Alumni News
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Carmen I. Abrazado (T'00) is very excited to be joining the Broadway company of The Lion King as an assistant stage manager.
Bridget Bailey (T'06) is currently working on a Seattle production of Child of Hungry Times with funding from her Benenson Award. She looks forward to working with Jay O'Berski, the director of the original production, who will be directing the new and improved version of the show she created for her Senior Distinction Project in Theater.
Heidi Blickenstaff (T'94) is appearing in one of the most popular new musicals of the season called [title of show] , which has extended its run three times Off-Broadway at the Vineyard Theatre.
Anne Butler (T'04) is currently working as a Barter Player at the Barter Theatre in Abingdon, Virginia. She is acting and singing in two shows on Barter's mainstage and in several children's theater pieces on Stage II.
Maggie Chambers (T'06) is working for an educational consulting firm in Hampton, Va. making films for its math tutorial program and voiceover recordings for computer programs. She'll also be directing for a theater summer camp in Norfolk, Virginia. She moves to Chicago at the end of August to live with Vanessa Rodriguez (T'06) and will study at Act One Studios for the summer intensive program, funded by her Benenson Award.
Cheryl Chamblee (T'97) and partner-in-crime Tamara Kissane (T'95) are directing their original play brooms-a play about saying yes , a both hands theatre company project at Durham's Manbites Dog Theater in July. Cheryl and Tamara are also currently doing public readings of newly created texts-in-progress for upcoming both hands shows. After directing the December 2005 run of both hands theatre's piece~meal at Manbites Dog, Cheryl appeared in Manbites Dog Theater productions of The Last Two Minutes of the Complete Works of Henrik Ibsen and The Fall to Earth (in which she was so happy to be directed by Jeff Storer for the first time since her Duke days!). She is glad to be a Durham Arts Council Emerging Artist, company member of Little Green Pig Theatrical Concern, and co-artistic and managing director of both hands theatre company.
Kat Cross (T'99) graduated with an MBA from the Yale School of Management in May of 2005 and is now working as the General Manager of the Flea Theater. The Flea is an Off-Off-Broadway theater in Tribeca (in New York City), which is about to enter its 10th anniversary season.
Alec Duffy (T'98) celebrated the publication of his play, The Top Ten People of the Millennium Sing Their Favorite Schubert Lieder , in the book Plays and Playwrights 2006 . This is the seventh volume in an annual series of new plays by emerging playwrights from beyond Broadway. It includes a dozen plays from the past season in NYC .
Jim Findlay (T'96) and Ari Fliakos (T'94) continue their work with The Wooster Group. [see alumni profiles on page 7]. In addition, Jim is doing a set design for a David Lang/Mac Wellman opera based on Ambrose Bierce's short story, Difficulty of Crossing a Field, and he will co-design sets, lights, and video for Must Don't Whip 'Um which has already been booked in Minneapolis, Seattle, Philadelphia and New York. His company, Collapsable Giraffe, is starting to work on its next performance piece, tentatively called Pee-Pee-Maw-Maw . Ari continues film and television work outside The Wooster Group and appeared last year in Law and Order "Ghosts," Law and Order: Criminal Intent "False-Hearted Judges," and a short film called Pills .
YoonHye Grace Ha (T'05) is working as a paralegal in Chicago and is looking toward going to law school in 2007 or 2008.
Caroline Kessler (T'03) has just returned from filming Visions in Rome, a psychological thriller in which she plays a young under-cover FBI agent. The film she finished last fall, Oliviero Rising with Vincent Gallo, should release for the holidays.
Talya Klein (T'02) is working as a writer and director in NYC, and is thrilled to announce that she directed the American Premiere of Clocks and Whistles by Samuel Adamson, in NYC. Adamson, whose latest play, Southwark Fair , is running currently at the National Theatre in London, was visiting professor of playwriting at Duke in 2000. Clocks and Whistles was produced by the renowned Origin Theatre Company, in a co-production with Elizabeth V. Newman Productions. In her spare time, Talya helps coordinate the weekly meetings of Scriptworks NY, a playwrights' collective featuring the talent of many Duke Theater Alums, including: Sarah Bagley T'03, Caroline Kessler T'03, Faran Krentcil T'03, CK Swett T'04, and Julie Foh T'02.
Jody Kyler (T'06) is serving as Dance Instructor for the Summer Youth Theatre Camp at the Jewish Community Alliance in Jacksonville, Florida and is attending law school at The Ohio State University in the fall.
Aaron Lazar (T'06) played Fabrizio in The Light in the Piazza through closing July 2nd. PBS aired a nationwide broadcast of Piazza on Live from Lincoln Center in June. He'll be performing as a guest artist with Peter Nero and The Philadelphia Pops Orchestra in August and will be "creating" the role of Enjolras in the Broadway Revival of Les Miserables this fall.
Allan Maule (T'04) After the successful February production of his latest original play, Framing the Shot , by Wordshed Productions, Allan was happy to see this play produced again alongside his earlier comedy The Laundry Bastard at the Carrboro Arts Center this April. Since finishing his MA in Performance from UNC-CH, Allan has taken a job as a creative content writer at Icarus Studios, a computer games company in Cary, NC.
Kerry O'Malley (T'91) just completed a new film called The Flying Scissors , had a featured role on Law & Order SVU "Confrontation" which will air in the fall, and recently appeared in an episode of My Name is Earl . She is playing Nellie Forbush in South Pacific at the Sacramento Music Circus this summer, and her Showtime series Brotherhood began airing July 9th.
Kevin Poole (T'98) finished his first year of the MFA program in Theater and Contemporary Performance at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. He will be performing in the Boulder International Fringe Festival in August and completing his final year of the MFA by May 2007.
Charles Randolph-Wright (T'78) spoke to the graduating theater studies majors this spring and was featured at the Festival of the Book literary festival held at Duke. He appeared with Craig Marberry, whose book, Cuttin' Up , he adapted into a play by the same name. The play premiered at Arena Stage in Washington, DC. His directorial debut film, Preaching to the Choir, came out in April and swept the feature film prizes at the ninth annual American Black Film Festival. It features such luminaries as Patti LaBelle, Eartha Kitt, and Ben Vereen.
Andrew Rein (T'92) recently completed a run of A Thousand Clowns at the Bickford Theatre in New Jersey and a production of Tom Stoppard's Arcadia in New York City at The Greenwich Street Theatre. He stars in the indie romantic comedy short Menage a Trois , which has been in well over a dozen festivals in the past 12 months and has garnered numerous awards. He is shooting a TV demo, Domestic Bliss , for producer/director Danny Salles. Visit him online at www.andrewrein.com .
Kendall Rileigh (T'02) recently appeared in a revival of The Melting Pot at the Metropolitan Playhouse and in The Lonesome West at Stoneleaf Festival. She choreographed three pieces for ChoreoCollective's most recent production.
Brian Charles Rooney (T'99) will finish his critically acclaimed run as Lucy Brown in the Roundabout Theater Co.'s Tony Nominated revival of The Threepenny Opera , costarring Alan Cumming, Cyndi Lauper, Jim Dale, Ana Gasteyer, and Nellie McKay. He has been asked to participate in the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center 2006 National Music Theater Conference as a guest artist, performing in workshops of two Broadway and one Off-Broadway bound musicals. His cabaret act, I Enjoy Being a Boy will premiere in New York as part of the Ars Nova Broadway Spotlight in late summer or early fall.
Brian Schroeder (T''05) just finished his first year of Harvard Law School. He recently performed in the Parody , an annual student-written musical satirizing life and the law, and will be co-producing the HLS Drama Society's fall show, The Wild Party .
Adam Smith (T'98) was awarded the 2006 Emmy Award for Outstanding On-Camera Talent/Performer (Pacific Southwest Region) for When Things Get Small . WTGS is a whacky science-based TV program that he starred in, and it has received widespread attention on CNN.com, the National Science Foundation website, and in Science Magazine and Popular Science .
Stacy Moscotti Smith (T'00) recently played the role of Roberta in a reading of a new musical called Temps , directed by Melanie Moyer Williams (T'00). She will be directing Disney's Beauty and the Beast and The Dinosaur Musical this summer in Philadelphia. Her husband, Todd, will serve as the Technical Director for both shows. Stacy was on QVC as the spokesperson for Barielle on July 1st.
News from Winter '05Charles Aitken (T'01) recently played the role of Claude in Hair at the Gate Theater in London, and he guest taught in the Duke Program in London last summer.
Greg Anderson (T'04) appeared in Three Days of Rain and Western Civilization: The Complete Musical (Abridged) in Chicago. In May and June of next year he'll be in Remy Bumppo's U.S. premiere of Power by Nick Dear at the Victory Gardens Theater in Chicago.
Ashley Carlson (T'05) is doing Teach for America in the Rio Grande Valley, ten minutes from the Mexico border. She teaches 8th grade English and History and hopes to be able to start a theater club or produce a show with her students this year.
Greg Carter (T'89) is the Artistic Director of Strawberry Theatre Workshop [Strawshop] in Seattle, which debuted in 2004 with This Land: Woody Guthrie , a piece he designed and directed. This year he was the Scenic Designer for The Awakening at Book-It Repertory Theatre and Pride and Prejudice at Portland Center Stage. He is slated to design David Mamet's Boston Marriage at Seattle Public Theatre in January. Meanwhile, Strawshop is producing Fellow Passengers , a three-person telling of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol , which he adapted (opening night will include a group from the Duke Alumni Club of Puget Sound). Greg has also just received a grant to develop an adaptation for puppets and actors of Thornton Wilder's The Bridge of San Luis Rey , which will open at Strawshop in September 2006.
Jenn Chambers (T'01) just hit her one-year anniversary at the Kennedy Center in the Education Department. For the second year she'll be running the Dance Theatre of Harlem Residency Program for about 70 pre-professional students from the DC Metro area. Two of last year's graduates are dancing professionally: one at Alvin Ailey, the other at the Dance Theatre of Harlem.
Cheryl Chamblee (T'97) directed and co-wrote piece~meal , which opened December 1 as part of the Manbites Dog Theater Other Voices Series. Written with fellow both hands theatre company artistic director Tamara Kissane (T'95), piece~meal is the company's sixth original work. The cast of eight includes Duke alum Adam Sampieri (T'02) and Theater Studies faculty member Jay O'Berski , and the design team includes Theater Studies staff member, Dierdre Shipman . Cheryl and Tamara look forward to producing their play brooms: a play about saying yes at Manbites Dog in July of 2006, and Cheryl will appear onstage at Manbites Dog this spring in The Last Two Minutes of The Complete Works of Henrik Ibsen and The Fall to Earth .
Heidi Coleman (T'89) is Director of University Theater at the University of Chicago. Her most recent work as a dramaturg has been at Steppenwolf for the First Look Festival as well as Theatrical Essay and Time of Your Life , both directed by Tina Landau. Her work focuses on the integration of theory and practice, both in professional and course work.
Dani Berthiaume Davis (T'88) mounted the national tour of Little Women - the musical this fall. Check the show's website (littlewomenontour.com) to find out if it will be in a city near you, and let her know what you think of the show (really!). Also, she and partner and husband Jason Howland have launched their university master workshop program following the success of their New York City-based professional musical theater program. Their website, halfpintstudios.com, launches this month. Dani is the librettist and director of The Metal Messiah , based on Handel's famous oratorio, which will tour arenas across America holiday season 2006.
Alec Duffy's (T'98) play The Top Ten People of the Millennium Sing Their Favorite Schubert Lieder , hailed by the New York Times as "uncommonly entertaining," was selected for inclusion in the publication Best Plays & Playwrights 2006 , edited by Martin Denton. After the play's New York run at the Bank Street Theatre, it was produced at the Victory Gardens Theater in Chicago. Duffy is beginning work on a new play based on the psychological training astronauts receive to live and work for long durations together in space. He is also writing music for Robert Quillen Camp's play Alexis Poledouris & Birds , which will open in New York in spring 2006.
Vinny Eng (T'03) has been hired as the new Producing Associate at American Conservatory Theater (ACT) in San Francisco, California , making him the right hand man to the Producing Director, Jim Haire. He will be in charge of developing new theater administrators, professionals, and leaders as he takes over the leadership of the internship and assistant directorship program at ACT.
Eamonn Farrell (T'00) is a New York-based theater professional and he has quit his day job, for now. Currently he works extensively with Mabou Mines as Lee Breuer's assistant. Some projects he has worked on with Lee include Red Beads , Summa Dramatica , and the world tour of Dollhouse . He has also worked at New York Theatre Workshop on several productions including assistant directing the premiere of Kushner's Homebody/Kabul . He is one of the founding members of the Anonymous Ensemble, along with several other Dukies. AnEn produces the ongoing classical glam-anarchist rock theatre experiment called The Best (www.bellyofthebest.com).
Maura Farver (T'05) is living in New York and working on The Odd Couple as a production assistant.
Julie Foh (T'02) is currently Assistant to the Artistic Director at Playwrights Horizons. She is also a member of Scriptworks NY. For Scriptworks' Second Annual Reading Series, she's directing plays by fellow alums CK Swett (T'03) and Talya Klein (T'02). She continues to perform in and serve as dramaturg for the Anonymous Ensemble's on-going episodic rock theater project, The Best .
Caroline Kessler (T'03) recently returned from seven weeks in Rome shooting Oliviero Rising , an independent Italian feature film by director Riki Roseo, starring Vincent Gallo and Earnest Borgnine. It's due to release in 2006.
Steve Kovacs (T'98) left New York City this autumn to pursue an MSc in Design and Digital Media at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.
Aaron Lazar (T'98) is playing Fabrizio in The Light in the Piazza at Lincoln Center (see profile on page 8 of newsletter).
Khris Lewin (T'96) is a member of the resident troupe at the Shenandoah Shakespeare Festival. This season he played Hamlet in Hamlet, Antipholus of Ephesus in The Comedy of Errors, Aramis in The Three Musketeers, and 2nd Lord in All's Well That Ends Well.
Janet Menaker (T'97) formed JEM Productions and produced a showcase of the new rock musical Beautiful by Michael Arquilla and Stephen Barnett (T'97) as part of The New York International Fringe Festival in August. The cast of 14 included David Anders (TV's Alias ), Rodney Hicks ( Rent original cast), and Duke graduate Tate (Henderson) Evans (T'98). Also involved with the production were Jay Woffington (T'94) and Julie (Cohen) Woffington (T'93), as well as lighting designer Jeremy Kumin (T'86). Janet currently works as an Account Manager on the American Express Global Corporate Services and Interactive accounts at Digitas, a large public marketing agency. Previously, she served as Vice President for Eric Nederlander Productions, an entertainment production company and owner/manager of entertainment venues throughout the country. There, she worked to renovate and open the Village Theater on Bleecker Street in NYC, served as Associate Producer for the long-running Off-Broadway show Love, Janis , and teamed with Sh-K-boom Records to present live benefit concerts. In recent years, she has served on the Boards of the Lark Play Development Company, the Professional Women's Alliance of NYC, the Executive Committee of the Theatre Group within United Jewish Appeal's Entertainment and Media Division, and the Duke University Drama Department Alumni Advisory Council.
Adia Morris (T'01) is still living in Minneapolis, acting full time, and in January will be understudying for The People's Temple at the Guthrie.
Kerry O'Malley (T'91) has wrapped up shooting on a new drama series for Showtime called Brotherhood , which also stars fellow Duke alumna Annabeth Gish (T'93). The show will premiere mid-2006. She has just opened as Betty Haynes (the Rosemary Clooney role) in White Christmas at the Wang Center in Boston, which plays from Thanksgiving to New Year's Eve.
Kevin Poole (T'98) is in his first year of the MFA Theater: Contemporary Performance program at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. He is taking classes in Roy Hart voice work, Grotowski physical acting, Body-Mind Centering experiential anatomy, Developmental Movement, and Viewpoints. Next semester he will be training and developing new work with members of the Tectonic Theater, SITI Company, and Meredith Monk's company The House.
Kendall Rileigh (T'02) recently played Bluma in the American premiere of Women's Minyan (see article page 2 of newsletter) , Helena in A Midsummer Night's Dream , and Maria in Twelfth Night . Upcoming work includes Marc Antony/Caska/Calpurnia/Flavius in Julius Caesar , Dancer in The Eight: Reindeer Monologues , and Judy in Trouble in Mind .
Brian Charles Rooney (T'99) recently originated the role of Deacon Jones, the youngest member of the infamous Barrow Gang, in the workshop of the new Dana P. Rowe ( Witches of Eastwick , The Fix ) musical The Ballad of Bonnie & Clyde for Manhattan Theatre Club and the NY Musical Theatre Festival 2005. He will appear on Broadway in the Roundabout Theatre Company's revival of The Threepenny Opera as Lucy Brown (yes, a daring casting move - NOT a drag performance - if you come see it, you will understand) with Alan Cumming, Edie Falco, and Jim Dale.
Brian Schroeder (T'05) is enjoying studying law at Harvard and has joined the drama society and will be part of the Parody this spring.
Charles Randolph Wright's (T'78) most recent directing credits include Brian Stokes Mitchell in Love/Life (Lincoln Center) and Tough Titty (Williamstown). Charles recently directed the feature film, On the One (Grand Jury and Audience prize American Black Film Festival). His next feature is Sanctuary (written by Budd Schulberg). He will also direct a segment of a new TV series South of Nowhere , an original new half-hour dramatic series from veteran creator/executive producer Tom Lynch that tackles issues of family, racial identity, sexual identity, parental expectations, faith and peer pressure, among others. It will run on The N, the nighttime network for teens. His adaptation of Cuttin' Up , a new theatrical piece about the intimate world of the black barbershop, has just finished a run at Arena Stage in Washington, DC.
News from Spring 2005Ashley Carlson (T'05) is going to the Rio Grande Valley in Texas with Teach for America for two years and will be teaching in poor, low-performing public schools there. She hopes to incorporate theater into her classes.
Cheryl Chamblee (T'97) appeared in Gore Vidal's On the March to the Sea , a part of Theater Previews at Duke. She and fellow Duke Drama alum Tamara Kissane (T'95) are co-artistic directors of both hands theatre company, which is based in Durham, NC. both hands recently presented right now this minute: a script in development as part of Manbites Dog Theater's Other Voices Series. right now this minute included the creative contributions of Duke alums Bart Matthews ( T '96), Kevin Poole ( T '98), and Adam Sampieri ( T '03). Tamara and Cheryl are currently working to complete right now this minute in anticipation of a full production in December of this year.
Drew Cortese (T'97) played Orlando in As You Like It at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, MN in the spring.
Dani (Berthiaume) Davis (T'88), working with David Richards ( T '89) and Theater Previews at Duke, produced Little Women - The Musical on Broadway this season. It opened at the Virginia Theater in December, and closed in May. The star of the show, Sutton Foster was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical. The production begins its first national tour starring Maureen McGovern, who played Marmee on Broadway and in the Theater Previews production last fall. Visit www.littlewomenonbroadway.com for full details regarding the tour's route.
Nicholas de Wolff (T'92) has had a landmark year in 2004-2005. His last play, Jonna's Body, Please Hold was nominated for two Ovation Awards, including World Premiere Play of the year. This creation pales, however, in comparison to his latest work, premiering in late June: he and his wife are expecting their first child. He is also working with various studios and production companies in Los Angeles on business and creative strategy initiatives and continues to work with the Producers Guild of America and Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, of which he is a member. He is also currently part of the executive team launching the Charter High School of the Arts in Los Angeles. The first semester will begin in September 2005.
Rene Echevarria (T'84) is Executive Producer of the NBC series Medium.
Julie Foh (T'02) is currently working as Assistant to the Artistic Director at Playwrights Horizons. She continues to be involved with Scriptworks NY, a group for early-career playwrights, and she performs in and serves as dramaturg for The Best , an on-going, episodic, rock theater project started by fellow alums Eamonn Farrell (T'00 ), Jim Iseman (T'02), and Andrea Davey (T'00).
Peter Gail (T'00) has just completed shooting a featured role in a new Sam Mendes ( American Beauty ) film, Jarhead , due for release in the fall.
Steve Kovacs (T'98) left New York City this autumn to pursue an MSc in Design and Digital Media at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.
Aaron Lazar (T'98) made his professional opera debut with the Michigan Opera Theater last year understudying the role of the Pirate King in Gilbert and Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance . During that time he was cast as the lead in the new Broadway musical Masada set to begin rehearsals in August 2004 for an out-of-town Chicago opening. After a benefit performance in LA and completion of the demo album, however, Masada was put on hold so that changes could be made to the book. In the early fall of 2004, Aaron reprised his lead role of Bobby in the second Broadway workshop of Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman's new Broadway musical Harmony about the lives of the Comedian Harmonists. Harmony has been put on indefinite hold while the producers try to secure a theater. Last November 7, 2004 Aaron married North Carolina native and NY model LeAnn Garris in Wilmington, NC. The wedding was aired as a 2-hour special on the Food Network in March as part of a contest the couple won. And most recently, Aaron has just returned from London where he completed a 4-month run of the English National Opera's record-breaking production of Leonard Bernstein and Comden and Green's WWII musical On the Town in the lead role of Gabey. Aaron was thrilled to catch up with former professor John Clum who was kind enough to come see the production on multiple occasions.
Allan Maule (T'04) has completed the first year of his Masters in Performance Studies at UNC-Chapel Hill. After acting in the recent StreetSigns production of Jim Grimsley's White People directed by Joseph Megel, Allan spent part of his summer in London interning for a poetry and spoken word performance company called Apples and Snakes. Allan is currently preparing the script for his upcoming new play, Exposition , which will be produced by Wordshed Productions in February 2006.
Molly McCarthy (T'99) is a student at Harvard Business School in the MBA program. She hopes to put her degree to work in the arts.
Kate McCormick (T'05) will pursue a Masters in Arts Management at Carnegie Mellon for in the fall.
Stacy Moscotti (T'00) recently finished performing in the National Tour of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas as Ruby Rae, as well as serving as the dance captain. She also played the Blue Fairy in the National Tour of Pinocchio this spring. This summer, she will be directing and choreographing the Northeastern Premiere of Disney's Aladdin, Jr. in Philadelphia and performing as Cassie in A Chorus Line at the Mount Washington Valley Theatre in August and September. She will marry Todd C. Smith on September 24, 2005 in Philadelphia. She met Todd on the National Tour of Best Little Whorehouse , in which he served as the Associate Technical Director and the Master Carpenter. Duke Graduates Melanie (Moyer) Williams (T'00), Andrea Davey (T'00), and Emera Krauss (T'00) are bridesmaids and Emily Crawford (T'00) is the Maid of Honor. Please visit stacymoscotti.com for more info and updates.
Kerry O'Malley (T'91) is currently appearing in a new play called Flight by Garth Wingfield at the Lucille Lortel Theatre Off-Broadway. Directed by Nick Corley, it is about 14 years in the life of Charles Lindbergh. Four-time Tony nominee Gregg Edelman plays Lindbergh; she plays Anne Morrow Lindbergh. It is produced by the Melting Pot Theatre Company. She is looking forward to shooting a new drama series for Showtime on July 6th. It is currently called Brotherhood and is mostly about an Irish American family in Providence, RI, and their lives in politics and crime.
Kevin Poole (T'98) left the Theater Studies Department office after seven years to begin the Contemporary Performance MFA program at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. Kevin played the Baron-Docteur in Suzan-Lori Parks' Venu s with Raleigh Ensemble Players in February and performed in a reading of right now this minute with Tamara Kissane (T'95) and Cheryl Chamblee (T'97) of both hands theater company in May.
