1988
Benjamin Evett is founder and artistic director of Boston’s Actors' Shakespeare Project, which just capped its fifth successful, award-winning season. He recently announced he would be stepping down as artistic director of the company to “assume the role of Resident Director, focusing “purely on artistic work, namely acting and directing.” Rima Miller is the founder/director of Yogamoves Studio in Santa Fe, NM.
1989
Tina Landau (Directing) is an ensemble member of Steppenwolf Theatre where she has directed 12 productions since 1997, most recently The Tempest and Tracy Letts’ Superior Donuts. She directed Wig Out! at Vineyard Theatre in NY last fall, will be directing the Broadway transfer of Superior Donuts this fall and returning to Steppenwolf to work on The Brother/Sister Plays this winter. Lola Lesheim is the Director of Performing Arts at Interact Center for the Visual and Performing Arts in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
1990
Chris Baker (Dramaturgy) is Associate Producer/Senior Dramaturg at Hartford Stage. He is also on the faculty of the Hartt School for Music, Dance and Theatre at the University of Hartford. Mary Sutton (Directing) directs occasionally but primarily designs actor/theatre initiatives in alternative community settings, especially health care institutions. She is launching her own nonprofit called The Center for Art and Healing to work with children and seniors in using drama as a form of healing. Peter West (Lighting Design) designed Night Sky at Nagelberg Theatre/Baruch College, Geometry of Fire at Rattlestick Theatre, Women Beware Women with Red Bull Theatre, Don Giovanni at The Curtis Institute; as well as productions with Orlando Pabotoy, Trezana Beverly, Moni Yakim and Edisa Weeks. Steve Zahn appeared in the films Management, A Perfect Getaway, Night Train, Sunshine Cleaning and The Great Buck Howard. He lives on a horse farm in Kentucky with his wife Robyn and two children Henry and Audrey. Jeff Zinn (Directing) is artistic director of Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre on Cape Cod. The 2009 season includes Noises Off, The Happy Oyster Spectacular Show, Laughing Wild, Death by Chocolate, Speech and Debate, The Little Dog Laughed, The Blue Room and the children’s show Puss in Boots.
1991
Ron Burch’s (Playwriting) last produced feature was Beverly Hills Chihuahua. He’s currently writing two movies for Disney, one for Fox Animation and a television pilot for TBS. His short stories have appeared in various print and on-line journals, and his story The Flower Pot was recently nominated for The Pushcart Prize. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, the poet Catherine Daly. Celeste Ciulla is presently at The Old Globe Theatre in San Diego in Cyrano and Coriolanus, both directed by Darko Tresnjak. It is her fourth summer as a part of The Globe’s Summer Shakespeare Repertory Festival. Within the last year she also performed at Florida Studio Theatre in a new play called …And LA is Burning and at GEVA in Frost/Nixon. Her kind and artistic boyfriend/photographer/website designer, Phil Steele, has recently created a website for her, www.celesteciulla.com, which contains a detailed account of which boards she has trodden these last two decades! Jay Corcoran is a documentary filmmaker. His films, Life and Death on the A-List, Undetectable, New York Diary and Rock Bottom have been broadcast on PBS Independent Lens, NHK, CBC, Here! networks and Thirteen/WNET. He has had screenings at the Museum of Modern Art, Lincoln Center, Guggenheim Museum, Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, the Kitchen, and at over 100 national and international film festivals. He has produced numerous Internet video series on the job-search process for Columbia Business School MBAs, a series on entrepreneurship in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania for Columbia Business School and an Internet video project focusing on literacy and education for the Afghanistan Center at Kabul University in Kabul, Afghanistan. As an actor he has appeared in the films All The Rage and Positive. As a playwright he wrote The Christening, produced at Circle Rep Lab and was a resident at Millay Colony for the Arts. He is a recipient of the New York State Artists Grant Award and a Shine Award for Best Documentary (Undetectable).
1992
Manfred Flynn Kuhnert (Directing) lives in LA with his partner, Peter Iacono, who runs the International Feature division of Sony/ColumbiaTristar Motion Picture Group. Manfred serves on the Board of Directors of the LA Museum of the Holocaust and is on the Federal Club Council of the Human Rights Campaign. Jerry Pavlon-Blum and his spouse, Myron, recently celebrated their 22nd anniversary and their son Ethan's 13th birthday. In 1997 they became the first unmarried couple in NY to be granted a right of petition to adopt a newborn together and in 2003 they changed Arizona law governing the wording on birth certificates. Jerry teaches elementary school and develops learning programs that integrate the arts into core curricula. He earned his MA from Columbia University and two years ago launched a nationwide sponsored reading program for kids called Bridges Across America to benefit the William Frantz School in New Orleans. Faran Tahir appeared in the films Ashes, Two Mothers and the new Star Trek. Jeanne Willcoxon teaches and directs at St. Olaf College in Minnesota.
1993
Raymond Fox appeared last season as Edward Voysey in The Voysey Inheritance at Remy Bumppo Theatre as well as in Our Town with Chicago's Lookingglass Theatre where he is an ensemble member. Raymond will be seen in Trust directed by David Schwimmer (co-written by Andy Bellin and Mr. Schwimmer) at Lookingglass in early 2010. Kerry O'Malley recently completed a run of 1776 at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, NJ as Abigail Adams. Prior to that she played Betty Haynes in Irving Berlin's White Christmas on Broadway. She finished her third season as Mary-Kate (the sister) in Brotherhood on Showtime. She will appear in Broadway by the Year at the Berkshire Theatre Festival in June, and will play Mary in The Molly Maguires in August, directed by Lonny Price, which will be filmed for PBS. She plays a central role in the new Paramount Pictures film Case 39 opposite Renee Zellweger, which will be released late this summer. Steven Maler (Directing) is founding Artistic Director of Commonwealth Shakespeare Company which continues to offer free Shakespeare in Boston Common. This summer Steve will present Comedy of Errors with CSC. Daniel Passer continues to play the lead clown in Franco Dragone's Le Reve at The Wynn in Las Vegas. He co-founded a clown ensemble with three of Cirque du Soleil's top clowns and creators - Gonzalo Munoz (Drallion), John Gilkey (Quidam) and Claudio Carneiro (Varekai, Love) - called Gods of Sex.
1994
Sven Miller took a position in December 2008 as assistant professor at the Department of Drama at the University of Alberta, Canada. He teaches acting and directing in the context of postdramatic and contemporary theatre practice. Sven is also preparing two professional projects in Germany: Grenztaenzer, a dance theater project at the German National Theater Weimar and Antigone at State Theater of Thueringen. Sarah Newhouse played Portia opposite Jerry Kissel as Shylock in ASP's production of The Merchant of Venice, which was directed by Melia Bensusson. She played Rosemary Sydney in William Inge's Picnic at the Stoneham Theater. In September she will be playing Kate to Ben Evett's Petruchio in Taming of the Shrew, again directed by Melia Bensusson. Jill Robbins (Dramaturgy) and her husband Evan Silver welcomed baby daughter Dylan Charlotte on June 25, 2009. Brad Shelton and Miki Whittles Shelton are living in Los Angeles with their 2 kids (Noah, 5 and Miranda, almost 13). Brad works as the Director of Entertainment Development for BRC Imagination Arts, and is currently working on projects in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, Hainan Island, China, Chengdu, China, and Shanghai, China. He also continues to collaborate with writing partner Matthew Rauch (93) and they recently had a project optioned for television. Miki works as the Director of Development for the YMCA of Los Angeles, and writes children's books. She recently partnered with an art director for her first, inspired by son Noah and titled Boogers for Breakfast. Sarah Stevenson (Dramaturgy) is an Assistant Professor of English at the College of Mount Saint Vincent in Riverdale, NY. Her courses include Dramatic Literature, Plays in Performance, and Shakespeare. Christopher Tiffany (Dramaturgy) is Director of Foundation and Government Support at the Goodman Theatre.
1995
David R. Gammons (Directing) directed three major professional productions in Boston: Martin McDonagh's The Lieutenant of Inishmore for the New Rep, Webster's The Duchess of Malfi for the Actors' Shakespeare Project, and David Harrower's Blackbird at SpeakEasy Stage Company. David received two 2009 Elliot Norton Award nominations: as Outstanding Director for Blackbird and Duchess of Malfi and as Outstanding Designer for Duchess. Marianna Bassham took home the Norton as Outstanding Actress in Blackbird. Next season David returns to the A.R.T. Institute as a guest artist to direct The Winter's Tale with the second-year actors on the mainstage. He'll also be directing at Boston Playwrights Theatre and Brandeis Theatre Company. For more information, please visit davidrgammons.com. Jessalyn Gilsig has been a cast member of the series Heroes, Nip/Tuck, and CSI:NY and currently appears in the FOX show Glee.
1996
Jefferson Breland started his own business, Jefferson Breland: Artist At Large, which covers his acting, carpentry, custom-made stuff, photography and writing. Miles Chapman is now working as a full time screenwriter in Los Angeles. Last fall he sold his TV pilot Priceless to ABC Studios. This year his script The Tomb was purchased by Summit Entertainment. He recently did a re-write on the film Protection for John Davis Entertainment and 20th Century Fox. He's currently working with James Wan, the director of thr original Saw on a tech thriller for Gaumont Entertainment, and writing an action adventure for Participant Productions, the company behind An Inconvenient Truth, Syriana and Charlie Wilson's War. But most importantly, he and his amazing wife Erica Yoder Chapman already the proud parents of Wyatt, who's now 2 and a half, found out that Erica is expecting again in December.
1997
Steven Harper appeared in a workshop of Freedom Sea, a play by France Luce Benson with the Potomac Theatre Project at the Atlantic Theatre Company's downtown space. His play Urban Rabbit Chronicles was nominated for the Weissberger Award by the Second Stage Theatre. In October, Steve started working as a creativity coach and taught a workshop at the first ever Creativity Conference hosted by the Creativity Coaching Association. On camera he appeared in eight corporate films, had 3 regional commercials running, and did voice work on three upcoming films including two animated projects: The Champion, Chico and Rita and the low-budget feature The AD Project. Jason Southerland (Directing) was appointed Artistic Director of Next Theatre Company in Chicago, Evanston and officially took over the 28 year old company in December. Next is known for producing socially provocative, artistically adventurous new work in their 150 seat home. Recent highlights include the world premiere of Killer Joe; the regional premieres of 9 Parts of Desire, Frozen, The Long Christmas Ride Home, several Caryl Churchill plays and In the Blood; and the world premiere of Adding Machine: A Musical, which went on to win several Jeff Awards, Obie Awards and Lucille Lortel Awards. In addition, Jason directed award-winning productions of A Streetcar Named Desire and Take Me Out at Foothills Theatre. He will make his Chicago directing debut in September with the regional premiere of boom by Peter Sinn Nachtrieb.
1998
Rob Grader, wife Karen and son Roscoe welcomed Henry Raksis Grader on July 3rd at 10:29 in the morning at a healthy 7lbs 5.5oz and 21 1/4 inches long. Scott Harrison is the founder and Artistic Director of Ironweed Productions, a Santa Fe-based theater company. The mission of the company is to produce plays rooted in the American experience, and it is committed to utilizing the vast, eclectic talent within Northern New Mexico, cultivating young and emerging theater artists, and cooperating with other Performing Arts organizations to support and promote theater in the community. This past April, Scott performed in Ironweed's production of Rabbit Hole by David Lindsay-Abiare. Next spring, for the company's 5th annual production, Scott will direct The Trip to Bountiful by Horton Foote. This May, he also acted in Heat Lightning, a noir short produced by Pieboy Films. Todd Olson directed Hamlet, Pirates of Penzance, Betrayal, and the world premiere of his own adaptation (with T. Scott Wooten) of Lysistrata at American Stage Company, where he is artistic director. Guest directing credits include The Mystery of Irma Vep at Wellfleet Harbor Actor’s Theatre on Cape Cod with Bob Kropf (98). Rachael Warren just completed her 7th season as a member of the Resident Acting Company at Trinity Rep in Providence, Rhode Island. She played Antigone in The Dreams Of Antigone, by Curt Columbus & Trinity's Resident Acting Company, Isobel in The Secret Rapture, Mairie/Breeze/Feroc in the world premiere of Laura Schellhardt's Shapeshifter & The Narrator/Fan's Ghost in A Christmas Carol, directed by Liesl Tommy. This summer she is helping to produce the Providence Improv Fest & teaching at Trinity's Young Actors' Summer Institute. Kate Whoriskey (Directing) directed Lynn Nottage’s Ruined at Manhattan Theatre Club and was recently named Artistic Director of the Intiman Theatre in Seattle
1999
Aysan Çelik performed in The Civilian's This Beautiful City at the Studio Theater in DC (Helen Hayes Nomination for Best Ensemble Musical) and she garnered rave reviews in NYC as Malvolio in the Queen's Company production of Twelfth Night. She performed in some workshops of new plays for Clubbed Thumb, including Robot vs. Fake Robot. Aysan's company Theater Mitu successfully presented the full production of DR.C (Or, How I Learned to Act in Eight Steps), an opera in eight parts, at 3LD in NYC after development at Sundance, Robert Wilson's Watermill Center, and New York Theater Workshop (where they are company-in-residence). She received a very nice mention in the NY Times for her work. Her feature debut, Capers, which co-stars Danny Masterson, has been selling out screenings and getting fantastic reviews at festivals across the country all year and has won some awards for indie comedy (capersthemovie.com). Capers was co-written/produced by Brett Halsey (99), co-stars/produced by Michael Cecchi (99) and co-stars Jonathan Hova (99). Matt Chiorini is producing artistic director the Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre. He is married to Lynn Kasper and they have two children. Emmitt George has been teaching drama and art at IS 199 in Queens. Jennifer Kiger (Dramaturgy) is the Associate Artistic Director of Yale Repertory Theatre. Bryan Taylor understudied the Off Broadway production of Craig Wright's The Unseen, appeared on As the World Turns and an ESPN commercial, and took audition and career coaching from Betsy Capes. Threads Theater Company's second production, Afterlight, will make its debut in the 2009 NY Fringe Festival. Bryan's daughter Gabriella, 1, and son Grayson, 4 provide daily scenes of zany comedy and high drama. Kate Wisniewski still resides in Seattle where she recently appeared in a production of Caryl Churchill’s Seven Jewish Children at New City Theatre. She was also seen in Seattle’s newest professional company, New Century Theatre Company’s inaugural production of The Adding Machine. Kate is an adjunct faculty member at Seattle University. She will be appearing in Able Lincoln in Illinois at Intiman Theatre in the fall.
2000
Nurit Monacelli shot a pilot playing a scorned woman with a wicked back hand. She will also be acting in and contributing to the soundtrack in Listen to your Heart, a film starring Cybil Shepherd and Shirley Knight. Earlier this year she performed in a workshop of a new play called Prelude to the First Day which was directed by NYTW Usual Suspect Sturgis Warner. Nurit played all the women, both real and imaginary, in the head of a man during his first day at work in NYC. She is currently working on a web series starring NYC. Kristin Proctor has been taking a hiatus from acting to take care of her new baby boy, Bowen Gordon Campbell, born in November of '08. Antonio Edwards Suarez got married recently, premiered Charles Randolph Wright's play The Night is a Child at Milwaukee Repertory Theater, performed Puck in Boston's Commonwealth Shakespeare Company's A Midsummer Nights' Dream, appeared on Law and Order and teaches acting to first and second years at Marymount Manhattan College. He also became a member of The Actors Center Workshop Company. Dmitry Troyanovsky directed a new play/concert Strings Attached: Serenade For Two about a 14-year-long correspondence between Peter Tchaikovsky and Nadezhda von Meck, played by his classmate Laura Knight. It was presented at the 92 Street Y in New York. Upcoming projects include his own translation and adaptation of Aleksander Ostrovsky's masterpiece The Forest and a production of Machinal. Dmitry continues to teach at NYU’s Tisch School for the Arts. Evan Zes was in the national tour of Mary Zimmerman’s Arabian Nights before returning to the role of Passepartout in Westport County Playhouse’s transfer of Around the World in 80 Days, previously seen at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park and Off-Broadway’s Irish Rep.
2001
Trey Burvant will appear in Final Destination IV, Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant, and I Love You Philip Morris. He is halfway through construction on Second Line Stages, a film production facility in New Orleans. The project will house four sound stages, flex/support space, production and long term office space and will be built entirely 'green' with the mission of encouraging more environmentally friendlier film making. Frances Chewning is the co-creator and writer of the online "choose your own adventure" sitcom, The Mimi and Flo Show, with Hannah Bos (02). Patricia Delorey (Voice) celebrates her sixth season as Voice Coach with the Asolo Repertory Theatre in Sarasota, Florida. She is the Head of Voice, Speech & Dialects at the FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training and is a Certified Associate Fitzmaurice Voicework Teacher. During the 2008-2009 season, Patricia professionally voice/dialect coached Smash, The Giver, Imaginary Invalid, The Winter's Tale, and most recently The Devil's Disciple directed by Tony Walton, and Plasticine directed by Dmitry Troyanovsky at the Baryshnikov Arts Center in NYC. Tim Kang is a cast member of the CBS show The Mentalist and starred in the film Mr. Sandman. Nick Newell appeared in the Trinity Repertory Company production of A Christmas Carol with fellow alum Rachel Warren (98). He also shot a principal role in the upcoming film Valediction starring Ben Barnes and Eliza Dushku and continued to teach acting, voice, and movement as a faculty member of Bridgewater State College. This summer he will wed the lovely Katie Rasor (Dramaturgy 08) in Indianapolis. Jonno Roberts returned to the role of Edmund in the 2006 Goodman Theatre production of King Lear starring Stacy Keach when it played The Shakespeare Theatre of DC. It was extended twice during its DC run. On TV, he’s appeared on Lie To Me, Medium, Without a Trace, and The Flight of the Conchords. Gerardo Rodriguez most recently worked on a Katori Hall (05) play for Fluid Motion Theater with fellow alum Jorge Montenegro (07) and on a retreat for The Lark with Marguerite Stimpson (01) and Frances Chewning (01). He also appeared in Kingdom at the Old Globe directed by former institute director, Ron Daniels, and in Instructions for Breathing at the Passage Theatre. He also had three movies come out this past year, two of which, Cruzando and Don't Let Me Drown (Sundance '09) appeared in last month's HBO NY International Latino Film Festival. Roslyn Ruff starred with Delroy Lindo and Garret Dillahunt in Naomi Wallace’s Things of Dry Hours directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson at NY Theater Workshop. At the Long Wharf Theatre she appeared in Athol Fugard’s Coming Home. Robert Saxner (Directing) currently serves as Producing Artistic Director for The Alchemy Theatre Company, an Off-Broadway company in residence at Theatre Row. Marguerite Stimpson was the female understudy for an off-Broadway production of Two Rooms this fall in New York. She also participated in Page 73's summer residency at Yale, workshopping Molly Rice's Firehouse. Other New York credits included a workshop of This is not a Torture or an Engine at the Lark with fellow alums Frances Chewning and Gerardo Rodriguez, The Visit for Sam French, and Asking for Trouble at E.S.T. She continues to record audio books and also lent her voice talents to CBS. Peggy Trecker White is currently directing Gutenberg! The Musical! at South Carolina Repertory Company. In the past year she also assistant directed Rounding Third, played Mary in Mauritius and Ben Affleck in Matt & Ben
2002
Jon Bernthal starred in the films Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian and The Ghost, appeared in the mini-series The Pacific and was recently cast in the CBS pilot Eastwick, based on the John Updike novel/film The Witches of Eastwick. Samrat Chakrabarti appeared on TV in Damages and on film in Finding Graceland, Ashes, The Waiting City, New York, and Karma Calling, among others. Dana Gottlieb is an executive in the primetime comedy department at ABC. Helen Shaw (Dramaturgy) writes reviews and articles for the theatre section of Time Out New York. Michael Wheeler continued as Co-Artistic Director of Praxis Theatre and as an editor and publisher re-launched the company's online theatre magazine at praxistheatre.com. He was in Stranger, the company's original adaptation of The Outsider by Camus, and directed Tim Buck 2, an original production about progressive artists that were heavily influenced by the Group Theatre in Canada in the 1930s. He also received a grant to train with Volcano Theatre as an Artistic Producer working with directors Josette Bushell-Mingo, Liesl Tommy and Ross Manson on The Africa Trilogy, an international production that will explore the relationship between Africa and the West at the Luminato Festival in 2010. Michael will be Director in Training at The Tarragon Theatre in Toronto for the 2009/10 season.
2003
Nick Basta recently moved to Wilmington, North Carolina to live a quieter life with baby Corrina and wife Joanna. He is also played Elwood P. Dowd In Harvey at New Harmony Rep. And he has been working on the new Sensational webseries "Suzy and Duddy" with buddies Dan and Ashley and written by his wife Joanna! Heather Benton has been teaching movement and directing at the American Academy of Dramatic Art over the past year. She directed a highly physical adaptation of Jane Austen's Emma, as well as Jean Annouilh's Ring Round the Moon. And played a myriad of roles in a new adaptation of Stringberg's Dream Play with Naked Arts in an abandoned subway tunnel beneath Court Street in Brooklyn. She continues to write and is currently working on creating a new piece with Teatre Trouve. Heather and her husband, Cory, just bought a house in West Orange, NJ. Ashley Wren Collins was seen recently on Z Rock, Animal Planet, Guiding Light and One Life To Live. She also performed in the hilarious one-act play, Fireball, which was featured in 7-Eleven at TBG Arts Center in New York City and shot an independent film, Pound Of Flesh, with Malcolm McDowell earlier this year. Ashley interviewed John Patrick Shanley and Mary Stuart Masterson and covered the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, all for MOVIEMAKER Magazine. Her book with Lloyd Kaufman, Produce Your Own Damn Movie!, will be released by Focal Press later this year. She continues to enjoy working on Suzy & Duddy, the comedy web series for YouTube created with fellow Class of 2003 members Nick Basta and Dan Domingues. Dan Domingues was in NY Classical Theatre’s Cymbeline last summer and did Julius Caesar and A Christmas Carol at Portland Stage in Maine last fall and winter. This year he recorded his first voice over for a national commercial, appeared in Artistic New Directions’ Eclectic Evening of One-Acts, was Off-Broadway in Night Sky and will be in His Greatness at the 2009 Fringe Festival. Georgia Hatzis appeared on TV in Lie to Me, Medium, CSI:NY and Bunker Hill. Karen Kopryanski (Voice) teaches at the Boston Conservatory. Rebekah Maggor directed readings at M.I.T. and the Central Square Theatre of her play Frontier Theory, which she co-wrote with astrophysicist James Battat. She is working on a new play entitled Rathaus Shiva, which will be given a workshop at the Long Wharf Theatre in the fall, directed by Eric Ting. She served as dialect coach on several film and television projects this past year including the PBS series American Experience: We Shall Remain and the Spike TV pilot Madso’s War. During the spring semester she taught the Public Speaking Practicum, the first public speaking course offered at Harvard College in nearly four decades. On June 1st, she became a mother! Laura Wayth is the Assistant Professor of Acting and Directing at the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire department of theatre. Mindy Woodhead has just returned from serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Morocco. She taught theatre and assisted women in remote villages generate sustainable sources of income through the sale of their crafts. She is currently performing in Shear Madness in Las Vegas and working as the executive assistant to the CEO of the theatre automation company Fisher Technical Services, Inc.
2004
Jonathan Broke played his first lead role in the British indy film Showreel, a psychological comedy/thriller to be released in September. Jonathan has been working as an actor / producer for The Heritage Art's Company, a young and vibrant, site-specific theatre company who work all over the U.K. Their first major production, Where Soldiers Sleep, was a hit and has provided opportunities to collaborate with some of London's most exciting young artists and musicians. His comedy sketch group, "Comedy Bitch" are heading north to the Edinburgh Festival this summer. Tug Coker appeared on TV in episodes of Numb3rs, How I Met Your Mother, Chuck and The Office and in the film That Which is Within. Torsten Hillhouse spent last summer and fall working at Creede Repertory Theatre in Colorado playing the title character in the world premiere of the western Billy Hell. He followed that up this winter with a production called Out of Sterno at Portland Stage Company. This summer he'll be playing Edmund in New York Classical Theatre's King Lear. Laura Nordin and Michael Wheeler (02) earned an ART Alumni Lab Grant for their production of Stranger at Praxis Theatre in Toronto which opened to a sold out audience. Laura received a glowing review in the Globe and Mail for her portrayals of Marie and Madame LaDroit in Stranger. She is assistant directing Tim Buck 2 for Praxis based on the true events surrounding Tim Buck's incarceration during the 30's. As an ensemble cast member workshopping Agamemnon, directed by Michael Wighton, Laura is re-experiencing the “special pleasure” that Russian movement techniques bring to each rehearsal. Laura is also in pre-production for a trilogy of short films she co-wrote and will be co-directing in September. They are based on the novel When I Was Young And In My Prime by Alayna Munce. She played "Spooky Woman" in the feature film Pontypool. Theresa Pletchon and Patrick McCaffrey got married on August 8, 2009 in Westchester. Theresa directed the play The Diary of Anne Frank this year at KIPP Infinity Charter School in Harlem. Nicole Shalhoub has spent the last 8 months on tour with Mary Zimmerman's Arabian Nights at Berkeley Rep, KC Rep and finishing up in Chicago at the Lookingglass Theater through the end of August 2009 with fellow A.R.T. alum Evan Zes (00). Molly Ward returned to the ART to play Nina in this past season’s The Seagull. In New York she appeared in The Nosemaker’s Apprentice at the Brick Theatre and spent six weeks this past summer in the Public Theatre’s intensive Shakespeare Lab.
2005
Kirsten Bowen (Dramaturgy) is finishing her third year as Literary Associate of Signature Theatre Company in NYC. This past fall she dramaturged Bertolt Brecht's Baal at Columbia Stages featuring Mickey Solis (05), Lorraine Rodriguez (06), and Merritt Janson (08). Currently she is working on Horton Foote's The Orphans' Home Cycle, which Signature is co-producing with Hartford Stage, so she gets to collaborate with Hartford Senior Dramaturg and ART alum Chris Baker (90). She also lives with Emily Otto (Dramaturgy 05) and Mark Killian (Dido Queen of Carthage, 2004-05) in Astoria. Peter Cambor was on the TV shows Pushing Daisies, Trust Me, NCIS and it’s spinoff NCIS: Los Angeles. He also shot the film Alice Jacobs is Dead. Michael Cobb (Voice and Speech) continues as Head of Voice and Speech at the National Theatre Conservatory, where he had his first go at teaching the Shakespeare Scene Study class and coached an adaptation of Carmen (Brazilian Portuguese!), as well as Three Sisters (also playing Ferapont), Man and Superman, Macbeth, Cloud 9, and a Hamlet directed by Robert Richmond (formerly of Aquila Theatre), on which he will serve as a combined coach/assoc. director for a full production next year. He was also certified as an Associate Teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework® and taught Beginning and Intermediate Acting at the Denver Center Theatre Academy. Julia Devine (Benn) appeared as “Josefa” in Brecht’s A Man’s A Man directed by Ron Sossi at the Odyssey Theatre in Los Angeles and composed original music for the production. She also played accordion in a special benefit for acclaimed French film star Leslie Caron. She is currently working on a music album with her husband. Akiva Fox (Dramaturgy) is the Literary Associate at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, DC. Deborah Knox is currently living in West Hollywood, California across from fellow ART alum Katierose Donohue (05) This past month, she played Gwyneth Wexler on an episode of In Plain Sight on the USA network and before that appeared on ABC's Brothers & Sisters. She is a clown in Scott MacArthur's film, The Bare Show. Last fall, she played a countess in a long run of a Moliere play that took up a lot of her time. Over the past few months, she has been back and forth to NYC working on a friend's new show, Diary of a Teenage Girl. She is a regular at the Zephyr Theater in West Hollywood, where she most recently did a reading with Joey Pantoliano. This summer she will have a part in Eli Rarey's new project as an emotional girl. She hearts LA. Nora Long (Dramaturgy) is starting a theatre company with friend Dawn Simmons in Boston called New Exhibition Room. Their inaugural production, with Nora as director, will be Shh! and opens this summer. Jake Manabat again played Song Liling in M. Butterfly - this time at the Chandler Studio Theatre in Los Angeles - and was honored with an LA Weekly Theatre Award Best Actor nomination for his performance. He can also be seen in a recurring role on heretv!'s The Lair as well as ads for Iams and HSBC. Mickey Solis returned to the ART to play Konstantin in this past season’s The Seagull. In New York he appeared in An Oresteia at Classic Stage Company and followed that with A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Shakespeare on the Sound in Connecticut with music by 2008 Tony Winner for Passing Strange, Stew. Zuzanna Szadkowski continued to play "Dorota" in the second season of The CW's Gossip Girl, and had the chance to shoot six webisodes entitled "Chasing Dorota" about her character's secret past in Poland (available on CW.com). She also appeared on Guiding Light as Sister Angelica, a Bosnian nun enmeshed in a highly dramatic baby-theft incident.
2006
Devon Berkshire has been tirelessly working with theater company, Studio 42, for which she is a founder and Producing Director, and the staff of which now includes '06 ART classmates David Mitsch, Mariko Barajas, Sandra Struthers and Natalie Saibel (07). In October 2008, they relaunched the Starving Artists Ball as a ritzy Halloween event at Judson Church attended by 500 supporters, and in March of '09 they produced the original play Gaugleprixtown at Theatre Row in New York, which featured Devon alongside Tony Roach (06). Learn more about Studio 42 at www.stu42.com. Scott MacArthur spent much of this past year on a short film that he wrote and directed called The Bare Show with fellow alums Sean Simbro (06), Dinora Walcott (06), Deb Knox (05), Katierose Donohue (05), Nicole Mueller (07), Kristen Frazier (07) and Jackie Breckner (07). It's the story of a young clown that sets about saving his town through the performance of his man show, The Bare Show. Sandra Struthers was in The Glass Cage at the Mint Theatre in NY and played Stella in A Streetcar Named Desire at the Walnut Street Theater in Philadelphia. She’s also been doing Story Coaching Outreach with the storytelling organization, The Moth.
2007
Brian Farish collaborated with Bone Orchard Theatre Company (boneorchard.org) on Times 365:24:7 at the Brick Theater this last spring with Gardiner Comfort (08). He also returned to his undergrad alma mater, Calvin College, for a short term in January to teach Acting. He recently was awarded a grant to write the script for an inter-generational community-based theatre group called Roots&Branches. Heather Helinsky spent the 2008-2009 season as the Resident Dramaturg for the Pittsburgh Public Theater. In addition to dramaturging six mainstage plays (favorites were Radio Golf with director Ron OJ Parson, Metamorphoses, A Moon for the Misbegotten with director Pam Berlin, and the world premiere of Harry's Friendly Service), she also ran the PUBLIC EXPOSURE new play development series and organized symposia. She is spending summer 2009 as the dramaturg for the Telluride Playwrights Festival. She has a new website www.helinskydramaturgy.com and is currently freelancing. Miriam Weisfeld (Dramaturgy) is the Dramaturg at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Washington DC. She can be reached at miriam@woollymammoth.net.
2008
Gardiner Comfort got married to Colleen Werthmann, a wonderful actress. He collaborated on Times 365:24:7, an investigative/experimentally derived theater piece with the company Bone Orchard, which premiered at the Brick Theater in Brooklyn and got a rave review in the New York Times. He is currently finishing up a year of substitute teaching in The Bronx, which is probably the most trying and bizarre day job he has ever had and will be touring the ART's production of Julius Caesar in France in the fall. Adam Kern participated in two staged readings, an Advil web-commercial, a radio play for WBAI in New York and an album recording for the new Elizabeth Swados musical. He also recorded individual songs for five upcoming composers and played a supporting role in a pilot called StartU" for the new television network, Halogen. He had a lead role in a spin off of the pilot More with Good and Evil Chris. (www.halogentv.com). www.adam-kern.com. Daniel Lê moved to Brooklyn after school and has been adjusting to life in New York City. This past school year, he worked as a mathematics tutor and high school martial arts instructor. He signed with Bauman, Redanty, & Shaul agency in January and will be touring Julius Caesar in France this fall. DeLance Minefee and Kaaron Briscoe (09) got married on January 3rd of this year. They met well before ART. Njål Helge Mjoe (Dramaturgy) works as a dramaturg at Rogaland Theatre in Stavanger, Norway on Augenlicht by Marius von Mayenburg, Uncle Vanya by Chekhov, and Endgame by Beckett. She is also managing a project for new play development at Østfold Theatre in Oslo, Norway, where she leads various playwriting courses, the focus being on fostering new plays written for young audiences. Last season she also directed two plays in Oslo. Sarah Wallace (Dramaturgy) took over as the Associate Literary Manager/Dramaturg at The Studio Theatre in Washington, DC. after returning to the A.R.T. as the script assistant for Anna Deavere Smith's Let Me Down Easy. Liz Femi Wilson played all 17 characters in Nilaja Sun's No Child at the Weston Playhouse in Weston, Vermont. She has since moved to Los Angeles were she is becoming a hardcore improv geek, has starred in four short films (one of which is heading to several local and international film festivals), and recently completed voiceover work for a UN Malaria doccumentary. Liz is on her way to the Woolly Mammoth Theater in DC to play the role of Bessie in Danai Gurira's Obie award winning play, Eclipsed.
2009
Skye Noel has just graduated from ART and will be relocating to LA in June.
She was in productions at ART/MXAT IATT of The Discrete Charm of Monsignor Jourdain as the Fashion Designer; the World Premiere of Ajax in Iraq as Sickles; Aloha, Say the Pretty Girls as Wendy; and the sketch comedy night at Club Arrow in Seriousely Funny; ART credits include Island of Any Place as Jennifer; and Andromache in the World Premiere of Christine Evan's Trojan Barbie. She also took part in several readings including The Kill Floor by Gwyneth Lewis at ART and the First Annual Harvard Playwrites Festival under the direction of Gideon Lester.
