Sewickley Speaking Summer 2016 by Sewickley Academy

THE

HOLLYWOOD

ISSUE

SUMMER 2016

The Magazine of Sewickley Academy

Members of the Class of 2016 celebrate graduation by tossing their nosegays outside of the Lower School.

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Features

Dear Readers, First and foremost, I want to thank you for all of your positive phone calls and emails in regards to the Winter 2016 issue of Sewickley Speaking. I’m so glad, and relieved, to know you are pleased with the redesigned elements, content, and overall look and feel of the publication. I also want to thank the alumni who took the time to take the Sewickley Speaking survey – your feedback is invaluable and will help to shape this magazine into what you want it to be! I am continuously amazed with the drive Sewickley Academy students, faculty, and alumni possess. In this Hollywood-themed issue, you will read stories about those who dare to dream big and do whatever it takes to make their inner most desires a reality. From Hollywood hopefuls to on-screen talent to behindthe-scenes award-winning writers, producers, and directors, this issue is jammed packed with the stories of those who pursued their passion from the small town of Sewickley to the big cities of New York and Los Angeles. Do not fret former Panthers, the glitz and glamour of fame has not changed your classmates. Although you may see their acclaimed work on stage, in film, or on television, these featured alumni are some of the most down-to-earth, genuine, and grateful people I have worked with yet. No matter how much success they have achieved and how much they have grown in their respective careers, not one of them has forgotten their roots – here at Sewickley Academy. Be ambitious. Pursue your passions. And never, ever give up on your dreams. Enjoy!

Kaitlin Busch Director of Communications

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Living Amongst the Dead: Greg Nicotero ’81 The Architecture of Writing Must-See TV: David Hollander ’86 Steadi as He Goes: John Moyer ’82 Ball-ing: Hanging with Friends at Central Perk: Alex Ball ’92 Hollywood Hopefuls Susan Sour Becomes “Famous” Larry Connolly’s Short Story Takes to the Big Screen From SA’s Stage to CMU’s Elite Dramaturgy Program: Kate Busatto ’16

Contents New Faculty & Staff Profiles

Winter & Spring Sports Wrap Up

Sewickley Academy Celebrates the Class of 2016 & the 50th Anniversary of the Class of 1966

The Arts are Alive and Well at Sewickley Academy

The Many Faces of Stephen King

Joe Jackson Dances His Way Through Professional Development

Familiar Faces in New Places

Farewell, Friends!

Class Notes

Trevor Long ’88: Resident Bad Boy

Brian Hutchison ’89: From Stage to Screen

Ben Barnes ’95: From Sewickley to Hollywood and Back

In Memoriam

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EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

DESIGN

Kaitlin Busch

Third Planet Global Creative www.333planet.com

Director of Communications

CONTRIBUTORS

Julie Banks

Director of Annual Giving

Tim Banks

Tim Banks Design

Kaitlin Busch

Director of Communications

Kolia O’Connor Head of School

Pamela Scott

Chair, Arts Department; Lower School Music Teacher

Susan (Ratcliffe ’55) Sour, Ph.D. Alumni Associate

Patti Coyne Stine

Annie Gensheimer

Brittnea Turner

Win Palmer

Athletic Director

Joshua Quattlebaum Photo-Q

Director of Community and Media Relations

Erin Whitaker

Middle School Technology Coordinator

Michael Williams

Brendan Schneider

Photojournalist for the Sewickley Herald, Tribune-Review

Director of Auction and Special Events

Annie Gensheimer Photography

Kristina Serafini

Director of Alumni Relations

Susan Crawford

MichealWill Photography

Director of Advancement

INTERN

SPECIAL THANKS

Maggie McCauley

AMC SHOWTIME

Visit us at www.sewickley.org

SEWICKLEY ACADEMY WINS SILVER CASE AWARD The Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) has named Sewickley Academy a Silver Award Winner of its 2016 Circle of Excellence Awards Program. A panel of experts selected the Academy’s “First Day” commercial entry in the Video - PSAs and Commercial Spots category from among 43 entries. It was the only independent school to win in this category. In 2016, more than 710 higher education institutions, independent schools, and nonprofits worldwide submitted more than 3,350 entries for consideration in nearly 100 categories. CASE is one of the largest international associations of educational institutions, serving more than 3,600 universities, colleges, schools, and related organizations in more than 80 countries. CASE is the leading resource for professional development, information, and standards in the fields of education fundraising, communications, marketing, and alumni relations.

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Congratulations to Director of Community and Media Relations Brittnea Turner and Michael Savisky from Make Roots Marketing, who produced the commercial, and our talent, Severin Harmon ’25, Sebastian Tan ’25, Grade 5 teacher Mr. Chris Carney, and Director of Alumni Relations Susan Crawford.

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Watch all of our commercials on Sewickley Academy’s YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/sewickley.

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Tell Us What You Think!

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We’d love to hear your thoughts on this issue of Sewickley Speaking. We may edit your letters for length, clarity, and content. Please write or email your comments.

Access the digital issue at www.sewickley.org/ss

Kaitlin Busch Sewickley Speaking 315 Academy Avenue Sewickley, PA 15143 or kbusch@sewickley.org

C O

Dear Readers of Sewickley Speaking, Summer is upon us, and the joy of the festivities of our Grades 5 and 8 Commencements and Graduation of the Class of 2016 is only just now beginning to wane. The Class of 2016 made a wonderful difference in the life of the school, leveraging their individual and collective talents to achieve remarkable levels of success in the classrooms, art and music studios, and playing fields and courts of the Academy. Their record of acceptance to some of the nation’s top colleges and universities represents just one more among their many achievements. Our graduates had the pleasure of hearing from Greg Nicotero ’81, who spoke about his unlikely path to orchestrating the special effects for The Walking Dead and directing 17 episodes of this widely successful television series. One comment that Greg made during the Alumni Luncheon struck me as particularly powerful. He commented that when he told his parents that he planned to take some time off from college to intern on a film with the legendary George Romero, his parents supported him. One wonders how different his life path might have been without his parents’ support. Support of this kind is rooted in a deep faith in the capabilities of our children and what they can accomplish. This year’s graduation was the 50th in the history of the Senior School, and we were joined by members of the Class of 1966 as well as Jim Cavalier, founding Head of Senior School, who was able to present personally the Cavalier Cup to Jane Blaugrund ’16, one of the most outstanding of this year’s graduates. Connecting the past with the present created wonderful opportunities for our community, and the Class of 1966 honored Jim Cavalier for his remarkable service to the school by making him an honorary member of their class. Needless to say, this was a moving moment in the ceremony. So our graduates will go forth into the world to make their mark. They will join over 4,600 alumni around the world, in all 50 states and 23 different countries, some of whom are profiled here in the magazine. It remains a source of pride and amazement to me that we have so many alumni who have reached such heights of distinction in their fields of endeavor. Of course when we see how our students take advantage of their opportunities, perhaps it should not be a surprise that our alumni are so accomplished. Looking forward, as schools must do if they are to meet the needs of today’s students, I am pleased to share with you that construction is near completion on our new Events Center, which will become, among other things, an important place for our community to gather. In anticipation of those moments in the life of the school, 57 faculty and staff gathered after school was over to brainstorm and dream how we might use this remarkable space to support and build community. Those graduates from times past, who recall routine all-school meetings, will know how important it was to bring the whole school together, something we will once again be able to do now that we will have a space that will accommodate us all. With best wishes for a positive school year – relaxing and reading your alumni magazine, of course. Sincerely,

Kolia O’Connor Head of School SEWICKLEY SPEAKING

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By: Kaitlin Busch

Greg Nicotero ’81 was voted “Most Likely to Survive the Zombie Apocalypse” by his classmates. I’m joking, as this wasn’t a senior superlative, but the statement is somewhat accurate considering Greg has been not only walking, but living and thriving amongst the undead since the start of his epic career when he was just 15 years old. Greg grew up in the North Hills and came to Sewickley Academy in Grade 5. He credits his creative writing abilities to the skills he learned in class, especially Dr. Shirley Markel’s satire class. “Her class was the one that I was able to be the most creative in because we actually shot video commercial spoofs,” he reflected. “I remember struggling with the editing equipment. At the time (it was 1979), there were only two or three video machines, and you’d have to attach them and edit from one to the other. I remember a lot of the other students in my class coming to me for help because they knew I was one of the few people who really understood the process of video editing.” It is here in Pittsburgh, during his time at Sewickley Academy, that Greg first got a glimpse into the glitz and glamour of Hollywood. He was always a fan of makeup and special effects, but not the girl-turned-beauty-queen kind. On the contrary, he was interested in turning people into monsters, zombies, and fantasy-like characters. He befriended director George A. Romero when he was 15, and was offered an apprentice job on Day of the Dead. He was instantly hooked. His Sewickley Academy education set him up for further success at Westminster College and made the academic challenges that lay ahead easier to conquer. “When I got to college, I realized my high school education was a year or two ahead of the people who had gone to other high schools. It occurred to me that the things I was learning my freshman year of college I had already learned during my junior year at SA,” Greg said. “My first two years of college were basically refresher courses in terms of curriculum.”

Photo: Courtesy of AMC

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makeup/effects-heavy show on television and knew just the guy to call, his longtime friend and collaborator Mr. Nicotero. “Frank asked for my help on the show and told me, ‘The show will live or die based on whether our zombies are authentic,’” Greg disclosed.

Photo: Courtesy of AMC

As a pre-med student in 1984, Greg told his parents that he wanted to take a year off of college to work as an assistant in Pittsburgh on Day of the Dead, a choice his parents fully supported. “George offered me that job, and my initial thought was I would take a semester off and try it out since I always had an interest in the film industry but regarded it as a hobby. In reality, it became my career,” Greg recalled. “The next thing I knew, I was working in special effects and moved from Pittsburgh to New York City to Los Angeles within six months.” Greg learned the tricks of the trade working alongside special effects legend Tom Savini. Upon his arrival in LA, Greg refined his skill set as an effects coordinator on films that included Evil Dead 2, Monkey Shines, and Aliens. “I’ve been doing zombies since 1984. It just took everyone else a while to catch up,” Greg joked. In February 1988, Greg persuaded his friends Robert Kurtzman and Howard Berger to join him in opening their own studio, giving birth to the acclaimed KNB EFX Group. The company worked because each of the owners had a different strength. “One was an imaginative artist, the other a really good shop supervisor, and the third had a really good business sense with an artistic background,” Greg stated. “We complimented each other and provided a unique opportunity to meld into one creative force.” The company was named by combining the first letter in each partner’s last name, making it sound more like a law firm than a creative business, something the three men found entertaining. “We wanted to use Monsters Inc., but at the time we thought no one would get it,”

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Greg laughed. “And years later the movie came out by the same name. Damn.” Within a year of the company’s inception, it signed its first major film – Dances with Wolves. Prior to that, KNB EFX Group worked on a film called Gross Anatomy, which was about the trials and tribulations of students in medical school. The director needed realisticlooking cadavers to perform fake surgeries on. “Since I studied pre-med in college, it opened doors for us to be front runners to get the job because of my medical knowledge,” Greg said. Within two years of starting the company, Greg found himself moving from location to location and designing and supervising makeup effects on films alongside the very filmmakers who inspired him, including Steven Spielberg, John Carpenter, and Wes Craven. He continued to drive KNB into broadening its abilities by creating hyper-realistic cadavers, replica heads, and articulated animals. As the company continued to grow, so did his love for movies and his desire to collaborate with the best artists in the field including Frank Darabont, Sam Raimi, Robert Rodriguez, and Quentin Tarantino. He provided 2nd unit direction on several feature films including Land of The Dead, The Faculty, and The Mist. In 2010, Darabont, famed director of The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile, began developing what would soon become an overnight mega-hit admired by some of the most die-hard (no pun intended) fans – The Walking Dead (TWD). He needed help navigating the unfamiliar process of budgeting and shooting a

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Six seasons later, the zombies are more than authentic to viewers. Even with the popularity and demand of the show, it still has its challenges. Characters don’t necessarily last for very long on the show, and it’s proven difficult to manage a constantly changing cast – professionally and personally. “When you work on a movie, you film for maybe 14 weeks and then when it’s over everyone goes home. But when you work on a TV show, you become close to the cast and crew. We’re now filming Season 7, and we’ve all been together for six years. We’ve watched each other’s children grow up and spent a lot of time getting to know one another,” Greg said of the television culture. “You lose the opportunity to work with people you’ve become fond of due to the grisly nature of the show, and that’s the hardest part. Jon Bernthal, who was on Seasons 1 and 2 with us, is a huge star now. He’s gone on to do great things, and I like to think our show is a great stepping stone for fantastic actors.” Season 7 will make its debut in October, when fans will finally find out who died in that cliffhanger season finale. Although Greg gave no hints or spoilers for the highly-anticipated season premier, he did say TWD is opening a lot of new worlds this year, and fans of the comic book will not be disappointed. He foresees the show continuing indefinitely. “You can tell a survival tale over a long period of time. The cast changes, the show evolves, and new characters are written in while others are cast off. But it’s a show about survival and relationships and how people live or die fighting adversity and the success of keeping society and the human race alive,” Greg expressed. “TWD has a lot of great themes and that is what resonates with people. We still have a lot of the story to tell, and we tell it very differently than normal TV. We want to take the audience on a journey, whether it’s fun or heart-breaking or gut-wrenching. It’s a mirror of what life would be like.” Besides showing off his infamous special effects work on the show, Greg has also tried his hand at directing. Currently, he has directed 17 episodes of The Walking Dead. He credits his job as a special effects artist to the successful and easy transition to the role of director, as he understands the relationship between

2001 – Won the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special – Dunes – Part 1 2010 – Won the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup for a Series, Miniseries, Movie or a Special – The Pacific 2011 – Nominated for Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a Series – The Walking Dead – “Days Gone Bye” 2011 – Won the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup for a Series, Miniseries, Movie or a Special – The Walking Dead – “Days Gone Bye” 2012 – Nominated for Outstanding Special Visual Effects in a Supporting Role – Breaking Bad – “Face Off” 2012 – Won the Primetime Emmy Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup for a Series, Miniseries, Movie or a Special – The Walking Dead – “What Lies Ahead” 2013 – Nominated for Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup for a Series, Miniseries, Movie or a Special – The Walking Dead – “This Sorrowful Life” 2014 – Nominated for Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup for a Series, Miniseries, Movie or a Special – Breaking Bad – “Felina” 2015 – Nominated for Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup for a Series, Miniseries, Movie or a Special – The Walking Dead – “Strangers” 2016 – Nominated for Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup for a Series, Limited Series, Movie or a Special – The Walking Dead – “No Way Out”

the camera and the actors, lighting, cinematography, and choreography. Plus, he has had a lot of hands-on training with some of the best in the business. “I have had a lot of experience over the last 30 years working with some of the greatest directors in the world, including Steven Spielberg, Michael Bay, and Quentin Tarantino,” Greg said. “I’ve worked with every director I ever admired or followed or watched their movies. It’s been a great 30-year boot camp.” KNB EFX Group still exists today. One of the partners left in 2003, but Greg and Howard are still running the company. “It’s the longest running makeup effects company in the United States. Others have closed their doors or retired or changed ownership, but we are the oldest and still the busiest company,” Greg said proudly. “We opened the company when I was 24 years old, and I was just excited to be doing what I loved. I never thought where it was going to go or how successful it would be or cinematic trends. I was just making

monsters and creating cool characters. The best part about it is that it’s 28 years later and I’m still having just as much fun now as I did back then.” All the fun, hard work, and creativity has, and continues to, pay off for Greg and his company. He’s been nominated 10 times for an Emmy, and has won four times. Every nomination stirs excitement in Greg and his colleagues. “The most thrilling aspect [of receiving an Emmy nomination] is realizing other people recognize your work as being exceptional. Whether you win or not, that’s the icing on the cake,” he said. “Any award is like that, you show up to work and love what you do whether people acknowledge it or not. But it feels pretty good when people recognize the amount of blood, sweat, and tears you put into your job.” The Emmys are a time of year Greg looks forward to. He said the event is a lot of fun because each year the same group of people sit next to each other – including his

coworkers from The Walking Dead as well as those who work on the set of American Horror Story and Game of Thrones. “We all sit next to each other and say, ‘Well, you won last year so maybe we’ll win this year.’ We’re all excited, and we’re all in the same boat together.” Greg won his first Emmy in 2001 for Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a Miniseries for his work on Dunes. He described the experience of winning as “terrifying,” as he vividly illustrated. “I remember the moment when they announced the category, and my heart started pounding in my chest. I couldn’t think or hear, my adrenaline spiked, and I was in this weird place. When they announced that we won, everyone stood up and I remember thinking, ‘Why are we all standing up?’ And then I realized it’s because we were headed to the stage. It’s all a blur. It’s one of those things you never expect or anticipate how you’ll feel. The 30 seconds before is literally terrifying.”

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Average time for character makeup for TWD: 90 minutes Number of special effects artists on set in Atlanta: 6

Number of people that build all the effects for the show: 20 Greg’s favorite movie: Jaws

Greg’s favorite set to work on (other than TWD): Sin City Greg’s TV show guilty pleasure: Survivor Greg’s hobbies: Playing guitar, drawing, and painting Photo: Courtesy of AMC

So where are all his Emmys now? One is at his parents’ house, one is in his house, and two are at his office. Greg expressed his appreciation for his family. “After I won my first Emmy, I sent it to my parents and told them, ‘I wouldn’t be here if you hadn’t supported me and not scoffed at this crazy kid from Pittsburgh who went from pre-med to Hollywood.’ They never stopped me or questioned what I did. So I sent the Emmy to them and said they earned it as much as I did, and I wanted them to have it.” He also won the BAFTA Film Award for Best Make Up/ Hair for The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in 2006; the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films’ Saturn Award for Best Make-Up for Vampires in 1999, Saturn Award for Best Make-Up for The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in 2006, and The George Pal Memorial Award in 2014; the Fangoria Chainsaw Award for Best Makeup/ Creature FX for Land of the Dead in 2006, Best TV Makeup/Creative FX for The Walking Dead and Horns in 2015, and Best TV Makeup/Creature FX for The Walking Dead in 2016; and many others from organizations including the Hollywood Film Awards, Hollywood Makeup Artist and Hair Stylist Guild Awards, Online Film & Television Association, and Writers Guild of America.

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So where does he find the inspiration to continue to conceptualize, visualize, and create such realistic work? He doesn’t have to look far, as he draws the creative energy from his children, a 14-year-old son and 11-year-old daughter. He said his kids are the biggest fans of the show, and they come and visit the set and hang out with the cast and crew and their families often. “Every time I come to work I think about the legacy I’m creating for my children and the future filmmakers who will be inspired to want to do something great,” Greg said of his work. “I look back on The Twilight Zone and The X-Files and see how it changed the landscape of television and how people are still talking about and watching these shows. I hope the same is true of The Walking Dead, that 10 to 20 years from now people will still be celebrating what we’re doing now.” Fans aren’t the only ones dying to get their hands on a piece of TWD set. The actors occasionally ask Greg for a keepsake as well. Norman Reedus, who plays Daryl Dixon on the show, will sometimes request a head or prop after filming is complete. “Two years ago, we were shooting a scene in a parking lot of melting zombies, where Daryl sticks his hands inside the zombie’s eyeballs and pulls off his head and uses it to fight another villain. I put the prop in the box and sent it to Norman

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for Christmas. He put it on social media – the gift of a rotted, melted, severed zombie head,” Greg laughed. “It’s all about practical jokes and keeping it light and fun because the show is heavy and really intense.” Greg’s most recent work can be seen in True Detective, The Americans, and the recent Tarantino film The Hateful Eight – which he shot during his The Walking Dead hiatus, while serving as executive producer and makeup effects designer on Fear The Walking Dead, which was filmed in Vancouver and Los Angeles and recently wrapped its first season. As the keynote speaker at this year’s graduation, Greg was honored to share his experiences with students who are at the time in their lives where they are about to take on the world. He wanted to tell them that this is the time, this is the opportunity to do whatever they want. “My life has been a very unique journey, one that I hadn’t expected when I was 15 years old. I was always passionate about my hobbies and the things that I loved, but the fact that I was able to translate that into a career was something I never anticipated,” he explained. “It was exciting for me to be able to talk to these graduates on the eve of them going out into the world and helping them understand the fact that there are no boundaries and the sky is the limit for them.”

The Architecture of Writing Must-See TV By: Kaitlin Busch

Ray Donovan (played by Liev Schreiber) may be the “fixer” for Los Angeles’ rich and famous, but writer and executive producer David Hollander ’86 is the go-to guy when it comes to writing for television in Hollywood. David has been with the popular Showtime drama Ray Donovan since its first season. Although he did not create the show (Ann Biderman wrote the remarkable pilot), he has had his hand in writing and directing the past four seasons. “I was fortunate to come in and work with a talented group of writers in the first season. I got to go from the pilot and build out what the show could become,” David said. “A lot of the elements of work I’ve done, like stoic male characters, complicated father/son relationships, loyalty, benevolence, and family. Questions of masculinity and sexuality really speak to me, and the show is an incredibly good fit for me.” The fourth season of Ray, which is sure to play off the rich characters, interesting subplots, and continuous family drama, kicked off this summer on June 26. The show is so successful and so addicting to watch due to its gritty yet realistic human themes. The casting, acting, directing, and cinematography is top notch, and the writing is stellar – a process that takes a lot of time according to David. “It is a meandering, complicated show that will have many plots running simultaneously, and we make no bones about it. We get where we’re going because it’s so challenging – it’s the hardest show I’ve had to write because of the scale and quality of it,” he explained. “We write by episode, and each one is different. Some episodes come faster than others. We write 12 episodes a year, and the writers work nine to 10 months of the year. We have to write more than an episode per month, and there are so many rounds of editing. We just don’t write it and shoot it. We put it out when it’s ready.”

RAY DONOVAN show runner David Hollander.

Photo: Brian Bowen Smith | SHOWTIME

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RAY DONOVAN show runner David Hollander (center with glasses) is shown in this behind-the-scenes photo.

The hard work and extraordinary dedication to the script continues to take the show to the next level, luring in viewers and hooking them to tune in on a weekly basis. “The show is a deep and interesting explanation of satire comedy. The plot looks at the characters’ relationships to the things that are most secretive and shameful to them, and we are shining a light on them in different ways,” David stated. “Hollywood lets us have a lot of fun, which makes [the show] very entertaining. We sit in the sweet spot of character exploration.” The constant cycle of brainstorming, writing, rewriting, and editing has paid off for David – he was recently nominated for a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series. But all the success and accolades do not come without obstacles or struggles, as every day brings with it its own set of challenges. “This is not an occupation for the faint of heart. You have be the first in and the last out,” David said. “It’s a cut-throat world, and if you want to play at this level then you have to overcome everything. You have to look at every day as a series of really interesting possibilities and challenges.” Prior to Ray Donovan, David created The Guardian, a television show that premiered on CBS in 2001 and centered around Nick Fallin, a hotshot lawyer working at his father’s ultra-successful Pittsburgh law firm who, after being arrested for drug use, reluctantly becomes the guardian – a part-time child advocate at Legal Aid Services, where one case after another is an eye-opening instance of kids caught up in difficult circumstances. David didn’t have to look far for material, as the show was inspired by his brother Scott Hollander, the Executive Director of KidsVoice in downtown Pittsburgh. He also credited his “upstairs/downstairs” upbringing as part of his vision for the series. “My father is Hungarian and grew up in the working class. I grew up around that environment, and when I joined Sewickley Academy in tenth grade, I was surrounded by a much different world of wealth and opportunity. I had my foot in both worlds,” he explained. “The Guardian is about the collision of the working class with the affluent class, and I wanted to find a way to tell that story.”

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Photo: Michael Desmond | SHOWTIME

David also created Heartland – a drama on USA Network about heart surgeon Nathaniel Grant and the toll his dedication to his work takes on his own health and personal life – in 2007, and wrote and produced The Cleaner – another drama series on USA about a guy who transforms his life by controlling his addictions and using his story to help others – in 2009, the same year he wrote and produced Personal Effects, starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Ashton Kutcher. “The truth is, writing is architecture. You still have to build the house and design it and finish it. What you write is not what you make. It’s a suggestion of what you make. The scripts are just ideas. The making of it is the realization of that. The writing is the thing that makes the show go, and everything comes out of the writing,” David said of his trade. “When you run the writer’s room, and that’s your job as the show runner, you have to put blinders on and make sure the scripts work. The massive element that is hard to explain is the size and scale of the management of a show. One hundred and twenty-five people work here and they all have to adhere to what I decide with my colleagues, and I have a lot of colleagues I trust. At the end of the day I’m responsible for all of it. I write a lot and manage a lot and have to merge the two and realize my life is dominated by this job.” The job in and of itself is what pushes and motivates David to keep writing. “I don’t think I can function as a human being without expressing myself. It’s not external, it’s internal. It’s what gets me out of bed in the morning,” he said of his passion. “If I didn’t do what I do, I wouldn’t know what to do. I love to do this.” David got his start in Hollywood when Paramount Pictures signed a deal to have him write a movie called Becoming Alfred. Although the movie was never produced, it went into pre-production numerous times with different producers and directors including Oliver Stone (Platoon, JFK, Any Given Sunday) and Scott Rudin (The Truman Show, No Country for Old Men, The Social Network). It may not have been a “big break” by definition, but it provided the connections that inevitably jumpstarted David’s career in television and film.

“You have to be in the right place at the right time and you have to have ambition and you have to deliver,” David said of the experience. As it turns out, Sewickley Academy was the right place for David when he transferred from Mt. Lebanon High School in Grade 10. He wanted a school smaller in size that would provide him more one-on-one attention with a focus on the arts. A devotee of music and theater, he found his place with teachers Mr. Wayne Brinda and Mr. Fletcher McNeill. “Fletcher really took me under his wing. He brought with him a dynamic and mesotonic mix of a window into theater. Before him, all I knew was Neil Simon and Shakespeare, which was wonderful but predictable,” David recalled. “[Fletcher] came from avant-garde theatre and had us jump in and be political and incorporate multimedia ideas, and there was a group of us that fell into that. For me, it was a lifeline.”

David, with the guidance of Mr. McNeill, auditioned for the Pennsylvania Governor’s School for the Arts the summer going into his senior year, which ultimately led him to becoming a theater major in college. He matriculated to Northwestern University, where he quickly shifted his focus from acting to directing and writing. After graduation, he moved to Seattle, Washington, and started his own theater company called Northwest Passage. Throughout his 20s and 30s, David traveled the country writing plays and freelancing as a theater director. “My intention was to do theater, but TV just happened along the way and has really dominated much of my career, to my surprise,” David said. “I love being a show writer, it has been fortuitous.” David still keeps in touch with a few other SA alumni who are in the arts, including Brian Hutchinson ’89 and Alex Ball ’92, who played Dr. Mendelowitz in Ray Donovan last year (and shared the SA stage with David in Oliver!).

An avid soccer player and wrestler, David also liked the athletics the Academy had to offer. “Sports was a big part of my experience [at SA]. I loved the soccer teams I was on, and even came back and helped coach the first year after I graduated. That year, the team was the first soccer team to win the WPIAL and State Championships,” David recollected.

Although it may not seem like it, David’s life is not all work and no play. Outside of work, he likes to hike and hang out with his three kids. You might find him watching his favorite movie, Harold and Mod, favorite television shows, Breaking Bad and The Sopranos, or binge-watching Game of Thrones. Or he might even indulge in a few of his guilty pleasures – listening to pop music and eating Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.

In his three years at the Academy, David had roles in all the plays and musicals including The Dumb Waiter, Dark at the Top of the Stairs, and Oliver! But the arts aren’t the only thing that shaped his career. He appreciated having great literature and history teachers like Dr. Bill Barnes who helped him learn world views that he didn’t necessarily have prior to their classes.

David has some tough love for those who want a career in the writing business in Hollywood, as it isn’t something that comes easy but is something that is worth it. “Ambition is essential. Learn to tolerate your rejection without personalizing it. Be the hardest worker in the room,” he said. “Kill your ego, it helps more than you think.”

To catch up on episodes of Ray Donovan, visit www.sho.com/ray-donovan.

RAY DONOVAN show runner David Hollander is shown with Jon Voight (character name: Mickey Donovan) in this behind-the-scenes photo.

Photo: Michael Desmond | SHOWTIME

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STEADI AS By: Kaitlin Busch John “Buzz” Moyer ’82 is one of the most sought-after Camera/Steadicam operators in the motion picture industry, often on the road or on set in Pittsburgh shooting high-profile feature films and television series. But by his laid-back demeanor and amicable personality, you’d never tell he’s an in-demand Hollywood camera operator. On a Thursday afternoon at Brugger’s Bagels in Sewickley, John and I met to discuss his incredible and successful career. He waved and said hello to friends as they entered the café in between answering my questions. A lifer at Sewickley Academy, John credits his start to classmate Nico Bally ’82 and teachers Mr. John White and Mr. Wayne Brinda. He remembers the career-changing moment vividly. “I was sitting in the hallway with a friend of mine when Nico saw me and said, ‘Moyer. Mr. White is doing a film class, and he needs another person to take it.’ So I said fine. I took the class and it was great. I was always in the school plays, and Mr. Mario Melodia got me into acting in summer stock theater, but I never thought about a career in the film business until that class.” As a senior in high school, John didn’t really know what he wanted to do with his life. An avid outdoors man, he considered becoming a forest ranger. Still unsure of a chosen career path, he set out on a college tour of the east coast with his mom, guided by “Barron’s Profiles of American Colleges.” As they were driving through the Finger Lakes in New York, they decided to stop and take a tour of Ithaca College. “I walked into a building with a giant television studio, and I remember staring at all the cameras and the lights. I turned to the tour guide and asked, ‘Can I major in this?’ And that was it. I knew I was going go there,” John reflected.

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Photo: Bruce Birmelon

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John films AMC’s Into the Badlands in New Orleans.

Photo: Shane Hurlbut

In college, with no prior experience in filmmaking, John had a lot to learn not only about the industry, but about his personal interests and passions as well. He saw the film Wolfen his sophomore year and immediately became intrigued by the use of the Steadicam in the film. (Garrett Brown, the inventor of the state-of-the-art device, operated it for one of its debut productions.) “I was watching this camera work and I never saw anything like it, gliding over rubble and debris, emulating the point-of-view of a wolf. I was taken by how it was so fluid yet so precise,” John recalled. The next day in class, John asked his professor what it was exactly that he had seen the night before. Upon learning of the Steadicam, he knew that was what he wanted to do for a career. “I knew my direction, and in this business it’s an asset to know what you want to do to efficiently accomplish your goal,” he stated. Postgraduation, John took a Steadicam course that was offered in Maine. He didn’t know what he was doing exactly, but he knew he could do it. Invented in 1976, the Steadicam is a camera-stabilization system that is now used in almost every feature film and major television production. The Steadicam enables the operator to capture a smooth, fluid shot free from bumps and shakes. The camera itself weights 65-70 pounds and is strapped to the operator’s body when in use. John compared the experience of wearing the camera as an interpretation of dance. “Your relationship with the machine has to be artfully done. You have to carry this equipment with a rhino’s strength but operate it like a ballerina,” John said of his training. After finishing the course, John moved back to Pittsburgh and started filming training videos for corporations like DDI and Westinghouse. Since this type of work is all freelance, it was imperative for him to start to build his portfolio and get his resume out – getting more work directly coincided with his reputation. Along the way, John met John “Beef” Janusek, one of the top key grips in the business. Beef gave John the nickname “Buzz,” based on the astronaut Buzz Aldrin. Beef got Buzz

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John works with Eddie Murphy on the set of Meet Dave in Times Square.

Photo: Bruce McBroom

a job as a grip for the film Monkey Shines, which led to another gig a couple of weeks later on The Prince of Pennsylvania. “Buzz” continued to hone his skills in the camera department and the grip department in movies, as well as filming commercials. After working on White Fang and Mom and Dad Save the World, John became part of the union, increasing his daily rate. After saving up for a few weeks, John decided to buy his own Steadicam in 1989. At the time, there was only one guy who sold second-hand Steadicams at his business called White House Audio Visual. The owner had three Steadicam packages in stock and John bought one of them. “I was practicing three hours a day in my apartment running around like an animal,” he said of his new purchase. “I challenged myself to be creative and do shots from beginning to end. I learned on my own, and I’m my own worst critic.” John continued to network through the early 90s, and established himself as a goto Steadicam operator by taking advantage of available opportunities. “It’s about making the best of it and relating to people,” he said of the nature of his job. “The more you relate to people, the more they relate to you. You help them and they help you by offering more work.” John doesn’t think he ever had a “big break” per se, as he is constantly learning and growing in his career. “A big break is a moment when you realize everything you’ve done up to that point has brought you to that moment, and everything you know up to that point you’re going to use to make the best of a situation. After 30 years in the business, I can confidently say I understand my job and how to tell the story,” John explained. “Every ‘break’ is doing the best you can that leads to more work. You’re only as good as your last job.” One of the most memorable, defying moments of John’s career was running up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art with Sylvester Stallone in the iconic scene of Rocky Balboa. “That was enough to complete a career. It means a lot to me,” he said of the experience.

It’s John’s sense of artistry behind the lens that plays a major role in the execution of a director’s vision and the success of a TV show or movie. For example, cinematographer Shane Hurlbut (Into the Badlands) and John challenge one another to take the show to the next level. John said Shane “spikes his learning curve,” as he carefully selects which lens or complicated blocking to use for each scene. All the pressure isn’t on John however; he expects the actors to “hit their mark.”“I want to enhance the character’s performance, so to work with someone like Marton Csokas (Into the Badlands) who is classically trained and knows the character and gets the lighting makes my job more rewarding and easier.”

daily basis. “There are a lot of disappointments and discouragements along the way – longevity is the way to stay positive. Don’t think weeks and months, look ahead to the years,” he said. “Whatever job you’re doing, do it to the best of your ability and do it correctly – if you don’t understand something, ask. Challenges are part of the business – it’s what keeps you motivated.”

Based in Sewickley, John finds a lot of work in Pittsburgh, as it’s become such a film hub. He’s worked on many local sets, including Zack and Miri Make a Porno, Adventureland, Jack Reacher, Love the Coopers, and Concussion. When he’s not filming movies on location, John spends months filming television series, like AMC’s Into the Badlands, HBO’s Boardwalk Empire, and ESPN’s The Bronx is Burning. But his job takes him away from home most of the year. He said it takes between 12 and 15 weeks to film a movie, and 10 days to film an episode of a television series. To film an entire season, however, normally takes up to eight months. Over the course of his career, John has worked on roughly 80 movies, 50 of which he has filmed from start to finish. He recently finished American Pastoral directed by Ewan McGregor, which will be released in theaters this fall. During his time at Sewickley Academy, John played lacrosse and soccer. He credits long time PE teacher and coach Stan Partenheimer for setting him up for a lifetime of success. “He believed in sportsmanship and told us to do the best you can, it’s not always win or lose. Everyone claims to say that, but he believed it and lived by that standard,” John said. “It sets you up for business and fairness and teamwork. Sports are a great life lesson in business I think – delegating and trust are as simple as passing the ball.” When he’s not on set, John teaches Steadicam courses with Steadicam Operators Association (S.O.A.) with Garrett Brown, a job that he loves. He wants to pass on his expertise to the youth interested in the business. Staying true to his roots, John talked with students in drama, technology, journalism, and photography classes at Moon Area High School in February and hopes to teach a class at the Academy and other institutions in the future. “I want to try to help younger people get in the business and help them understand that it has nothing to do with cameras and technical things. The content you’re shooting is everything,” John said of his teachings. “The most intriguing images are the ones that are done because whatever was happening is compelling to watch.” Although they admire their father’s work (and enjoyed the perks of meeting celebrities like Reese Witherspoon and Will Smith), Hayden ’13 and Grady ’14 are not following in his footsteps. Hayden is majoring in business and minoring in French and German at Allegheny College, and Grady is majoring in biology with a focus in health sciences at High Point University in North Carolina. But for those who want to try a career in cinematography, John advises to stay positive and continually look ahead as there will be obstacles to overcome on a

John shoots scenes from a crane platform for Dumb and Dumber To, filmed in Atlanta.

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Photo: Hopper Stone

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Ball-ing: Hanging with

David Sadd ’92 and Alex Ball ’92 share the stage in the Academy’s 1985 production of Oliver!

Alex Ball ’92, like many of those before him, credits his passion for his work to Mario Melodia. “I was one of those people who was fortunate enough to work with him. He alone was such a driving force for the arts and especially music theater at the Academy,” Alex said. “Knowing him was a huge thing for me.” Alex said he was aware of the opportunity afforded to him by coming to the Academy at the time the arts were thriving. “Arts education is not as prioritized as I think it should be across the country as it was when I attended SA. The great thing was that you could be everything. You could be a sports star and a star on the stage and in the classroom. No one batted an eyelash, it’s just how it was,” Alex reflected. “Today there is more of a categorization of students – either you’re the drama guy or the quarterback of the football team – there isn’t that fluidity between areas that there was when I grew up. And that’s unfortunate.”

taking tap class with him at school and ballroom class with him at the Edgeworth Club,” Alex recalled. After years of experience on stage, Alex felt burnt out after graduation and did not intend to pursue the arts as a career. Alex matriculated to the University of Vermont in Burlington as an undecided major. “I didn’t know what I wanted to do after Sewickley Academy, and performing didn’t seem like a viable career option, so I went to college to figure it out,” Alex said. By taking different classes, he found himself gravitating towards artistic endeavors, like computer and design classes, where he could be involved with the arts but not as a main focal point. Realizing his passion, Alex transferred to Berklee College of Music and graduated with his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Music Production and Engineering. “I loved it there. That experience was one of the best times of my life,” he said of Berklee.

The all-school production of Oliver! gave Alex his first starring role of note on the stage. Senior School students played the adults in the show, while the fifth and sixth graders took on the roles of the children. “That show started the ball rolling for me, for lack of a better pun,” Alex joked. Little did he know that his role in the musical would lead to a much bigger role on a Showtime series decades down the road.

Originally destined for New York City, Los Angeles, or Nashville, Alex came home for a year and worked at Audio Loft, a recording studio in Ambridge. He quickly realized he wasn’t working with friends or other students anymore, as the people who were using the studio often worked a 9-5 and just wanted to record a CD to sell after their band’s weekend gigs. “It was very eyeopening. I set up microphones and hit the record button – it soured my outlook on how this might go if I were to follow it,” he reflected.

While at the Academy, Alex also starred in Tom Sawyer, The Boyfriend, Guys and Dolls, and The Music Man. “Mario was the constant in all of my performances. I was

As luck, or destiny, would have it, Peter McClenahan ’92’s, one of Alex’s former SA classmates, girlfriend was casting extras for movies being filmed in Pittsburgh.

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Friends at Central Perk What was meant to be a few days on the set of Dogma (directed by Kevin Smith) turned into a month of filming for Alex and ultimately became the turning point in his career. He relocated to Los Angeles, as he had friends from Berklee there, and began working as a background character or extra in television shows, where the work was consistent but not necessarily notable. “If you pay attention to the background characters at the precinct office in Brooklyn Nine-Nine, for example, you’ll notice a lot of people who are regular police officers or detectives,” Alex explained. “As a viewer, you aren’t watching those actors and what they are doing, but if you pay close attention you’ll notice the same people in the background each episode.” Alex spent a lot of time in Central Perk, the coffee shop on the hit TV series Friends, when he got cast for the Season 6 premiere. Unbeknownst to him, the premiere was two episodes, and he was continually asked back week after week. After getting to know the cast for a few seasons, Alex started to stand-in for guest stars like Elliott Gould, Hank Azaria, and Paul Rudd to set blocking, lighting, and camera work before the actors came to the set to film. “I guess I did OK. They trusted me not to suck when we were doing the run-throughs for the network and studio,” Alex laughed. “I worked on that show for five years and loved every minute of it.” By the end of Season 10, Alex started to see the opportunities to get cast for a speaking role on the show dwindle. But one day when he was hanging out back stage, a security guard told him he was requested on set by assistant director Ben Weiss. “I was like, ‘Oh s--t. I’m in trouble.’ My mind and heart were racing,” he remembered. “I go to see Ben and he gives me a hold-on-a-minute look while the writers were huddled in a circle talking. Co-creator David Crane turns to me and says, ‘We have a part for you. We don’t know what it is yet, but just hang out.’” After a quick round of hair and make-up, Alex was told his scene would be with Jennifer Aniston. “The director took me over and told me to start the scene here, stop Jennifer there, and then walk off. And that’s how quickly it happened,” he said. Between the cast of Friends and the numerous big-name guest stars, Alex has only been starstruck once. “For some reason when Bruce Willis walked into the coffee shop during rehearsal, I was just like, ‘Holy s--t. That’s Bruce Willis.’ I’ve worked next to huge stars but it was something about his presence or energy when he walked in and I was taken aback. I’ve never really had that experience otherwise,” Alex said. After Friends ended, Alex moved on to the spin-off Joey with Matt LeBlanc, where he played the role of Todd. He’s also had reoccurring roles on Cougar Town, The Young and the Restless, The Big Bang Theory, and The Odd Couple. Most notably, Alex had the opportunity to reconnect with fellow SA alumni David Hollander ’86 on the set of Ray Donovan. “Working with David was amazing. It all goes back to that all-school production of Oliver! at Sewickley Academy. David played Bill Sykes and I was the Artful Dodger, so our paths crossed back in 1985. I hadn’t seen him since, but we touched base once I realized he was out in LA. I sent him a Facebook message to see if he SEWICKLEY SPEAKING

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Alex Ball ’92, Thomas Lennon, Lindsay Sloane, Wendell Pierce, Yvette Nicole Brown, Matthew Perry, Shelly Herman (script supervisor) and Ruth Wilhoit (dialogue coach) pose for a picture in the hair/makeup room prior to the live taping of an episode of The Odd Couple.

remembered me,” Alex explained. Eventually Alex auditioned for the role of Dr. Mendelowitz, Terry’s (Eddie Marsan) doctor. After the audition, Alex messaged David to say thank you for the opportunity. “I don’t know if he had anything to do with it or not, he probably did, but he wrote me back and said something like, ‘I got a note you were coming in for an audition. I just watched your tape and you should be hearing some good news pretty soon.’ And that was it, it was kind of vague. I didn’t know if I got the job or not because it wasn’t official,” Alex said. Of course, he did land the role and got to work with David 20 years after their time on stage together at SA. Unfortunately, there was a scheduling conflict when the episode shot and the two did not get an opportunity to collaborate. A year or so later, Alex got a call from his manager telling him Ray Donovan wanted him back. Even though David was extremely sick this time around, he stopped by Alex’s trailer to reminisce, an experience Alex was grateful for. Alex broke into the film world in 2012, when he started working with Asylum Production Company. He starred in 40 Days and Nights as Welker and can also be seen in Hold Your Breath and Snow Globe Christmas. It’s not all work and no play for Alex, as he still finds time to enjoy watching his all-time favorite movies like Sixteen Candles and Vacation, TV shows like Arrested Development and The Wire, and guilty pleasure Undateable Live. “The Backstreet

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Boys were the musical guests on one episode, and they were doing a sound check and singing some of their hits and I was like, ‘Wow. They had some really good songs.’ They even referenced B94. It was nostalgic,” Alex admitted. He likes to binge watch foodie shows, as he loves to cook, go out to eat, and enjoys wine tastings. Alex practices yoga and performs improv comedy once a week, and he and his wife are parents to three fur babies – cats Lucky, Gracie, and Quimby. To this day, Alex never forgets to thank Mario for his help with his success. “The confidence building Mario instilled was exponentially beneficial not for just myself, but for everyone who came in contact with him. There were a lot of people [at Sewickley Academy] who didn’t pursue a life in the arts or acting as a career, but they were insanely talented and easily could have,” Alex reflected. “Just being a part of that was really something special that you don’t realize as you’re doing it.” The future is bright for Alex, although he lives in a world of constant auditions and callbacks. He’s performing with his LA-based improv team, Cusack, in theaters and festivals around the Southern California area and recently shot two national commercials. “It’s not easy. I don’t really know what it is that keeps me doing this,” Alex said of his chosen career path. “For me, it’s just one of those things that this is what I do and this is who I am.”

Buzzworthy

Moments from the Annual Auction By: Patti Coyne Stine The Academy’s Annual Auction “What’s All the Buzz?” was held at Allegheny Country Club on April 16, 2016. The beautiful, sunny evening began at 6 p.m. with a “Honey Bee” toast given by Board Member and Auction Chair Jenna Stevenson, thanking those present for their support and generosity for this important fundraiser. Along with Jenna, Auction Chairs Rachel Allen, Amanda DiTano, and Melissa McClain were eager to kick off the festivities. Guests quickly turned their attention toward their smartphones to utilize the new Text2Bid function for the Silent Auction. Senior School student volunteers Lekha Amin ’19, Scott Brown ’16, David Groetsch ’18, Katie Hughes ’19, Isabel Iwanonkiw ’19, Teddy Oh ’16, Olivia Ryder ’18, Erin Sebastian ’16, Simi Shetty ’19, Chandler White ’17, Stephanie Zhang ’18, and Lily Jensen were ready to assist with everything from bidding to selling raffle tickets and item pickup. The Red Room was bursting with an array of over 200 items up for auction including trips, student artwork, sports memorabilia, jewelry from Orr’s Jewelers, and so much more! The beautifully decorated ballroom and display areas were adorned with handmade bee hives, burlap runners, and “What’s All the Buzz?” honeycomb quotes about student accomplishments during the school year, while “You’re the Bee’s Knees” local honey favors dotted the tables set for 12. The “buzzing” of smartphones began during the cocktail hour for the Silent Auction and bidding carried on into the dinner hour. Prior to the event, the Text2Bid utility was opened to all families, local alumni, grandparents, and friends of the Academy, and more than $13,000 was raised before the event even began! There were fabulous prizes up for bid during the Live Auction, such as a barge trip down the Three Rivers with current parent Brad Busatto ’88, getaways to Aspen and the Ritz Carlton in Biscayne, Florida, Head of School for a Day, and a signed Antonio Brown jersey. Attendees donated to Fund-A-Need in support of faculty professional development, a new Makerspace, and Summerbridge Pittsburgh.

Makerspace The Makerspace is actually a suite of three specialized rooms where students will conceive ideas, turn their solutions into reality, and promote their finished products for the outside world. Throughout the Makerspace, Middle and Senior School students will advance their skills in entrepreneurialism, which is a target 21st century skill in the Academy’s Strategic Plan. The Makerspace will be an engine for increasing the innovations in project-based learning on campus, where each faculty member and each student can use this space. Every course in the Middle and Senior Schools has a component or potential lesson that can feature entrepreneurship and, in a more generalized sense, handson and project-based learning. There are three main purposes for this Makerspace: 1. To provide space and tools for creating and promoting objects. 2. To inspire faculty and students to use their imagination. 3. To model and demonstrate - or otherwise teach - an iterative creating and building process for all faculty and students.

Fund-A-Need Breakdown: Professional Development – $9,550 Makerspace – $24,300 Summerbridge Pittsburgh – $54,650

Professional Development Each year, Sewickley Academy encourages every member of the faculty and staff to pursue a professional development opportunity. Whether it’s attending a conference, taking a master class, or traveling for an international exchange, professional development helps our faculty and staff stay current and inspires them to put best practices to use. When faculty return from each experience, they share what they have learned with their peers, and our entire community (especially students) benefits.

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Two examples: 1. Senior School physics students build and light up a doll house. Students design the layout of the house then cut out the pieces using the laser cutter before assembling the house using the tools available in the Maker Room. After wiring the house with soldering irons and electrical supplies, they create a 60-second web advertisement in the Production Room to promote their solution. 2. Middle School Spanish students create custom masks while studying Día de los Muertos. Students use the sewing machine, 3D printers, and circuitry with LEDs to make masks that light up or display special messages. In the Production Room, they use the green screen to record themselves wearing the masks while they walk around the Zócalo in Mexico City. The money that was raised at Auction was utilized to outfit the three separate areas of the Makerspace: the Ideas Room, the Maker Room, and the Production Room.

Summerbridge Pittsburgh Summerbridge Pittsburgh provides a tuition-free, six-year, life-changing experience that empowers middle and high school students facing limited opportunities to achieve academic success and inspires young adults to pursue careers in education. Summerbridge Pittsburgh uses a high-energy, hands-on approach to learning and leadership to create an exciting process of personal and intellectual discovery for its teachers and students. Operating under a six-year model, support for students and families begins the summer before seventh grade and continues during the school year and throughout high school. The program has served nearly 1,000 youth since its inception in 1994, with the goal of ensuring that each student has the confidence and academic skills to thrive at rigorous college preparatory high schools and go on to pursue a college education. In our most recent cohort of high school graduates, 90 percent are now pursuing a post-secondary degree. Summerbridge Pittsburgh is making good on its promise to increase opportunities for our students through college access programming, combat summer learning loss through a rigorous summer educational experience, and improve our schools through intensive teacher training. The Auction supports the many aspects of a Sewickley Academy education including support for all students, financial aid, classrooms, programs, campus need, and our talented faculty and staff. This year’s event proved to be a wonderful way to bring the Sewickley Academy community together with parents, grandparents, and alumni in attendance showing their support and pride for the school. Auction proceeds were more than $386,000 thanks to the contributions of our donors, sponsors, advertisers, and bidders! Academy parents Carrie Duffield and Ridgely Quigley enjoy the Auction festivities.

This special and important event was so successful thanks to each company’s or each individual’s financial support or donation of time and talent, as well as our gracious sponsors. Thank you — you are the bee’s knees!

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Katie Hughes ’19, Olivia Ryder ’18, Simi Shetty ’19, Chandler White ’17, and Lekha Amin ’19 take a break from their volunteer duties to pose for a picture with Flat Panther. The handmade “retro” SA lacrosse stick shotski is an instant party starter, and one of the most bid-on items during the Auction.

Gorgeous table settings are adorned with honey bee hives, burlap runners, and “You’re the Bee’s Knees” local honey favors. The Grade 1 “Bees Sing in the Garden” is inspired by students’ work in the Secret Garden. This silver honeycomb footstool from HOUSE 15143 fits perfectly with the Auction’s “What’s All the Buzz?” theme. Alyssa Robb and Jennifer Quisenberry are all smiles at this year’s Auction. The beautiful Etched in Glass SA ice bucket shows off the school’s crest.

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NEW FACULTY & STAFF PROFILES 2016-2017

1. Peter Lau – Head of Senior School After serving as a history teacher and Dean of Students at The Wheeler School in Providence, Rhode Island, and teaching history at the Lincoln School in Rhode Island, as well as the Rhode Island School of Design, where he taught a course called “Freedom Dreams: A History of African-American Thought from the Slave Trade to the Present,” and Rutgers University, where among other courses, he taught “History of the Civil Rights Movement 1900-1980,” Peter Lau has come through the ranks to assume the position of Head of Senior School. Peter, a graduate of the University School in Hunting Valley, Ohio, earned his B.A. in History from the University of Virginia and an M.A. in History from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He completed his Ph.D. in History at Rutgers in New Jersey. Peter’s extensive list of published articles and papers reflect his deep and abiding passion for American history, particularly the African-American struggle for freedom and civil rights. With 20 years as an educator, 13 of these in independent schools, Peter is excited to bring his experiences to bear in serving the Sewickley Academy community. 22

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2. Caroline Miller – Senior School English A published author of poetry as well as scholarly papers, Caroline Miller arrives from the HarvardWestlake School in Studio City, California, where she has taught English and founded and coached the school’s “spoken-word” team. A magna cum laude graduate of Princeton University with a B.A. in English Literature, Caroline went on to earn her Ph.D. in English Language and Literature at the University of Michigan, where she taught literature and freshman composition. In addition to teaching, Caroline brings to Sewickley Academy her experience as an editorial assistant at Random House in New York. In 2015, she was recognized for her outstanding teaching as the recipient of the Harvard-Westlake Senior Teaching Award. While pursuing her doctorate, she was also the recipient of a number of departmental and graduate school fellowships at the University of Michigan. 3. Shane Mills – Senior School Mathematics Shane Mills comes to us from the Freeport Area High School, where he taught AP Calculus, College in High School Calculus, and Honors Pre-Calculus/

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Trigonometry. A graduate of Grove City College with a B.S. in Mathematics, Shane also holds a M.S. in Curriculum and Instruction from Saint Vincent College. He is a doctoral candidate at the University of Pittsburgh in STEM Education. Shane has received an Educational Testing Service Recognition of Excellence Award and was a nominee for Grove City’s Student Teacher of the Year. He has supported students outside the classroom in robotics and other math and science activities.

4. Hanna Mincemoyer – Senior School Mathematics We are very pleased to welcome Hanna Mincemoyer to the Senior School Mathematics Department. Hanna comes to Sewickley Academy most recently from Seneca Valley School District, where she taught statistics, various levels of algebra, and trigonometry. She earned her B.S. in Secondary Education, specializing in mathematics from Penn State University, where she was enrolled in the Schreyer Honors College. She completed her student teaching with the North Allegheny School District and also worked with the highly competitive Teach for America program.

New Trustees 5. Lauren “L.K.” Sleat – Middle and Senior School Art Lauren Sleat is delighted to be joining Sewickley Academy’s Art Department, where she will teach painting and drawing. Previously at the Westminster School in Atlanta, Georgia, L.K. has also taught at Dana Hall, Georgia College and State University, and at the Maryland Institute College of Art, where she earned her M.F.A. in Painting after completing the B.F.A. in Communication Design at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania. A working artist, L.K. has had gallery shows across the United States, most recently at the Erin Cluley Gallery in Dallas, Texas, and “PODS” Solo show at Plan B Gallery in Washington, D.C. She is also a leader for the College Board’s AP Studio Art portfolio, supervising the portfolio evaluation teams each year. 6. Alison Trexel – Grades 1-3 Math Support Alison Trexel joins our Lower School team to support mathematics instruction in Grades 1 through 3. Alison knows our community having served in a number of classrooms as a substitute in the Lower School. A graduate of Wooster School, an independent school in Connecticut, and Allegheny College, Alison brings to her work seven years of experience in a variety of educational settings, including as an early childhood teacher at Harbon Montessori School in Minnesota. 7. Sarah Wilson – Marion Hutchins Librarian A graduate of the highly regarded University of Pittsburgh School of Information Sciences with an M.L.I.S., Sarah Wilson has worked in a number of school libraries in our region, including the Mt. Lebanon, Canon-McMillan, and North Allegheny School Districts. She was recognized as the Outstanding Student Librarian by the University of Pittsburgh. Sarah earned her B.A. magna cum laude in International Affairs and Development from The George Washington University, and spent time studying abroad in Thailand. The Lower School faculty will work with Sarah this year as she engages with them to provide the best possible library experience for our Lower School students.

Donald Murano Donald Murano is a proven professional with extensive legal, business, and environmental experience. He has an in-depth understanding of employment and labor-law related matters. He is married to Rochelle and has two daughters that attend SA, Isabella is in Grade 6 and Olivia is in Grade 2. He would envision applying his 25-plus years of experience to Sewickley Academy’s mission, as he has previously worked with companies and individuals at the intersection of the law and business. As in-house counsel for large global firms, he has facilitated extensive training programs for senior- and mid-level management and could apply that insight to the SA program. He has generated sound advice through his in-house expertise as well as his outside legal counsel function to strictly adhere to every facet of employment law and regulatory compliance in his environmental remediation role. For over a decade, he litigated in state and federal courts as principal litigator in The Murano Law Firm LLC. His firm’s client list ranged from companies having fewer than five employees to multi-billion dollar organizations. One common theme prevails in that spectrum of clients - it is far easier to avoid legal troubles through advanced business and legal planning than to pull an organization out of a legal issue in the aftermath. He would bring this level of sophistication to the SA administration and operational challenges if called upon.

Aaron Washington Aaron Washington is a flight attendant with American Airlines (formerly US Airways), a position he has held for 28 years. Born and raised in Coraopolis, he presently resides in Sewickley with his wife Terri and their two sons who attend the Academy; Jared is in Grade 11 and Kipauno is in Grade 8. Aaron is an avid reader, plays tennis, and enjoys an occasional bike ride with his family.

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SUMMER 2016

Winter & Spring Sports Wrap Up By: Win Palmer

BOYS BASKETBALL

GIRLS BASKETBALL

The varsity boys basketball team, led by captains Scott Brown, Chris Groetsch, Justin Pryor, and Ryder MacDougall, captured the section championship, advanced to the WPIAL Championship game and to the state semifinals to finish the season with a record of 26-4 and ranked third in the state. In the WPIAL semifinals, the Panthers overcame a 21-point deficit with just more than four minutes left in the game to defeat Jeannette on a buzzer beater by freshman Nate Ridgeway. Juniors Chris Groetsch and Justin Pryor earned All-Section honors, and Chris was named second team All-State.

The varsity girls basketball team finished fifth in the section, one place out of the playoffs with a record of 5-17. The Panthers were led by senior captains Maddy Casale and Mackenzie Lightcap, who battled injuries throughout the season. A large contingency of freshmen earned valuable playing time this year. Maddy Casale earned All-Section honors and was selected to play in the prestigious Roundball Classic.

ICE HOCKEY The varsity ice hockey team battled its way in the Academy’s return to Pennsylvania Interscholastic Hockey League (PIHL) play this season finishing the season with a record of 6-22-1 that saw much improved play during the second half of the season including a tie against South Park, who would go on to win the PIHL Championship. Led by captains senior Willie Paul and junior Joey Straka, the Panthers established a work ethic that will help inspire our large returning group of varsity players.

The varsity tennis team captured its 13th consecutive WPIAL Championship en route to the second PIAA Championship in Academy tennis history! Led by senior captains Don Gex and Brian Rosario, the Panthers defeated defending state champion Moravian Academy in the quarterfinals, Scranton Prep in the semifinals, and perennial champion Wyomissing in the finals. Junior Luke Ross became the first boys tennis player to capture the State Singles Championship to go with his WPIAL Championship. Brothers Don and Ryan Gex repeated as WPIAL Doubles Champions and finished third at states. Junior Sam Sauter qualified for the PIAA Singles Tournament, and Brian Rosario and junior Neil Rana qualified for the PIAA Doubles Tournament.

SWIMMING & DIVING

GIRLS LACROSSE

The varsity boys swimming and diving team completed an undefeated regular season with a 12-0 record and a second straight section and WPIAL Championship. Led by senior captain Evan Ragoowansi, the cooperative team with Quaker Valley finished third at states. The varsity girls swimming and diving team finished in second place in the section with a 4-2 record and an overall record of 7-5.

The varsity girls lacrosse team finished the season with a record of 2-10 in section play and 3-12 overall. The Panthers were led by senior captains Jane Blaugrund, Maddie Blaksick, and Cara Dietrich. Junior Grace Guerin earned All-Section honors. The Panthers return a large group of underclass players who learned much through the examples of their senior captains.

BOYS BASEBALL

BOYS LACROSSE

The varsity baseball team earned a berth in the WPIAL playoffs for the fourth consecutive year by finishing third in the section with a 7-3 record and 9-5 overall. Senior captains John Nagel and Drew Zbihley led the team as the Panthers finished the season with a five-game winning streak. In the first round of the WPIAL playoffs, SA stunned North Catholic with a comeback victory highlighted by freshman John DelVecchio’s RBI single in the top of the seventh. Junior Joey Straka pitched seven strong innings to earn the victory for the Panthers. Junior Derrick Littlefield was named to the Beaver County Times Roaring 20s All-Stars.

The varsity boys lacrosse team finished the season 1-4 in section play and 5-11 overall. The Panthers were only outscored by five goals in the section as the team battled hard in every game including an overtime loss to No. 1 ranked Mt. Lebanon. The Panthers were led by senior captains Jackson O’Neill, Ryder MacDougall, and Calder Fowkes. Jackson along with juniors Teddy McClain and Ben Mulholland earned All-Section honors. Jackson and Teddy were also named to the All-WPIAL Team.

TRACK AND FIELD Senior Summer Thorpe created Academy history by becoming the first member of the track and field team to capture a gold medal at the PIAA Championships in the 100 meter hurdles to go with a bronze medal in the 300 meter hurdles. Earlier she captured WPIAL gold in both those events. Junior Griffin Mackey earned a silver medal in the 1600 in the WPIAL Championships and finished fifth in the 3200, qualifying for states in both events.

BOYS TENNIS

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GIRLS SOFTBALL The varsity softball team earned a berth in the WPIAL playoffs for the fifth consecutive year by finishing second in the section with a 7-3 record and 11-6 overall. The only senior on the squad, Savannah Henry, pitched every inning of the season, led the team as a captain, and was named to the Beaver County Times Roaring 20s All-Stars. Junior Chandler White once again batted over .500 and led the squad with three home runs. Five freshmen started for the Panthers.

Senior Savannah Henry pitched every inning of the season. Summer Thorpe joined Notre Dameâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s track team and made school history in her final meet as a Panther. Natalie Wei and Antoinette Heil move the ball down the field. Junior Justin Pryor dribbles down the court in the WPIAL Championship game at the Petersen Events Center. The varsity boys tennis team won its 13th consecutive WPIAL Championship en route to winning the second PIAA Championship in Academy tennis history.

Go Panthers!

HOLLYWOOD

HOPEFULS By: Kaitlin Busch Who doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t hope to one day see their name in lights? Two young, beautiful starlets and one driven, creative young man started their destined-for-fame careers on stage at Sewickley Academy and went on to pursue their artistic dreams in college. Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve put in the blood, sweat, and tears and are prepared for the challenging journey that awaits them as they try to make their mark in Los Angeles or New York City. All lifers, Alexis, Meredith, and Evan came to the Academy for a well-rounded education and left with experiences that prepared them to break into the industry. Their potential is limitless. Be on the lookout for these Hollywood Hopefuls.

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Alexis Krey ’13 Drama & Dance: I took as many classes as I could while I was in school, and took a lot of dance classes with Mr. Joe Jackson and drama classes with Mr. Joey Yow. Mr. Jackson did the most for me. He sent me on my first professional audition while in the Senior School at the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera. I had no clue what to do, I just showed up and danced. They called me back twice, I made it to the final round only being 18. It was a huge year for me. Playing an Old Lady: The crowning moment of my senior year was the musical Mame. It’s the most fun I’ve ever had and the most challenging – I had over 200 lines to memorize! It helped me figure out who the character was. Going from an 18-year-old girl to a 60-year-old woman is quite the transformation. Professional Experience: I just finished Carousel – it was one of the most memorable and fun productions I’ve done with Catholic University. I played Louise Bigelow, and I had a 15-minute dream ballet sequence where I danced. I attended Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre throughout Senior School. I started dancing at age three, and ballet is my base – it’s my strongest subject. In the summer of 2015, I was in the productions of Damn Yankees and Shrek The Musical with Ocean City Theater. Go Caps!: I’m a cheerleader for the Washington Capitals. Well, I’m more of a cheerleader ambassador – we don’t throw anyone in the air or anything, but I do get to dance and do promotions and events around D.C. I always wanted to be a cheerleader and my mom never thought I would be (she was one in high school), so we were both excited when I made the team. My brother is a die-hard Penguins fan though and cannot believe I cheer for the Capitals. Flashback to 2012: I worked with Stagedoor Manor for two summers, and after my second summer I was chosen to perform in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. It was the coolest thing – I was born on Thanksgiving so it was the best birthday present. We had to be at Central Park by 6 a.m. on Thanksgiving morning in costume with our hair and makeup done. It was cold, but it didn’t snow. Just walking the parade route, which was between 40 and 50 blocks, was incredible – I felt like such a princess. I had gone to the parade every year since I was born because my birthday was so close to Thanksgiving. My dad would get up at 4 a.m. and go sit outside, and my mom and I would join him around 8. Starstruck: While I was studying abroad in London this past spring, I got to see Glenn Close in the Sunset Boulevard revival on press night. At the end of the show, I was putting on my jacket and my boyfriend poked me and said, “Look who is on stage.” It was Andrew Lloyd Weber and I immediately started weeping in my seat. He is my role model. Phantom of the Opera is my absolute favorite musical. I didn’t even get to meet him, but I was positively starstruck. Career Goals: I want to make it to Broadway. I don’t know how long or short that journey may be, but that’s the ultimate goal. The dream job would be playing Christine in Phantom, but right now I want to be a Disney princess. Not Always Graceful: One of the funniest things that happened to me was during Spotlight Musical Theater’s production of Into the Woods my freshman year. I played the part of Lucinda and was running backstage because I thought I was going to miss my cue. There was a wall in the back, and I had a hoop skirt on and slammed into the wall and fell over. If you watch the DVD, you can see the curtain swinging from my spill.

SA Status: Lifer. I came to the Academy in Kindergarten. College of Choice: The Catholic University of America – Benjamin T. Rome School of Music. Favorite Movie: Burlesque. Favorite TV Show: It changes every day. I really like Supernatural - it’s on Season 12 and still going! Most Likely to Binge Watch: The Walking Dead. My family and I have TWD marathons where we watch the show in our pajamas all day. Favorite Actress: Meryl Streep. Favorite Thing about SA: All the musicals. I was asking my brother Clifford ’16 about who played who in the spring production of Les Misérables. LA or NYC?: I’ve considered LA, but I will most likely end up in New York City. It depends on what happens in the next year. Memorable SA Moments: Our prom was at Heinz Field and it was absolutely beautiful, and all of the shows I did and friends I made. But one of the most memorable moments was the last day of senior year. We had Rita’s Italian Ice and my dad made a tarp slip-n-slide down the hill on Wardrop Field. Favorite Thing about Pittsburgh: Kennywood.

Advice for Students: Don’t give up. It’s a hard road but if you’re passionate and you know who you are, just keep going. My teachers ask me all the time, “You know that you might not have enough money to eat or pay rent tomorrow, do you still want to do this?” And I tell them to stop trying to get me to change my mind because I want to do it. I keep working harder and harder, and that strong work ethic is something I learned at Sewickley Academy. Hard work always pays off.

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Meredith Doyle ’12 Caps Off!: I graduated on May 22. In a business that is this competitive, you always need to have an edge over somebody – now they want people who are smart and informed. Muhlenberg offered me a liberal arts experience that matched my rigorous academics from SA and a thirst for knowledge outside of theater I craved while also getting a conservatory training. The Value of an SA Education: When I came to college, I had a head up on other people. They didn’t know how to approach things from a more dramaturgical point of view. I was able to look at things from a directing and an acting standpoint. My teachers at the Academy really stressed professionalism and a positive attitude. I came from a great community of people who wanted to say something with theater and were willing to create and change things.

SA Status: Lifer. I came to the Academy in Grade 1. College of Choice: Muhlenberg College. I went to visit and audition and found that the college had a lot of amazing ways at looking at theater from every facet and angle you could. The school is producing really well trained and really smart and informed actors. Memorable SA Moments: I really loved the New York trip in Grade 4. It was the first time I ever went to the city and I saw my first Broadway show (Wicked). I totally fell in love. Wicked is one of my favorite shows and I still want to play a part in it. I also loved being part of The Drowsy Chaperone and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Full Circle: I had the opportunity to sing for the casting director of Wicked in April. I couldn’t believe it - all of a sudden I’m performing in front of the guy who cast my favorite musical! Favorite Teacher: Mr. Kurt Cerny. He taught all my dance classes. Favorite Movies: Ever After and Harold and Mod. Favorite TV Show: Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Favorite Actor/Actress: Tom Hiddleston and Stephanie J. Block. Favorite Musical: Wicked. Hobbies and Interests: I like cooking and fashion. I’d actually like to get into costume design – I’m a huge doodler. I’ve recently got hooked on gardening. I have two tiny plants in my apartment, and I want to make an herb garden. Dream Role: I’d love to play Elphaba in Wicked. There are also some really interesting characters written for men who would be interesting as a woman, like Sweeny Todd and Hamlet.

SEWICKLEY SPEAKING

SUMMER 2016

You’ve Seen Her In: Muhlenberg’s production of Ulysses in Nighttown, based on the novel by James Joyce, Avenue Q, Superhuman, and Iphigenia and Other Daughters. In Sewickley Academy’s productions of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Blithe Spirit, and The Drowsy Chaperone. Dream Job: I change my mind a lot about the industry I want to break into. I would love to have success on stage and also be able to do film and television. Anything I can get my hands on I’m interested in. There’s value in creating new work. The ultimate goal is Broadway. Defining Success: To be successful, you don’t have to make it to Broadway in the next 10 years. You make your own happiness by doing what you love and finding ways to do that and giving yourself time. There is no set schedule – you can be an actor your entire life. My goal is to stay sane, take my time, make connections, meet new people, and look to take a bunch of different jobs. The impossible dream is not as impossible as you may think. The Big Apple: I’m planning to move to New York City soon, as I’m in contact with agents and had a big showcase this past spring. My favorite thing about NYC is the pace. It’s a love/hate relationship really. I love that the city itself encourages fast thinking and emotionally deep digging. It wants people to be smart and think about art. On Being a Puppeteer: The audition for a regional production of the off-Broadway show Avenue Q was without puppets, but once I got cast, I had to go through puppet boot camp, a rigorous three-week training program on how to properly use a puppet. However, our director was able to do the puppet boot camp in conjunction with putting up the show, so we had training in the morning and rehearsal at night. It was a lot of fun and it’s a skill I really value because not everyone has it. It’s oddly very tiring. Some of the puppets weigh upwards of 50 pounds, so last summer my right arm was really jacked and my left arm was quite average. The show is supposed to be an adult version of Sesame Street, the only difference is you see puppeteers. You know you did a good job if people don’t remember you’re in it. Advice to Students (and younger sister Eiley ’20): Don’t be too hard on yourself. Be open and willing to change. Really, really listen. Invest in being a listener rather than somebody that asserts things. Take a ton of dance classes. Stay on your toes. Read a ton, more than you think you should. Sleep. Sleep is amazing and wonderful. Don’t take yourself too seriously at the end of the day – I say I’m getting a degree in very wellinformed dress up. It keeps you humble to remember that. Have fun, but put in the work. Last Words: It’s a challenging field, and I have been lucky enough to have had people who really support me and believe in my success. I keep preaching that inconsistency is not failure. This business is not one that you hold a regular job in, so it’s easy to feel if you bomb an audition that you’re bad at this. But I’ve had enough positive reactions and influences and responses to know that I can keep doing this and I want to keep doing this. I can’t imagine myself doing anything else.

Evan Fuhrer ’12 Theater Kid: I did a lot of theater at Sewickley. It taught me a lot about stage presence and acting. The first show I did was Hello, Dolly! in fifth grade – I played Barnaby Tucker alongside Ian Bicket ’12. I also performed in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Dracula, and Tartuffe. I was involved in music club, but most of the music stuff I did was outside of school. Memorable Moments: I sang lead in the Senior School chorus my senior year for an event. It was pretty cool. Announcements were always really funny when we did them for the plays and musicals. I also put together an album for my senior project with Joe Donohue ’12 and Rob Kendall ’12. It was called JER. Favorite Thing About SA: The small class sizes let the teachers give us one-on-one attention, and I really enjoyed all the free time we had. It gave me the opportunity to actually play music. I’d go to the auditorium with friends and play the piano or act out skits. Summer Concerts: When we came home on summer break, a few SA friends and I would get together and play gigs. Our band was called Fistful of Cannoli and included Joe, Rob, Ben Brown ’11, and Danny Sponseller ’11 and Quaker Valley alum Jordan Kaye. GoodKids in India: My band GoodKids has five members – Sean Alexander (bass and vocals), Carter Couron (drums), Sidharth Gupda (guitar), Rowdy Kanarek (guitar and vocals), and myself (keyboard and vocals). We went to India after graduation in June to visit Sidharth and did some awesome sightseeing. Post Grad Goals: I’m planning on starting a record label out of Pittsburgh. I’m moving home in August for at least a year. One of the first things I’ll release is GoodKids’ record. I’ll be living in Lawrenceville with Jacob Klein ’13, and also working on a few projects with him. We played together in a band in high school called Crossing Boundaries, and we want to try to get some things started in our hometown. Shining Stars: While I was at the University of Southern California (USC), Earth, Wind, and Fire came to speak in one of my classes. I asked who was Earth, who was Wind, and who was Fire. They actually went into each of their astrological signs in the explanation, and I thought that was kind of cool. Not in His Wildest Dreams: I had a friend come out to visit from Pittsburgh, and her mom took me out to dinner. Taylor Swift was sitting behind us. My friend’s little brother tried to get a Snapchat picture of her, and her security guard walked over and said, “That will be the last picture you’ll be taking.” So I didn’t get a chance to talk to her or take a picture with her.

SA Status: Lifer. I started in Grade 1. College of Choice: I graduated from the University of Southern California in May with a degree in popular music performance. Hoping to Go Viral: I have a band in Los Angeles called GoodKids. We released our music video for “Hurt Me So” — check it out on YouTube! Influential Teachers: Mr. Kurt Cerny, Dr. David Ed, and Ms. Stacy Donovan. Mood Music: The top five songs on my go-to playlist right now are “In a Phantom Mood” by Shintaro Sakamoto, “Ojalá” by Slivio Rodríguez, “Why iii Love the Moon” by Phony Ppl, “Molasses” by Hiatus Kaiyote, and “Everybody’s Talkin’” by Harry Nelson. Favorite Movie: The Fisher King. Favorite Show to Binge Watch: Rick and Morty.

Dream Job: I want to be able to release records that are widely anticipated and exceed people’s expectation. I want to be able to tour and make money doing that. I want to be the talent, as I think I’ m more equipped for that, but I’d also like to be involved in the business side of music. I think if you become a big artist, the business side inevitability comes with it.

Favorite Actor: Adrien Brody.

LOL Moment: In my acting class at USC, I was supposed to run away at the end of the scene because I had just stabbed a guy. I was supposed to run out the door, but instead I ran straight into the wall. There was a huge thud and my entire class was laughing at me. I don’t know how that even happened.

Favorite Thing about Pittsburgh: It feels like everyone is on the same team.

Passion for Performance: I still like to go to shows when I can, as I have a deep appreciation for theater. I also like to do improv comedy. I love to just get up in front of an audience and do scenes with people.

Favorite Actress: Natalie Portman. Favorite Band: My favorite band of all time is The Beatles, but I’m a really big fan of Phony Ppl right now.

Bad Habit: I have a clutter problem. There is a lot of random stuff floating around my room right now.

Advice for Wannabe Musicians: Most musicians love what they do. If you want to do music, it is not going to be a hard decision to make. Whatever you like listening to, learn how to play it. And if it feels good, you’ll know. Don’t learn stuff you don’t like just because you feel like you should, learn what you love to play.

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SUMMER 2016

Class of 2016 Facts & Stats

91%

66 GRADUATES

of the class was admitted to a Top Choice college.

They were offered more than $5.4 million in merit scholarship.

17 33%

Global Studies Certificate Awardees

21%

(Top Choice = listed as “First Choice” or “High Level of Interest” by the student.)

of the class was recognized by National Merit - 7 National Merit Finalists and 7 National Merit Commended Students

were admitted to a college or university with an acceptance rate lower than 25%*

*Less than 2% of the colleges in the country have acceptance rates in this range.

73%

will venture out-of-state for college (one out of the country)

They were admitted to 135 colleges and universities.

8,556 hours spent engaged in community service.

SEWICKLEY ACADEMY CELEBRATES THE CLASS OF 2016 & THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE CLASS OF 1966 By: Brittnea Turner On a beautiful, sunny day on Sunday, June 12, 2016, nearly 700 family members and friends, along with administrators, faculty, and staff, gathered under a huge tent on Wardrop Field to celebrate the Class of 2016. The festivities began in the Richardson Dining Room in the Lower School with a light reception for seniors, giving them one last chance to hang out as a class. In keeping with tradition, the Class of 2016 gathered on the steps of the Lower School to take their iconic photo, which will be hung in the Senior School with the other class pictures. Members from the Class of 1966 also posed on the steps for a photo, as this year marked the 50th anniversary of the first graduating class of the Senior School. As the clock struck 2:00 p.m., Academy faculty, dawned in their regalia, processed from the Lower School down the ramp to the commencement tent, followed by

the Class of 1966, and finally the Class of 2016 dressed elegantly with the girls in long, flowing white gowns and the boys sporting navy blazers and official SA ties. Head of School Kolia O’Connor and Dr. William H. Barnes, who served as the faculty marshal, welcomed everyone. Student Council President Jane Blaugrund led the flag salute, and Senior Class President Megan Kyne gave the student address. She reminded the class to “realize all that we have and take advantage of it. To do this in a way that will beget future happiness and success I would venture to say that perhaps the most important thing we can do is to be optimistic.” Mr. O’Connor, accompanied by Chair of the Board of Trustees Amy (Simmons ’80) Sebastian, recognized students with special awards, including The Faculty Award, The Headmaster’s Award, The Academy Award, and The Cavalier Cup.

Isabella Albanese (center) is all smiles after graduation with her sister Sophia and father Timothy.

Andrew Curran (center) poses for a picture with his grandparents, Dick and Ginny Simmons.

Head of School Kolia O’Connor congratulates his son Gus with a hug on stage.

Greg Nicotero ’81 addresses the Class of 2016 at this year’s graduation ceremony. SEWICKLEY SPEAKING

SUMMER 2016

Awards The Faculty Award Awardee: Matthew Teitelbaum The Faculty Award is given to the graduating student who has consistently displayed, with a cheerful and mature attitude, unselfish service to the entire school community, and a sincere concern for others.

The Headmaster’s Award Awardee: Megan Kyne The Headmaster’s Award is given to a member of the senior class whose service and accomplishments in academic, athletic, and/or extracurricular activities have made a significant contribution to the life of the school and who best exemplifies the ideals and spirit of Sewickley Academy.

The Academy Award Awardee: Madeleine Braksick Given by the Board of Trustees, The Academy Award is presented at graduation to a deserving student who displays the distinguishing qualities of moral goodness, perseverance, and dedication to the Academy, and who, above all, is sincere in his or her academic pursuits.

The Cavalier Cup Awardee: Jane Blaugrund The Cavalier Cup was presented by Mr. James E. Cavalier, Head of the Senior School from 1963 to 1989, to awardee Jane Blaugrund. The cup was given in June 1966, in honor of and to commemorate the graduation of the first senior class. This trophy was designated first to Mr. Cavalier for his leadership, guidance, and inspiration and is awarded each year to that boy or girl in the senior class who in the estimation of the faculty has achieved a record of combined excellence in scholarship, sportsmanship, and citizenship, thereby bringing credit to the Academy and distinguishing himself or herself as the best all-around graduate.

Freshly minted grads Nik Goebel, Calder Fowkes, Josh Thomas, and Max Hammel show off their SA ties.

Dr. Jack Ligget ’66 and Fred Everett ’66 reunite for their 50th class reunion.

Kate Busatto, Maddy Casale, and Megan Kyne listen intently to the graduation speakers.

Maeghan Parda celebrates with her brothers Dylan ’18 (left) and Andrew ’14 (right).

Congratulations

Highlights Greg Nicotero ’81, known most notably for his work as executive producer and director of The Walking Dead, addressed the graduates. Greg reflected on his time as a student and how the Academy, coupled with his parents’ support, were instrumental in his success. “Walking around the Academy [this past weekend] it’s been kind of like dèjà vu. I had photos taken [on the steps of the Lower School].” He continued, “Every crossroads I came to in my life, I had the skills to make the right decision. There was a moment when it was do I follow a medical profession or do I follow my passion and my hobby? It was something I loved to do. I always loved movies, to draw and sculpt, and it was just something that I loved to do. It was a very difficult decision for me… My parents respected that decision.” “Every single decision I’ve made propelled me to where I am today. Life is organic. And it evolves and it changes. Something that I’ve been very proud of is that I’ve been able to roll with those changes. What you think you’re going to do now might change dramatically in the next couple of years, but you’re stepping out into the world at a very exciting time,” he told the graduates. Dr. Jack Liggett ’66 took the podium representing his class and paying tribute to Mr. Cavalier by bestowing upon him honorary membership to the Class of 1966. Mr. Cavalier, overcome with emotion and pride, gladly accepted the notion. Members of the Class of 2016 were presented with their diplomas and the senior singers performed a choral selection of “Seasons of Love” from Rent.

The senior class poses for the annual “lifer” photo. Former Head of Senior School Jon Cassie and Head of School Kolia O’Connor thank Greg Nicotero ’81 for being this year’s graduation speaker.

Erin Sebastian and PJ Winters smile for one last picture together on SA’s campus. Jane Blaugrund accepts the Cavalier Cup from Mr. Jim Cavalier himself.

Mr. O’Connor concluded the ceremony with a quote from the poem “Ulysses” by Alfred Lord Tennyson, encouraging the graduates, “My Friends in the Class of 2016, go forth. Keep goals at a distance. Set new ones to keep yourselves moving ever forward. And collect a lifetime of amazing stories. Each one will enrich you and perhaps you too will live not one, but 10,000 lives.” The graduates recessed from the platform to the beat of the orchestra playing “Best Day of My Life” by American Authors.

and best of luck to the Class of 2016! SEWICKLEY SPEAKING

SUMMER 2016

Sewickley Academy’s

SUSAN SOUR

BECOMES “FAMOUS” By: Kaitlin Busch A very modest Susan (Ratcliffe ’55) Sour addressed her family, friends, colleagues, and community members at the Sewickley Herald Honors Dinner on Friday, April 15, 2016, at the Edgeworth Club. “It has never been my goal to seek honor, but it has always been my goal to live a life that has meaning,” she said. “I was taught at home, at church, and at school that those to whom much is given, from them much is expected.” Life as she knew it changed after being named the Sewickley Herald’s 2015 Woman of the Year. Susan was suddenly “famous.” In the weeks following the publication’s announcement, she was flooded with phone calls from local reporters, congratulated in school and on the streets, and left in utter disbelief. “It’s very humbling to be in the company of other people who have done so much for the town. I suppose in some ways it’s reaffirming,” Susan said of the honor. “But I never did it for any public recognition. I did it because there were jobs that needed to be done where they matched my talents. I was happy to pitch in and help. I believe so much in the goodness of this valley that it’s such a blessing to be able to live here, and so to work for some of its institutions and perpetuate the legacy of those who worked for these institutions before, I see as a responsibility and I’d like to do my part.” Susan’s family, including a set of “exemplary” grandmothers (whom she credits for her desire to serve), has been in the Sewickley area since 1937. “Both women worked into their 70s, one a volunteer, the other a paid employee,” Susan said of the women during her acceptance speech. “Both women did good for the city of Pittsburgh and its residents. They didn’t talk about it as ‘doing good’; they just did it. Both women fixed themselves forever in my psyche.” Susan’s mother, Jean Ratcliffe, a Junior League volunteer, and her aunt Phyllis Semple, another Woman of the Year, also impacted her life’s work. According to Susan, Phyllis had a constant positive outlook. “She greeted everyone everywhere, even on her darkest days of suffering from lupus, with a smile and a handshake, and found something to say that would brighten their day.”

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Photo: Kristina Serafini | Sewickley Herald, Tribune-Review

Susan tips her hat to the crowd as she rides in one of Jamie Wardrop’s fire trucks during the Sewickley Memorial Day Parade.

To say Susan moved around quite a bit as a child is an understatement; she went to five different schools in the first six grades. “I was always a shy, bookish little girl and being new five times in six years has given me a lifelong empathy for anyone who is new,” she explained. “I do my best to welcome people who are new in whatever situation I’m in and I try to make them feel comfortable.” Susan came to the Academy as a Grade 6 student in 1951, the same year former Headmaster Cliff Nichols joined the SA community. She was enrolled through Grade 9. At the time, Mr. Nichols was trying to build a high school, and Susan was one of seven students who stayed for Grade 10. However, there weren’t enough students to sustain a high school, and Susan finished her education at Miss Porter’s School in Farmington, Connecticut, a school that Susan said “was a combination of the smartest girls I had ever met and the most privileged, bestdressed girls I had ever seen.” “We were given the best education money could buy, and the unspoken goal was to do some token kind of work and then marry someone for whom we would preside at gracious dinner parties using our exceptional education to lead scintillating conversation that would further our husbands’ careers,” Susan reflected. “The 1950s were a time and place in prosperous peacetime that we have not seen since. Many girls got married during or right after college and happily stepped into their expected roles. Our choices for work were pretty much teacher, nurse, or secretary. I chose teacher.” Susan graduated from Vassar College in 1962 and immediately moved back to the Sewickley area, teaching Latin and coaching at neighboring Avonworth High

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School. “I coached three varsity sports – field hockey, basketball, and softball – which made my Sewickley Academy coaches cringe,” Susan laughed. “At best, I was a mediocre athlete. But when you’re a young teacher, they ask you to do everything in sight. I also directed the school play.” Susan’s journey, however, did not keep her in her hometown. In 1985, she moved to Ohio after her son Kemp graduated from Sewickley Academy and she earned her doctorate from the University of Pittsburgh. Over the years, she was the executive director at the Lighthouse, a shelter for battered women near Columbus, and later the Middle School Head and then the Head of the Senior School at Lake Ridge Academy near Cleveland. As fate would have it, Susan returned to the Academy in 2001 as the Director of Alumni Affairs, traveling and holding regional reunions all over the country to try to keep alumni connected with the school. “The goal was to keep people connected, or to reconnect as many alumni as possible with the school that I was so proud to work for,” Susan said of her job. “I could see for myself everyday how happy kids were to be here in this school, so it was an easy story to take on the road.” She served as Head of Middle School from 2005 until 2011, already having 13 years of experience as a principal elsewhere. “I wanted to ensure we had an environment that was safe and happy and a place where kids could develop their talents, academic skills, and creative processes to the fullest,” Susan said of her goals as the Head of Middle School. “Middle School is a very transitional time, and in many ways, the time of the most growth in young people. Providing an

environment that worked on their organizational skills while at the same time diminishing their anxiety during this growth spurt was primary. In terms of curriculum, I was particularly interested in integrating different academic areas. I don’t see learning out in the world in a silo kind of system, and so we began doing more integrated projects during my years there. I was happy to participate in the research for the change to an extended class schedule at the time. The new schedule was implemented in the last year I was in that position, and I was thrilled to see that kind of innovation prove to be so beneficial for students’ learning.” Susan rejoined the Advancement Office in 2011 as the Alumni Associate, a position she still holds today. She’s also the president of the Old Sewickley Post Office Corporation, where she has served as an officer since 2001, the vice president of the Union Aid Society, and consummate gardener, volunteering her time with her sister Missy (Ratcliffe ’60) Zimmerman to tend to the flower beds and Secret Garden on the Academy’s campus. One of the major projects Susan worked on at the Old Sewickley Post Office, which houses the Sweetwater Center for the Arts and the Sewickley Valley Historical Society, was the cleaning of the exterior of the building after 100 years of dirt, grime, and debris built up from the railroad and Ohio River Boulevard. She helped to re-landscape the building two years ago, and is currently working on improving handicap accessibility to the restrooms and the building itself. In 2012, she chaired the 100-year celebration, thanking the original committee and donors who converted the building from a post office to the cultural center it is today. Although her role as vice president of the Union Aid Society is relatively new, she’s known the value of the work they do for over 30 years. The society acts as a safety net for the people in the Quaker Valley School District, which is comprised of 11 boroughs. It owns an apartment building with 22 affordable apartments for senior citizens so they can live in the heart of the village and be able to walk to the store, bank, and church. “While the village presents itself as a very prosperous place, there are many people in the valley who struggle to make a living, to put food on the table, to get an education, and Union Aid tries to help with its many different projects and housing,” Susan explained. “I was very pleased to be invited to be on the board.” She chaired the Academy’s 175th celebration, 50 years of Senior School celebration, and its graduating class’ 50th reunion. “I try to teach our students today something about the history of the school every year and to remind them that they are part of the huge river of alumni all over the world - almost 4,000. I try to remind them that there is more to the Academy than just their experience today, that it’s a rich history to be proud of,” Susan said. “I love coming to work every day because it’s such a positive place to be. I love to see the little kids’ smiling faces and watch the older kids grow from being anxious, insecure Middle School students to confident, accomplished seniors.” “I didn’t even consider working at other alma maters,” Susan reflected. “It’s great fun for me. I get to see people that I knew or my children knew or my siblings or cousins knew from all different classes.” In total, 18 of Susan’s relatives, cousins included, attended Sewickley Academy.

love coming to “ Iwork every day

because it’s such a positive place to be. I love to see the little kids’ smiling faces...

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When not tending to the gardens at the Academy, Susan works on the gardens at her family’s Rockledge Farm in Sewickley Heights with her sister Missy. They own a small cut flower business – My Mother’s Garden – that operates partly as a public service. For a small fee, the pair offer a mason jar full of flowers and vegetables on a weekly basis to women in the community. Susan said her mother is the real reason for her green thumb. “My mother was a wonderful gardener and she would try to get me to help her, but I was not interested at all until I had my own house at the age of 21 and planted my first flower bed. I’ve been hooked ever since. I love having flowers outside and inside my house.” Head of School Kolia O’Connor said it best during his introduction of Susan at the Honors Dinner. “Community leader; educator; counselor; gardener; generous contributor of time, talent, and treasure. How she finds time for it all is anyone’s guess.” Susan has made a 54-year career out of service to others, making her “famous” in town thanks to her consistent and relentless commitment to the community. In her closing remarks, Susan said, “The little that I have been able to do to continue the legacy bestowed upon me and all of us in this beautiful valley is an incredibly small return for the many blessings I have received through the years and continue to receive daily through my family and the institutions of this town. I am more grateful than I can say, and thank you all for what you do to contribute to the greater good and for your great kindness and generosity to me personally. I will not forget it.”

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Photo: Kristina Serafini | Tribune-Review

LARRY CONNOLLY’S SHORT STORY TAKES TO THE

BIG SCREEN By: Kaitlin Busch “This Way to Egress,” a short story from Senior School English teacher Lawrence Connolly’s Bram Stoker-nominated collection “Voices,” is on its way to the big screen. The story focuses on Helen, a mother who finds herself trapped in a darkened office building. The synopsis, according to Good Deed Entertainment, is as follows: Helen searches the halls of a nightmarish office tower for her missing children, stumbling through corridors that twist and realign as she moves through them. She must rescue the children from a bizarre psychologist who threatens to turn them against her, all before the building’s exit – and her chance at sanity – closes forever. “The title references P.T. Barnum’s freak show, which had a sign that said ‘this way to the egress.’ After looking at all of the strange horrors, people would follow this sign thinking they were going into a horrific room or chamber. But when they walked through they would see the biggest horror of all – they were back in the normal world, as egress means exit,” Connolly explained. “Thus the title suggests that the exit she longs to find may not lead to the escape she hopes for. Possibly, she will find the world beyond is even stranger, ever more challenging.” Mick Garris, the producer of the TV series Masters of Horror on Showtime, is partnering with Good Deed Entertainment to coproduce Nightmare Cinema. This feature film will be a collection of five stories from five masters of horror. Each story will be adapted into a 20-minute short directed and written by a different filmmaker. David Slade (Hannibal, 30 Days of Night) will direct This Way to Egress, which he co-wrote with Larry, based on Larry’s short story, which was originally titled “Traumatic Descent.” Nightmare Cinema is sure to have the audience on the edge of their seats. Good Deed Entertainment released the following about the upcoming film. Sitting at the edge of a deserted town, under the guise of a decrepit theatre, is the gateway between heaven and hell. It can only be found by tortured souls, lost in a place of unknown time and origin. In this twisted anthology, at least one character from each of the five shorts arrives at the cinematic purgatory, unaware of their fate. Upon entering the theatre, they are forced to watch their deepest and darkest fears play out before them. Lurking in the shadows is the projectionist, who preys upon their souls with his collection of disturbing film reels. As each reel spins its sinister tale, the characters find frightening parallels to their own lives. But by the time they realize the truth, escape is no longer an option. For once the ticket is torn, their fate is sealed at Nightmare Cinema.

Garris made the announcement at a film convention in Mexico this past November. “Someone asked him if all five stories have anything in common,” Connolly said. “He responded, ‘Only that they are going to scare the hell out of you.’” The news, as exciting as it was, wasn’t entirely new for Connolly, as the story had previously been optioned by David Slade and a British production company over a decade earlier. In 2000, Slade, who was making MTV music videos for Stone Temple Pilots, David Grey, and Troy Amos at the time, and Charly Cantor approached Larry, asking to option “Traumatic Descent.” After reaching an agreement with Connolly and his agent, Cantor came to Pittsburgh a year later to start writing the screenplay to turn the short story into a feature film. Unfortunately, the film was never produced, and when the option expired a few years later, Slade moved to Los Angeles to work with Ridley Scott’s production company RSO. Nevertheless, he continued to hold out hopes of directing This Way to Egress. In 2004, Slade’s first feature film turned out to be Hard Candy instead of Connolly’s story. At that time, talk was This Way to Egress would be Slade’s second film, which turned out to be 30 Days of Night. Prior to Slade’s move, Connolly traveled to London to meet with him and the producer. The visit also provided a chance to discuss the script with Cantor. “I’ll never forget eating breakfast with Charly in the London airport, when he paused and said to me that the film would definitely be made. He was enthusiastic about it. I walked away from that meeting thinking, ‘Yeah, this is going to happen,’” Connolly recollected. “I thought the film would come out of Ridley Scott’s organization, but it didn’t. When David moved to in Los Angeles, other opportunities happened for him, which is cool, but I kept hoping the film would eventually get made.” Slade went on to direct the Twilight Saga: Eclipse and produce the series Hannibal on NBC. Although he kept in touch with Connolly, the two realized the This Way to Egress film wouldn’t happen for a while. The two parted ways, Slade working on Hannibal and Connolly continuing with his writing. In September 2015, Slade contacted Connolly to let him know he had found a producer, Good Deed Entertainment, for the film. Instead of a standalone feature, This Way to Egress would be part of a production composed of five short stories. “I thought this was a perfect idea because now all of the expansion Charly and I had written didn’t matter; now we would be able to tell the story as I had

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originally written,” Connolly explained. “David took the story and, similar to what Francis Ford Coppola did with The Godfather, took pages out of the book and turned it into a screenplay.”

to Egress segment to commence in LA in August. When completed, Nightmare Cinema will be released in theaters worldwide, and then will be available on Video on Demand, Amazon, and Netflix.

Slade took these pages and formatted the story’s dialogue as a screenplay, then sent it to Connolly so he could polish and expand it. “I got a chance to add some action and dialogue to the story, which I think improved it,” he said. “If someone came to me back when it was first published and asked me to make it a bit longer, I like to think these are the exact scenes I would have come up with.”

This isn’t the first time one of Connolly’s stories have attracted the attention of filmmakers. Over the years, some of his works have been made into stand-alone short films and shown at festivals. There was a big budget film shot in Los Angeles in 1990 and directed by Steve Muscurella based on his story “Echoes.” Muscurella was working on Rescue 911 at the time and wanted to break into feature films.

Connolly said he didn’t go back to his 20-year-old notes, but instead added things he thought the story needed that weren’t in the original work to make it better. “Because I’m a writer, I don’t see it as a finished product; I see it as a journey,” he said of his writing. “’Traumatic Descent’ has been reprinted numerous times since its original appearance in “Borderlands 3,” and each time the story is a little different. Writing is always a process.” Once complete, he handed the script back over to Slade, who sent it to Mick Garris. And the rest is history.

In 2001, SA alum Rodney Altman ’00 remade the film and shot it entirely on 35mm. Altman’s version won Best Cinematography at the Fusion Film Festival in New York.

As a co-writer, Connolly’s job is pretty much finished. He’ll get a call if they need revisions, otherwise the director and producer will handle the rest of the production of the film. “Film making is such a compartmentalized art; it’s a collaboration with so many people involved and everyone knows his or her job,” he said. In Connolly’s most recent communication with Garris and Slade, he was told Nightmare Cinema continues to move forward, with the filming of the This Way

Although Connolly’s writing is often categorized as horror, he describes it as anything but. “People think that it’s horror, but I don’t. I shy away from that term,” he explained. “I like to think that my writing skirts the edges of horror. I think of it more as strange, weird, or fantastic fiction. I like science fiction a lot, which is based on the plausible and draws power from a sense of wonder instead of dread.” Connolly’s stories have been garnering national attention for years. Since the early 1980s, they have appeared in the genre’s top magazines and anthologies, including Cemetery Dance, Twilight Zone, Fantasy & Science Fiction, and Year’s Best Horror Stories. Former Head of School Ham Clark was also a big supporter of Connolly’s. When “Traumatic Decent” first appeared in “Borderlands 3,” Mr. Clark held it up in a faculty meeting to announce its publication. During the school year, Connolly teaches his students how to write scripts and stories. Students spend a lot of time brainstorming ways to communicate their stories, while constantly being challenged by Mr. Connolly to ask “What if?” What if it’s raining outside? What if this character comes in later? What if this happens? “We’re not writers; we’re people who write. It’s about the verb – it’s about what we do, not what we are,” he stated. Connolly said he is constantly impressed with the talent of the students at the Academy. “This past year, I was able to include scriptwriting units in a couple of my classes, and some of those students went on to produce exciting work that went well beyond the classroom,” he stated. “Two of my ‘Becoming American’ students, Millen Schuchert ’17 and Nina Liu-Guechev ’16, had films screened at Pittsburgh Filmmakers’ Melwood Screening Room in May; and Kahmil Shajihan ’16, who worked on scriptwriting in ‘Art of Composition,’ went on to team with classmates Alex Dethero ’16, Dylan Grosz ’16, Alex O’Connor ’16, and Gus O’Connor ’16 to produce a senior project film titled Kissing Abby Lewis. I got to serve as project sponsor on that one, and former student Nick Mross ’01, director of the documentary The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin, came on board as project mentor. It was a great year, and I can’t wait to see what next school year brings.” Connolly credits his start at Sewickley Academy to his mentor Samuel Hazo, who served as Pennsylvania State Poet from 1993-2003. The two shared an office at Duquesne University in 1987, when Connolly was filling in for the fiction writer in residence, who was on sabbatical. “He suggested I go to the Academy and see Mr. Cavalier, that he might have a job for me,” Connolly reflected. “And I’m glad I took that leap because it gave me a chance to work with terrific colleagues and students.”

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FLAT PANTHER

SNIP IT, SNAP IT, & SUBMIT IT Cut out Flat Panther and take him along with you as you travel around the globe, taking pictures of you as you go to show your Sewickley Academy pride. Submit your pictures via email to Alumni Relations at alumni@sewickley.org. Follow the Panther as he travels around with alumni, students, parents, and friends of the Academy on the Alumni Facebook page.

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Robert Samuel ’16 works on his painting in art class.

By: Pam Scott Fine and Performing Arts, perhaps often thought of as being on the periphery at a college preparatory school, are an integral part of not only the culture at Sewickley Academy, but also life in the real world. These classes and disciplines aren’t only for the ‘talented’ or ‘quirky’ or ‘overachieving’ students. They are for all who wish to contribute to society, as the skills of collaboration, communication, creativity, and critical thinking are in the forefront of the many benefits one gains from these experiences. Classes are fielded in a variety of disciplines beyond what is traditionally considered reasonable in the education world. While wandering campus, one can daily observe students throwing on the wheel, tap dancing, composing and recording their own music, gingerly moving red-hot raku pieces from the reduction chamber, performing dramatic improvisations, developing their own photographs in the dark room, studying traditional drawing, debating the validity of modern music as an art form, programming the light board, and collaborating in performances of far too many types to mention in this article. Conducting these classes are 12 skillful teachers, but look beyond that and you will see polished artists, each crazily dedicated to their individual crafts in unique and various ways. While this article is not about those qualities and accomplishments, this fact certainly deserves mention. Employing master teachers is significant and no small feat for an institution, but to bring full-fledged practicing artists into play in the classroom is far more crucial and influential. At this point faculty credibility reaches previously unattainable levels, and this, no doubt, is one of the driving factors that keep students coming back for more long after their arts credits needed for graduation are fulfilled. Teachers want to share. Students want to experience. Outside of that, what else is there? And so, we work together toward the greater good. In analyzing curriculum through the lens of teaching how our students learn and grounding them in 21st century skills, it becomes clear that skills learned through participating in the arts are the very skills touted as the way of the future in education and beyond. It is also noteworthy to consider how these purported 21st century skills have been an integral part of transcendent arts in society and in education. The crossover between these skills is clearly evident and unavoidable in most disciplines. Beyond the noticeable connections between 21st century learning skills of creating works of art, and perhaps even working in cooperation with others to accomplish this, one doesn’t have to look far under the surface to find other relevant benefits.

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Collaboration Teachers, students, and parents together plan and create sets for stage productions. This has been especially rewarding with the Grade 5 musical production. The in-depth and creative study opportunity that benefits our students also transfers to the experience of the audience during performances. All rehearsals from the largest cast to a pas de deux are times of utmost and intense cooperation toward a common goal. Ensemble members put prior knowledge into play while taking direction from the teacher or other students to create the best product possible, all the while realizing there is rarely only one correct way to reach the end goal. Success is reached when all members feel their contributions are valued as they persevered to actualize a high quality creation.

Communication All art forms are powerful tools because the necessary vocabulary is universal – be it observed or perceived, objective or subjective, or through sound or silence.

Creativity Students have the power to identify something lacking from their arts education and then design a course to fill that void. Students are guided to develop course content, complete with curriculum mapping, as is happening with the Contemporary Music Production course offered in the 2016-2017 school year. Students and teachers alike creatively find solutions to the many time constraints to ensure that interested students can participate in classes, even in the most difficult of schedule circumstances.

Critical Thinking A quote attributed to Aristotle, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” sums up what it takes to become a skillful and accomplished artisan. There are so many things to ponder and execute in the creation of any art form. In order to be truly innovative one must adeptly execute the most basic through the most complex and demanding skills, straying from those rules at the most carefully considered time in the name of artful presentation. In considering future employment in the music business, an upcoming senior has investigated the use of music history of distant and recent pasts to predict future trends. Beyond this collected spattering of examples of the vast number of learned skills, students and faculty alike are always looking toward a larger, more paramount picture. The arts aren’t a vehicle to better test scores, the goal of arts education isn’t to create more knowledgeable arts consumers, and the arts certainly aren’t to be sequestered and reserved only for those who have an inclination and talent. Through these crafts we all become more human. We connect with each other and with humankind across the ages through the arts. The arts challenge us to not only think outside the box to be successful, but to consider that there are others just as essential to life as ourselves contained in and around that box. The arts guide us to become better versions of ourselves through reflection, self-examination, and social awareness. Couple this with the skills of collaboration, communication, creativity, and critical thinking that have been handed down through generations and polished by connectedness through the arts, and this is how we equip our students to go out into the world destined to do the work necessary to make society a better place for all.

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STEPHEN

THE MANY FACES OF

KING

By: Kaitlin Busch

The best-selling author told the 600-plus sold-out crowd at Sewickley Academy that there are three faces of Stephen King: the one who writes gruesome horror stories, the “at-home Steve” who takes out the garbage and whose wife tells him when it’s time to change his shirt, and the “public Steve” – the one who, according to his children when they were young, would get dressed up and “go out to be Stephen King.” He did, however, forget to mention a fourth persona: stand-up comedian Steve. Mr. King had the audience laughing throughout “An Evening with Stephen King,” sponsored by the Penguin Bookshop on Wednesday, June 8, 2016, telling stories of his experiences in Pittsburgh, in film, and in life. He opened the evening with a hilariously embarrassing story from 1979 about the time he was having dinner on Mount Washington while promoting “The Dead Zone” and came down with a severe case of food poisoning. Excusing himself to the restroom before becoming “nuclear,” Mr. King didn’t think his situation could get much worse – he was extremely sick to his stomach in a bathroom that had no doors on the stalls – until, of course, it did. “Here comes the oldest bathroom attendant in the world walking towards me with a pad and pen. It was the only autograph I gave while sitting on the John,” Mr. King said to the captive audience. “It was my first encounter with fame, and it sort of gave me a perspective from the bottom up.”

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Mr. King talked about how he met director George Romero while in Pittsburgh. The two worked on the filming of his screenplay for 1982’s Creepshow, a collection of five short but terrifying tales made into one full-length film. Playing the part of Jordy Verrill, King worked with special effects artist Tom Savini to make a plaster mask of his face for his character’s death in the segment The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill, which required him to breathe through a straw while the mask was setting, an experience he wasn’t fond of. While they were filming, E.G. Marshall, who played the part of Upson Pratt in the segment They’re Creeping Up On You, also had to go through the uncomfortable experience. “I made sure to be there because I’m a fan of the sadistic and if I had to go through this, I want to watch someone else go through it too,” King joked. “I’ve never told this story in public before, but I don’t care because he’s dead and I’m alive.” King went on to say that while Marshall was encased in a plaster mask and breathing through a straw, he wrote BOURBON on a piece of paper, which was quickly produced and fed to him via an eyedropper through the straw. King said that he gets typecast in horror stories and is often asked what happened to him as a child, as most reporters are convinced he had to experience a traumatic event in his youth to make him write the way he does. On the contrary, he said “I lived a perfectly normal childhood. I had a moment when

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I had the s--t scared out of me, and I decided that’s what I wanted to do for a living. What good are you if you don’t do what you want to do?” All joking aside, Mr. King did tell the audience how he successfully scares people – he gives them characters to believe in. He told them made-up statistics about how a handful of them probably left their car or house unlocked, and that a maniac with a very sharp knife could be hiding in their backseat or lurking behind the shower curtain in the bathroom. “The last thing I want you to think about at night when you go home alone and no one can hear you scream is, ‘Did I leave that shower curtain open?’ You laugh now because we are all here together and you are safe, but eventually you have to go home to that bathroom,” Mr. King teased. After spending time in the Academy’s chorus room, Mr. King decided to read a brand new story to the audience instead of an excerpt from his latest book, “End of Watch.” The narrative, entitled “The Music Room,” is a cruel tale about a married couple and the company they keep – literally. Halfway through the event, Mr. King joked that he was going to talk some more because “bulls--t is what I’m all about.” But throughout his comedic performance, he had a few touching and serious moments about the importance of the written word. He recalled how his nose was always in a book as a child, and many adults always asked him why. His response (in hindsight, of course)? “You’re going to live one life and I’m going to live 10,000.” Stephen King visited 12 cities in as many days to promote his latest book while also showing his support for independent bookstores. Each of the 620 attendees received a copy (400 were autographed) of the novel, “End of Watch.” It completes the thriller trilogy starring retired police detective Bill Hodges and Bradly Hartsfield. “Mr. Mercedes” (2014) — an Edgar award-winner — and “Finders Keepers” (2015) were books one and two.

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JOE JACKSON Dances His Way through Professional Development By: Maggie McCauley

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“He is highly skilled at helping individuals reach their fullest potential on and off the stage. His inspiration has helped me in guiding the young performers at Sewickley Academy,” Joe said. While he prepared for his roles in rehearsals during the school day in January, he brought in guest teachers to instruct his classes. He said he tries to incorporate varied skills for students by enriching them with experiences with outside professionals who can introduce them to styles that he normally doesn’t teach in his own curriculum. This gives students a diverse repertoire from the classroom to the stage. “Students gain experiences learning dance from different perspectives,” Joe explained. Part of Sewickley Academy’s education is incorporating practical use of skills into daily learning. Some of these skills include collaboration and creativity. This is something that Joe brings into his curriculum by working with various resident artists and bringing his own background from professional development opportunities into the classroom. Mr. Jackson helps students channel the character of Captain Hook for the Grade 5 musical Peter Pan Jr.

There is always room for personal growth and opportunity making us “forever learners” in our field, practice, or art. That’s Sewickley Academy’s belief when it comes to offering professional development opportunities to faculty and staff. Many teachers attend conferences or travel over the summer to continue their learning, but dance teacher Joe Jackson’s education thrives in the dead of winter. During the month of January, he has worked with Pittsburgh Public Theater to continue his lifelong learning through professional development. In 2015, Joe performed in its production of My Fair Lady as Freddy and as Rusty Charlie in Guys and Dolls in 2016. “As an actor, I have been able to continue to hone my craft, working alongside established actors both from here and New York,” Joe said.

This past year, Bodiography Center for Movement joined the Academy as artists in residence. Their contemporary ballet style taught students how to interpret, create, and execute movement. The teachings led to an informal showcase at the end of their residency. In January 2015, Attack Theater joined forces with the SA community as the artists in residence. The company focused on combining dance with art, music, and multimedia to create an unforgettable experience. “They did a lot of storytelling with their dance, which helped students with character building for their school performances,” Joe reflected. The professional development opportunities faculty are able to take advantage of at Sewickley Academy ensure all students can reach their fullest potential whether it’s on the stage, on the athletic field, or inside the classroom.

Joe credits these opportunities as lessons and techniques that can be brought back to the classroom. “My goal is to bring the experience I gain professionally into my teaching and directing. As I look back at my years at Sewickley Academy, I can see the growth in not only the dance program but in myself as an educator,” he said. Joe has been touched by the overwhelming support from the Sewickley Academy community. He recalled a surprising moment from last year’s show My Fair Lady when a group of Middle School students attended the performance. “I looked out into the audience during one moment, and kept spotting my students! It was incredible,” he said. Joe appreciates the Academy’s support of his outside goals as a performer, as well as his goals as a teacher. It’s important for him to continue his education in the arts so he can better educate his students. “These experiences have allowed me to learn from directors and choreographers, roles I often ‘play’ for Sewickley Academy. The insight into the way they do their jobs has helped me be better at mine,” he stated. Working with Ted Pappas, the Artistic Director at the Pittsburgh Public Theater, has been extremely beneficial to Joe’s skillset. The professionalism Pappas uses with all interactions between actors, designers, and crew has served as an important directing lesson for him. Mr. Jackson teaches Grade 4 students a dance routine to “What Makes The Brave Man Brave” from Peter Pan Jr. SEWICKLEY SPEAKING

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FAMILIAR FACES IN NEW PLACES

1. Evan Kurtz

Interim Head of Middle School

Evan Kurtz will begin his 15th year at Sewickley Academy as Interim Head of Middle School. As Middle School Dean, a coach, and a PE and health teacher, Evan understands the needs of our Middle School students. In the past three years, Evan has helped conduct our faculty reviews with individual teachers; he has led both the Grade 7 and 8 advisory teams; and he has been a member of our Resource Team with Dr. Shannon Mulholland, Ms. Lynn Sanborne, and Dr. Doug Jones. For his distinguished service to the Academy, Evan was awarded the Clark Faculty Chair in 2011.

the needs of each individual child. A graduate of Sewickley Academy, Jerilyn went on to earn her B.A. from Tufts University, her M.Ed. from George Mason University, and her Ed.D from Duquesne University.

5. Victoria Adams Kindergarten Teacher

Evan earned his B.A. in Communication from George Mason University and his M.A. in Educational Leadership from the University of Pittsburgh. During his time as a teacher, coach, and administrator here at Sewickley Academy, Evan has demonstrated the intellectual, organizational, and leadership qualities that will serve the Middle School well in the coming year.

Victoria spent her first year at the Academy teaching Grade 4 and this year joined the Early Childhood team teaching Kindergarten. Prior to her arrival at Sewickley Academy, Victoria taught Kindergarten at High Tech Elementary School in San Marcos, California. Previously she was at the Fessenden School in Massachusetts and the Stanwich School in Connecticut, where she taught Kindergarten and Grades 3 and 5. She is experienced in Responsive Classroom and the OrtonGillingham program for teaching reading. Victoria earned her B.A. in Studio Arts from Hobart and William Smith Colleges and her M.A. in Childhood Education from Manhattanville College.

2. Jennifer Salrin

6. Bevan Koch

Associate Director of College Guidance

Jennifer Salrin is moving from the Senior School English Department to the position of Associate Director of College Guidance. She brings to the position her tremendous knowledge of the Academy and our students, especially our seniors for whom she served last year as Grade 11 Coordinator. Jennifer understands our culture and the needs of our students and their families, and she will be a forceful advocate for our students in the college process, using her skills as an English teacher to help each student put his or her best foot forward in writing applications. She will be a wonderful complement to Ms. Satariano, who is now in her 18th year in college guidance.

Middle School Mathematics Teacher

Bevan, who has served with distinction as a Senior School mathematics teacher and also as Grade 9 Coordinator, will be moving to the Middle School to teach math in Grade 8. Prior to her arrival here at Sewickley Academy in 2013, Bevan worked for 13 years in the Klein Independent School District in Spring, Texas, as a mathematics teacher in Grades 7 through 12. She earned her B.S. in Mathematics from McNeese State University, Louisiana, and her M.Ed. in Special Education and Ed.D. in Educational Leadership from Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas. She was named the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Campus Teacher of the Yearâ&#x20AC;? for 2011.

7. Louis Pessolano 3. Susan Crawford

Director of Alumni Relations

Susan Crawford, who joined us last fall in the Advancement Office supporting general operations, transitioned mid-year to the position of Director of Alumni Relations. In this position, Susan will be able to combine her significant organizational abilities with her great people skills. A graduate of Miami University (Ohio), Susan has extensive experience in a variety of corporate settings, including an interior design company and a national commercial real estate firm. She is excited to be leading our efforts to support our international network of alumni through local and regional events, as well programs as connecting current students with alumni.

4. Jerilyn Scott Grade 4 Teacher

After two years as our Lower School Mathematics Specialist, Jerilyn Scott returns to her Grade 4 classroom this fall. During her 14 years at Sewickley Academy, Jerilyn has taught Kindergarten, Grades 1, 4, and 5, and she is very familiar with the developmental needs of Lower School students and highly skilled in meeting

Grade 5 Teacher

After seven years teaching Grade 4, Louis Pessolano will move to Grade 5 this coming year, joining Christina Blazin and Chris Carney. Louis is a Sewickley Academy graduate and earned a B.A. in Communication from the University of Dayton and an M.A. in Education from the University of Pittsburgh. He brings to his new position a complete understanding of the Grade 4 program, which will be invaluable as he works with his colleagues to ensure the most dynamic experience for our Grade 5 students.

8. Brenna Halbedl Grade 4 Teacher

Brenna Halbedl first joined the Academy faculty in 2009, and since that time she has worked closely with both Karen DiMaio and Barbara Carrier in the Kindergarten classroom. Brenna is excited this year to be leading her own classroom. She will take a section of Grade 4, joining Kalyn Currie and Jerilyn Scott. Brenna earned her A.A. in Early Childhood Education from the Community College of Beaver County and her B.A., summa cum laude, in Early Childhood Education at Point Park University.

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Farewell, Friends! A heartfelt thank you goes out to all of our faculty and staff who have dedicated their time, some over two decades, energy, and passion to making Sewickley Academy what it is today. The Academy will not be the same without you, but it will continue to thrive because of you. Good luck on your next adventure! Dr. William Barnes When classes began in the Senior School this year, there was a familiar face missing. After 33 years of service to the Academy, Dr. Bill Barnes is retiring. One thing is clear from talking to Dr. Barnes – he has an interminable passion for his students, especially his advisees. He said his favorite memory from his time at SA was experiencing his advisees as freshmen and watching them graduate as seniors. He leaves his colleagues with a little parting advice: “Treat your students as if they were your clients. Don’t talk down to them. Be totally honest with them. That’s all they want and need in the first place.”

Barbara Carrier It’s hard to know what Barbara Carrier enjoys more – hiking at Fern Hollow Nature Center with her students or helping them explore a new concept in the Early Childhood (EC) building. The correct answer is both – as long as her students are with her, of course. Barbara has been helping Kindergarten students discover the world for 30 years, and this fall the Early Childhood building will not be the same without her laugh, passion for her students, and adventures. But that sense of exploring continues in each of her students, and as a result will forever be a part of the history of Sewickley Academy.

Cindy Kelley The joy that Cindy Kelley has brought to her students in the Lower School is most evident when watching one of her classes enjoy their afternoon walks through the streets of Sewickley. The laughter, friendship, smiles, and caring for one another are apparent from beginning to end. For 37 years, Ms. Kelley has guided her “sweet babies” with passion, grace, and love. Her students are the better for it, and the lessons learned outside of the classroom will not soon be forgotten.

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Carol McCormish

Jamie Wardrop

Carol McCormish has been a force in the Lower School for 33 years and has been integral making many, many wonderful memories for her students as well as her colleagues. One of her favorite memories was teaching Grade 4 with Kalyn Currie and Louis Pessolano. She will not only miss their laughter, but the bonds they built with the parents and students through their study of immigration and the trips to New York City. When asked what she will miss most, Mrs. McCormish shared, “I will miss knowing so many students in the community and the hugs and greetings (from moving vehicles) while walking through the village. [Our families] could just as easily walk by with a nod and smile, but they don’t.”

Have you ever thought about who was the photographer behind some of the iconic photos from Sewickley Academy’s past? For the last 41 years, Jamie Wardrop has been the Academy’s resident photographer. Jamie taught photography at the Academy and helped countless children improve their photographic skills. While Mr. Wardrop has been a quiet presence on campus for years, he makes the most amount of noise at Nichols Field during soccer and lacrosse games with one of his vintage fire trucks. Every time a goal is scored, the fire siren blares in support of our kids.

Ever the sage and mentor, Mrs. McCormish’s parting advice to her colleagues is “to be kind to one another. From the maintenance staff to the specialist teachers, through the administration and parents: it takes a village to do what we do well.”

Jamie said the thing he will miss most about the Academy is the people – the students, faculty, staff, and parents. Finally, his parting advice is to be “honest, straightforward, and the heck with being ‘politically correct.’”

Hail our Academy, long may she stand. Fortress of knowledge true; strength of our land. When we pass through these doors, as years go by, fondly we think of Jeanne Otto Jeanne Otto has spent the past two decades “laughing every day” with her Early Childhood students. She loved planting the gardens in front of the Lower School and EC Building with the children, where dirt was constantly flying everywhere. She recalled one of her fondest moments, when a red tulip started to bloom. “One little boy came running up to me and shouted, ‘Come look! It exploded!’ The flower opening up was like hot lava to him. I love the curiosity and excitement of children.” Jeanne said she will miss the people the most and was grateful for the unique opportunity she had to get to know her students’ parents better, as many would stay a few minutes at drop-off while their children worked on completing their task baskets. “I enjoyed seeing how the parents were bonding as a community,” she said. Jeanne also reflected positively on the teacher trips sponsored by the Nichols Fund to Machu Picchu, Peru, and the Galápagos Islands, Ecuador, where teachers from all divisions bonded over the work they were doing off campus.

days that never will die. Hail our Academy, constant remain. Change not thy values formed; hold to thy fame. We shan’t forget our school, though we depart. Wide worlds may call to us but you hold our heart.

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Kate Busatto ’16

FROM SA’S STAGE TO CMU’S ELITE DRAMATURGY PROGRAM By: Brittnea Turner

If you’ve been to a theatrical performance at Sewickley Academy over the past four years, you’ve most likely witnessed the talent of a tall, red-headed beauty, Katherine “Kate” Busatto ’16. As a child, Kate always liked to dress up in costumes. So much so, she said, “that I only wore the costumes. I really refused to wear real clothes.”

Department because I sought it out. And I think that’s something that’s really special about SA. No matter who you are and what your interest is, you can find somebody in the faculty and staff who will give you the opportunity to explore, and luckily for me I’ve been able to take a class in theater almost every trimester since my sophomore year,” Kate said.

Being the first child, her parents tried to push different interests on her to see if she liked music or sports. They finally recognized the area to focus her extracurricular activities in when she was on the little league soccer team and started dancing in the goal posts. Her parents wised up and enrolled her in dance classes, and she joined the Grade 5 musical. From then on, Kate’s passion, time, and talents have primarily been expressed in the performing arts.

She credits Artistic Director Mr. Matthew Griffin as a mentor who has helped her explore the possibilities of theater and what theater can mean for her. “He’s been absolutely essential to my growth,” Kate said.

Kate enrolled in the Academy her freshman year, and that’s when she realized her passion for the stage. “I love being on stage, it’s so much fun,” she said. “[But] I can’t see myself doing that for the rest of my life.” She loves to act but ultimately wants to be involved in production more than performance. She is certain that her schooling afforded her opportunities that she would not have had elsewhere. “I’ve had so much individual attention from the Performing Arts 54

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For her senior project, Kate adapted J.M. Barrie’s original play Peter Pan into her version, Peter and the Wolf Children, under the supervision of Mr. Griffin while taking a dramaturgy class as an independent study based on a course he took at Yale. She submitted materials from this class with her college applications. Mr. Griffin shared, “One of the many clever things Katherine’s uncompromising new take on J.M. Barrie’s classic (first staged in 1904) is how she allows such a relatively small cast, with such a grand vision, spring up naturally, while also underscoring some of the main themes of the play. The themes are motherlessness and the nature of death. Katherine

has taken a clever route here to achieve invention. She researched the original manuscripts of Peter Pan from the J.M. Barrie script and found variations that confirm her own vision of the play as a deep, sensitive story of vulnerable children in an uncertain, changing world. She doesn’t sentimentalize the legacy as a fly-happy, ‘Disneyfied,’ frolic. She has stuck to a single voice aimed to the original intent of J.M. Barrie, but used a historical allegory present just after the time of his writing, to shed light on his meaning.” Her work with the Performing Arts Department has paid off, as she will matriculate to Carnegie Mellon University’s (CMU) elite dramaturgy program this fall. Dramaturgy is the art of taking theater from the imaginative to the practical. It can mean being the translator of the intent of a playwright. According to Kate, the most important part of dramaturgy is being the script’s advocate throughout the entire production process. From dramaturgy, Kate’s goal is to go into a career in adaptation and new work development. “That means if someone is trying to get a script up on its feet, I would help examine what works and what doesn’t work,” she explained. The dramaturgy program is a very unique program that very few schools offer, especially to undergraduates. There are only five students in her major at CMU in each class year. One of the main draws to this program is the university’s aim to provide students with unique opportunities. She’ll have the chance to study theater abroad in places such as India, South Africa, and Bulgaria, which is atypical for most theater programs. She’s also expected to do at least one internship prior to graduation, but two is preferable, and she’ll have the opportunity to be the dramaturge for CMU productions. In addition to her love of the stage, Kate is a poet. Similarly to her love for acting, her love of poetry started in Grade 9. She read Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy” her freshman year in Mrs. Ann Russell’s English class, which sparked her interest in reading and writing poetry. “Mrs. Russell always helped read over my work and presented me with lots of opportunities to submit my work places,” Kate reflected. Her published poetry has earned numerous recognitions. Senior School English Teacher and Department Chair Ann Russell said, “Between page and stage [Kate]’s having quite a year!”

In June 2016, her poem “Hotel Poem #1” was chosen for publication in the “Ralph Munn Creative Writing Anthology.” The contest, which is sponsored by the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, is open to all high school students in Grades 9 through 12 in Allegheny County. It is an opportunity for teens to showcase their writing talents, improve skills, and have their work published. In March, Kate was awarded the American Voices Medal for her collection of poetry by the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. Her poetry collection was selected as one of five “Best in Show” works, then was selected as the best in that category during national judging, making her the recipient of a Scholastic Art & Writing National American Voice Award. Kate attended the awards ceremony in recognition of her pieces “Washington St.,”“Crouching in the Wake of Poetry Caved Ceilings,” and “Anemia” at Carnegie Hall in New York City in June. She won fourth place in Gannon University’s national high school poetry contest. According to Berwyn Moore, professor of English at Gannon University, Kate’s poem, “Poet Goes to Space,” was “judged one of the best from about 700 poems submitted by high school students around the country.” In January, her poem “St. Christopher Drives with Abandon” was published in the fall 2015 issue of The Minetta Review, New York University’s oldest literary journal. Her poems “Sister’s Twin” and “Crouching in the Wake of Caved Ceilings” were selected for the fall 2015 issue of the University of Chicago’s Memoryhouse. Kate’s poem “The Communion” appeared in the spring 2016 issue of the highly selective Louisville Review. “I will always have a special place in my heart for poetry, and the wonderful thing about playwriting and script adaptation is that I can combine my love of theater and my love of poetry and what I write is usually very lyrical that kind of falls along the lines of [being] very poetry based,” Kate said. She’s also garnered some professional work in the literary world as a poetry reader at The Blueshift Journal. “I came across a really nice review of the journal and noticed that the entire staff was under 30 and was looking for more staff members, and I said, hey, I would like to be a part of this,” she said of the job. “I was an intern for an issue or two and then promoted to a poetry reader.”

Kate reflected on her departure from the Academy. The one thing she’ll miss most is the Sewickley Academy attitude. “Everybody’s learning for intrinsic purposes and everybody wants to participate in classroom discussion and extracurricular [activities] and everybody has something that they’re passionate about,” she stated. “I hope that Carnegie Mellon is a place like Sewickley where everyone has a passion. That is something that I really looked for in a school, and I saw some of that there. I think at Sewickley, you know that you are surrounded by people who are going to do something great someday. Also, I think the teachers really respect the students here and value them, and I think that is really important.” In the final months before starting her college career, Kate spent the summer with her family. They recently traveled to Croatia, an experience she can relate to everyday life. “The mentality with my family has always been why not Croatia? Why not go someplace crazy? Why not do something really interesting?” Kate said. “This has been my mentality in getting involved with the theater at Sewickley. Why not audition? Why not try to write the script? I’m so close with family, and they are absolutely the people I like to be around, and I’m really grateful for lots of time with them this summer and that I’ll be pretty close next year.” Her departure from the Academy begs the question, who will be the next Kate Busatto? The answer is simple: no one. She’s truly one of a kind. But there will be others, unique in their own way, who want to follow in her footsteps. And she has advice for those up-and-coming artists. “Find what speaks to you because Sewickley Academy will provide you with the opportunity. You will find a teacher or faculty member who encourages you and wants to help you along your path. I’ve been so lucky in connecting with multiple teachers who’ve encouraged me to pursue this,” Kate accentuated. “Sewickley Academy is kind of the perfect place to experiment and explore. Try things that you like. Try things that you don’t like. With the college process, I think there is a lot of emphasis out there in the world on being well rounded, and I’d say Sewickley is a place where you can be well rounded if you want to be, but you never have to be.”

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THE MAKING OF

THE MAKERSPACE

By: Erin Whitaker In the fall of 2015, a team of administrators and teachers were brought together on a 21st Century Spaces Task Force to evaluate how current programs and campus venues match the seven target skills for 21st century learning in Sewickley Academyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Strategic Plan. The team concluded that there was a need for an innovative space that would better support students in the area of entrepreneurialism. The result ended in a proposal to design a Makerspace, a series of three unique spaces: the Ideas Room, the Maker Room, and the Production Room. The Ideas Room is designed as a brainstorming area that contains whiteboard walls and tables, a projector, video conferencing equipment, a lounge area, and teacher station. The intent is to make it an inviting, inspirational space that will allow students to collaborate, ideate, and design prototypes of physical objects that they could then create in the Maker Room. This space is located in what used to be the loft of the Hansen Library, and is now an enclosed space. The Maker Room is a space that combines the essentials of an art room, shop room, and technology room all in one. It is equipped with 3D printers, a laser cutter, doodle pens, vinyl cutter, hand tools, power tools, sewing machines, soldering irons, craft materials, work benches, a projector, flexible furniture, and computers. With these tools, students are able to bring their ideas and designs to life. This space is located in the former Media Center and was renovated to be a more open and flexible space over the summer. The Production Room is outfitted with high quality video and audio equipment as well as a professional green screen wall. Students are able to create public service announcements, infomercials, recite poetry, and many more things with the tools in this space. This room also houses mobile video and audio equipment for teachers to sign out for the classroom and/or field trip use. The Production Room is located in a former office in the Media Center. These three rooms were fully functional for the fall of 2016 for Middle and Senior School students to use, not just in technology and arts classes, but in any and all classes to transform their learning. Faculty are already excited about the impact that these new spaces will have on their students and had professional development opportunities in August to support their needs in utilizing these spaces. The Makerspace has been funded by the generous donation of $58,000 from the Home and School Association and an additional $24,000 raised at the Annual Auction. The design process begins in the Ideas Room. The Maker Room includes innovative technologies like 3D printers and a laser cutter to bring ideas to life. Students will create infomercials and videos in the Production Room using green screen technology.

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Stepping up to a

BIGGER PLATE Every school year brings new possibilities. Your annual fund gift helps our students take on greater challenges in the classroom and beyond! Give today at sewickley.org/givenow

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Members of the Class of 1966 celebrate their 50th anniversary at Allegheny Country Club.

THE CLASS OF 1966 CELEBRATES ITS

50 REUNION TH

By: Susan Sour, Ph.D. On June 10–12, 2016, the Class of 1966 celebrated its 50th reunion. The weekend began with hugs and smiles as Carol (Semple ’66) Thompson greeted classmates with cocktails and dinner at her house on Friday night. Campus tours on Saturday brought looks of amazement at the facilities current students enjoy, with reminiscences of “how things used to be” around the campus. Fifty years of life experience stretched between the graduating seniors of 2016 and the Class of 1966 at a special luncheon sponsored by the Alumni Council on Saturday, where Academy seniors were officially inducted into the Alumni Association. Jack Liggett ’66 shared words of wisdom from his classmates with the graduates, and Greg Nicotero ’81 gave a brief talk about his days at the Academy and then answered questions from the admiring audience. The Class of 1966 enjoyed their 50th anniversary class party at Allegheny Country Club with Jim and Pat Cavalier and completed the weekend by marching in the procession (joined by Scott Carter, member of the first faculty of the Senior School) during the graduation ceremony on Sunday. They stood as their names were called and recognized as special guests of honor for the weekend. Following the presentation of the Cavalier Cup by founding Head of Senior School Jim Cavalier, Jack Liggett ’66 gave “Mr. Cav” a special diploma making him an honorary member of the class.

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A Tribute to Mario Melodia Born on the North Side of Pittsburgh, Mario Melodia received a full ballet scholarship at age 14 and was dancing on Broadway in Brigadoon at 17. Returning to Pittsburgh in his mid-20s, Mario established the Melodia Performing Arts Center, which produced scores of professional dancers as well as Tony Awardwinning choreographers and feature film directors. Mario was the resident choreographer and director for the Kenley Players in Ohio and other equity theaters for 23 years, working with stars like Ginger Rogers, Ann Miller, Juliet Prowse, Ethel Merman, Vincent Price, and many others. Mario taught at Sewickley Academy for 40 years, directing and choreographing 65 musicals. A demanding director, Mario asked his students to give their very best at all times, to aspire to levels of performance that they didn’t know they could achieve. In 1998, the Academy dedicated Melodia Plaza on campus to recognize his outstanding service and achievements. His legacy will always be a vital part of the Academy’s history. After retirement, he continued to teach ballroom dance for the Barclay Classes and established the Musical Theater Workshop at Sweetwater Center for the Arts, which he led for 14 years. In 1988, he was the Sewickley Herald’s Man of the Year. He was given the Lifetime Achievement Award by Pam Gregg for co-founding the Performing Arts Camp in 2008, the same year that he passed away.

Pictured from left to right are: Front row: Katie Duggan ’16, Alex O’Connor ’16, Emily Amato ’16, Anna Singer ’76, Lisa (Baker ’77) Seymour, June Melodia, Kitty Correal. Second row: Gus O’Connor ’16, Todd Doyle ’16, Kate Busatto ’16, Henry Shenk ’74, Patrick Brannan ’95, Kathy Clarke, Susan (Ratcliffe ’55) Sour, Julie Banks, Felicia Niebel ’21. Third row: Nate Bell, Tim Heavner, Justin Bendel, Brittnea Turner, and Rebecca Kurtz.

DICK & OSCAR:

A GRAND NIGHT By: Brittnea Turner On Saturday, June 4, 2016, Sewickley Academy alumni, students, faculty, staff, and friends gathered in the Gregg Family Theater to present a musical cabaret featuring the music of Dick Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein from Oklahoma!, South Pacific, The King and I, Cinderella, and The Sound of Music.

One of the memorable highlights from the evening was when the audience members’ voices filled the theater as they sang along to two tunes from The Sound of Music led by the show’s director Henry Shenk – “Edelweiss” and “Do Re Me.”

The event began at 7:30 p.m. with complimentary wine, hors d’oeuvres, and desserts followed by a performance at 8:00 p.m. The ensemble cast performed fan favorites along with a few lesser known songs from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s portfolio to a sold-out crowd. The cast included Susan (Ratcliffe ’55) Sour, Henry Shenk ’74, Anna Singer ’76, Lisa (Baker ’77) Seymour, Patrick Brannan ’95, Emily Amato ’16, Kate Busatto ’16, Todd Doyle ’16, Katie Duggan ’16, Alex O’Connor ’16, Gus O’Connor ’16, and friends.

Patrick left the audience breathless as he performed “The Gentleman is a Dope” from the musical Allegro.

The show opened with nuns, played by Julie Banks, Kathy Clarke, Felicia Kniebel ’19, Rebecca Kurtz, Brittnea Turner, and Susan, singing “Preludium” and Anna belting out the “Sound of Music” and “My Favorite Things” from The Sound of Music. Lisa delighted the audience with her rendition of “Getting to Know You” from The King and I.

Seniors from the Class of 2016 wowed the crowd during several duets, trios, and group numbers such as “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair” from South Pacific and “June Is Bustin’ Out All Over” from Carousel as they performed for the last time as students on an SA stage. The evening ended with the cast singing “Honey Bun” from South Pacific with a twist that encouraged donations to the Melodia Performing Arts Scholarship Fund. The cabaret was a success largely due to the musical direction and accompaniment of SA Choral Director Tim Heavner and bass player Justin Bendel. This fabulous cabaret benefited the Melodia Performing Arts Scholarship fund and raised approximately $8,000 including a match from the Melodia Family. Thanks to all who participated and donated!

To make a donation to the Melodia Performing Arts Scholarship Fund, visit www.sewickley.org/givenow.

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REUNION WEEKEND

Friday, September 30, 2016

Saturday, October 1, 2016

Distinguished Alumni Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony for Beth (Richardson ’60) Gutcheon 11:30 a.m. | Rea Auditorium

Sewickley Academy Then and Now - Campus Tours 9:15 - 10:15 a.m. Guided tours depart from the Rea Auditorium lobby at 9:15 and 9:45 a.m.

Join students, faculty, administrators, and fellow alumni in welcoming the inductee into our Distinguished Alumni Hall of Fame. A lunch reception at the Edgeworth Club will immediately follow. Beth will do a book signing at Penguin Bookshop from 2:00 - 3:00 p.m.

Take a walk down memory lane during a guided tour, or pick up a map and stroll the campus at your leisure.

Tours of the new Events Center 6:00 p.m. | Events Center

Alumni Association Meeting – “An Academy Education Today” 11:30 a.m. | Gregg Theater (Nichols-Snyder School Center)

Join us for tours exploring our new Events Center, which was renovated to accommodate the entire campus community to celebrate important student milestones and Academy traditions.

What do students need to know to enter the changing workplace? What skills do they need to have to meet tomorrow’s challenges? Hear a fascinating update on education at the Academy today from our Head of Senior School Dr. Peter Lau, Dean of Middle School Students Trevor Adams, and Head of Lower School Dr. Cricket Mikheev.

Oktoberfest in the Hansen Library 7:00 p.m. | Hansen Library Put on your lederhosen, dirndl, and your Alpine hat and celebrate! Sample some craft beers and reconnect with classmates, former teachers, and old friends at a Bavarian buffet dinner. Class photos will be taken of the milestone reunion classes (ending in ’1 and ’6).

“Personal Journey” Panel of Distinguished Alumni 10:30 a.m. | Gregg Theater (Nichols-Snyder School Center)

Picnic Luncheon hosted by the Alumni Council 12:00 p.m. | Robinson Dining Room (Lower School) Evening: Individual Class Parties for Classes Ending in ’1 and ’6 Attend the alumni parties and gatherings at homes and restaurants in the area. Separate invitations from the individual class party coordinators to follow. Check the SA website for party updates and details. Times and locations for all events are subject to change. Visit www.sewickley.org/reunion for the most up-to-date information.

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CLASS NOTES SEWICKLEY SPEAKING

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Lee Fauntleroy ‘66 on a fishing trip - “Catching one for Mr. Cav!”

Susan (Mann ’58) Flanders is now in retirement from parish ministry. She wrote, “I do occasional gigs in churches, some weddings and funerals, and the occasional class. Since my memoir “Going to Church: It’s Not What You Think!” was published in late 2014 (it’s still available on Amazon), I’ve been working on a project about aid-in-dying for advanced dementia patients who are pretty much excluded from ongoing conversations and legislation to allow for a wider range of endof-life decisions. My mom, Betty Mann, is still alive and well at almost 98 years old in her apartment on Beaver Street, so I’m there to visit every few months.”

Alice and Rick Williams ‘66 on a recent trip across the country.

Seth French ’60 and his wife Betty are residents of Venice, Florida. He said, “We have a summer place in West Chester, Pennsylvania, about 12 miles from our old home in Devon. My son Seth and his wife Kim Urban ’86 live seven miles away in Paoli with their children Trevor, Madison, and William. Cynthia ’88 and Alison ’93 live in Wellesley, Massachusetts, with our grandchildren Sophie and Peter Hunnewell and Henry and Mac Nathan.”

Rick ’66 and Alice Williams with Cyndy and K.C. Hayes ’66 in Utah.

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50TH CLASS REUNION

Lee Fauntleroy ’66 writes, “I am one year into retirement, but need to take a ‘how-to course,’ as I find myself busier than before. I underestimated the benefits of an office with a great staff to take care of the daily business duties and lots

of my personal stuff. I sold my online business wingsupply.com to a company in Pennsylvania, and Field Supply and my hunting forums duckhunter. net and kentuckhunting.com to a media company in New York, thanks to Google Ads. I have leased my retail store and name to Budsgunshop.com. I mention these names because I know several of you are hunting enthusiasts, although some are also probably Hillary fans, which will make for some good dinner conversation at your house. My three grandsons keep me very busy with their involvement in various sports, and I am coaching little league baseball. I also spend some time just about every day hunting, fishing, and working on the farm. I am also close to reaching one of my personal goals of playing basketball at 70. I still play twice a week full court and plan on attending John Calipari’s University Of Kentucky fantasy basketball camp where you live the real life of a UK player for three days with NBA players as coaches and UK players as managers, and yes, I am crazy!” Cynthia (Bahm ’66) Levin shared the following. “After SA, I graduated from Goucher College and was a National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) fellow in the Ph.D. program in sociology at Emory University. Following graduate school, I worked for Jimmy Carter as his criminal justice researcher when he was governor of Georgia. When I moved to Florida almost 40 years ago, I became involved in women’s issues. I served on and chaired the Broward County Commission on the status of women, and was a volunteer

and, subsequently, president of the Broward Board of Planned Parenthood, as well as directing a PAC for reproductive choice. In more recent years, I redirected my energy to my lifelong interest in the arts. I retired several years ago after working as the liaison between the business community and public education for the Greater Fort Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce, and, following that, in resource and community development at Nova Southeastern University. My husband and I love to travel, a lot of which involves visiting our children and grandchildren. I’m very involved with the arts community here in the Fort Lauderdale area as a founding member of an arts group that awards grants to local arts organizations.” Rick Williams ’66 and his wife Alice took a two-month, 10,500-mile road trip across the continent from Salt Springs, Nova Scotia, where they live, to their eldest daughter Adelaide’s home in San Francisco and back, and stopped at a surprisingly large number of national parks en route. They met up with Christine (Childs ’66) Palmer and her husband Bill twice while in the San Francisco area, and K.C. Hayes ’66 and his wife Cyndy for a rendezvous near Moab, Utah, where they bounced around Arches and Canyonlands National Parks over four days. He also shared, “In years past: After ninth grade at SA, I attended Phillips Exeter Academy (1965); graduated from Duke (1969) with a B.A. (English), and after a stint in the U.S. Coast Guard, attended graduate school at York University,

Toronto, leading to a master’s in Environmental Studies (1975). The master’s program required at least one year on the job work for the three-year degree, and I got a position at the Pictou District Planning Commission in Pictou County, Nova Scotia, where I stayed for five years, working on a development plan for the resource–based industries of agriculture, forestry, and fisheries; farmed part time for five years and full time for 20, initially producing waterfowl and honey, followed by many years of beef production. I was heavily involved in farm “politics” and served on the board of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association for eight years, chaired the N.S. Beef Commission, chaired two Provincial Commissions of inquiry, one on the beef industry and another on the retention of farmland. I was also involved in forestry “politics” and served on the board of a local forestry co-op and a drive to organize woodlot owners to bargain as a unit with pulp companies. I worked for five years in financial services, earning a Certified Financial Planner (CFP) designation, and finished my career administering, along with Alice, agricultural research funding and grants for Nova Scotia-based projects.”

67 Melinda Roberts ’67 hosted a mini-reunion for the Class of 1967 and friends on May 7, 2016, at the Allegheny Country Club in Sewickley. The party was in honor of Mary (Gwaltney ’67) Hines, who was in the area visiting, and her sister Anne (Gwaltney ’59) Peck. Guests included many parents of alumni, including the Cavaliers, the Nimicks, and Betty Mann.

The Lobaugh family pictured at their son’s wedding. From left to right: Joe Rinaldi, Molly Rinaldi, Garry Lobaugh, Diane (Beales ‘66) Lobaugh, Tim Lobaugh, Brittany Lobaugh, Chris Lobaugh, Caroline Lobaugh, and Julia Rinaldi (flower girl).

Melinda Roberts ’67 hosted a mini-reunion for the Class of 1967 and friends on May 7, 2016. Left to right: Jim Cavalier, Cynthia “Dingy” Hays ’67, Liza Sipe ’67, Mary (Gwaltney ’67) Hines, Brewster Cockrell, Liza Thornton ’76, Melinda Roberts ’67, Scott Wendt ’67, June Nimick, Susan (Nevin ‘67) Cockrell, Patty Cavalier, Anne (Gwaltney ’59) Peck, David Nimick ’39, and Betty Mann.

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Happy Hazzard ‘69 and Peytie (Wendt ‘69) Berry take a photo with Flat Panther in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Alison (Walter ’67) Martin retired from her financial services director of recruiting role in September 2015. “I love being able to set my own daily agenda,” she wrote. “Life now includes spending much more time with my sons and their families (including three grandchildren) who live nearby, entertaining friends, pursuing my love of history by attending the many lectures and book tours available in the Boston area, and traveling. Life is good!”

69 Mary “Peytie” (Wendt ’69) Berry had a great spring visit with classmate Jaquelin “Happy” Hazzard ’69 in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Debi (Butteri ’73) Akers and Flat Panther visit Ernest Hemingway at his farm in Cuba.

Sidney Henderson ’69 celebrated his 65th birthday this August. He and his wife, Louise, are also celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary this year. Sid plans to retire soon after and said, “That went by fast.”

Laura MacLeod ’75 graces the Spring 2016 cover of Small Business Digest Magazine.

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Margaret “Peggy” (Prine ’70) Joy shared, “I have been elected as chair of the board of the YMCA of Greater Pittsburgh. We operate 18 branches and three camps and have programs to help with food security, bridging the racial and economic achievement gap, and providing social support to families. We are the largest child care provider in the area. I’m still practicing family law and loving spending time with my three grandchildren (kids of Katie (Joy ’98) Rosinski)!”

Tommy Mann ’70 meets with his oldest friend and classmate since fourth grade Tom Stinson ’70 in Atlanta, Georgia, each February. Timmy (Nash ’70) Podnar is living in Highland Park, Pennsylvania. She retired after teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) in China, Brazil, and Oman. She said, “I have two wonderful grown sons. Life is good!”

45TH CLASS REUNION

Jonathan Beales ’71 wrote, “Forty-two years after graduation, a lot of us classmates went our separate ways, starting careers and families. I found Stacy (Squires ’71) Brown, who also lives in Atlanta - small world! Stacy and her husband Jeff had me over for great dinner and conversation.” Kevon Copeland ’71 shared that his twins just graduated from college. “Camara, after graduating from Shadyside Academy, graduated in December early from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She is currently interning with the Tampa Bay Rays. Camden, after graduating from The Ellis School, graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. She is headed to Johannesburg, South Africa, for a two-year teaching stint at the Africa Leadership Academy. This has been a year of transition, as I finished my last term on the board of Connecticut College, a service lasting a total of 12 years. I am still active on the advisory board of Summerbridge at Sewickley Academy.”

Mary Carroll (Weiss ’71) Ryan wrote, “It has been a great year as we welcomed Whitney and Jeff’s daughter, Finley Haxall Price (7/29/15), and Spencer and Michelle’s son, Cody James Jamison (1/1/16), into our world. It is so nice that the cousins are close in age and all live in Baltimore. PJ and Liz’s baby girl is due in December, which will make three under a year and a half.”

Malissa Ruffner ’73 wrote from Baltimore, “My fifth and final career is underway, that of professional genealogist. I enjoy client work and also serve as director of an institute on federal records that meets at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. Our two daughters, Elise and Clare, and their families, now including Jane, Emmet, and Grant, ages three to three months, are all nearby. The grandmother gig is even better than advertised!”

Hilary (Higgins ’71) Parker and her husband Tom have retired after 40 years in the secondary school business, 36 of them at Woodberry Forest School in Virginia. They bought a house outside of Charlottesville and will divide their time between there and Cape Cod.

72 Robert Thaw ’72 wrote, “I am proud to have finally applied the education of my great math teachers of SA including Mr. Glarrow, Mr. Metcalf, Mr. Symons, and Mr. Carter, in “giving back” to SA by participating in the construction of the new Events Center. I am still living in Sewickley. Barb and I are nearly empty nesters with Rachel living in Newport, Rhode Island, and freshly minted Penn State grad Marcus is at home. Life is good.”

73 Debi (Butteri ’73) Akers and her husband participated in a peopleto-people exchange in Cuba this spring. She said the trip was “very educational, very enlightening, and thought-provoking.”

Laura MacLeod ’75 graced the spring cover of Small Business Digest magazine. The article highlights her “From the Inside Out Project.” She’s also working with TEDEd Lessons to produce a lesson about collaboration (How do I work with these people? Dealing with difficult team members.).

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40TH CLASS REUNION

Nick Waer ’78 shared, “My wife, Andrea, and I both retired at the end of 2016 after over 34 years of work as an environmental engineer and architect, respectively. We look forward to spending more time together and with our family. A trip to East Asia (China and Japan) is planned for 2017. I look forward to traveling to Sewickley for the Class of 1978’s 40th reunion in 2018!”

Kwame Alexander Monday, October 17, 2016 10 a.m. | Rea Auditorium

Kwame Alexander is a poet, educator, and New York Times bestselling author of 21 books, including “The Crossover,” which received the 2015 John Newbery Medal for the Most Distinguished Contribution to American Literature for Children, the Coretta Scott King Author Award Honor, The NCTE Charlotte Huck Honor, the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award, and the Passaic Poetry Prize. Kwame writes for children of all ages. His works include “Surf’s Up,” a picture book; “Booked,” a middle grade novel; and “He Said, She Said,” a young adult novel. In 2015, Kwame served as Bank Street College of Education’s inaugural Dorothy M. Carter writer-in-residence. The Kwame Alexander Papers, a collection of his writings, correspondence, and other professional and personal documents, is held at The George Washington University’s Gelman Library.

Alexis Jones Tuesday, October 25, 2016 12 p.m. | Rea Auditorium

Alexis Jones is the founder of the non-profit I AM THAT GIRL, which has over 1 million girls involved and has chapters in more than 52 countries. After years of traveling globally and speaking to 500 thousand plus girls and women, she transitioned into speaking to boys with her most recent ProtectHer program, which she created out of an urgency to address the ever-growing issue of domestic abuse and sexual assault on college campuses. Alexis has also hosted a TV show on the red carpet, worked at Fox Sports and ESPN, and appeared on several others shows on CBS, MTV, and TLC. She has spoken at the White House, the United Nations, Harvard, Stanford, NIKE, Pepsi, and Dell. Alexis has been recognized as one of AOL’s MAKERS along with Oprah, Maya Angelou, Ellen, and Sheryl Sandberg. She was highlighted as an Ambassador for L’Oreal’s new STEM initiative, listed as one of Dell’s #Inspire 100 List, Fast Company’s “Female Trailblazers,” ESPN’s “Pop Culture’s Top Ten,” and was recently featured on Oprah’s 2016 Super Soul 100 List. All Sewickley Series events are free and open to the public.

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Trevor Long ’88

Resident Bad Boy By: Kaitlin Busch Born and raised in Poughkeepsie, New York, until the age of 7, Trevor Long ’88 came to Sewickley Academy in Grade 2. The Academy and the beloved Mr. Mario Melodia brought acting into Trevor’s life, and that passion has shaped much of his career. “If I hadn’t been exposed to the vast amount of in-depth musicals and dancing, singing, and acting, I probably wouldn’t have gone on to do this for a career,” Trevor stated. Trevor always loved performing, and found himself on a local news station at a young age. Mario taught Trevor how to tap dance, and he flapped, shuffled, and ball changed his way on to KDKA for a performance of “In the Navy” by the Village People. One of his most memorable moments – and performances – was when the school put on a production of A Chorus Line during Trevor’s sophomore year. He was hoping to play the part of the tap dancer, but Mario wanted him to play Paul, a homosexual character. “I was a 15-year-old straight kid in an all-white conservative school, there is no way I wanted to play that part,” Trevor remembered. “I went to see the musical at the Pittsburgh Playhouse and was so blown away by the guy who played Paul that I told Mario I’d audition, and I got the part.” Trevor put everything he had into the role of Paul, as he remembers obsessing over the voice and rhythms of the character. He wanted to truly get this guy right and didn’t let the heckling from his lacrosse team deter his dedication to the part. He recalled a scene where in his monologue as Paul, he talked about being gay and how his father disowned him and how an older man at a movie theater touched him. “I remember when I first spoke, I could hear the whole lacrosse team giggling, but as the play went on there was no more laughter. At practice the next day, I thought they were all going to make fun of me, but instead Will Kastroll ’89, the co-captain, told me that I did a really good job,” Trevor recalled. “I heard that Mr. John Heagy, the Head of Middle School at the time, cried during that scene. He was a tough Marine guy, we were all really scared of him, and it made me realize I did my job. It instilled in me the fact that I’m a character actor where I can play many different kinds of roles.”

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After graduation, Trevor went to Brown University as an international relations major and found himself charming his way into the acting program. Reluctant at first, instructor Lowry Marshall would not let Trevor in the program, as it was already mid-way through the year and it was a yearlong course. She said she did it once and it was a mistake. But Trevor kept showing up to class, so she told him to come up with a comedy routine for five minutes and the class would take a vote on whether to let him in. “I did a skit I learned from my uncle, Bruce Foster, called the ‘One Arm Violinist.’ In a nutshell, I came on stage with my one arm hidden under my shirt and down my pants. I had a coat hanger through the jacket sleeve, which looked like a withered arm, with a glove over the hanger and my free hand was hidden behind my pants zipper,” Trevor explained. “The skit goes on as the old violinist keeps almost sneezing as he plays his violin with one arm. Finally, he can no longer contain himself and forcefully sneezes. I shot out my finger through the zipper and dropped the bow on it, and grabbed for the pocket hanky with my free hand. It looked like I was holding onto the bow below the belt while wiping away the sneeze. It’s quite alarming to see and much funnier to see than explain,” Trevor laughed. “But the class went nuts and voted me in!” After graduation, he moved to New York to pursue his acting career. At the advice of John Emigh, one of Trevor’s acting mentors at Brown, he met Bill Esper, who ran a studio in New York City and the conservatory graduate program at Rutgers University and started training with him. Trevor graduated with his master’s in acting from Rutgers in 1998 and has been living and working in New York City ever since. Trevor got involved with Labyrinth Theater Company, where Philip Seymour Hoffman was the artistic director. Trevor was in the first play Mr. Hoffman directed – In Arabia We’d All Be Kings by Stephen Adly Guirgis. After spending time performing in public theater and offBroadway shows, Trevor turned to the world of film and television. He started his film career in 1994 when he secured a spot as a waiter on Don Juan DeMarco. He also played Steve Caprio in the 2012 blockbuster Killing Them Softly starring Brad

Pitt and Ray Liotta. “There is an epic scene in the movie where I beat up Ray’s character. He’s a super cool guy and so easy to work with,” Trevor said of the experience. Trevor’s first role on television was a pretty big one – he played Sean Foster in the AMC series Low Winter Sun, which premiered in 2013. His character was a homeless drug addict and alcoholic, ex-homicide detective. Although the series was canceled after the first season, Trevor credits the show as one of his breaks into the business. “It was a good entry into TV and being seen on that level,” he said. He has found his niche playing unsavory guys on television shows, which is a long way from playing Paul in A Chorus Line. You’ve probably seen him in Unforgettable as ex-con Foster Lee Nolan, in the pilot episode of Blindspot as Boyce, the extremely violent red-neck from Kentucky, and in The Blacklist episode entitled “The Judge (No. 57).” Although Trevor didn’t get to work with James Spader on set, he did get to work with Dianne Wiest, a veteran actress of stage and film. Trevor played the role of blacklister Alan Ray Rifkin. “We filmed the scene in a real prison, and it felt so real when they executed my character. It was a lot of fun,” he said of the job. Trevor’s seven-year-old son doesn’t get to see most of his dad’s work...yet. “I tell him he can’t watch my shows because I’m always the bad guy shooting people and going to jail in handcuffs,” he joked. Trevor never really gets starstruck since working with big names is just a part of the industry. Plus, he dated Marlon Brando’s (The Godfather) daughter in college. “It’s hard to be starstruck after that. Marlon is the legend of legends – it was an incredible experience to get to know him,” Trevor reflected. “But I’d likely be starstruck if I ever met my idols, Daniel Day Lewis and Robert De Niro. Currently, Trevor is starring as Marcus in a film called Seeds, which is in post-production. The movie, directed by Trevor’s brother Owen Long, is a dark, psychological thriller about temptation and monsters. It is currently gearing toward major festivals and should be in theaters by 2017.

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Greg and Margot (Moyles ’80) Curran’s son Andrew ’16 graduated from Sewickley Academy in June. Andrew will be attending Villanova University in the fall majoring in economics.

David Bonnett ’83 shared, “On our never-ending quest to expand the reach of SA alums, my family and I have shifted from New Zealand (NZ) to Melbourne, Australia (OZ). It is a bit of shock to the system moving from a sleepy town of 50,000 to a city of 4 million and growing, but after six months we are all starting to settle in. The “plan” is to retire back to NZ in a decade or so, but we’ll see.

81 Dr. Thomas Doyle ’81 and Greg Nicotero ’81 reconnect on campus after Greg’s speech to the Class of 2016 at graduation in June.

35TH CLASS REUNION

Classmates Tom Doyle ’81 and Greg Nicotero ’81 got together on campus after Greg’s speech to the Class of 2016 at graduation in June. Jack Mannke ’81, Ron Wolf ’81, Angel Wolf, and Jack Mannke, Jr. visited the Rocky statue after a Villanova win in Philadelphia in March.

Jack Mannke ’81, Ron Wolf ’81, Angel Wolf and Jack Mannke, Jr. visit Rocky after a Nova win in Philadelphia in March 2016.

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Mark D. Moore ’81 wrote, “Greetings Class of 1981! Fairly big career move for me recently I just joined Access National Bank in Reston, Virginia, (NASDAQ “ANCX”) as its president and a member of the board. Better still is the news that my son Matthew (24) is now engaged to his college sweetheart Gretchen Pitcairn. This follows two years ago when my eldest daughter Liz (26) was married. Our third, Virginia (19), is loving the University of South Carolina and is heading into her sophomore year. Thankfully she, too, has her mom’s intellect and academic discipline more so than her dad’s! So this means I am rooting for NC State, Virginia Tech, and USC these days, what SA advisors used to refer to back in the day as “the near south.” I absolutely urge you to consider all three schools for yours! I loved being a Penguins fan this year in the heart of Washington Capitals country! I hope to see you at reunion this fall!”

I’m still doing technology consulting for clients in NZ and OZ while also racing my road bike, although competing against young guns half my age isn’t always fun. My wife Anne is back in the pharmaceutical industry after seven years of dairy and other food chemistry in New Zealand. Our 15-year-old daughter is getting used to the Australian school system and races on the velodrome and road several times each week. If anyone from the Academy is ever in Melbourne and would like to catch up, we’re always keen to meet for a beer or coffee.”

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30TH CLASS REUNION

Leslie (Sweet ’88) Crye and her four children recently visited with Fraser (Zimmerman ’88) Traverse and her three children on vacation at Hilton Head. The resulting mix of families was a whirlwind of fun. Both Leslie and Fraser are avid tennis players and very involved with their children’s many activities.

89 Erica (Miller ’89) Clark wrote, “I can’t believe I’ve been back in Sewickley with my family for eight years! I’ve been selling local real estate for many years now and currently work at ReMax Advanced Realtors in Sewickley. I was just awarded a certificate for achieving the #8 ReMax agent in Western Pennsylvania. My son Trevor is 13, my daughter Katelyn is 10, and we have our first family dog, a German shorthaired pointer named Lucy. I’d love to connect with any alums who move back to town.”

90 Claire (Lang ’90) Ballantyne gave birth to daughter Annelise Catherine Ballantyne on December 3, 2015, at Chester County Hospital in West Chester, Pennsylvania. She was 6 pounds, 7.8 ounces and 19.75 inches. She is Claire and Todd’s first child and they call her Elise. “We just love this tiny person so very much.”

25TH CLASS REUNION

Kevin Linge ’91 shared, “After eight years as the director of a public library in rural Vermont, I’ll be making the transition back to school to study sustainable entrepreneurship at the University of Vermont’s new MBA program. Before I return to the classroom, I’ll be spending July in the High Sierra hiking on the John Muir Trail and, hopefully, catching a few fish.”

Miranda Berner ’91 wrote, “Bill Aloe ’98 and I connected here in Seattle, Washington, when Billy saw that my daughter went to the same preschool as his son. Bill’s sister, Katy (Aloe ’91) Ratkovich, and I graduated together.”

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20TH CLASS REUNION

Kirt Mausert ’00 wrote, “I ended up in Burma after spending a few years in Bangkok, where I had gone to do research for an M.A. in anthropology. I was studying Thai political culture then. After a few years there I took a teaching job at a school here and the rest is history! It’s been almost five and a half years now – a really exciting and interesting time here. I’ve been conducting trainings with political activists for the last couple of years for a program hosted by the U.S. Embassy, and working with a gallery of contemporary Burmese art. It is pretty amazing how small the world can be – I’ve met plenty of Steelers fans over the years. Even met a guy who dated the older sister of one of my classmates at SA – that was really random! Hope you’re all doing well! I think of SA often, and fondly – I owe a lot to the teachers there, both for the education and the space to cultivate my inner radical.”

Margot (Moyles ‘80) Curran, son Andrew ‘16, and husband Greg celebrate Andrew’s graduation on campus in June.

From Miranda Berner ‘91 and Bill Aloe ‘98: Here are our children on the last day of school at the graduation ceremony from Preschool to Kindergarten, which involves “jumping the log.” Pictured are Calvin Aloe, Aunt Shannon, Nora Aloe, and Linnea Maher (Miranda’s daughter).

15TH CLASS REUNION

Katie and James (Jim) Henry ’01 welcomed Nathaniel Crews Henry (Nash) on April 22, 2016, in Brooklyn, New York. Jim is working at E Trade in Manhattan.

The Crye–Traverse reunion: Front row – Trevor Crye, Jane Traverse, Tanner Crye; Back row – Teagan Crye, Maggie Traverse, Leslie (Sweet ’88) Crye, Fraser (Zimmerman ’88) Traverse, Jake Traverse, Tyler Crye.

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Brian Hutchison ’89

From Stage to Screen and Everything in Between By: Maggie McCauley From a student production of West Side Story to landing a role in the Broadway production of The Invention of Love right after earning his master’s degree, Ben Avon native Brian Hutchison ’89 has come a long way since his Sewickley Academy days. Brian enrolled at the Academy in Grade 7, where he received theater instruction that continued to define roles later in his career, as he believes SA was great at fostering the arts. “I was aware of the opportunities Sewickley Academy had to offer, and that exposure to the arts in general was at a higher and more sophisticated level from what I’d previously known,” Brian recalled. English teacher Mrs. Patricia Rose was extremely influential on Brian’s education and career. “I remember studying Shakespeare with her for the first time, and she had a unique and inspiring way of teaching that opened up a lot for me,” he said. That it did, as Brian pursued an English degree at Lafayette College. During his time there, he performed in plays but didn’t seriously consider acting as a career until after graduation. He moved to New York City to give acting a try, and after a few years he decided he wanted to go to graduate school at the University of San Diego/Old Globe Theater, a competitive and highly regarded program that only accepts seven students each year. When asked of his “big break,” Brian said he felt like it was a series of small breaks that allowed him to have a consistent career in New York City. Having done five Broadway shows and more than a dozen off-Broadway shows, he’s learned a lot from these experiences. “Some were more successful than others, and reviews of a play I did with Marisa Tomei called Oh the Humanity allowed me the opportunity to be seen for more projects,” Brian explained. He said starring in Exit the King with Geoffrey Rush and Susan Sarandon was a turning point for him, one that opened up new doors. Along the way, Brian has had a chance to relate back to his Pittsburgh roots. He’s currently working with Zachary Quinto, who attended Central Catholic High School, and co-stars as his brother in the play Smokefall. “We talked a lot about being from Pittsburgh and realized our great grandparents actually would have known each other,” Brian said. He recalled a moment when

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they were on set speaking in “Pittsburghese” to pass the time in rehearsals. The stage manager of that particular production is from the North Hills, providing yet another ‘burgh connection. For the past eight years, Brian has been recording audiobooks. “A producer from Audible, an audio book company, saw me in a play I did and I started working for them after that,” he stated. Having had experience with voiceovers in the past, Brian was used to doing short form projects. He’s worked on campaigns for companies like Sprint, Hyatt Hotels, and USAA. To date, he’s recorded over 75 books. Some authors continuously request Brian to record their books. “I tend to read a lot of westerns, which is strange and interesting,” he said, although he continues to work on all genres. He has won awards for several titles he’s recorded, including “Sing You Home” by Jodi Picoult, “Leaving the Sea” by Ben Marcus, and “A Long and Faraway Gone” by Lou Berney. Another passion turned career for Brian is photography. “I was always interested in it, but never pursued it until after college. It started when I went back to Pittsburgh to take pictures of old abandoned steel mills before they were ripped down,” Brian explained. There can be a lot of downtime doing theater, so he started taking his camera backstage with him to capture those moments. “My actor friends would see the candid shots I was taking backstage, and a few people began to ask if I would take their head shots,” he said. That demand has led to a side photography business for him. Brian loves it, because he gets to experience the other side of the camera and make his subjects look and feel their best. Some of these famous subjects include Jim Parsons, Adam Driver, Jeremy Sisto, and John Hill. Besides his notable performances in plays, Brian can also be seen in movies like Winter’s Tale and Love & Other Drugs, and on television shows like Show Me a Hero, The Good Wife, and HBO’s Vinyl. The time that it takes to film a movie, shoot a television episode, or rehearse for a play varies, Brian said. For theater performances, actors have a longer time to prepare as they spend a month rehearsing. For TV, the script is given to actors just a few days before shooting, and they have to learn it on their own in just a few days, while movies are shot over a span of a few months. Having been through the process for

all three types of entertainment, he remembered a few sets in particular. His favorite movie to work on was the independent film Vino Veritas. Shot on location in Nebraska, Brian felt the experience gave him time to really bond with his fellow actors. “Getting to watch them work and working together with the director felt like a really complete and satisfying process. I was deeply part of something,” Brian reflected. “My main goal has never been about fame or being recognized. It’s much more about feeling like I’m doing what I want to do and getting to work consistently with solid people,” Brian stated. Brian enjoys his schedule of auditioning and recording audio books during the day, then performing as Daniel in his current play Smokefall at night. “I always want to work on good, sophisticated, hopefully meaningful projects with the best directors, writers, and actors. I want to continue being part of that community here,” Brian said of his future. Although he didn’t know right away that acting would be his chosen career, Brian still credits Sewickley Academy for providing him with the skills needed to make that decision. “We had such good teachers and got to read so many great books – that was kind of the beginning for me as an actor. I read “Of Mice and Men” in Dr. Joan (Reteshka) Cucinotta’s class when I was a senior. I got to do that play finally years later and still remembered so much about it from that time, from the early impression it made on me,” he said. Brian shared how much discipline and determination it takes to believe in yourself. He also credited the performances that he saw at the Pittsburgh Public Theater as inspirational. His advice to students wishing to pursue an acting career is to experience life. “Talents and interests outside of acting – develop those and become good at other things,” said Brian. “These things help you feel great joy in addition to the challenges life will naturally present. Those feelings make you a deeper person, and help you take on the personas of different characters.”

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Elizabeth Bureman ’04 and husband Ben McKee married on June 4, 2016, in Denver, Colorado.

Elizabeth Bureman ’04 married Ben McKee on June 4, 2016, in Denver, Colorado, where Elizabeth works for Adperio as an account manager and mobile tech specialist and Ben is the executive producer of videography (communication) at Denver Public Schools. Classmate Nikki Kindelberger ’04 was in attendance and Elizabeth’s sister, Katharine Bureman ’07, was a bridesmaid.

Megan Fanelli ’09 wrote, “I currently work for TowerMetriX, Inc. as a productivity consultant. We help companies increase productivity within the workforce from onboarding, training, education, goal setting, performance appraisals, and performance reviews. It is my duty to understand the complexity of each client’s organization and what we can do to help with our configurable software-as-a-solution. I am a member of the Airport Chamber of Commerce; a committee member of the Education Partnership; a volunteer for Partners for Quality; a member of Pittsburgh Social Exchange, Pittsburgh Young Professionals, Network After Work, and Women in Business; a volunteer for the American Heart Association, ALS, Fibromyalgia Association, alumni of Delta Gamma, Service for Sight, Western PA Society, and the Central Blood Bank.

05 Members of the Class of 2005 who live in Washington, D.C. held a mini-reunion this spring. Former Panthers Keith Stone ’05, Scott Fetterolf ’05, Tommy Laughlin ’05, George Raftis ’05, Josh Snyder ’05, and Alaina Raftis ’09 cheered on the Pittsburgh Pirates, who were in town playing the Washington Nationals.

Former SA Panthers rooting on the Pittsburgh Pirates in Washington, D.C. Pictured: Alaina Raftis ’09 , Keith Stone ’05, Scott Fetterolf ’05, Tommy Laughlin ’05, George Raftis ’05, and Josh Snyder ’05.

Earlier in the year, Derrick Perkins ’05, Laura Thomas ’05, George Raftis ’05, Jess DeFranco ’05, Melissa McGraw ’05, Keith Stone ’05, Andrew Jayson ’05, Landon Judkins ’05, Mark Mulshine ’05, Trevor Heck ’05, Evan Stiegel ’05, Paul Del Presto ’05, and Olivia Zamagias ’05 gathered at Sienna Mercato in downtown Pittsburgh for a minireunion.

06 Members of the Class of 2005 meet up for conversation and cocktails at Sienna Mercato in downtown Pittsburgh. Front Row: Derrick Perkins ’05, Laura Thomas ’05, George Raftis ’05, Jess DeFranco ’05 Back Row: Melissa McGraw ’05, Keith Stone ’05, Andrew Jayson ’05, Landon Judkins ’05, Mark Mulshine ’05, Trevor Heck ’05, Evan Stiegel ’05, Paul Del Presto ’05, and Olivia Zamagias ’05

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10TH CLASS REUNION

Prior to TowerMetriX, I was in Houston, Texas, where I worked for Arthur J. Gallagher, Health and Wellness Division, as an account manager for two years. While in Houston I was a member and a committee rookie leader for Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo within the Judging Contest Committee (JCC). The Judging Contest Committee supports the Houston Livestock Show whose goals include ‘benefiting youth, supporting education, and facilitating better agricultural practices through exhibitions.’”

5TH CLASS REUNION

Tom Droney ’11 wrote, “I just finished my second season playing in the Baltic League (teams from Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Finland, and Russia) for BC Tallinna Kalev from Tallinn, Estonia. My contract is finished with this team, and I am now exploring my options for next season. I am also running a youth grassroots basketball program in the summer called Train to Game (TTG) Basketball, where I help kids ages 10-18 develop their skills and have the opportunity to eventually earn a college scholarship. I am currently working with SA students Justin Pryor ’17 and Nate Ridgeway ’19 on developing their skills and pursuing an athletic career at the collegiate level. Tim Macdonald ’11 competed in the Glenfiddich Fiddle Championships in Edinburgh last fall (the de facto world championships of Scottish fiddling), playing 18th century music accompanied by a cellist on period instruments and stayed on to work with musicologists and music historians to discuss their research as part of his own fellowship at the Newberry Library in Chicago. The title of Tim’s research project for the fellowship is “Folk but Baroque: Re-examining the Performance Practice and Genre of 18th Century Scotland” and specifically focuses on a 1793 music collection by a composer named Robert Mackintosh. His contention is that good 18th

century Lowland Scottish fiddlers were as conversant in the Italian art music style as they were in what we now consider traditional Scottish folk music. Tim left his software engineering job of two years at Groupon to do music full time last July and has been performing live and on the radio, teaching, and doing ethnomusicological research across the U.S. and in Scotland since.

Turn

Yourself In!

Megan Fanelli ’09 is part of WHIRL Magazine’s Pittsburgh’s 50 Finest Class of 2016. This elite group of the area’s most accomplished men and women are honored each year for their career success and involvement in the Pittsburgh community.

Here’s your chance to submit a class note for the next issue of Sewickley Speaking. Help us share your milestones and achievements with your Sewickley Academy network! We love hearing about impromptu SA gatherings, serendipitous meetings in airports, and all sorts of happy, heartwarming, and hilarious alumni stories. Please submit your story today by visiting our website. If you have a digital photo you’d like to share, please send it to alumni@sewickley.org with a note identifying the people in the photo.

Tom Droney ’11 competes for an Estonian team and works with the summer basketball program at Sewickley Academy.

Tom Droney ’11 sinks the first shot in the new Events Center.

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Ben Barnes ’95 His Journey from Sewickley to

Hollywood & Back By: Maggie McCauley Sewickley Academy’s Ben Barnes ’95 has been writing and directing a variety of projects in Los Angeles, California, for over a decade, and now he’s ready to bring his latest one back home. Ben is currently putting together a feature film to shoot in Pittsburgh in 2017, and in the indie film world, that involves a lot of personal elbow grease. “Day in, day out, it’s the most complex and exciting endeavor I’ve been involved in,” Ben said. He noted that Pittsburgh has become a filmmaking hub for both big-budget and indie films and is looking forward to experiencing it first-hand. A Sewickley Academy “lifer” and son of retired history teacher Dr. William Barnes, Ben drove to school with his dad at the crack of dawn each day from their home across town in Edgewood. A devoted cartoonist, Ben started drawing cartoons for the school newspaper, The Seventh Pillar, freshman year. Upon the urging of Dean of Students Larry Hall and English teacher and school newspaper advisor Larry Connolly, Ben aimed for and ultimately attained the position of editor-in-chief. “I really flourished thanks to that tiny bit of attention and encouragement,” he reflected. Ben added, “Mr. Connolly gave the staff a lot of responsibility, and we took that to heart.” Ben continued to work on comic strips in college, drawing a daily strip for the school paper at Kent State University. At the end of the strip’s run, he self-published a collection that sold out in its first week. Although Ben always thought he would be a cartoonist, he decided to take a year off and attend Pittsburgh Filmmakers. “I was shooting with 8mm cameras and cutting and splicing actual film, filming whatever my mind could think up. I was pretty much hooked from day one,” he said. Ben finished his bachelor’s at Kent and got a Master’s of Fine Arts in Film Production at the University of Miami before heading to Los Angeles.

Photo: Sarah Golonka | SMG Photography for Flux

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Just as he arrived in LA, the independent retail giant Amoeba Music opened up a store in Hollywood, and Ben was able to snag a job there. “I got my start in directing music videos because I had that whirlpool of musical talent around me,” Ben said. “The music video industry itself was in the beginning of a dive commercially, but I was still able to eke out some budgets and learn a lot. Early on, a director friend once told me, ‘The first

shoot I stepped foot on, I stepped foot on as a director.’ It was a small crew and a small budget, but I made sure the first set I worked on in LA was my own.” Ben’s longest-running project is a comedy series called Fish in a Sweater, which he created around a puppet he made during his Amoeba days, crafted out of wire hangers, felt, and duct tape. Featuring the puppet and two comedy actors, Ben co-wrote and directed a series of shorts. After a few years, the series started to appear at festivals such as South by Southwest, Just For Laughs, and New York Television Festival. “Recently, I got to go to New York City for a festival and met two of Jim Henson’s daughters,” he recalled. He was humbled by Cheryl Henson telling him that her kids loved Fish the most out of the festival. “It’s something you want to say to your fifteen-year-old self. ‘Hey. Jim Henson’s grandkids are going to totally dig something you made,” Ben said. The moment was small and unexpected, but the small and unexpected things are often the most sustaining. While filming some behind-thescenes footage for the special effects company Legacy Effects, Ben got to direct and edit a screen test of a dying animatronic dinosaur they had made for Jurassic World. “One of the owners at Legacy Effects walked by a couple weeks later and told me, ‘Steven was very moved by

the piece.’ It took me a couple minutes to realize he meant Spielberg.” As Ben sees it, anecdotal moments like that may not ultimately mean a lot on a macro level but are very sustaining on a personal one. Ben’s work is steadily building recognition. A couple months ago, a feature version of Fish in a Sweater won Best Feature Screenplay at the Los Angeles Comedy Festival, and this May, his most recent music video for singer-songwriter Auditorium premiered at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. The feature film Ben is currently working on is a Sundance Institute finalist and is set in Sewickley Hills and the surrounding areas. “A lot of the film’s setting came from my high school memories, of the Academy and its surroundings, which have an indelible look and feel to me.” It contains no puppets, as Ben was quick to point out. Ben describes the feeling he gets from some of his best movie experiences as his inspiration for this work. His goal is to recreate that feeling over and over again. “It takes a lot of cooperation, planning, risk, and creativity from many, many people,” he explained. “You have to handle a lot of stress and uncertainty, but it’s always worth it when it comes together.”

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IN MEMORIAM ALUMNI M. BARBARA MCKEEVER ’71 passed away January 28, 2016, at her home in Stockton, New Jersey. Ms. McKeever was born in Sewickley but later moved with her family to Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. She graduated from the Agnes Irwin School and Villanova University. An avid horsewoman, she was a whipper-in at the Radnor Hunt Club. She bred and raised American foxhounds and loved the outdoors. Barbara is survived by her sister Virginia (McKeever ’68) Warner of Radnor, Pennsylvania, and her brother William S. McKeever ’73 of New York. GAIL LYNN MARTIN ’76 of Stoneham, Massachusetts, died March 5, 2016. Gail was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and always remembered fondly her years at Sewickley Academy where she participated in field hockey, tennis, softball, theater, chorus, student council, The Seventh Pillar, Cum Laude Society, and was a senior class officer. A graduate of Boston University, she was the daughter of Ruth Martin and the late Bill Martin, and was predeceased by her sister Jill Shapiro. Gail was the loving aunt of Julie and Neil Shapiro and great-aunt to Gavin McSweeney. She is greatly missed by her dear friend Stephanie Tarantino, the Tarantino and Lang families, her aunt Audrey Birtwhistle, and many dear cousins and friends.

CHARLES (CHUCK) J. LANG IV ’82, age 52, passed away March 19, 2016, at the University of Colorado Hospital in Denver. He leaves behind his partner Mark Rogers, who was at his side. He is survived by his mother Linda S. Lang of Moon Township, Pennsylvania, and his sister Claire (Lang ’90) Ballantyne of West Chester, Pennsylvania. He was preceded in death by his father Charles J. Lang III of Sewickley, Pennsylvania. Born and raised in Sewickley, Chuck graduated from Sewickley Academy and continued his studies at Babson College in Boston, graduating with a Bachelor of Science from the School of Management. An avid skier, he made his home in the mountain town of Frisco, Colorado. A passionate scuba diver, he discovered, nurtured, and shared his love for marine life and aquatic

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environments. Anywhere he went he made friends, and anywhere he went he would take friends. He was a man of great generosity, boundless compassion, and unconditional love; a man whose smile and laugh would light up the room; a man who celebrated acceptance, inclusion, and the joy of friendship.

FAMILY OF ALUMNI CHARLOTTE “CHOTZIE” MEYERS BENZ, mother of Charles ’66, Meredith ’66, Susan (Benz ’72) Rogers, Fred ’79, and John Benz JEAN WEAVER CAMPBELL, mother of Scott Campbell ’81 DR. BARRY C. HARRIS, father of Kimberly Ann (Harris ’88) Hassell, Suzanne (Harris ’91) Kidd, Michael J. Harris ’94, and Michelle “Shelley” (Harris ’96) McRae LEWIS HERRON II, husband of Sybil (Adams ’48) Herron ADRIENNE S. (BENESTELLI) KENNY, mother of Alex Benestelli ’06 CAROL WILLIAMS SHARP, mother of Kimberly (Sharp ’69) Fierst and Lisa (Sharp ’72) Hord MILAN “MIKE” SPANOVICH, father of Stacey (Spanovich ’90) Damm and Tamara (Spanovich ’92) Brownfield

As of July 1, 2016

FRIENDS OF THE SCHOOL Ronald Evans Gebhardt, loving husband, father, and grandfather, died peacefully on Tuesday, May 17, 2016, at age 86, surrounded by his family in Sewickley. Born in Clinton, New Jersey, he was the son of Phillip Reading and Frances Bien Gebhardt. Ron graduated as valedictorian from Clinton High School in 1947, and, because the school lacked a physics teacher, Ron took a post-graduate year at Lawrenceville Academy where he was presented with their Physics Award. He earned his civil engineering degree from Cornell University in 1952. Committed to his country, he served as a 1st Lt. in Germany during the Korean War. He began his career as a sales engineer in 1956 with H.H. Robertson in New York City, where he met his wife, Cora Alice St. John, from Greenwich, Connecticut, in 1957, and the two married in 1958. In 1963 the family moved to Pittsburgh, and in 1972 traveled to Paris for three years, where Ron worked as the general manager of H.H. Robertson France before returning to Pittsburgh. In 1976, Ron joined Ryan Homes as senior vice president of product development and later finished his career as a consultant to the international building industry with Gebhardt Associates. Like his father and grandfather, Ron dedicated himself to his community, and especially to education. He served on the Board of Sewickley Academy for 21 years, five of which were as chairman until his retirement. For his tireless dedication, the school awarded him a position as Trustee Emeritus. Of equal importance in his life was his commitment to serving under-resourced children in the Pittsburgh area, which drove him to establish the Fund for the Advancement of Minorities through Education (F.A.M.E.). F.A.M.E. has enabled 92 students to attend independent schools, all going on to college. F.A.M.E. similarly recognized him as a Trustee Emeritus for his tireless service. Ron also served as vice president of the Independent School Chairmen’s Association. A loyal member of the Presbyterian Church for 50 years, he contributed his time to the church as a deacon and an elder. He also spent much of his energies as an advisor to the Sewickley Community Center and served on the board of trustees of the Sewickley Valley YMCA. He was a board member at Allegheny Country Club and many business associations. In 2000, the Pittsburgh Association of Fundraising Professionals awarded him with the Outstanding Volunteer Fundraiser Award. In 2006, the Urban League of Pittsburgh recognized him with the Ronald H. Brown Corporate Leadership Award. An advocate for all people, he was presented with the Racial Justice Award in 2000 from the Pittsburgh YWCA. Ron engaged in athletic and outdoor activities, from tennis and golf to skiing and hunting, all of which he enjoyed doing with his family and friends. A lover of music, he and his wife supported and attended the Pittsburgh Symphony for many years. Ron is survived by his wife, Cora Alice; three children, Elisabeth (Gebhardt ’79) Turner, R. Evans Gebhardt Jr. ’80 (Tanya Tuccillo), and Joy (Gebhardt ’91) Beuc (Bradford W. Beuc ’87); along with his six grandchildren, Ashley St. John Turner, Jonathan William Turner, Max Reading Gebhardt, Avery Arlington Gebhardt, Carter Wentworth Beuc, and Sophia Dickerman Beuc.

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