IPA Spring 2016 Newsletter by Institute of Performing Arts

Welcome to the fourth IPA newsletter! The Institute of Performing Arts at Tisch School of the Arts includes the Department of Dance, Design for Stage and Film, Graduate Acting, Department of Drama, Graduate Musical Theatre Writing, Graduate Theatre Production and Department of Performance Studies. In addition, Open Arts and the Department of Art & Public Policy are now officially part of the Institute of Performing Arts. Chairs, Associate Chairs, faculty and students from these departments are meeting on a regular basis and sharing concerns, ideas and plans for the future. This newsletter highlights Spring 2016 events sponsored by IPA and significant happenings in each of our Departments. What we’re able to share here represents only a small portion of the exciting work that is going on in all corners of the IPA in both our conservatory and academic programs. Our IPA office is in Room 267 at 715 Broadway, Second Floor. It is being run by Hali Alspach and her office hours 9:00am-‐5:00pm, Monday through Friday. Julianne Wick Davis is the Program Coordinator and can be reached at 212-‐992-‐9322. Sarah Schlesinger can be reached at ss4@nyu.edu. We’re anxious to hear your ideas for collaborative programming, events, etc., so feel free to contact us at any time. Sarah Schlesinger Associate Dean, IPA

-‐IPA Department Highlights-‐

Art & Public Policy Art and Public Policy Faculty Updates

v Pato Hebert testified at the 2016 United Nations General Assembly High-‐Level Meeting on Ending AIDS (HLM) for the 2016 Political Declaration on behalf of a platform of global advocates and civil society (Pictured to the right, photo courtesy of Global Forum for MSM & HIV (MSMGF Twitter) v Anna Deavere Smith has been announced a 2016 Guggenheim Fellow. v Karen Finley was interviewed by Theater Jones ahead of her performance of "The Jackie Look" at the Kessler Theater in Dallas, where she performed as part of the Dallas Art Fair in March.

v Pato Hebert's "In, If Not Always Of" featured in Fraction Magazine's Issue 85. (Pictured on page 4.)

The Art of Justice Second Convening

Produced by the Caribbean Culture Center-‐African Diaspora Institute, NYU's Dept. of Social & Cultural Analysis Institute of African American Affairs, Latino Studies, The Tisch Institute of Performing Arts, Dept. of Art & Public Policy, and Institute for Research in African American Studies at Columbia University.

Memories of the Revolution: Locating Lesbian Culture in the Age of Queer

A panel discussion in conjunction with Memories of the Revolution: The First Ten Years of the WOW Cafe Theater Produced by NYU's Dept. of Art & Public Policy, Dept. of Performance Studies, The Tisch Institute of Performing Arts, and The Fales Library & Special Collections.

Dance This semester has been filled with plenty of Tisch dance performances. The MFA 1 performance showcased the work of first year MFA candidates. Tisch Dance Works 4 presented works created by first and second year BFA candidates. Second Avenue Dance Company celebrated the company’s final show of the year with restaged works of all renowned guest choreographies and student choreographers from throughout the year. Guest choreographers included Gregory Dolbasian, José Limón, Vita Osojnik, and Netta Yerushalmy. Students from the company that were chosen to present their works were Justin Faircloth, David Gourov, Patrick McGrath, Angie Moon, and Maddie Schimmel. There were three more shows in late April and early May. Students in the Choreographers, Composers and Designers workshop class presented their work, Tisch Dance Works 5 presented works by first and second year BFA candidates, and second year MFA candidates had their final show.

Faculty and Student Updates

Department Chair, Sean Curran and his company Sean Curran Company was presented in April by Dance Affiliates in Philadelphia on their Next Move Concerts Series. Sean will direct and choreograph Ariadne On Naxos for an opera Theater of St Louis this summer. He will also choreograph La Boheme, Macbeth, and the World Premiere of Shalimar the Clown. Later this summer Sean will choreograph the Benjamin Britten opera, Vanessa, for Santa Fe Opera. Associate Arts Professor and Ballet master Cherylyn Lavagnino, Artistic Director of Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance choreographed “Dance of the Hours” for the end of the third act of La Gioconda for the Verisimo Opera Company in April. Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance performed on April 17th at the Bergen Performing Arts Center. Check out this playful photo of NYU’s Second Avenue Dance Company (SADC) member Justin Faircloth in a moment of humor as the dancers waited back stage. The dancers wore fabulous period neck ruffs as part of their costuming. Justin created a hairpiece with his ruff! Associate Arts Professor Jeremy Nelson has been working on duets “B” and “E” with Luis Lara Malvacias/3RD CLASS CITIZEN to be performed at La Mama Moves Festival in the East Village May 19th and 20th, FUSIONI Improvisation Festival in Florence, Italy July 1st, and Radial System in association with Sasha Waltz and Guests

in Berlin, Germany July 9th. He is also creating a new piece on Footnote Dance Company in Wellington, New Zealand at the end of May into June. From July 25th-‐29th he will be on faculty of MELT movement research workshop in New York. Kay Cummings, Associate Chairperson of the Department of Dance was selected to receive the 2015-‐2016 David Payne-‐Carter Award for Excellence in Teaching, along with Allen Lee Hughes, from the Department of Design for Stage & Film. Paul Galando, founding faculty member and pioneer of the Dance and New Media program at Tisch Dance, has just been promoted to president of Dance Films Association of its Board of Directors, which is in its 60th year, and just had their 45th annual Dance on Camera Festival, co-‐presented with the Film Society of Lincoln Center. After a year and half curating for it, he launched and directs the new Digital Technology Initiative at Gibney Dance – a trailblazing open community dance organization with state of the art facilities in NYC. He is constantly volunteering to create opportunities for his students in world-‐class institutions including 92st Y’s Harkness Dance Center, Merce Cunningham Trust, Martha Graham Dance Company, and New York City Ballet. Paul strives to continue to create partnerships, collaborations, and opportunities for filmmakers and dancemakers to utilize digital technologies as a means of building their audiences. Paul has also started the “Dance and New Media Foundation” that helps support and fund alums, students, and people involved in Dance and New Media.

Musician Accompanist Spotlight!

Tisch Dance is extremely fortunate to have live music in every technique class. There is a wide range of musicians mastering in styles such as techno, electric guitar, piano, and percussion. Dorian Wallace, composer, improviser and pianist of contemporary classical music, new music, radical avant-‐garde, spontaneous improvisation and free jazz is one of many dance accompanists for Tisch Dance that is also a pioneer in the avant-‐garde music scene in New York City. His works encompass chamber ensemble, spontaneous improvisation, orchestral, opera, classical dance, large jazz ensemble, vocal, percussion, electronic, electroacoustic, and film. He is Co-‐Founder and Artistic Director of Tenth Intervention, a contemporary classical presenter in New York City. Besides playing at NYU Tisch, Dorian is also a staff accompanist for dance at Barnard College of Columbia University, The Martha Graham Dance Company, The Julliard School, Ballet Hispanico, Kat Wildish, and Doug Varone and Dancers. Dorian’s Recent and upcoming projects: 1. We Are Legion is an immersive chamber work by Dorian inspired by the hacktivist collective, Anonymous. Represented at the core of this work is the group's mission to uphold freedom of speech and freedom of expression. Anonymous actively fights against corporate, civic, and religious extremism and oppression.

We Are Legion is performed in a space where the audience, musicians, and dancers are seated amongst one another. Everyone is wearing Guy Fawkes masks. There is no separation between performer and audience. There is no hierarchy. 2. An opera written for youtube, "The Rest is Shit" is an examination of our over-‐stuffed media world, where noise is searched for patterns of intelligence, and our short attention span culture predicts the demise of ability to think and feel. The opera is written by Dorian Wallace and David Kulma, directed for video by John Sanborn. 3. Vocalist Paul Pinto joins The Tenth Intervention Ensemble in an evening of absurdity, featuring Peter Maxwell Davies’ monodrama, Eight Songs for a Mad King. Also on the program is Sequenza V by Luciano Berio, performed by trombonist Mark Broschinsky, and a world premiere of Velocirapture by Matt Marks. Look for his recent work with Heidi Latski Dance in Times Square! Photos by press release of Clear Channel

The Exciting Futures of Graduating BFA Seniors Courtney Escoyne – Assistant Editor at Dance Magazine Georgios Metax Maniadis – World Tour of West Side Story Natalia Sanchez – World Tour of West Side Story

SADC Experience Becoming a Company: A student’s perspective on SADC 2016 By Courtney Escoyne

“Alright,” a wry voice cuts through the low-‐level chatter. “Shall we do something?” Giada Ferrone, ballet teacher and director of the Second Avenue Dance Company, smiles at the room before quickly running through the first barre combination of the evening. Outside of 111 2nd Avenue the sun is just setting, but inside the graduating class of Tisch School of the Arts Department of Dance is warming up for their final performance of their NYU careers. It’s the fifth night of Major Dance 2016, colloquially referred to as Retro; the concert is a challenging one, and tiredness is visible in the slump of shoulders, the lethargic stretches across the studio. But then the music begins, and slowly the dancers straighten and quicken, the excitement of the evening sparking into a visible, burning desire to move. I can remember meeting this group three years ago at the start of my Tisch Dance career. I was sitting in a room, looking around at the most ragtag combination of dancers I had ever seen in one place and being told that in three years, we would be a company. I remember wondering how I ended up among such beautiful people, wondering how on earth these strangers could collectively become something more than a seemingly random assortment of 18 and 19 year-‐old kids After two years of ballet and contemporary technique, dance composition and improvisation, and a plethora of lectures both inside and outside of the department, we found ourselves showing up for the first day of our senior year as a group that knows each other and ourselves. Flipping the schedule of morning technique and afternoon academics we were used to from the last couple of years, our mornings were now our own. Some of us spent them on campus, finishing up general education requirements or squeezing in an extra psychology, mathematics, or economics class for double majors and minors. Others took the mornings to work, a handful of us in the Dance Office running tours for prospective students and making sure that the underclassmen’s days ran smoothly. We would wander in around lunchtime to get ready for afternoon company technique class—ballet some days, contemporary others—before afternoons and evenings chock full of rehearsals. Rehearsing took up the biggest block of our time. Most of the work we perform at our concerts in October, December, and March are original student works, with interested students using one of their three allotted creative projects per concert to experiment on peers, putting the results onstage after seven weeks of rehearsals and a couple of rounds of feedback from professors and fellow company members. Two years of composition classes and watching each other’s work has had its effect, the final products fantastic in their clarity and diversity. Taking up even more time are guest choreographer works—two in October, two in December, all of which are shown in Retro at the end of the year. We had known our casting since the summer, having had our first audition the day after last year’s company had finished their run of Retro. In October, there was José Limón’s Mazurkas, a classical modern dance piece that seven of my peers had the opportunity to perform at the Joyce Theater, and Netta Yerushalmy’s Pictograms, a visually rich and humorous contemporary dance piece that treats awkwardness as an asset. For December, Gregory Dolbashian created Avalanche 19 for the company, snatches of smooth 9

phrasework resolving into beautiful images, and Vita Osojnik composed the strange and intense Random acts of kindness in the Jack Crystal Theatre for thirty-‐three SADC dancers. Despite how well we know each other at this point, there were some surprising casting choices for every piece. I think I can speak for the company as a whole when I say how proud I was watching my peers shine in roles that they had not thought they could dance. We spent our days taking class together, rehearsing together, hanging out and working on homework or eating dinner in our breaks, sneaking into the back of the theatre to watch each other perform when we weren’t onstage ourselves. There’s an ease to our interactions that made the sheer amount of work we were doing easier to get through, teasing our friends, bringing each other coffee or cookies, lending clothes or advice or a smile. Somehow, in the midst of it all, we became a company. Looking around at my classmates now, I don’t really know how we did it. Maybe it has to do with spending almost every waking hour for three years in classes and rehearsals together. Maybe it has to do with showing up and doing the hard work every day, whether we wanted to or not. What I do know is that now I look around and see the most beautiful group of individual artists that I have ever been privileged enough to know. This year—our SADC year—has been beyond special, and as much as I will miss it, I cannot wait to see what each and every one of my peers does next.

Design for Stage and Film Tisch Design Alums Featured in New York Post

The work of NYU Tisch Design for Stage and Film alums David Zinn '91, David Meyer '10, and Clint Ramos '97 was featured by New York Post. You can read the article here: http://nypost.com/2016/04/08/broadways-‐biggest-‐stars-‐dont-‐have-‐any-‐lines/#

Allen Lee Hughes receives the DAVID PAYNE-‐CARTER AWARD

Allen Lee Hughes (Associate Arts Professor and MFA ’79) was selected to receive the 2015-‐2016 David Payne-‐Carter Award for Excellence in Teaching: The David Payne-‐Carter Award was inaugurated in 1992 with an endowment from Bob Littell in honor of David Payne-‐Carter, a former faculty member of Undergraduate Drama. It is an annual award with the recipient announced in the spring. Mr. Littell emphasized that the award expresses the views of the student body in recognizing superior capabilities in the classroom. A student committee was formed in each department and charged with soliciting nominations from the students of their department. Each committee then forwarded a single candidate to the Office of the Dean. Thank you and congratulations to the Design Department student committee (Andy Jean ‘16, Devin Petersen ‘17, Ethan Olsen ‘18) and to the entire Design Department student body. Allen, along with Kay Cummings (Dance Department), will receive this esteemed award at the Tisch Salute on May 20th.

Awards and Nominations Congratulations to Design for Stage and Film Department Alumni and Faculty award winner and nominees! Gregg Barnes ‘83 Olivier Award Kinky Boots, Costume Design Adelphi Theater, London Allen Lee Hughes ‘79 25th Anniversary Celebration of the Allen Lee Hughes Fellowship Program Arena Stage, Washington DC

Beowulf Boritt ‘96 Live Design Award for Innovation in Scenic Design On and Off Broadway Paul Tazewell ‘89 Tisch 50th Anniversary Big Apple Alumni Award Tony Award Nominations: Best Scenic Design of a Play Beowulf Boritt ’96 (MFA Design), Thérèse Raquin David Zinn ’91 (BFA, Design), The Humans Best Costume Design of a Musical Gregg Barnes ’83 (BFA, Design), Tuck Everlasting Paul Tazewell ’89 (MFA, Design), Hamilton Best Costume Design of a Play Clint Ramos ’97 (MFA Design), Eclipsed Lucille Lortel nominations: Mimi Lien ‘03 – Outstanding Scenic Design, John David Zinn ‘91 – Outstanding Scenic Design, The Humans Clint Ramos ‘97 – Outstanding Costume Design, Eclipsed Mark Barton ‘03 –Outstanding Lighting Design, John Lucille Lortel Award nominated productions that have NYU designers: ‘Tis Pity She's a Whore, Red Bull Theater Sara Jean Tosetti ‘06, costume designer Robber Bridegroom, Roundabout Donyale Werle ‘02, set designer Forever, The Public Theater Kaye Voyce ‘94, costume designer ML Geiger, lighting designer 13

Grounded, The Public Theater Peter Nigrini, projection designer Mike Birbiglia: Thank God For Jokes Beowulf Boritt ‘96, set designer The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey Jo Winiarski ‘03, set designer Iowa, Playwrights Horizons Arnulfo Maldonado ‘05, costume designer Southern Comfort, The Public Theater Ed McCarthy ‘91, lighting designer Tappin’ Through Life Darrel Maloney ‘92, projection designer The Wildness: Sky-‐Pony’s Rock Fairy Tale Tilly Grimes ‘10, costume designer The International Opera Awards 2016 Finalists 2015 -‐Erhard Rom ‘92 -‐Paul Steinberg (Arts Professor) 2016 -‐Vita Tzykun '05

DESIGN SHOW 2016

An exhibition featuring the work of 16 set, costume, lighting, and film designers of the MFA graduating class. Preview: Tuesday, May 10 3-‐5pm Opening: Tuesday, May 10 5-‐8pm Open daily: May 11-‐19 noon-‐8pm Meet the Designers: Saturday May 14 2-‐5pm Department of Design for Stage and Film 721 Broadway, 3rd floor North New York, NY 10003

Design Show 2015

Art Directors Guild Film Society screened Guys and Dolls in A Tribute to Production Designer Oliver Smith By John Iacovelli The ADG Film Society and co-‐sponsors The Hollywood Reporter and the American Cinematheque kicked off the 2016 season with a well-‐ attended screening of the classic film Guys and Dolls. This film garnered its Production Designer Oliver Smith a 1955 nomination for an Academy Award. This CinemaScope ® film was producer Sam Goldwyn’s triumph in the famous “Freed Unit” at MGM. The Art Director was Joseph C. Wright and the Set Decorator was Howard Bristol. It is a prime example of the fantasy style Smith was so well known for in dance design as in such American Ballet Theatre productions as Fancy Free and Fall River Legend, still in the repertory at Lincoln Center. Smith designed many classic Broadway shows including Hello Dolly!, West Side Story, My Fair Lady, On the Town, The Odd Couple and over 250 others having as many as 16 shows running in a single season. Smith went on to be nominated for 23 Tony Awards, won 9, and was given a Special Award for his producing and designing career in 1965. He kept designing until 1989. He is well known as a long time master teacher at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. The panel at the screening was moderated by ADG Film Society Co-‐Chair (and student of Smith) John Iacovelli (Babylon 5, Honey I Shrunk the Kids!) and featured three of Smiths other students: Production Designers Mayne Berke(Princess Diaries), Kalina Ivanov(Little Miss Sunshine, Grey Gardens), and Howard Cummings(Behind the Candelabra, The Usual Suspects). The panel shared memories of studying with Smith and his influence on their careers and on film design. Other former Production Design students of Smith attended the panel screening and shared their memories, including Thomas Meleck (The Larry Sanders Show), Stephan Olson (How I met Your Mother), and Peter Davidson (set designer Kill Bill 1 & 2). ADG Archivist Rosemarie Knopka provided wonderful archival photos of Smith’s production design work including original renderings and drawings. Oliver Smith’s three other films were discussed and clips were shown from Porgy and Bess (1959), The Band Wagon (1953) and Oklahoma! (1955). The event took place Sunday, April 17 at the Aero Theatre.

Drama The Classical Studio presents Shakespeare’s Hamlet in Original Pronunciation Despite the relevance of Shakespeare's work to modern life, what theater-‐maker hasn't fantasized about getting a glimpse of what an original production of these plays sounded like? This year, The Classical Studio took a step towards expanding the "original practices" movement by learning O.P. (Original Pronunciation) in preparation for the Studio's spring production of Hamlet. O.P. is the culmination of research by linguists who have spent recent years re-‐constructing the Elizabethan dialect. With the assistance of dialect coach, Jennifer Geizhals, the actors of The Classical Studio leaned O.P. and presented Hamlet, as it would have sounded at its premiere over 400 years ago. David Crystal, who with his son Ben created the invaluable Shakespeare's Words: A Glossary and Language Companion, and is perhaps the leading authority on O.P., pieced together the Alas: A student in The Classical Studio speaks to Yorick in Original Pronunciation. dialect by examining Elizabethan spelling practices, the use of puns, metrical signposts in the verse, 16th-‐century references to pronunciation (including the few surviving pronunciation manuals), and rhyme. The last proved to be of particular value for this linguistic excavation project, as many rhymes in Shakespeare's plays and, especially, the sonnets provided significant clues for pronunciation.

Throughout the fall, while the studio rehearsed and performed its production of As You Like It, students took class with Jennifer Geizhals to begin learning the idiosyncratic vowel sounds of O.P. Through the winter break, they continued their lessons with Jennifer via Skype and returned in late January fully prepared to rehearse Hamlet in its original dialect. Rehearsals proved revelatory, and the students initiated a blog to track their discoveries. New wordplay emerged from a text with which the directors were thoroughly familiar. The personalities of the characters attained greater contours than they would have in either Standard American or in R.P. (Received Pronunciation, or what used to be known as "BBC English"). While the text at first seemed somewhat foreign to the actors and directors, it grew to sound utterly natural over time. What does O.P. sound like? A blend of Irish, Scottish, Southern American, and, as many folks have half-‐jokingly noted, "pirate." Intriguingly, it sounds nothing at all like what people often presume to be a "correct" or appropriate pronunciation of Shakespeare replete with plummy vowels. The diction sounds more colloquial and conversational than the patrician dialects most often associated with Shakespeare productions. The O.P. had the effect of rendering all characters, whether royalty or commoner, of the same class. This buttressed Shakespeare's almost forgotten habit of eliminating differences between princes and paupers. The O.P. had the effect of erasing the all-‐too-‐standard distinction between the cockney speaking Gravedigger and the characters of the court. The Classical Studio shared its many discoveries with the community of the Department of Drama by hosting a symposium that brought together students, dialecticians, directors, and historians. Noted dialect authority, Paul Meier, Skyped in from the University of Kansas to address the conference. In addition, the Studio partnered with Laura Levine, an Associate Professor of Theatre Studies, and her "Shakespeare and Epistemology" honors seminar, on its exploration of the value of O.P. for both production and scholarship. Multiple actors portrayed the doomed Prince of Denmark in The Classical Studios’ production of “Hamlet.” The text was spoken in Original Pronunciation, the dialect of the Elizabethans.

Drama Explores Career Development and Inclusion

Drama hosted a series of panel discussions addressing career development and inclusion topics. In March, the department presented “So You Wanna Start a Theatre Company,” a conversation with panelists from seven successful theatre companies. The panel discussed how they started their companies and what steps students can take to launch their own. The panelists were: Andrew Neisler and Karina Martins of Fresh Ground Pepper, Mikhael Tara Garver of The Woodshed Collective, Liz Carlson of Naked Angles, Dan Markley of NY Musical Theater Festival, Eric Lockley of Harlem9, and Liz Keefe of American Globe Theater. The program was moderated by Carl Fengler and organized with support from Kim Kressal and Kenneth Noel Mitchell. In April, producer Eva Price moderated “Producing Broadway,” a conversation with Joey Parnes, Executive Producer of Broadway’s Shuffle Along and The Crucible, David Richards, General Manager of Fiddler on the Roof, and Jim Glaub, innovator of marketing, social media, and web design at Serino/Coyne Advertising agency. The Broadway Speakers Bureau, an educational program that introduces college students to non-‐performance careers in the commercial theatre, sponsored the event. The panel discussed what it takes to produce musicals and plays and offered an in-‐depth look at the similarities and differences of each genre, followed by a meet and greet mingle with students. The panel was organized and introduced by Joe McGowan with support from Kim Kressal, Carl Fengler, and Kenneth Noel Mitchell. General Manger David Richards, Producer Joey Parnes, and Creative Director Jim Glaub share their experiences at “Producing Broadway.” Also in April, Drama Chair Ted Ziter, with input from the department’s Theatre Studies faculty, presented “Inclusion, Equity, and Diversity: A Discussion on the Theatre Industry.” Performance Studies Professor Karen Shimakawa moderated a conversation with theatre-‐makers who have, in their art and activism, helped make our stages more representative of the world’s diversity. The panelists were: Angel Desai, founding member of the Asian American Performers Action Coalition (AAPAC), Ali Stroker, first actress in a wheelchair to appear on a Broadway stage in Deaf West's 2015 revival of Spring Awakening, and NYU Drama alumna; and Brian Herrera, author of Latin Numbers: Playing Latino in Twentieth-‐Century U.S. Popular Performance.

Faculty Highlights

v Elizabeth Bradley devised curriculum and led a faculty team offering "New Fundamentals in Cultural Leadership Practice" at the Lougheed Leadership Institute in Banff, Alberta Canada. Thirty-‐two high potential arts leaders from across North America gathered for a residency in Banff during NYU's spring break as the first phase of learning in a nine-‐month program. v Gigi Buffington coached Mary Page Marlowe at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre, Tracy Letts’ and Anna Shapiro’s newest collaboration since August Osage County. She led workshops for The Merchant In Venice, to be performed in the Jewish Ghetto in Venice in July as part of its five hundred year anniversary and coinciding with the four hundredth anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death. An international cast will perform the play. v Una Chaudhuri's collaborative project "Dear Climate" was featured in FotoFest’s 16th International Biennial of Photography and Mixed Media Arts, which took place at Rice University in Houston from March 12 through April 24 and was described in the press as follows: "The 2016 biennial features the work of 34 leading international artists whose exhibitions will explore the theme “Changing Circumstances: Looking at the Future of the Planet.” v Steven Drukman has a new play premiering in the fall. Going to See the Kid will open at the Merrimack Repertory Theatre. His first feature film, To Whom I May Concern, is scheduled for a 2017 release. v Dawn-‐Elin Fraser is currently dialect coaching two Broadway shows directed by Tony Award winner Diane Paulus: Finding Neverland—one year and running strong—and Waitress, written by Sara Bareilles and starring Jessie Mueller. v Kevin Kuhlke directed a staged reading of his play Your Eyes and My Eyes at the Atlantic Theater Company. The cast included Drama alums Jessica Hecht, Mary McCann, and Michael Laurence, along with J. Smith Cameron and several Drama students. The music was by Drama alum Cynthia Hopkins. Kevin also traveled to Berlin to help launch the first semester of the department’s Berlin training program, Stanislavsky, Brecht and Beyond: An Integrated Approach to Contemporary Actor Training in Berlin. v Erin Mee's production Versailles 2016 was picked up by En Garde Arts for a Spring 2016 run, and will have another extension in Fall 2016. She is currently directing a site-‐specific pod-‐play for the Avignon festival that will open in July 2016, and another site-‐ specific pod-‐play for the Grec festival in Barcelona, which will also open in July. Her article "The Rasa of Immersive Theatre" will be published in the book Immersive Performance: Engaging the Audience, forthcoming in June. Her article "Dancing on the Tongue" has just been accepted for the special issue of Performance Research On Taste. v Louis Scheeder accompanied Tisch Drama students to The Winter Institute of the Shanghai Theatre Academy, where he also directed Chinese students in scenes from Shaw's Major Barbara. Louis also launched the electronic version of his book “All The Words on Stage" on shakespearepronounciation.com. Louis also co-‐directed (with Daniel Spector) Hamlet in an O.P. (Original Pronunciation) production for The Classical Studio. (This was the first production of its kind in NYC.) In April, he moderated an all-‐day symposium on O.P. Students from The Classical Studio and Honors Class (led by Laura Levine) attended. In early May, Louis was a judge for the finals of the ESU (English Speaking Union) National Shakespeare Competition at Lincoln Center.

Graduate Acting

Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike

In February, Grad Acting produced a sold out run of the Tony winning play, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, written by Christopher Durang and directed by visiting professor Benny Sato Ambush. The play echoed the themes and characters the Class of 2016 has been working on in Uncle Vanya over the last three years. The original Broadway production starred Grad Acting alumni Genevieve Angelson. Pictured: Will Seyfried -‐ Vanya, Keren Lugo -‐ Sonia, Leslie Fray -‐ Masha, Paul Deo Jr. -‐ Spike, Sedna Jacquet -‐ Cassandra and Stephanie Jean Lane -‐ Nina.

On Race and Casting, a panel discussion hosted by Tisch’s Graduate Acting Department

On January 11th the Graduate Acting Program hosted a panel discussion titled On Race and Casting. The panel was hosted by Academic Associate Dean Sheril Antonio and featured alums Angel Desai (Class of ’97), Joel de la Fuente (Class of ’94), Andre Holland (Class of ’06), Tia James (Class of ’10), Bhavesh Patel (Class of ‘07), and Victor Williams (Class of ’95). The panelists shared their stories on navigating the professional landscape and expectations for people of color, both as established artists and emerging ones. The conversation included an investigation of how the industry is changing and how the conservatory setting might at once advocate for progressive change in the industry and also develop best practices students can take into the field as well as speaking to ways students and recent alums can self-‐advocate in difficult professional interactions. After the event, second year student Mayaa Boateng wrote, “Firstly, I'd like to say thank you for inciting this most needed discussion and also for making it mandatory. For me, the discussion displayed that 1.) we are choosing to address and talk about racism rather than ignoring it and/or pretending it does not exist and 2.) as a person of color (POC), it reminded me that Graduate Acting is a safe space to voice my experiences with racism and other forms of injustice, knowing that I will be met with people who care about helping to better my experience.” This event was the first in a planned series by Graduate Acting focusing on issues of inclusion both in the department and in the profession more broadly.

Mark Wing-‐Davey as W.H. Auden in The Double Man

In March, Grad Acting chair, Mark Wing-‐Davey took to the stage at The Public Theatre as W.H. Auden in The Double Man, a one-‐night-‐only reprise of a one man show last produced in 1981. The event was a benefit for Grad Acting, with all the proceeds going to student scholarships. It was hosted by the New York Review of Books. This event was supported in part by the Tisch School of the Arts 50th Anniversary celebration

In photo: Mark Wing-‐Davey as W.H. Auden, Photo cred. Ella Bromblin

Graduate Musical Theatre Writing

SEAN FLAHAVEN WINS GRAMMY AWARD FOR HAMILTON ORIGINAL BROADWAY CAST RECORDING

Sean Flahaven (Cycle7 ) won a Grammy as an Associate Producer of the Original Broadway Cast Recording of Hamilton: An American Musical.

TWO GMTWP ALUMS RECEIVE 2016 JONATHAN LARSON GRANTS

Nikko Benson (Cycle 22) and Sam Salmond (Cycle 20) each received a 2016 Jonathan Larson Grant. Named for Rent songwriter Jonathan Larson, the grants are aimed at cultivating new talent in musical theatre, and were presented at a special ceremony on March 21st which included a concert of the recipients' work. In addition to the Larson grant, Nikko and Sam will also receive a Saw Island Foundation Recording Grant to assist in producing high-‐quality demos. Pictured: Nikko Benson, William Finn and Sam Salmond. Photo cred. Angel Joél Ortiz-‐Perreira/Drawing-‐with-‐Light Photography

ALUM TIMOTHY HUANG WINS RICHARD RODGERS AWARD

Timothy Huang (Cycle 11) won the 2016 Richard Rodgers Award for Musical Theater for his musical Costs of Living. Administered by the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Rodgers Award was created to “nurture talented composers and playwrights by enabling their musicals to be produced in New York City.” This year’s jury included David Lang, Lynn Ahrens, Sheldon Harnick, Richard Maltby, Jr., Jeanine Tesori, and John Weidman.

ALUM ROYCE VAVREK’S OPERA JFK PREMIERE’S AT FORT WORTH OPERA

Royce Vavrek (Cycle 16) had the premiere of his opera JFK April 2016 at the Fort Worth Opera. The opera was co-‐commissioned between Fort Worth Opera and American Lyric Theater. The work explores the final twelve hours of the 35th president’s life and time spent in Fort

Worth, Texas and is the second opera that Royce (librettist) has written with composer David T. Little.

BELLA: AN AMERICAN TALL TALE WINS WESTON AWARD

Adjunct Faculty, Kirsten Childs’ (Cycle 4) show Bella: An American Tall Tale was announced as the winner of the New Musical Award at the Weston Playhouse Theatre Company. The musical explores the story of Bella, who boards a train headed west to reunite with her Buffalo soldier sweetheart and encounters many lively characters along the way. The Weston Playhouse New Musical Award supports new work by writers and composers chosen from a group of national nominees. Bella will rehearse in Vermont, present a concert on the Weston stage, and then the cast will return to New York to record a demo CD under the supervision of Kurt Deutsch of Sh-‐K-‐Boom Records. Bella: An American Tall Tale will also have its world premiere the Fall of 2016 at the Dallas Theater Center with a co-‐production at Playwrights Horizons in NYC in 2017.

THE TISCH CENTER FOR NEW MUSICALS

Thanks to a generous donation from an anonymous donor, the Tisch School of the Arts has launched the Tisch Center for New Musicals, a series of readings, workshops and productions of new musical theatre works. The series is the result of a unique collaboration between the Graduate Musical Theatre Program and the New Studio on Broadway, both part of the Tisch’s Institute of Performing Arts. The Tisch Center for New Musicals provides a much-‐needed testing ground for new musical theatre works and a valuable opportunity for emerging musical theatre performers to develop their skills as participants in the developmental process of making new musicals. This year, three new musicals will be given readings, two will be given a workshop with choreography, and one will receive a full production. Professional directors, musical directors, and choreographers make up the creative teams for these projects. This fall’s projects included readings of A Rebel Prayer by Eloise Govedar (Cycle 24) and Aleksandra Weil (Cycle 24), Love in Stop Motion by Clara Luthas (Cycle 24) and Minhui Lee (Cycle 24), and Danny and the Rocket by Marella Martin (Cycle 24) and Casey O’Neil (Cycle 24). The Fall workshop was Gun & Powder by Angelica Cheri (Cycle 24) and Ross Baum (Cycle 24). The 2016 spring season included a workshop of Salvador, by Lane Dumbois and Ani Garcia (Cycle 24), as well as a full production of All the Kids Are Doing It by Kate Thomas (Cycle 21) and Joey Contreras (Cycle 21).

Open Arts

Open Arts Choreography and Shen Wei Dance Arts This February, Open Arts Choreography students attended the Guggenheim Museum performance of Connect Transfer by Shen Wei Dance Arts. Following the performance, Shen Wei founding member and former Artistic Associate Sara Procopio led the class in a repertory workshop of the piece, providing students with an opportunity to not only witness the performance as audience but also to embody and respond to its compositional modalities as mover.

LEAP Day: February 29, 2016 Continuing our partnership from 2015 and in celebration of Tisch's 50th Anniversary, Tisch Open Arts and the Tisch Initiative for Creative Research invited students from NYC Elementary School PS3, the Experimental Theatre Wing in the Department of Drama, the Department of Dance, and the Open Arts Acting Studio for a morning of movement-‐based collaboration exploring what divides us and how we "leap" across those divides.

Second Annual Open Arts Showcase We celebrated another productive and creative year with the second annual Open Arts Showcase, a presentation of student work from this year's Open Arts curriculum. The exhibition featured student work of all kinds: films, self portraits, photographs, dance performance, special effects makeup, projections, installations, collages, portfolios, scripts, and blog publications.

Performance Studies

Performance Studies BA Updates

Maria Koblyakova, first-‐year Performance Studies BA and curatorial intern for MoMA PS1 produced “Hands,” the department’s winning entry for the Tisch GoPro Video Challenge. (Pictured to the right) Manion Kuhn, first-‐year Performance Studies BA, presented her collaborative performance, Trauma is Present as part of the Gallatin Arts Festival. Dean Green with the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Place winners of the 50th Anniversary Tisch GoPro Video Challenge

As part of NYU’s Weekend on the Square admitted students event, the Department of Performance Studies hosted a successful departmental session for admitted students to the BA Class of 2020 and their families, which included an informational session by faculty, staff, and current students, and a celebratory reception.

Performance Studies MA Updates

Laura Zlatos, MA Candidate in Performance Studies, received a New York Times review for her play “Happily After Ever,” which ran at 59E59 Theaters April 6-‐16. Natalie Serrano and Rachel Russell, MA Candidates in Performance Studies, organized the event “Wednesday Night Live! A Conversation with Comedians: Ricardo Gamboa, Marlene Ramírez-‐Cancio, and Denae Famada” on March 23rd. As contemporary Black, Hispanic and Queer performers, each guest addressed and explored the manifestations and responses to the thematic of humor in our current moment. This roundtable was moderated by Yasmeen Chism, current MA Candidate and Student Ambassador for the MA program. Vanessa Vargas, MA Candidate in Performance Studies, led a workshop on contemporary dance on March 7th at Dance To The People, an itinerant dance project aiming to provide an open space for dance training, movement research, discussion of present issues in the dance field, and performance. (Pictured left)

Performance Studies PhD Updates

Abrons Arts Center presented “Subject To Capital”, a group exhibition featuring works by artists who explore the intersections of power, subjectivity and capitalism. The exhibition was curated by Performance Studies PhD candidate Joshua Lubin-‐Levy and features work by PhD candidate Aliza Shvarts. The exhibition ran March 3rd -‐ April 17th. PhD Candidate Aliza Shvarts delivered the keynote address "A Curse: Between Concept and Conception" at "Magic: Between Embodiment and Ontology," An Emerging Scholars and Faculty Symposium hosted by the Department of Art History and Communication Studies, McGill University on February 19th. PhD Candidate Tara Aisha Willis, alongside Thomas F. DeFrantz, edited the special issue of The Black Scholar entitled "Black Moves: New Research in Black Dance Studies" engages a wide range of research topics and methodologies to confirm a vital discourse surrounding black lives and processes of dance production. The issue re-‐centers dance as an activity that confirms presence, expands cultural horizons, and restores community. Masi Asare, PhD Candidate, was recognized as a woman theatre artist to watch in Playbill. In the Playbill article, fourteen experienced and award-‐winning female Broadway artists named women in their field that they believe are up-‐and-‐coming in the industry. Adrienne Edwards, PhD Candidate, was appointed as new "Curator at Large" at the Walker Center, Minneapolis. Performance Studies Alumni Updates Branden Jacobs-‐Jenkins (MA ‘07) received the 2016 PEN Literary Award for Emerging American Playwright and the Windham-‐ Campbell Prize for Drama in March. Leon Hilton (PhD ‘15) will be an Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania during the 2016-‐17 academic year, where he will work on completing his first book manuscript while in residence at the Penn Humanities Forum. He will also teach a class in Penn's Cinema Studies program on the concept of the "feral" and the figure of wild child in the cultural imagination. Kira Alker (MA, '09), along with longtime collaborator Elke Luyten, choreographed the music video for David Bowie's 'Blackstar', directed by Johan Renck.

Performance Studies Faculty Updates

Associate Professor André Lepecki was the Curatorial Attaché to the Sydney Biennale, programming the section "The Future of Disappearance"with works by artists Mette Edvardsen and Ricardo Basbaum. Additionally, André and Carol Dysinger were co-‐conveners of the Cross Tisch Initiative on the topic The Artist As Witness, held at the Department of Performance Studies, a panel with TSOA Faculty Anna Deveare Smith, Wafaa Bilal, Carol Dysinger, and Assistant Professor of Performance Studies Malik Gaines on March 30. André held a Master Class “In The Dark” at Fabrica de Arte Cubano, as part of the exhibition Portate Bien, La Havana, April 16, thanks to a grant from CLACS. His keynote address “Futures of Disappearance: actions at the edge s of existence, was presented at the International conference “On Remains: strategies of permanence in the performing arts,” Freie University Berlin & Sophiensaele, on April 28. Assistant Professor Malik Gaines’ project "Clockshop" was funded by the Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts. His performance trio My Barbarian performed at the Fusebox Festival in Austin. In April, My Barbarian was in residence at the Visual Arts Center at UT Austin as part of the VAC’s ongoing experimental sound, video, and performance series, Sound + Vision. Adjunct Professor Kay Turner presented “Otherwise, Queer Scholarship Into Song” at Joe’s Pub on April 24th. Turner expertly culled lyrics from impenetrable-‐to-‐most Academic Texts and set them to new original music with the help of Viva DeConcini, Mary Feaster and many special guests. Associate Professor Barbara Browning continued her ongoing performance collaboration with Imre Lodbrog at the legendary downtown performance venue, Dixon Place. Imre Lodbrog is a semi-‐fictional French rock star who agreed to have Barbara Browning help him write his story. Browning pushes things forward by imagining weird adventures, and then she and Lodbrog go and live them. They document their exploits and revise the story as they go, pausing every few months to report back to their public through intermedia storytelling, projections, and live music.

Associate Professor Deborah Kapchan gave a keynote address at the European Society for Ethnology and Folklore (SIEF) entitled “Slow Ethnography, Slow Activism: Lingering in Paradox & Listening in the Longue Durée.” The conference theme was Utopias, Realities, Heritages: Ethnographies for the 21st century and took place in Zagreb, Croatia. She is giving a similar keynote at a conference entitled “Listening In: Sonic Interventions in the Middle East and North Africa” at Northwestern University in May 2016. In collaboration with visiting scholar eldritch Priest, Deborah organized a Performance Studies symposium in April entitled “Tuning Speculation: ‘Maginary Magnitudes and Sonic Refractions.” She also gave several lectures about listening at New York University in Abu Dhabi in February.

Performance Studies Events

PRAXIS The Department of Performance Studies presented the fourth annual PRAXIS, INC: Innovate, Network, Collaborate. The day long community and alumni event offered various performances, workshops, and discussions panels led by current BA, MA and PhD students, alumni and faculty. The day concluded with a performance by Carmelita Tropicana.

The First Annual Jose Esteban Munoz Lecture The Department of Performance Studies was thrilled to welcome Fred Moten deliver his lecture, “The Blur and the Breathe Books” for the first annual José Esteban Muñoz Lecture. The event was also in collaboration the Tisch50 celebrations. Andrea Fraser In Conversation Andrea Fraser spoke with Malik Gaines about her uses of performance, from her influential institutional critique works to recent re-‐ performances of historical texts in “Men on the Line” (2012), taken from a 1972 radio conversation among movement men about feminism, and “Not Just a Few of Us” (2014), which re-‐enacts a 1991 New Orleans city council hearing discussing Mardi Gras and segregation. Salon Series The department welcomed PhD candidate Nick Bazzano and alum Millie Kapp to the first BA Salon Series event. This series helps students determine how their current academic paths coincide with career aspirations. The Salon Series is composed of events that help to facilitate students’ understanding of life beyond Tisch and NYU. The series also serves as an introduction to the field of performance studies, connecting students throughout Tisch and NYU at large. Open to all NYU students, those who may wish to minor, double major, transfer, or simply learn more about performance studies are encouraged to attend! The Performance Studies BA Salon Series is an extension of our forthcoming mentorship program that will launch Fall 2016. Curating and Performance: A Colloquium The department of Performance Studies is hosting the colloquium, “Curating and Performance.” The day-‐long colloquium will include presentations led by faculty members Diana Taylor, Malik Gaines, Tavia Nyong’o, Barbara Browning, André Lepecki, and Allen S. Weiss.

Institute of Performing Arts IPA Events Collab Fest

On February 5th, 50 students throughout Tisch met in the Black Box Theatre and spent the next 24 hours in small groups with students from a variety of Tisch Department, creating a 10-‐minute piece that reflected the responses to the prompts “What excites you about the future?” and “What terrifies you about the future?” The groups were given access to unconventional performance spaces throughout the Tisch Building. On February 6th, the audience was led through the Tisch building from the Riese Lounge to the 11th floor experiencing 5 different pieces along the way. This event was collaboration between the Graduate Student Organization and the Institute of Performing Arts in an effort to promote collaboration between all departments.

Collab Fest: Students perform in the Anita Jaffe Stairwell

Collab Fest: Students peform a re-‐telling of “Romeo and Juliet”

Collab Fest: Students perform a puppet show in an Undergrad Drama Studio

Tisch on Broadway: A Conversation with the Creators of the Broadway Musical “Tuck Everlasting” Graduate Musical Theatre Writing alums, Chris Miller, Nathan Tysen and one of the co-‐book writers, Time Ferderle joined Laurence Maslon (Associate Chair, Graduate Acting) to discuss their collaboration and road to Broadway with their new musical, “Tuck Everlasting”. The evening also featured three songs from their musical, which they performed for the IPA students in attendance.

Miller and Tysen perform a song from “Tuck Everlasting”

A Conversation with the Creators of the Peter + the Wolf App On February 24th, Doug Fitch and Edouard Getaz, the creators and designers of the Peter + the Wolf app came to talk to IPA students from the Design for Stage and Film and Graduate Musical Theatre Writing departments. They discussed its many incarnations; from it’s possible life in a theatre to it’s orchestral presentations to it’s current form as an app, and how they believe the project can continue to grow and be presented in multiple mediums.

Edouard Getaz explains how they designed the set and characters for the app.

A Conversation with the Creators of Adult Swim's New App "Peter Panic

On April 19th, the IPA hosted a conversation with the James Marion (alum of the NYU Game Center) and Ben Bonnema (alum of Graduate Musical Theatre Writing) the creators of Adult Swim's new musical theatre app "Peter Panic". The conversation was moderated by Fred Carl (Associate Chairperson, Graduate Musical Theatre Writing) and covered how the project came about to their future plans to write “Act II” of the app! They also performed a live song from the app as well as debuting a new song for “Act II”

Opera America On May 7th and 8th, New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, American Opera Projects (AOP), and the Fort Greene Park Conservancy (FGPC) will presented "Park and Bark," thirteen mini-‐ operas written by students in Tisch's Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program (GMTWP) on the subject of Fort Greene Park. The operas, each under fifteen minutes, include musical dramatizations of the park's large dog walking community, the remains of the Prison Ship Martyrs from the American Revolution, and the bust of Edward Snowden (Prison Ship Martyrs Monument 2.0) that appeared overnight in 2015 and made international headlines. Six of the operas, staged by opera director, associate Arts Professor and Head of Dramaturgy in the Graduate Department of Design for Stage and Film Sam Helfrich (Glimmerglass, Virginia Opera, Boston Lyric), were performed at NYU Tisch's Black Box Theater. The other seven operas will be performed in an outdoor concert near the Visitors Center at Fort Greene Park. Students in the Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program (GMTWP) began learning the ins and outs of opera writing this spring when Brooklyn's American Opera Projects (AOP) partnered with Tisch School of the Arts for a new "Opera Writing Workshop." Led by composer and faculty member Randall Eng, the workshop is an advanced class for composers and librettists of GMTWP at Tisch, as well as recent alumni, to collaborate with professional opera singers and music directors under the mentorship of AOP, an opera company in Fort Greene that has developed and premiered contemporary operas for over 25 years. “The operas, all of which are related to the park in some way, each ran under 15 minutes, with subjects including lots of ghosts, "beta males," a revenge fantasy about musicians, and otherworldly bone keepers who reconstruct the bones of corpses in the park's crypt. (While all the composer-‐librettist teams did well, "The Bone Keepers"-‐-‐a kind of creep show meets Laverne & Shirley-‐-‐was a favorite of mine, particularly the duet for mezzo Sarah Heitzel and soprano Amelia Watkins.) They were fluidly staged by Sam Helfrich, professor and head of dramaturgy at NYU, as well as active stage and opera director.” – Broadwayworld.com "This process has been particularly helpful for anyone who has gone through school already and needs critical eyes on their work," wrote Casey O'Neil, one of the workshop's composers. "Randall and the guest instructors delivered terrific and specific feedback, which has helped make the works much stronger."

Support for the workshop was provided by the Institute of Performing Arts, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, and a multi-‐year award to AOP from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, with the free performances made possible by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.

IPA Staff Lunch Honoring the Budget Office and Department of Human Resources On April 22nd, the IPA hosted the 1st IPA Staff Luncheon to celebrate the staff’s hard work this past year, recognize those in the budget office and human resources for their extraordinary efforts, and say goodbye to Katherine Drummond, Ida Longarino and Jodi Bailey.

e a Dean Green with Katherine Drummond and Ann Mathews

IPA Staff Lunch

Guest Artists Sponsored by IPA Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company Lecture/Demo On February 5th, IPA students attended a lecture/demo given by Bill T. Jones and the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. To supplement the lecture/demo, the IPA brought a group of the student s that attended to a performance at the Queens Theater given by the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. The Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company was born out of an 11-‐year collaboration between Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane (1948– 1988). During this time, they redefined the duet form and foreshadowed issues of identity, form and social commentary that would change the face of American dance. The Company emerged onto the international scene in 1983 with the world premiere of Intuitive Momentum, which featured legendary drummer Max Roach, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Since then, the 9-‐member Company has performed worldwide in over 200 cities in 40 countries on every major continent. Today, the Company is recognized as one of the most innovative and powerful forces in the modern dance world.

Liza Gennaro

Liza Gennaro choreographed the critically acclaimed Broadway revival of The Most Happy Fella directed by Gerald Gutierrez and the Broadway revival of Once Upon a Mattress starring Sarah Jessica Parker. She choreographed Roundabout Theater Company’s Tin Pan Alley Rag (2010 Outer Critics Circle Nomination, Outstanding New Off-‐Broadway Musical) and has choreographed extensively in regional theaters across the country including: Hair at Actor’s Theatre Of Louisville, directed by Jon Jory, the world premiere of A...My Name is Still Alice at The Old Globe in California, and the world premiere of Martin Guerre at Hartford Stage, directed by Mark Lamos, Babes in Arms at Guthrie Theater, directed by Garland Wright, Kiss me Kate and The Most Happy Fella at The Goodspeed Opera House, Fiorello, Gypsy, My Fair Lady, Jesus Christ Superstar and The Secret Garden at Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera, Gypsy, starring Betty Buckley, and Ragtime at the Paper Mill Playhouse and twelve consecutive seasons of musicals at The St. Louis “Muny” Opera. She collaborated with Stephen Flaherty and Frank Galati on their chamber musical Loving, Repeating: A Musical of Gertrude Stein for the About Face Theater in Chicago and choreographed the 30th Anniversary tour of Annie.

Kristen Blodgette

Presently Musical Director/Conductor of The Phantom of the Opera on Broadway, Kristen Blodgette has been associated with The Phantom of the Opera since it first opened at the Majestic Theatre 27 years ago. She has been involved in 17 companies of Phantom as Associate Musical Supervisor (Broadway, Los Angeles, and San Francisco productions; U.S. national tours; and Australian production) and Musical Supervisor (Hamburg, Switzerland, Belgium, Copenhagen, Stuttgart, Madrid, Mexico City, Buenos Aires, and upcoming Oberhausen and Stockholm productions). Kristen was Musical Director for the Broadway production of Evita with Ricky Martin and supervised the U.S. national tour. Also on Broadway she has been Musical Consultant for A Little Night Music, Associate Conductor of Mary Poppins, Musical Supervisor of LoveMusik, Musical Director/Conductor of The Woman in White and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Associate Musical Supervisor/Conductor of Cats (Broadway and national tours), and Associate Musical Supervisor of Jesus Christ Superstar and Sunset Boulevard (Broadway, Los Angeles, and national tour). Internationally, she was Musical Supervisor of Cats in Copenhagen and of Jesus Christ Superstar, Fiddler on the Roof, and Sweet Charity in Mexico City. In August, Kristen began rehearsals for a production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Love Never Dies in Hamburg at the Operetten Haus. Other credits include Associate Conductor for Sondheim’s Bounce, directed by Hal Prince, at Chicago’s Goodman Theater and the Kennedy Center; national tours of On Your Toes, Jerry’s Girls, and Barnum; and rehearsal pianist for the original Broadway production of Carrie with Betty Buckley. As a musical director/conductor Kristen has worked with directors Harold Prince, Michael Grandage, George Abbott, Donald Saddler, Trevor Nunn, Joe Layton, Francesca Zambello, Richard Eyre, and Adrian Noble. Choreographers include Gillian Lynne, Rob Ashford, Debbie Allen, Donald Saddler, Matthew Bourne, Stephen Mear, and Pat Birch. Kristen coproduced the Broadway cast recording of Evita with Ricky Martin and the Spanish cast recordings of The Phantom of the Opera and Jesus Christ Superstar. She has served as a judge for the American Traditions Competition in Savannah, Georgia. In addition to giving master classes in preparing for Broadway auditions, she has been on the adjunct faculty at NYU and Columbia and a guest lecturer at Baldwin Wallace, University of Utah, and Florida State University. She has a private vocal studio in Harlem and is the full-‐time vocal coach for Josh Groban, who most recently released his seventh album, Stages.

Production News Lydia Witt, Theatrical Production Wardrobe Supervisor/Stitcher has received a Fulbright Research Grant, the title of which is Cross-‐ cultural Vocational Training for Asylum Seekers and Refugees: Dressmaking in Rome. This grant will build on the work that Lydia was doing last summer and presented during the Day of Community. Lydia will be researching existing vocational training programs for asylum seekers and refugees in Italy, designing a program specifically for dressmakers, and using ethnographic approaches to better understand the process participants go through when trying to integrate into work and social spheres in Italy. Although this sadly means we are losing a valuable staff member come October, it couldn't be for a better reason. No doubt we will be holding some sort of fundraiser at the top of the year, since the grant covers Lydia's travel and housing but no actual dressmaking supplies. Stay tuned!

IPA Faculty/Staff Collaboration Grants

Blood Effects for Stage and Film The Blood and Special Effects for Stage and Film Workshop a smashing , make that splattering, success. Lee by Jeremy Chernick, the workshop was attended by students , faculty and staff from Film, Steinhardt, Drama, as well as the Theatrical Production designers and staff.

JEREMY CHERNICK (Special Effects Design) specializes in making it snow, rain, burn, bleed and explode for the entertainment industry. Upcoming and recent credits include: Broadway & London’s West End: Harry Potter and The cursed Child, American Psycho, Aladdin The Musical, Let the Right One In, You Can’t Take It With You, The Glass Menagerie, Romeo and Juliet, Rocky the Musical. Off-‐Broadway and other: Guards at the Taj (the Atlantic) The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Papermill Playhouse), Joya (Cirque du Soleil), Mr. Burns (Playwrights Horizons), Parsifal (Metropolitan Opera). Television and Film: The Wiz Live, Peter Pan Live, America’s Got Talent. Chernick serves as Head designer for J&M Special Effects in Brooklyn www.jmfx.net & as Special Effects Coordinator for the Lincoln Center Festival. In 2014 his work was featured as part of an exhibition at the Museum of Art & Design in New York.

Dean Allyson Green Associate Dean of the Institute of Performing Arts Sarah Schlesinger Program Coordinator, Institute of Performing Arts Julianne Wick Davis

Administrative Assistant, Institute of Performing Arts Hali Alspach

Institute of Performing Arts Tisch School of the Arts 715 Broadway, New York, NY 10003 Second Floor, Room 267 212-‐998-‐1654