodology of hope are as critical for Angelenos as for Rwandans. Art, particularly mindful, poetic and critically relevant art, offers a means by which oppressed people can begin to translate the language of loss into a poetic vision of desire,” Blair said. He added: “In a time of division of identities after the 20th anniversary of the L.A. uprising, on the brink of one of the most divisive elections in our country’s history, and in a country where the gap between rich and poor has hardly been greater, Africa’s Hope is not just a story of healing, it is healing.”
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Photo by Jennifer Reilly
Performers Spread Healing Abroad with Africa’s Hope
Magic of Mythology Translates in Modern Play
Sean San José and Sabina Zuniga Varela in Luis Alfaro’s Bruja at Magic Theatre.
It wasn’t a preconceived concept for Assistant Professor Luis Alfaro to write his latest series of plays adapted from Greek mythology, the playwright said. Rather, it happened to fall into his lap.
an ex-con set to rule the gangland of South Central Los Angeles – which earned a San Francisco Glickman Playwright Award, as well as nominations for Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle and Ovation awards. His most recent play of the Greek revisions, Bruja, had its world premiere at the Magic Theatre in San Francisco this past summer. This version of Euripides’ Medea has a scorned While working in residency with incarcerated Mexican curandera, or healer, brought to San Francisco’s Mission District by her older teens in Tucson, Ariz., Alfaro met a 13-yearhusband and then left by him to live in a old in a poetry workshop who community that doesn’t quite accept her. murdered her mother to avenge her father’s “As immigrants, we come to this country death. Coincidentally that night, he bought and some of us are able to fly because we take a collection of ancient Greek literature from wing; some of us get trapped and we can’t fly a bookstore that included a story about the because we don’t know how to take off. The mythological Electra, a young girl who had play is really about a woman who never flew committed the same act of vengeance he again, who got put in a cage and eventually heard about earlier that day. reacts to that in a horrible way,” Alfaro said. “So, 2,400 years ago, there’s this amazing The production starred alumna Sabina Greek story about the cycle of violence and revenge and the inability to forgive, then there’s Zuniga Varela (M.F.A. Acting ’11) as the lead character, Medea. this modern story that I heard from one of the people I was working with in a jail,” Alfaro said. “Sabina was really instrumental for my play Through his encounter with this classical tale, because she’s the first person to give it voice. the M.F.A. in Dramatic Writing faculty member It’s the first time I heard it out loud. I really like to write for actors, so I shaped it to the sound began to see himself and the community he worked with in the lessons of the Greeks – ulti- of her voice – how she uses rhythm and lanmately sparking the creation of his adaptations guage,” said Alfaro, a recipient of a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation fellowship, that modernized what he read. also known as the MacArthur Genius Grant. “I pull my stories from the change I want to A believer that it was destiny for the see in the world. They’re not necessarily plays that are political in the sense that I write a play playwright and actress to work on the play to change the world, but I write a play to show together, Alfaro remembered meeting Varela when she was an adolescent, when she would the condition of the world,” said Alfaro, who has taught at USC since 2005. “I’m interested in tag along with her mother, Maria, to functions for MacArthur Fellows. Years later, Varela how we take history and tell our story today.” became Alfaro’s student at USC, and, post The reimagining began with his play Electricidad, a modern twist on the tragedy of graduation, played the role of Dunia in a play he dramaturged, El Nogalar, at the Electra that focuses on female gangs and the destruction of revenge – which was presented Fountain Theatre. “It was such an honor to be working at Teatro Visión, the Mark Taper Forum, firsthand with Luis on this play (Bruja),” Goodman Theatre and Borderlands Theater. It was followed by Oedipus El Rey, an adapta- said Varela, winner of the 2007 Best Female continued on back page tion of the story of Oedipus the King whereby Performance of the Year
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Courtesy of Xin Yi Bao
Alumna Merits Competitive Graduate Arts Award, a First for USC By Allison Engel
When Xin Yi Bao (B.A. ‘12), a graduate of the USC School of Dramatic Arts, Skyped her mother in Hangzhou, China, at the end of May to tell her she had been awarded a highly competitive Jack Kent Cooke Graduate Arts Award, her mother was so excited she couldn’t sleep for an entire night. Good for as much as $50,000 per year for graduate study in the arts for up to three years, the award is given to only 15 students nationwide. This is the second year the awards have been given out, and Bao is the first USC student to receive one. Bao said her mother, a professor and artist, raised her single-handedly. To save money, Bao took heavy course loads at USC and graduated in three years. Having the financial burden lifted for graduate school is “life-changing,” she said. Bao and her mother weren’t the only ones who were emotional about the announcement. Meiling Cheng, Director of Critical Studies at the School of Dramatic Arts and Bao’s teacher in her “Theatre on the Edge” course, said: “I was so happy for her that I cried!” Cheng, originally from Taipei, Taiwan, said she feels especially close to Bao because the graduate was the first Chinese student she taught at USC. Cheng had urged Bao to apply for grants, and Bao received an Undergraduate Research Grant funded by the School of Dramatic Arts in 2011 for a project on a site-specific theatre on campus. The Jack Kent Cooke Graduate Arts Award, named for the late owner of the Los Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Kings and Washington
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Xin Yi Bao
Redskins who was knowledgeable in fine arts and music as well as sports, is given to students with outstanding artistic merit, academic achievement and the will to succeed. The accolade is focused in particular on individuals with significant financial need. Gene Bickers, USC Vice Provost for undergraduate programs, said he believes it is the largest award for graduate study in the arts. The USC panel that recommended Bao was impressed by her “planned interdisciplinary focus, which is inspired by avant-garde theatre and performance art,” according to the nomination papers. Her portfolio incorporated drawings, a ceramic bust, conceptual pieces and projection displays in the style of conceptual artist Jenny Holzer. The panel remarked on Bao’s potential to develop “a unique style that fuses her Chinese cultural heritage and Western influences while spanning multiple media,” and noted that she “has worked hard to master English structure and idiom.” It also applauded her decision to major in theatre, “a discipline that depends so heavily on nuances of language.” Playwright Allison Engel helps run the Los Angeles Institute for the Humanities at USC.
Theatre on the Edge Course Inspires Success As a School of Dramatic Arts student, Xin Yi Bao was able to discover “a new art form” that helped her win the highly competitive Jack Kent Cooke Graduate Arts Award thanks to Associate Professor and Director of Critical Studies Meiling Cheng and her “Theatre on the Edge” class. “Theatre on the Edge (ToE) is an art lab for creative thinking, critical inquiry, conceptual articulation and cross-genre, intermedial imagination,” said Cheng, who has taught the class for the past four years. The course, which began in 2009 with just two students and has quadrupled in class size, explores the art of theatre at the edge of possibilities. It examines how the time-based art of theatre intersects with other art forms and surpasses its preexisting boundaries. “In this class, I was not only introduced to a variety of themes and movements in performing arts, artists and their work, but was also encouraged to create my own projects in response to the topics that inspired me,” Bao said. “Literally speaking, this class changed my views and values on art and life.” Bao, who developed a daring and politically acute projection art project based on her study of conceptual artist Jenny Holzer’s work, is just one of several students who have taken their inspirational projects beyond the classroom. “Many of the ToE participants – the ‘ToE toes’ as I call them endearingly – have moved on to win awards, graduate fellowships and enviable professional posts,” Cheng said. In the first semester the class was offered, student Rolf Hoefer developed two award-winning projects for research and performance; and in the second semester, Elise Golgowski created six video art performances, which were posted on YouTube. Along with these individuals, graduate student Alan Scherstuhl presented an interactive class performance based on his E-news column, “SiC [Studies in Craps],” which helped him get a job as an editor for a San Francisco newspaper; while graduate student Carolyn Lee, who studied East Asian studies, created a website to curate and exhibit Chinese noise music. Cheng said: “My goal is to offer my participants an individuated training in an invigorating, challenging, but also open-ended collaborative environment. The methods I incorporate include knowledge acquisition, peer learning, intuitive digression, expansive sampling, introspective theorization and creative intervention. The process is ongoing transformations for all participants, including myself.”
Alumni Marquee Patrick J. Adams (B.F.A. 2004) received an Ovation Award nomination for Lead Actor in a Play for his role as Reeves in Nine Circles at the Bootleg Theater.
an Emmy-winning set designer, is the newest professor in the University of British Columbia’s Department of Theatre and Film.
Erin Anderson (B.F.A. 2004) acted onstage in South Coast Repertory’s revival of Donald Marguiles’ play Sight Unseen, and attended New York Stage & Film’s summer 2012 festival at the Powerhouse Theatre at Vassar to workshop a new play with L.A.-based ensemble Teatro de Facto. She also starred in the independent film Days Together, written and directed by School of Dramatic Arts classmate Peter Monro (2004), and co-starring several USC SDA alumni. For her performance, she received the Best Actress Award at the 2011 Gotham Screen International Film Festival in New York City, and the film won Best Narrative Feature at the 2011 Virginia Film Festival. She also appeared in recent episodes of FX’s Justified and Southland on TNT.
Ryan Eggold (B.F.A. 2006) performed at a musical event, Desert Nights, in March at The Standard, Hollywood.
Xin Yi Bao (B.A. 2012) received a Jack Kent Cooke Graduate Arts Award as one of a select group from around the nation to receive the honor. (See related story on Page 6.) Gene Barnhart (M.F.A. 1993) and Jessica Torok (M.F.A. 2003) won Emmys at the 2012 Daytime Entertainment Creative Arts Emmy Awards for Nickelodeon’s The Fresh Beat Band. Barnhart was the wardrobe supervisor and Torok was one of the costume stylists. Alex Boekelheide (B.F.A. 2001) is the communications executive director at UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs. Stephanie Bok (B.A. 1989) saw her play What Happened in production by Modern-Day Griot Theatre Company in June. Charl Brown (B.A. 2001) will be seen on Broadway in Motown: The Musical at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre. Sophia Bush (2003) plays Ali on the CBS television show Partners. Chance Dean (B.A. 2003) played the lead in Sherlock Holmes and the Crucifer of Blood at the Hedgerow Theatre in Pennsylvania. Stephanie Drake (B.A. 2005) played Meredith in the fifth season of AMC’s Mad Men. Lisa Dring (B.A. 2009) was most recently seen in The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity, A Christmas Carol and A Christmas Story at Actors Theatre. Other credits include Wrinkles at East West Players and The Chinese Massacre at Circle X. Garvin Eddy (B.A. 1982 and M.A. 2001),
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Amanda Folena (B.A. 2004) directed Broadway By The Bay’s production of Hairspray. Sean Foote (B.F.A. 2010) was the assistant sound designer for Assassins at The Milwaukee Rep. Alex Frnka (B.F.A. 2010) stars in the MTV television show The Inbetweeners as Carly D’Amato. Lili Fuller (B.A. 2009), Juliana Tyson (B.A. 2008) and Joe Sofranko (B.F.A. 2009) were nominated for an Ovation Award for Best Choreography for the Boom Kat Dance Theatre’s Stations. The production was nominated for four total Ovation Awards – which also included SDA adjunct faculty Parmer Fuller’s nomination for Best Book for an Original Musical and Best Lyrics/Music for an Original Musical, and Sofranko’s nomination for Best Sound Design. Jessica Leigh Gonzalez (B.A. 2008) was seen on NBC’s Animal Practice. Jade Gordon (B.A. 2009 and M.A. 2011) received a Creative Capital grant through her collective, My Barbarian, to make Post-Living Ante-Action Theater (PoLAAT) performances in Israel and a series of workshops in Cairo. Will Greenberg (B.F.A. 2002) was seen on ABC’s television show Modern Family. Margaret Ivey (B.A. 2011) completed an acting internship at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park during the spring. Yafit Josephson (B.A. 2008) is taking her one-woman show News Eyes, which has run for more than two years in L.A. with rave reviews, on a U.S. tour. John Paul Karliak (B.A. 2003) performed his play, Donna/Madonna, at the Lyric Theatre in Los Angeles and at the Chance Theatre in Anaheim. Edgar Landa (B.A. 1995) is currently serving as an adjunct faculty member at the School of Dramatic Arts, leading classes in stage combat. His fight direction work has been recently seen on local stages: The Girl Most Likely To... at Playwrights Arena, written by dramatic writing graduate Michael Premsrirat (M.F.A. 2010) and included acting graduate Eric Schulman (M.F.A. 2011); Cafe Vida at Cornerstone Theater Company; Deathtrap at the LA Gay & Lesbian Center. He also is the resident
fight director for School of Dramatic Arts productions. Landa previously served on the Diversity Advisory Council for Center Theatre Group and was the Managing Director for eight years of acclaimed theatre company Son of Semele Ensemble. He competed in the Spartan Death Race in June. Alex Lubischer (B.A. 2009) saw his LGBT bullying play The Xylophone West in production at the Red Tape Theater from March to April. Kevin Mambo (B.F.A. 1995) was seen in The Book of Mormon at the Pantages Theatre. Ehrin Marlow (B.A. 2008) starred in and wrote a one-man show, Queerdo, which premiered at the Hollywood Fringe Festival. He was also seen in Crazy, Stupid, Love., and Early and Often. Amanda Mehl (B.A. 2011) played Alicia Samaritan in A Barrel Full of Pennies at Sandy Actors Theatre in April. Joseph Millett (M.F.A. 1982) is an Assistant Professor of Stage Management at Virginia Tech, after serving 25 years as an Equity stage manager both off-Broadway and in regional theatre. Anthony Nelson (B.F.A. 2005) made his debut as artistic director of the Sherman Community Players in Sherman, Texas, with a production of Fiddler on the Roof. Nichole Bloom O’Connor (B.A. 2011) starred in the 2012 film Model Minority and was seen in Project X. Jeremy Pivnick (B.A. 2001) received two Ovation Award nominations for Lighting Design (Intimate Theater) for his work on The King of the Desert and Peace in Our Time. Jade Puga (B.A. 2006) saw her webseries Lost Angeles Ward showcased at the 2012 Reel Rasquache Arts & Film Festival. Kevin Riggin (B.F.A. 2012) was the assistant stage manager for Ensemble Studio Theatre/LA world premiere presentation of Year of the Rabbit. Shane Sakhrani (M.F.A. 2010) saw his play, The Doctor is Indian, performed in a staged reading series at Pierce Hall in The Historic Chicago Temple Building. Stark Sands (B.F.A. 2001) played the lead role of Charlie Price in the musical Kinky Boots at The Al Hirschfeld Theatre in Chicago. Andrew Scott (B.F.A. 2012) and Jason Turner (M.F.A. 2011) performed with the LA Opera and faculty member Anastasia Coon in The Two Foscari at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.
James Snyder (B.F.A. 2003) starred in the Goodspeed Musical’s production of Carousel. Karan Soni (B.A. 2011) filmed the movie Safety Not Guaranteed, which won the Screenwriters Award at Sundance Film Festival and came out in theatres in June. Kylie Sparks (B.A. 2010) landed roles guest starring on the television shows Bones, Melissa & Joey and Traffic Light; starred in the hit webseries Squaresville, along with Christine Weatherup (B.A. 2005); was part of an all-star ensemble (including Raven-Symoné and Andrea Bowen) in the Outfest Screenwriters Lab Readings of the upcoming feature G.B.F.; and is regularly appearing in the new webseries G.I.A. – The Girls Intelligence Agency, directed by Mark Rosman (A Cinderella Story, Lizzie McGuire). Mark Spatny (B.F.A. 1987) received his fifth Emmy Award nomination for supervising the visual effects on the pilot for the FOX TV series Touch. He previously won the Emmy twice for his work on Heroes, and Nightmares and Dreamscapes. Also this year, he became the first American to supervise visual effects on the iconic U.K. television series Doctor Who, for the episode “The Angels Take Mahattan.” Danny Strong (B.A. 1996) won his first Emmy Award for writing HBO’s 2008 election drama Game Change. Donald Webber, Jr. (B.F.A. 2008) is in the First National Tour of the Broadway musical Jersey Boys. He can also be seen in the feature film Leave It On the Floor and will soon be seen on Broadway in Motown: The Musical. Mary Kate Wiles (B.A. 2009) stars as Zelda in the webseries Squaresville. She also stars as Lily Blush in the indie romance/drama Dreamworld, which played at the Florida, Ashland Independent and Newport Beach film festivals. In addition, she recently wrapped production on The Sound and the Shadow and was nominated by BroadwayWorld for 2011 as a “Person to Watch” for her performance as Anne Shirley in Anne of Green Gables. Sabina Zuniga Varela (M.F.A. 2011) starred as Medea in Assistant Professor Luis Alfaro’s play Bruja at the Magic Theatre. (See related story on Page 5.) Lizzie Zerebko (B.A. 2010) and Kate Maher (B.F.A. 2008) star in The Antaeus Company’s fall production of You Can’t Take It With You. Are you an alum of the School? Tell us what you’ve been up to! Email your news to Stacey Wang at staceykw@usc.edu.
dramaticarts.usc.edu
7
Magic of Mythology Translates in Modern Play
George Burns Visiting Artist and ‘Godfather’ of L.A. Theatre The native New Yorker, who studied at Cornell University under a fiveyear work/study program, was well on his way to building a successful career in science, but an assignment to design guidance missile systems at a naval ordinance plant deterred him from continuing on. For relief, he took a night job ushering at Tanglewood Music Festival, which made him rethink his life goals. He returned to Cornell, switched to liberal arts with a major in theatre and went on to Western Reserve University for his M.A. After serving in the U.S. Army at Fort Dix (Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale were there, too), he began work in the professional theatre – starting with an apprentice stage manager position at the American Shakespeare Festival Theatre and Academy at Stratford, Conn., rising in two years to Assistant Stage Manager and finally Production Stage Manager. He then moved into various jobs on Broadway and off-Broadway and began directing in summer and winter stock. “In 1964, actor/director/producer John Houseman, my lifelong mentor beginning with Stratford, hired me to work as his Assistant Director for his production of King Lear – starring Morris Carnovsky at The Theatre Group at UCLA. This led to my being offered the
continued FROM Page 5 Award by the New Mexico Hispano Entertainers Association. “I definitely feel that my training in the M.F.A. program at USC really helped me take the role of Medea that was much more connected and grounded in the world around me.” The adaptation, which raises questions about the issues of mental illness, immigration and exile, took extensive research by Alfaro – from studying indigenous Mexican and Central American communities and artwork depicting Medea to interviewing immigrants throughout the San Francisco area. “Through his work, Luis is providing our modern-day communities with stories that connect them to a historical and global memory of humans and what we go through,” Varela said. “He really makes sure the community can come through the pieces and see themselves.” Alfaro’s Bruja will be showing at Borderlands Theater in Tucson from March 28 to April 14, 2013, and eventually at Victory Gardens Theater in Chicago. The playwright has also been commissioned by Oregon Shakespeare Festival, South Coast Repertory and Magic Theatre to write a collection of plays for next year called California – focusing on the politics, religion and gender of the state.
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position of Managing Director of The Theatre Group when Houseman departed to Paris to write his three volumes of memoir. From this position at UCLA, I received an offer from Mrs. Dorothy Buffum Chandler to lead the new 750-seat thrust stage gem of a theatre space – the Mark Taper Forum.” Davidson opened the theatre with John Whiting’s controversial play, The Devils, and continued his legacy for almost 40 years with CTG – giving voice to the unheard and underrepresented populations of Los Angeles, and helping along the discussion and expansion of ideas that shaped the city. “I’ve committed myself to a life in the theatre,” he says, “because it is the best way I know of telling our stories and preserving our culture and our humanity – the hard, difficult, confrontational and bold enlightening truths – and, yet, I will admit, when the theatre erupts with the joy of laughter and celebration – driving out ‘pain, misery and social injustice,’ which a subscriber once accused me of favoring in my programming – I am truly a very happy man because as tough as a life in the theatre can be, I can tell you that I have based by my life’s work in believing in the art of the possible and I always look forward to the future.”
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