Callboard Fall 2016 by University of Southern California

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

SCHOOL OF DRAMATIC ARTS |

2016

A New Vision David Bridel takes dramatic arts training to the next level

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dean David Bridel assistant dean of communications Delphine Vasko editor Stacey Wang Rizzo graphic designer Christopher Komuro contributing writers Allison Engel, Lynne Heffley, Evan Henerson, Rob Weinert-Kendt photography Capture Imaging, Craig Schwartz Photography, Elizabeth Beristain Photography, David Sprague, Chris Shinn, Gus Ruelas, Mark Rivard © 2016 USC School of Dramatic Arts We’d like to hear from you, keep you informed and/or share your news in an upcoming issue of USC Callboard. Please send correspondences to Stacey Wang Rizzo at staceykw@usc.edu or mail to: USC School of Dramatic Arts Attn: Stacey Wang Rizzo 1029 Childs Way Los Angeles, CA 90089

A Message From the Dean IT IS A TIME OF NEW BEGINNINGS at the USC School of Dramatic Arts — new programming, new students, new faculty and a new format for this publication, Callboard, now an annual magazine. There is much to celebrate at the School and this edition hones in on some terrific stories. From our extraordinary donors to our outstanding board members, from our remarkable students to our nationally competitive programs, Callboard aims to capture and identify just a few of the guiding spirits within our vibrant community. I’m also delighted to note the publication of our donor marquee, which thanks all of you who contribute, at all levels, in service of our students and their futures. Please enjoy browsing these pages. Feel free to join us for our exciting new season of plays and events. Stay in touch, and we hope you will remain a part of our story.

David Bridel

Then and Now

The USC School of Dramatic Arts’ Callboard was first printed in November 1960 as a four-page newsletter from the National Collegiate Players, a national honorary drama fraternity and one of the university’s most active groups that worked in conjunction with USC’s Department of Drama. At the time, William C. White was the chapter adviser, while James H. Butler was head of the department and served as the National President of the National Collegiate Players. Pictured to the right is the first issue of Callboard.

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As You Like It. Photo by Craig Schwartz. Cover photo of David Bridel by Elizabeth Beristain.

USC Callboard magazine is an annual publication of the USC School of Dramatic Arts for its alumni, parents, students and friends.

INSIDE

A Conversation with the New Dean David Bridel addresses vision, new media and the role theatre plays at the School of Dramatic Arts. By Rob Weinert-Kendt

Paul Backer: In Memoriam

A remembrance of a professor who served over 30 years. By David Bridel

The Stage of the Field

Paving the Way

Chris Wodniak doubles as a dramatic arts student and Trojan Marching Band drum major. By Evan Henerson

The Pollitt Family endows a groundbreaking professorship to advance the stage management program. By Lynne Heffley

10 Years Strong

The Master of Fine Arts Acting Program celebrates a decade of artistic education. By Lynne Heffley

PROFILES

RECAP: SPOTLIGHT@SDA

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ALUMNI MARQUEE DONOR MARQUEE

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A Conversation with the New Dean

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By ROB WEINERT-KENDT

David Bridel discusses his new vision for the future of training at the School of Dramatic Arts. THE PHRASE “jack of all trades” has a disparaging kicker, “master of none,” but that doesn’t seem to apply to David Bridel, a director, writer, choreographer, performer and teacher with a long and accomplished résumé in all those fields. He can now add “dean” to the list, as he recently assumed that position at USC’s School of Dramatic Arts. I spoke to the British-born Bridel, whose initial training was with the great French clown Philippe Gaulier, about his vision for the School.

Photo by Elizabeth Beristain.

I want to start by asking about Gaulier — is his work based on or related to the great French clown school of Jacques Lecoq? Yes, he taught with Lecoq, and then they got into a huge argument and Philippe began his own school, which he continues to run. He’s about 80 years old. I’ve had him come out to L.A. He’s extremely irascible and famously intolerant of anybody, really. But he’s a great teacher. Your teaching style is different, I imagine. You don’t seem particularly irascible. Not remotely. In fact, quite the reverse. I’m very tolerant.

Since Gaulier was your main training background, and you’re taking the reins of a training institution, tell me a little about what distinguishes his work, and how that’s influenced your approach as a teacher. Gaulier begins all of his training with a class that he simply calls “Play,” in French, “Le Jeu.” He looks to children’s games, pranks and mischief of all kinds as a sort of stimulus to the creative act, or perhaps the essence of the creative act. One of the most famous graduates of his school is Sacha Baron Cohen. I wouldn’t suggest that I’m the iconoclast that either Gaulier or Cohen is, but I have subscribed entirely to the idea that the theatre is a space for us to contravene regulations and to subvert and violate expectations, to mess around a lot, both onstage and around the fringes of the stage. A lot of my work involves audience participation, or at least some very powerful connection between the audience and the performers. I’ve also become conversant with many different approaches to performance, but the one that I hold the dearest is that. At its best, it’s tremendously exciting and great fun. It brings joy into the work.

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Let me ask you about your vision for the School of Dramatic Arts, and where you want to take it. First of all, I think every organization needs to be refreshed every 10 years, so we’re in the right moment for that. What I notice about our programming is that I believe it needs to integrate itself into what’s going on in the film and TV industry, which is around the corner in our case. To do that, I think we have to embrace more fully acting for the screen and for the various new media platforms that have grown exponentially over the last few years, whether it’s YouTube or even very short forms, like what we see on Instagram. People are building careers there now, and in fact certain agents are looking for people with experience in social media to blend into their more mainstream television and film offerings. We have to take that seriously and figure out how to teach that to our students so it becomes part of what they know when they move into the industry. So I’m working on retooling our BFA in acting so it includes a stronger,

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heavier component of screen work and new media work. One flagship class that would be a great example of where we’re going is something that we’re calling Going Viral, which is creating shortform Internet content; we’re partnering with Funny or Die, the comedy website run by Will Ferrell. That encapsulates one of the new directions that I want to invite the School to follow: partnerships with industry and attention to the industry. That would be true, too, for our actors, but it’s also true in the world of design. We have a strong design program for undergraduates, and plenty of recent grads tell us that learning how to design for the stage is the foundation, the most valuable foundation, but then quickly people have to learn how to apply those skills in very different contexts: event design, game design. So it’s all about platforms, and it’s all about opening the channel between the experience in the classroom on the one hand and the kind of new platforms that are evolving in the professional world on the other hand.

Photo by Ryan Miller/Capture Imaging.

“We have to embrace more fully acting for the screen and for the various new media platforms that have grown exponentially over the last few years.”

When I was in film school in the late ’80s, I was one of the few people I knew who cast actors from the theatre school right next door. There wasn’t a lot of overlap. Can you speak about the ways in which USC’s famous film school and its school for dramatic arts interact now? The prognosis is good now, probably better than it’s ever been. There are fledgling partnerships now that are evolving not just in the mainstream of acting in front of the camera, but also in the games division and the animation division. For a while we have had classes where our actors are co-taught by people from cinema and people from dramatic arts. Those have been in place for a while, but I’m interested in even more radical versions of what that might look like. I’ll give you an example: About three years ago I began, with a colleague in cinema, Jack Epps, who runs the writing division, a class modeled on Saturday Night Live. A troupe of actors from this School works with a team of sketch comedy writers and directors from the cinema school. They develop material over the course of a semester and shoot three “live” television shows, which are broadcast on Trojan Vision, USC’s student TV station. I’ve been to those culminating events. They’re very well attended and extremely funny. It’s those kind of things I’m interested in continuing to evolve. I’d imagine that part of the job is about striking a balance so you’re not losing the core value of theatre, or the ideal of training — of being cloistered a bit, stretching yourself and using your imagination, as opposed to jumping directly into the media stream we all know so well. That’s true. The important thing I realized one night while I was pondering all of this is that my own personal background has included these things that we’ve discussed, but was always directed toward the love of traditional theatre, and that will remain the cornerstone of what we do here. Someone can graduate from our school having taken classes in stand-up comedy and magic and medical clowning, but they can also graduate having taken classes in scene study, scene study and more scene study. We’re happy to offer the choice. It would be a disservice to what we believe if we were to remove the traditional component from our work. It would also not reflect the faculty, many of whom have spent their lives working onstage or in front of the camera. You’re right — it’s a balancing act, but it’s an exciting one. It’s fun to actually concretely connect the ancient art of the stage with some of these very modern trends, and to make links between them both.

I’ve always felt that the best actors in any medium had spent formative time in front of a live audience, whether it was stand up, improv or traditional theatre. Absolutely. You’re hitting the gold button there. We have faith that the live event is the only true training ground. One of the linchpins of experience for all of our students continues to be staged productions. We think that we may offer the biggest season of work of any college in the country, or close to, anyway — about 20 plays over the course of the year. One of the reasons that’s such a large season is that we have three very large populations of students to satisfy, so there are shows for MFA actors, shows for BFA actors and shows for BA actors. And all of them are designed and staffed in some way by students in our production wing. I’ll close by asking, What are your priorities for the School? One is the relationship between our work and the contemporary industry. Another priority is new media, which is born out of the first one. Last year, we launched for the first time a new media summit in which we actually brought industry professionals in to talk about what’s going on in that world, and we’ll continue that. We’re also going to launch a kind of an unofficial laboratory where students can explore that kind of work, virtual reality and acting for video games, outside of the curriculum. The third priority is new partners — we touched on that with Funny or Die and even the School of Cinematic Arts. We’re also exploring options with the Thornton School of Music and the Glorya Kaufman School of Dance. Our medical clowning program is partnered with three USC hospitals. So we have all kinds of developing partnerships in many different directions. The fourth of my priorities is what I would describe as a new culture for the School. You know the American theatre landscape in general is really trying to grapple with issues of equity and inclusion. That’s something we are excited to embrace. We’re also looking at “What does it mean to be an organization that celebrates plurality, and an organization that values dialogue?” There are various different mini-initiatives around getting ourselves to remember that what we do serves a kind of civic function, whether that function is provocative or purely entertaining. That’s what we’re here to do. I’m feeling strongly that we need to push that agenda forward. ❚ Rob Weinert-Kendt is the editor-in-chief of American Theatre magazine and founding editor-in-chief of Backstage West. He is also a USC alumnus.

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PROFILES

Meet Richard Weinberg

One of the School of Dramatic Arts’ longest supporting (and impactful) alums and board members.

RICHARD WEINBERG has been a successful actor, singer, competitive ballroom dancer, Broadway “angel,” and film and television producer, but his first foray into entertainment did not bode well. He signed up for a speech class in high school and floundered, receiving a D grade. “And that was only because my teacher liked me,” Weinberg laughs. But the elusive magic of connecting with a live audience had cast its spell. He decided not to follow the family tradition of attending nearby Northwestern University and enrolled in the BFA program at USC School of Dramatic Arts (then, the Division of Drama) in the early 1970s. It was the beginning of a relationship that has continued for five decades, including his 14-year service on the board of councilors, his last nine years as chair. A casting breakdown couldn’t describe a better board candidate. He has extensive industry experience working at Columbia Pictures Entertainment and CBS and serving on the boards of Savoy Pictures Entertainment and the Sundance Institute. As founder and president of Omneity Entertainment, Inc., he has invested in some of Broadway’s biggest hits, including The Producers, Hairspray and A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder. Weinberg also is the savvy president of a private investment firm, Judd Enterprises, Inc., and a renowned philanthropist who has lent his time and talents to a raft of nonprofits, including traveling around the globe to meet world leaders while on the American Jewish Committee’s National Board of Governors. After his initial unhappy experience in speech class, he discovered dance. His family took annual pilgrimages from Chicago to Broadway to see musicals, and when he was 16, he was transfixed by No, No Nanette and

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its spectacular tap numbers. The hockey and soccer athlete was concerned with what his peers would think about him taking dance lessons, and so his father, in a lovely gesture, said he would take the lessons with him. “That’s what gave me the courage to start,” Weinberg says. “And I still tap.” In recent years, he added competitive ballroom dancing to his repertoire. He started out taking salsa lessons so he wouldn’t embarrass himself at a venue filled with Latin dancers, “and before I knew it, I was learning 14 different dance styles.” He and dance partner Tommye Giacchino recently stopped competing, but not before winning several U.S. titles, including the U.S. Nine Dance Championship, where they competed in waltz, tango, foxtrot, Viennese waltz, chacha, rhumba, swing, bolero and mambo. “Again, it was the lure of live performance,” he says. “You learn how to work an audience and work with an audience. And, it’s got to be two people moving as one.” The multi-hyphenate has a sense of style to match his unorthodox résumé. The day Callboard interviewed him in his stunning North Michigan Avenue offices, he was wearing blue framed glasses, a flowered blue tie, blue plaid sport coat, blue horizontal striped shirt with a white collar, light blue socks and blue shoes. “I usually match,” he admits. Weinberg is generous with crediting USC for helping him get over his early fear of performing and fulfill his desire to connect with an audience. His freshman acting teacher, Mary Carver (who had studied with the great Uta Hagen) showed him “how to be comfortable making a fool of yourself in public,” how to look others squarely in the eye and how to feel at ease on stage.

By ALLISON EN GEL

Introducing the New Chair Michael Felix leads the Board of Councilors in its vital commitment to fulfill the School’s vision.

Richard Weinberg from his senior year at USC.

In his senior year, in 1975, he traveled to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival under John Blankenchip’s tutelage. He and fellow USC actors did a grueling 22 performances a week in repertory for three weeks, and Weinberg easily recalls the names of the musicals and plays: Gypsy, Dames at Sea, The Martian Chronicles, Small Craft Warnings and American Primitive. “I love theatre,” says Weinberg. “It’s too easy to say there’s nothing like it. The enduring appeal is the relationship between the performer and the audience. The same way they say you don’t step into the same river twice, you really never see the same theatre performance twice.” Former Dramatic Arts Dean Robert R. Scales was responsible for bringing Weinberg to the Board of Councilors. When Madeline Puzo was dean, she asked him to become chair. He also chaired the School’s first fundraising gala, a hugely successful celebration honoring Robert Redford, and was able to attract industry insiders — producers, casting agents, entertainment attorneys — to the board. Now that he has stepped down from the board, he continues to support the School financially and with his praise. “The School of Dramatic Arts has a wonderful program and extraordinary faculty,” he says. “And it continues to get better. There’s much more of an understanding of the business side of entertainment now and what students will face on the outside.” ❚ Allison Engel is an author and produced playwright who has been an award-winning newspaper reporter and editor at national magazines. She covers USC’s six arts schools and Classical KUSC and KDFC radio stations.

NEXT TO spending time with his close-knit family and a demanding work schedule, Michael Felix ’83 of Yorba Linda, Calif., says he has only one other “vice” — volunteering his talents at USC. The chair of the School of Dramatic Arts Board of Councilors also sits on the advisory boards of the USC Latino Alumni Association and the USC Caruso Catholic Center and is a member of the USC Associates Board of Directors and the USC Alumni Association Board of Governors. (He received the USC Alumni Association’s Alumni Service Award in 2014.) In fact, when Callboard reached Felix, he said he had been on the campus for meetings three times in the prior week. “I’m passionate about the university’s mission, and the transforming value of a USC education,” he says. “It has such excellence in the sciences and the arts, so I can pursue all my passions in one spot.” Felix, who was a business administration major at USC, is the global head of investment operations for the Capital Group Companies, a Los Angelesbased investment management firm, and is treasurer and director of several Capital Group subsidiary companies. “On the board, I am surrounded by people primarily in the entertainment industry,” Felix observes, “but I’ve come to appreciate there is value in having a business person in an arts space. One thing I try to do, in business and on the board, is bring people together.” He first became involved with Dramatic Arts when his daughter, Taylor ’13, who had danced competitively since she was a toddler, took dance classes at the School. A second daughter, Jordan, is a Dramatic Arts major and dance minor who will graduate in 2017. A son, Austin, just started at USC this fall, planning to study economics. Felix and wife Debbie, who serves on the board of councilors of the Glorya Kaufman School of Dance, have a fourth child, Brenden, who graduated from the University of Arizona. Felix got to know Dean David Bridel when Bridel began as interim dean. “I’ve really been appreciative of his desire to collaborate with all the other arts schools at USC,” says Felix. “They are all progressive powerhouses, and those collaborations leverage the School’s strength and create tremendous opportunities and experiences for our students.” Felix hadn’t intended to chair the board for more than a year, but when Bridel asked him to continue, he agreed. “There’s an excitement around David — his ideas and his momentum,” says Felix. “He is very much focused on expanding into new media and technology and the realities of the entertainment world today.” Felix notes that the board has no direct jurisdiction on policy, but says its mission is more far-reaching. “Our meetings are about the vision for the School and how we can be helpful.” ❚

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Paul Backer a remembrance Fear no more the heat o’ the sun, Nor the furious winter’s rages; Thou thy worldly task hast done, Home art gone and ta’en thy wages; Golden lads and girls all must, As chimney-sweepers, come to dust. TO STUDY the Tao is to learn to live peacefully in relation to the cosmic forces of order; to follow one’s breath; to live gracefully, joyfully, with humility, and in harmony with one’s surroundings. Paul Backer was a doctoral student of the Tao and, quietly, consciously and unconsciously, a practitioner of its way. He lived among us gently, exerting his tranquil influence as a family member, colleague, a friend, a teacher and a mentor. For one who made a life in the dramatic arts, Paul was blessedly undramatic; he understood and lived by values of acceptance, adaptability, and friendliness. A man who gives 30 years of his life to an institution is bound to experience many changes and much local turmoil, but somehow the seas were never choppy around Paul Backer’s boat; he sailed through preternaturally calm waters, even while those around him chafed and gnashed in storm-tossed tempests. Head tipped back, fingers stroking his chin, Paul’s professorial presence at a million and one meetings forever indicated goodwill, benevolence and cooperation. It was very hard to rile him up, and even harder to be riled up by him; he simply exuded kindness. There aren’t many genuine examples of that timeworn phrase “a gentleman and a scholar,” but Paul satisfied the criteria perfectly. Insatiably curious, intellectually brilliant, peace loving, slyly humorous and permanently courteous; he

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demonstrated, by example but never by dogma, what it means to flow, without undue effort, towards creativity and love. Fear no more the frown o’ the great, Thou art past the tyrant’s stoke; Care no more to clothe and eat; To thee the reed is as the oak; The sceptre, learning, physic, must All follow this, and come to dust. Born in Boston, Paul moved to Southern California as a child and grew up primarily in Long Beach. He graduated from UCLA, but it was USC that became his lifelong home. Like the romantic poets that he resembled in so many ways, with his long stride and flowing blond locks, Paul nursed passions for two parallel pursuits that took him on a thousand journeys of mind and body. The first was books. He loved them. Paul’s book collection is so huge that it spilled over from his home to his mother’s, to his infamous offices at USC, which were forever being crammed with more and more reading matter, and ultimately into two storage units. How many of us would visit Paul in his office to find him buried in a pile of obscure texts and captivating tomes, offering a not-quite-convincing promise that soon his desk would be clear? To witness Paul’s books was to glimpse outwardly the dizzying catalogues of information and argument that jostled for space within his voraciously hungry brain. And let us not forget that his love of reading translated into adventurous and often brilliant realities in the form of his stage productions at USC and beyond, which, it occurs to me, were often more avant-garde and contemporary in their manifestation than those of

By DAVID BRIDEL

much younger colleagues. Paul was not afraid of learning and he was not afraid to experiment — there was a radical side to this eternally humble man. The second of Paul’s romantic passions was hiking. He adored open spaces and challenging climbs, and he conquered more than 30 mountains all over the world, including some in the Himalayas. Imagine Paul atop some distant crag, surveying a vast landscape, his streaming fountains of knowledge and continuing curlicues of thought for once dwarfed by the magnitude of the earth below him. This must have been a rare kind of happiness. Fear no more the lightning-flash, Nor the all-dreaded thunder-stone; Fear not slander, censure rash; Thou hast finish’d joy and moan; All lovers young, all lovers must Consign to thee, and come to dust. We were all family to Paul. His connection with his Lithuanian roots and his indomitable mother, Rama, who he loved with great purity and with whom he spoke on a daily basis, flowed effortlessly into his connection with his students their hopes, their dreams and their futures. As we know, the words of Paul’s students, young and not so young, have been flooding the internet since we learned of his passing. Such an overwhelming volume of tributes speaks to Paul’s remarkable capacity to bond with the individuals in his classrooms,

and to maintain and even strengthen that bond over time and space. If I were to try and capture the full scope and diversity of these remarks we would be here forever, but I have taken the liberty of extracting a few phrases from the many in order to represent these voices. The following are extracts from sentiments shared over social media: He always will be with us throughout our artistic endeavors. Paul, you poured your heart and soul into every conversation you ever had with me… We are heartbroken over the loss of our beloved faculty advisor Paul Backer. He supported and guided us through everything. He was a passionate, funloving, big hearted guy who loved each and every one of his students. Paul was an inspiration, incredibly bright. To know him was to love him. I so cherished the man that I asked him to officiate my wedding. Paul’s love for theatre and the arts was an inspiration to all, and any student who was lucky enough to take one of his classes knew that he was one of the most intelligent and kind hearted people around. What a selfless, kind, loving man. It was his ability to see each student in their truest form and acknowledge them for all of their strange beauty that really stuck with me.

Paul’s sense of family extended deeply into the institution that he devoted his life to, and far out the other side and his loyalty was nothing short of miraculous. Can any of us remember a production, at USC or beyond, that featured an SDA student or graduate, that Paul did not attend? He must have seen more shows in his wonderful life than the rest of us put together. And to each and every one of them, and to we, their makers, he brought his implacable enthusiasm and encouragement, his quiet, gum-chewing approval, and his irreplaceable warmth. If it is true that the art of the theatre is the art of being present, then Paul Backer was our very own master, quietly unsung, a man who demonstrated the true value and meaning of presence without ever seeking reward. We will all be his students for as long as we are still breathing. No exorciser harm thee! Nor no witchcraft charm thee! Ghost unlaid forbear thee! Nothing ill come near thee! Quiet consummation have; And renowned be thy grave. William Shakespeare Cymbeline Act IV, Scene II.

Thank you for your sense of humor and optimism. “Tis in my memory locked, And you yourself shall keep the key of it.”

To honor Professor Backer’s enduring legacy at the USC School of Dramatic Arts, the School has created the Paul Allen Backer Independent Student Productions Fund to provide financial support for independent student productions. For more information, please call Kim Muhlbach at 213-821-4045 or email muhlbach@usc.edu.

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to-do list that includes helmet plume maintenance, but then again SDA senior Chris Wodniak is a rare student. As the newly elected drum major for the Trojan Marching Band (TMB), Wodniak has a host of new responsibilities, including readying his gear. “I’m getting new armor, a new tunic and a new helmet,” Wodniak says over a midsummer lunch in Hollywood. “So I’m responsible for keeping in communication with our blacksmith in Burbank to make sure the helmet is complete and ready. There’s no plume on it, so I have to carve out a wooden trough and stick in a ton of horse hair to make the new plume.” Wait, what? Is Wodniak actually saying that he, the crowd-inspiring gladiator at every Trojan football game, the hood ornament on the Rolls Royce that is the TMB … he’s the one in charge of stuffing the hair? “I’d like to,” replies Wodniak. “I could hire somebody to do it, but there’s a certain level of intimacy with being able to work so closely with the armor that you are going to be wearing throughout the season. There will be a so much better emotional connection there.” The son of a dentist and a flight attendant, Wodniak grew up in Iowa and Chicago. When he came to USC initially as a premed, Wodniak — a trombone player since fourth grade — also knew that he wanted to participate in the university’s famed marching band. Wodniak eventually switched his major to dramatic arts and discovered that band and theatre didn’t always easily sync up schedule wise. The 300-member TMB — also known as the Spirit of Troy — attends every USC football game and is frequently hired out for special concerts and events, both locally and across the country. Not exactly a commitment which easily accommodates a theatrical rehearsal schedule. Wodniak learned this during his junior year while working in productions of the musicals Floyd Collins and Into the Woods. The dual duty had him motoring from band practice directly to show rehearsal with barely enough time to take a shower or power down a quick dinner. “I made it work, but it was an incredible amount of stress,” Wodniak says. “It was definitely worth it, though. Those shows were amazing.” After spending his first two years as a member of the band, Wodniak became a squad leader during his junior year. His election as drum major for 2016-17 means that Wodniak leads the band in a series of fight songs. As the band’s most

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visible member, a costumed Wodniak marches in before the start of the game and stabs the field with his sword. “I am supposed to be the powerful, the resilient, the very focused man that everyone can look to and say, ‘All right, that is a Trojan. That is what we represent,’ ” Wodniak says. “So that requires me to be in game mode all day long.” Asked whether his Spirit of Troy persona also allows him to use his acting skills, Wodniak considers the question. “The role of drum major doesn’t come without its hardships,” he says. “It’s the heat and the sun and the physical exertion of marching and staying vigilant the entire time that you’re wearing a uniform is definitely a role that I fill. It’s definitely a role that I’m embracing and I’m accepting the challenge.” SDA faculty member Robert Bailey, who taught Wodniak in his introduction to stage directing class, says that Wodniak’s defining characteristic is his boundless enthusiasm. Whether bringing in a homemade bug costume for the actor he directed for a scene from Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis or cracking up his classmates performing a barroom encounter from The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, Wodniak enjoyed himself thoroughly and brought a similar spirit of enthusiasm to the class, according to Bailey. When the Skylight Theatre put out a call for actors for a reading of a new play, Tom Lavagnino’s Eleanor Tuesday, Bailey recruited Wodniak.

SDA student Chris Wodniak juggles life in the dramatic arts and his role as the drum major of “The Greatest Marching Band in the History of the Universe.”

The Stage

“He was going to be acting with a real seasoned actor, and I thought Chris would hold his own, hang in there and know what to do, and he did,” Bailey says. “He’s somebody you remember because he just has such a great positive approach to everything he does and he’s very talented.” Fall semester and the accompanying 12 football games (plus playoffs) will likely tie up Wodniak’s schedule. He hopes to get back on the boards in the spring. “I completely understand the situation I’ve put myself in. It’s something I just have to accept,” Wodniak says. “I’m really confident in all of my abilities, and nothing stops me.” ❚ Evan Henerson is a freelance writer whose works have appeared in American Theatre, Backstage and Playbill Online. An alumnus of USC, he is a former lead theatre critic and writer for the Los Angeles Daily News.

Chris Wodniak

Photo courtesy of Chris Wodniak.

IT’S THE RARE student summer

By EVAN HENERSON

of the Field

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Paving the Way for Stage Management

Alice Pollitt and the late Paul Backer at the SDA awards ceremony in 2014. That year, Alice received the Aileen Stanley Memorial Award for Undergraduate Student in Design/Tech.

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AN ENDOWED PROFESSORSHIP in stage management is a first for the USC School of Dramatic Arts, and the first of its kind in the country. Announced in June, this groundbreaking professorship was established with a $1.5 million gift from Byron and Teresa Pollitt and their daughter, Alice, a USC Dramatic Arts stage management graduate who earned her BFA in 2015. “So often in theatre you hear about the actors, the actresses, the individual performances on stage,” says Byron. “We’re very proud that the first endowed professorship at the School of Dramatic Arts at USC recognizes a role on the production side of theatre.” “Teri and I felt it was just really important … to support the arts in a way that honors what the School has done for our daughter, as well as what it can do for the students that follow,” he says. “I wouldn’t trade it for anything,” Alice says of her experience at USC. She was speaking by phone during a break from her job as production stage manager for the new Mona Lisa-inspired musical, Lisa and Leonardo, at the New York Musical Festival. “You have courses that give you certain tools, and if you can’t use them in a university production,” she says, “you’re using them at full throttle working with your peers on student productions. You can do everything that is mapped out for you, or you can challenge yourself. Doing other things within the curriculum to kind of squeeze every ounce of education that I could, ended up being a really solid foundation for when I came out here [to New York].” “By the end of my four years at USC,” she says, “I had worked on over 30 productions. I needed that experience to be the person confident enough to take charge in the room.” Among Alice’s other credits — earned while she was still a student at USC and since graduation — are the 69th Annual Tony Awards, Broadway productions of American Psycho, Noises Off and Aladdin, and shows for Berkeley Repertory Theatre, the Public Theater and Marin Shakespeare Company. Surprisingly, theatre as a career wasn’t Alice’s first choice. “I had always enjoyed being in the theatre, performing and being behind the scenes — that started in elementary school,” she says. “But because pretty much everyone in my family either has an MBA or a CPA, I kind of assumed that’s what I had to do.”

Photo by Ryan Miller/Capture Imaging.

The Pollitt Family endows a history-making professorship to further the development of the School’s stage managers.

By LYNNE HEFFLE Y

Photo by USC/David Sprague.

Alice Pollitt, from right, sharing about her work from her scenic painting class with parents Teresa and Byron Pollitt in 2015.

(Teresa is a USC MBA alumna; Alice’s sisters, Emily and Mary, are both USC graduates, too: Emily holds a BA in political science, Mary earned her Masters degree in accounting. Byron, who recently retired from his position as Chief Financial Officer of Visa Inc., is an MBA grad from Harvard Business School.) A serious illness in high school prompted Alice to reassess the future, however, and after her first taste of stage managing her high school production of The Comedy of Errors, she found her passion. “And I knew my dad would love it because [the job title] had the word manager in it,” Alice says, laughing. “Alice jokes that she’s different from the rest of the family,” Teresa says, “but when you stop and think of what a stage manager does, it’s really management skills. It’s just that your venue is the theatre, as opposed to the corporate world. I say, ‘you can laugh all you want, sweetie, but the apple does not fall far from the tree!’ ” Teresa and Byron, who live in Tiburon, Calif., have attended every one of Alice’s student and professional productions, sometimes more than once. (“Jet Blue is our new favorite airline,” Byron says.) The couple served as SDA Parent Ambassadors for the San Francisco Bay Area, and they are current members of the USC Associates, the Widney Society, the USC Parent Leadership Circle, and Cardinal and Gold Athletics. Alice’s experience in the stage management program, Byron says, was “foundational to our willingness and desire to step up and try and help take this School to a different level.

With the recent naming of David Bridel as the School’s new dean, it’s clear that the ambition is there, the vision is there. While the breathtaking amount of productions available to students already sets the program apart, we realized through Alice that specifically-targeted dedicated resources will help to fully realize the potential of this outstanding School by bolstering students’ professional development and expanding career opportunities through connections to both the Los Angeles and the New York theatrical communities.” When asked if she has any advice for students, Alice is emphatic: “Do whatever you can to have a presence on both coasts,” and “network, network, network. It can be as simple as running into someone on the street or sending off an email or getting drinks with somebody. It’s amazing how someone can introduce you to someone else and they can hire you for a job. It’s that simple, and it’s that important.” “And, whether or not you feel you actually will pursue stage management after college,” Alice adds, “it’s still a fantastic degree to have. Maybe you’re not going to use grayscale and drafting and all of that for the rest of your life, but the management skills, the people skills, the communication skills — all of that is 100 percent necessary in anything you do, if you want to do it well.” ❚

Lynne Heffley is a freelance writer and editor whose works have been published for Center Theatre Group, LA STAGE Times and several university publications. She is a former general arts reporter and reviewer for the Los Angeles Times.

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10 Years Strong

One of the country’s most diverse graduate acting programs celebrates a decade of success.

The Master of Fine Arts in Acting program at the USC School of Dramatic Arts is a progressive three-year course of study that fuses classical conservatory training with an innovative physical approach.

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AT THE END of each third and final year of the USC School of Dramatic Arts’ MFA Acting program, graduate students perform three plays in repertory, a challenge that tests not only the skills and knowledge the actors have acquired during their training, but their physical and emotional stamina — and the strength of their commitment to the path they have chosen. This year, the MFA Acting program marks its 10th anniversary. For the most recently graduated class, the ambitions and demands of the three-play repertory challenge — essentially each student’s Master’s thesis — reached new heights, when 14 graduate students, working as a well-forged ensemble, shifted among multiple roles and wildly diverse directorial visions during evening and matinee performances of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill’s The Threepenny Opera, Anna Deavere Smith’s Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992, and The Oresteia Project, inspired by the Aeschylus trilogy and written by Dean David Bridel, and the students themselves. For audiences, the month-long performance experience was quality theatre in its own right. For the graduate students, it was the culmination of two-and-a-half years of rigorous actor training in an MFA program that has earned elevated national

standing. Taught by world-class faculty and guest professionals, the USC MFA Acting curriculum is crafted with an awareness of what makes an actor viable today. It emphasizes the defining value of personal story, individual creativity, the power of ensemble — and a key integration of all subject matter: voice and text work, innovative principles of movement, the creative arts in media and technology, production, and nuts-and-bolts practicalities. “Basically, think of all of our work as acting,” says Natsuko Ohama, head of the MFA program’s Voice Path and one of the country’s premier voice teachers. “We don’t separate it in terms of the experience.” In her own work with students for example, “the breath and the sound of the voice and the articulation of thought,” Ohama notes, “are always going towards the actor’s connection.” In effect, “every class is an acting class,” says Andy Robinson, who headed the MFA Acting program from its inception before turning the leadership reins over at the end of 2015 to devote more time to his own acting trajectory. (Robinson, whose book, Stepping Into the Light: Sources of an Actor’s Craft, was published in 2015, remains on the faculty as a professor of theatre practice.)

Photos by Craig Schwartz and Chris Shinn.

By LYNNE HEFFLE Y

The MFA Acting program was one of three new graduate degrees inaugurated under the leadership of Madeline Puzo, dean of the USC School of Dramatic Arts from 2002 to 2015. Puzo brought award-winning stage and screen actor/director Robinson on board in 2004 to create and direct the program, which launched in Fall 2006. Among the theatre professionals and educators with whom Robinson consulted was a core group of other notable USC faculty: Bridel and Ohama, former Royal Shakespeare Company actor Charlotte Cornwell, and veteran stage and film actor David Warshofsky, who serves as the current director of the program. (All but Cornwell continue to teach at the School.) Robinson drew, too, on his own classical conservatory training at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts and on his involvement in the 1960s with the formation of experimental theatre group La MaMa Plexus, which incorporated the “rather extraordinary physical training techniques,” created by theatre innovators Jerzy Grotowski and Eugenio Barba. The MFA Acting curriculum, while training actors to acquire the tools to be

viable in today’s multiple areas of potential employment, would “unify those two strands of training: the conservatory and the experimental physical,” Robinson determines. The third year of the program, would encompass a threeplay repertory, something “as rare as the griffin,” in actor training programs. With limited opportunities for apprenticeships at a dwindling number of resident repertory theatres across the country, “very few young actors ever get a chance to do this kind of rep situation,” he says. “It’s such a great, great tool for us in terms of how they have to culminate the work that they’ve been doing in a very practical and very demanding way.” Meanwhile, the program’s close-knit core faculty meets regularly, Robinson noted, “to talk about what we perceive as what’s needed, what’s a problem, and what’s extraneous.” This collaborative effort in fine-tuning and advancing the program “continues to be a driving force for us creatively,” says Ohama. “Our commitment to our students is incredibly high, and we genuinely enjoy working with each other. I think that goes all the way through the program.” ❚

“I chose the USC School of Dramatic Arts

program not only for its reputation for diversity in its student population, but because of its inclusion of diversity in the curriculum, administration and teachers. When I attended the callbacks for USC, I was surrounded with students who looked liked me and even though I was walking into the unknown, I trusted that I would be guided in the hands of professionals who were open to dissecting the humanity of people of color and the importance of stressing a technique that comes from within. USC taught me how to appreciate my uniqueness and work from a place that celebrated my African history.” — Chantal Nchako,

MFA Acting Class of 2016

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Spotlight on Visiting Artists The USC School of Dramatic Arts launched Spotlight@SDA last fall as a series that invites prominent artists and industry leaders to speak to and work hands-on with our students and the wider USC community in an intimate setting on campus. This newly established professional development program has connected students to an array of distinguished experts who are advancing their artistic field. Here are a few highlights from our inaugural year.

Academy Award nominee and multi award-winning actor Bryan Cranston, known most recently for his work on Breaking Bad and Trumbo.

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Photos by Capture Imaging, Gus Ruelas and Mark Rivard.

Award-winning actor, director and producer Michele Shay, known for her Tony-nominated performance in August Wilson’s Seven Guitars.

Writer, producer and director Vince Gilligan, creator of award-winning shows Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul and The X-Files.

Comedian and actor Zach Galifianakis, known for The Hangover trilogy and host of the Emmy Award-winning talk show Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis.

Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner Robert Schenkkan, a playwright and screenwriter whose works include the play The Kentucky Cycle and play-turned-film All the Way.

Two-time Emmy Award-winning SDA alumnus Danny Strong, who is co-creator, executive producer and writer for the Fox series Empire.

Transparent star and trans activist Alexandra Billings, named one of the “100 people in Hollywood who could help fix issues of diversity in the film industry” by the Los Angeles Times.

Distinguished actor, writer and dramaturg Dakin Matthews, who currently stars in the musical Waitress on Broadway and received a Drama Desk Award for his adaptation of Henry IV.

Two-time Golden Globe nominee and three-time NAACP Image Award winner actor Blair Underwood.

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Jennifer Brienen (BFA ’06) was the production stage manager of Stage Kiss at the Geffen Playhouse. Erin Carufel (BA ’00) launched her own production company, Irish Rose Entertainment. She has appeared in popular TV shows and films, such as The Lincoln Lawyer, starring Matthew McConaughey, CSI: Miami, Return to the Batcave and Untraceable, starring Diane Lane and Colin Hanks.

Tim Dang (BFA ’80) completed 36 years at East West Players, 23 of which he was the producing artistic director. He recently directed East West Players’ production of La Cage aux Folles. On June 14, the Los Angeles City Council named that date as Tim Dang Day.

Class of 1970s

Class of 1990s

Mary Burkin (BA ’70) will be published by The Script Co. for Voices, a full-length romantic comedy about grief, murder and the paranormal.

Edgar Landa (BA ’92) directed Associate Professor of Theatre Steve Edlund (BA ’09) was Practice Oliver Mayer’s play Blood associate director to directors Match at Sacred Fools Theater Robert De Niro and Jerry Zaks Company in Los Angeles. on A Bronx Tale at Paper Mill Mykle McCoslin (BA ’96) Playhouse, and to directors Jerry performed as the lead role of Zaks and Warren Carlyle on romance novelist Samantha Smokey Joe’s Cafe on Broadway. Douglas in the world premiere This past year, he was associate of Doug Williams and Donna director on Shows for Days McKenzie’s new play, The at Lincoln Center with Patti Boundary, at the new MATCH LuPone and Michael Urie. performing arts complex in Lili Fuller (BA ’09) was recently Houston. She is also co-star in seen in Showtime’s House of Lies. ABC’s The Astronaut Wives Club, the owner of Reel Actors Studio Briga Heelan (BA ’09) in Houston, and is first vice stars in the upcoming president of the Houston-Austin NBC comedy Great News, Local SAG-AFTRA Branch. produced by Tina Fey.

Rudy Loera (BA ’79) retired from Northrop Grumman after 30 years. Class of 1980s Inga Ballard (MFA ’81) is an actor and singer who recently appeared as Queenie in Show Boat at Westchester Broadway Theatre. She also has a national commercial, Apple Pay, running with Tina Fey. Ballard currently works as a voice-over artist and is a core member of Quick Silver Theater Company. Cynthia DeCure (BA ’88) was hired as a tenure-track assistant professor of theatre (performance) at California State University, Stanislaus. She is also dialect coaching In the Heights at Phoenix Theatre in Phoenix. Steve Taylor (BA ’80, MFA ’83) opened a live outdoor amphitheater in June that features original comedy musicals in the resort town of Lake Chelan, WA. The opening season features two broad comedy farces written by Taylor, twi-lite and The Miserable Phantom of the Op’ry.

Katrina Coulourides (BFA ’05) scenic and lighting designed for the Brimmer Street Company’s And Then They Fell. She is also a designer at Thinkwell Group.

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Class of 2000s Boni B. Alvarez (MFA ’07) is currently in Moving Arts’ MADlab. He recently had a workshop of his play Driven at Center Theatre Group with a reading at the Kirk Douglas Theatre. His play Fixed is a semifinalist for the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference. Brandon Bell (BFA ’07) will reprise his role as Troy for the Netflix series of Dear White People, a drama film that premiered at Sundance Film Festival in 2014.

Vivian Kerr (BA ’05) guest starred on Rizzoli & Isles and Superstore, and is a recurring sketch performer for Jimmy Kimmel Live! Mayank Keshaviah (MFA ’08) was recently commissioned by East West Players to write for their Theatre for Youth program.

Janine Salinas Schoenberg (MFA ’07) is a writer for American Crime. She recently participated in the Disney ABC Writing Program. Kaily Smith (BFA ’05) appeared on the AOL BUILD series to discuss the second season of her pilots festival, SeriesFest. Ashley Steed (BA ’09) recently performed in Love and Information at Son of Semele, which was nominated for six Stage Raw Awards, including Best Ensemble. She is a producer of the multimedia rock show called Parallel Worlds and Son of Semele’s Solo Creation Festival. Justine Wachsberger (BA ’06) was recently seen in Now You See Me 2. Joseph Valdez (BA ’05) performed in Colony Collapse at The Theatre @ Boston Court and Ramona at the Ramona Bowl. Class of 2010s Berfin Ataman (BFA ’13) is assistant costume designer for the 2016 film Max Steel. Brandon Baer (BA ’14) directed Life on Mars, executive produced by David Isaacs. He also directed Steven Dietz’s Private Eyes at the Morgan-Wixson Theatre in Santa Monica. Sydney Blair (BA ’10) joined Actors Equity this year and completed her first national tour. D.J. Blickenstaff (BFA ’13) wrote a web series that is currently in production and is a recurring role on the USA’s Colony. Claire Blackwelder (BA ’15) stars as Kendall Morgan, the Purple Dino Charge Ranger, in Power Rangers Dino Charge.

Phil Kong (BFA ’08) was lighting designer for Love and Information Giana Bommarito (BA ’10) at Main Street Theatre in starred as Daniela in In The Houston and The Rocky Horror Heights at PCPA Theaterfest Show on MS Europa 2. in Santa Maria and Solvang. Alexis Roblan (BA ’06, MFA ’09) recently had a staged reading of her play, And It Spins Twice, at The Blank Theatre as part of their Living Room Series.

Photo by Michael Palma.

Adam Blumenthal (BFA ’07) was lighting designer for In & Of Itself at the Geffen Playhouse.

Sabina Zuniga Varela (MFA ’11) performed as Gloria in California Shakespeare Theater’s production of You Never Can Tell at the Bruns Amphitheater.

Roland Buck III (BA ’14) was seen in a Toyota Camry national commercial starring Buffalo Bills quarterback Tyrod Taylor. Buck can also be seen in the second season premiere of Chicago Med and the 2016 film Sleight. Amber Coney (BFA ’14) stars as Carolina “Cricket” Diaz in Freeform’s new TV series Dead of Summer. She also wrote the teleplay and acted in James Franco’s remake of Mother, May I Sleep With Danger? for Lifetime. Taylor Dearden (BA ’15) stars as Ophelia in the upcoming MTV show Sweet/Vicious. Arielle Fishman (BA ’16) performed as the Princess in The Light Princess at South Coast Repertory’s Theatre for Young Audiences. Kimberli Flores (MFA ’15) performed as the bride in Blood Match at Sacred Fools.

Photo by Kevin Berne.

Marly Hall (BFA ’16) assisted in mounting “The Artistry of OUTLANDER” exhibit at The Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills. A.J. Helfet (BA ’14) was seen in HBO’s All the Way — starring Bryan Cranston, directed by Jay Roach and executive produced by Steven Spielberg.

Corey Johnson (MFA ’14) will be performing as the prime minister in a new play by Mike Bartlett, called King Charles III, at the Arizona Theatre Company. Jinwoo Jung (MFA ’16) performed in La Cage aux Folles at East West Players. Joseph Kennedy (BFA ’12) has been a series regular set costumer for The Mindy Project. Philip Labes (BA ’15) can be seen in the films Viral and Internet Famous. Molly McGraw (BFA ’10) was named one of American Theatre magazine’s “Six Theatre Workers You Should Know.” Dylan McTee (BA ’15) plays Nate in the new MTV show Sweet/Vicious. Jonathan Muñoz-Proulx (BA ’11) has been selected as a 2016 National Directors Fellowship Finalist and a Los Angeles Emerging Arts Leader Protégé. This year, he served on the California Arts Council grant review panel in addition to directing Lizzy at Ensemble Studio Theatre LA, directing Softer at the Hollywood Fringe Festival, and producing The End Times (LA Times Critics’ Pick) at Skylight Theatre Company with Playwrights’ Arena.

Chantal Nchako (MFA ’16) performed opposite James Franco, Camilla Belle and Summer Phoenix in the upcoming film The Mad Whale. She also performed in a workshop of the play BLKS by Aziza Barnes for the Ojai Playwrights’ Festival. Nahal Navidar (MFA ’14) saw her latest full-length play, Then Came the Fall, about the Middle Eastern identity in a post 9/11 world, developed and culminated in two public readings at Silk Road Rising in Chicago. Alice Pollitt (BFA ’15) was most recently the production stage manager for Lisa and Leonardo at the New York Musical Festival. Brandon Rachal (BA ’13) played Cassio in Inner City Shakespeare’s production of Othello. He also had roles in Romeo & Juliet and Twelfth Night with Downtown Rep. He is currently a company member with Story Pirates, performing at schools in New York and Los Angeles. Patrick Reilly (BFA ’15) played the lead role of Tunny in the La Mirada Theatre production of American Idiot. Taylor Ruge (BFA ’12) is a project coordinator at Thinkwell Group.

Pia Shah (MFA ’13) stars in and co-wrote Grass, a best feature film nominee at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival and San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival. Meagan Smith (BFA ’16) assisted in mounting “The Artistry of OUTLANDER” exhibit at The Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills. Dee Dee Stephens (MFA ’14) was recently in the west coast premiere of Red Velvet at the Atwater Playhouse. Melissa Trupp (BFA ’10) is production stage manager for The Walt Disney Company’s cruise lines. Megan Guthrie-Wedemeyer (BFA ’16) has joined the costume team for the Starz hit drama Outlander. She also helped mount “The Artistry of OUTLANDER” exhibit at The Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills. Charlotte Mary Wen (BA ’13) was in the ensemble with student Bella Hicks in American Idiot at the La Mirada Theatre. Colin Woodell (BFA ’14) costars in the Netflix original film XOXO.

Are you an alum of the School? Tell us what you’ve been up to and we’ll feature it in Callboard ! Email Stacey Wang Rizzo at staceykw@usc.edu.

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Donor Marquee

VISIONARY CIRCLE

Dr. & Mrs. Peter Bing and the Anna H. Bing Living Trust George N. Burns Trust Katherine B. Loker Robert & Elizabeth Plumleigh in memory of Karen Plumleigh Cortney* Alice, Teresa & Byron Pollitt DEAN’S CIRCLE

Steve & Abbey Braverman* Michael P. Huseby Family* Brian & Dianne Morton* PATRONS OF TRI B U TE

Albert & Bessie Warner Fund Barnett Charitable Foundation* Richard & Lori Berke* Michael & Debbie Felix* Seth & Vicki Kogan* Joshua & Siobhan Korman Philanthropic Fund* Mike & Stacy Lederer* Steve & Jerri Nagelberg* Sally & Howard Oxley in honor of Madeline Puzo* Linda Bernstein Rubin & Tony Rubin* James & Leslie Visnic* SEASON SPONSORS

Elizabeth & Thomas Dammeyer Lionel F. Conacher & Joan T. Dea* Scott & Deborah DeVries* Michael & Melissa Meyers* Lauren & David Rush* Suzanne Bruce, MD & Malcolm Waddell* Craig & Jennifer Zobelein EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS

The California Wellness Foundation The H.N. and Frances C. Berger Foundation Sorin Eremia The Kalkhurst Family* Alexander & Megan LoCasale* Ernest & Raphael Morgan* Mary Reveles Pallares*

*Represents multi-year pledge

USC CALLBOARD

The USC School of Dramatic Arts would like to recognize the generosity of the following individuals and organizations who have supported the School with a gift over the past fiscal year towards core programs such as production, guest artists, scholarship and the Dean’s Strategic Fund. We recognize at the visionary level those donors whose tremendous generosity has reached the cumulative giving level of $1 million+. Their extraordinary commitment has built the foundation for our continued prominence and future achievements.

PRODUCERS

Collie & Charlie Hutter Catherine Lockwood- Wimberg Kate Mason Mark McNabb Pamela M. Monroe David & Pamela Patch in honor of Kimberly A. Patch Courtney & Jackie Silberberg Daniel Snook Michael C. Solomon Cynthia L. Ziegler Patrick Wills & Wendy G. Wilson-Wills

Alexis C. de Forest Lisa D. De La Torre Casey Ryan Dolkas Professor Carol Anne Muske- Dukes Megan Dunphy Douglas S. Dupuy Don & Valerie Elson Linda E. Ewing Christopher Fager & Corie Brown Eugene J. Farkas Stephanie A. Farugia Dr. Myla R. Lichtman-Fields in memory of DIRECTORS FRIENDS Dr. Herbert M. Stahl John & Leslie Burns Cole T. Finney Abrams Artists Agency Jerome & Jacqueline Day Samuel N. Fischer Peter J. Abrams Gregory & Marci Foster Sarah Fisher John J. Adams George & Dyan Getz Wilson Fitzgerald Alexander Eddy Insurance Pat & Cindy Haden from Lindsay E. Flans and Financial Services The Rose Hills Foundation Madgel Friedman Mona S. Al-Haddad Donna Isaacson Josephine E. Ganner & Marc Sellier Christine Marie Ofiesh BENEFACTORS Gerard & Dawn Garcia Robin D. Anacker Steven & Sylvia Ré Greg & Jean Garringer Kamau & Vida Anderson Philip & Frances Ciulla Aileen & James Reilly George Gero Brenda Kadrie Anderson Robert R. Scales in memory of in memory of Johnny & Marie Gillespie & Brian Anderson Don & Lillian Mills Suzanne Grossmann Scales Jason Ginsburg Anonymous Todd & Victoria Johnson Rik Toulon Kristin H. Goode Aris in honor of Sydney Johnson Richard & Diane Weinberg Andrew J. Goodman Kenneth Atchity Michael A. Kane & Carolyn M. Ramsay Dee J. Atkinson PATRONS & Cindy Perez Kane Lawrence P. Goodman Barbara E. Babchick Leo & Karen Kelly in honor Anonymous Lorrie S. Grubaugh Robert & Mary Baker of Elizabeth Mei Kelly Barbara Cotler & John Barber Philip & Susan Banta Edward & Edit Komberg Steve & Cindy Fitz Christian & Elisabeth Barcellos Richard & Susan Gurman Thomas P.M. Martin Laurie & William Garrett Danielle R. Hamrick Steve & Laurie Bedo in memory of Tom & Noelle Hicks Roxanne Hart Louis & Janice Belinfante Kristin Marie Mork Melvin & Doris Hughes Raymond & Helen Hartung Cece Bell Walter Mulbry James & Margaret Kelly Alex S. Harwin Christine Beltran & Laurie McGilvray Eddie & Julia Pinchasi Jackie B. Haslam Linda Rock Berns Jerry Henderson Neill Steve & Emily Reynolds Briga D. Heelan D.J. Blickenstaff Edward Redlich Meredith Rowley Kyle T. Heffner Steven A. Bonds & Sarah Timberman Carole Shammas Arthur J. Helfet Dr. Julie R. Brannan Andy & Irene Robinson & Darryl Holter Marc & Randi Hertzberg Erica K. Brauer Allison Thomas Anne Tally Charles Hess Brian Swibel & Tara M. Smith Jerry M. Brosnan J.W. Woodruff and Ethel I. & Gisela M. Brodin-Brosnan Mark & Glenda Hilliard Peter & Nancy Tuz Woodruff Foundation Frederick & Helen Hiser Sandra Buescher Miriam R. Hoffman CHAMPIONS Jeffrey & Suzanne Buhai A NGEL S John & Joanna Humphrey Jonathan & Adrienne Anderle Mohammed & Elizabeth Anis Andrew R. Caddes Keith & Joyce Imai Hunter C. Cain in honor of Anonymous Dana Drew Irwin Michael Cantor Serena Ayesha Anis Theodore V. Arevalo Chuck Jones Lisa C. Carley Cristian & Andreea Arvinte The Emanuel Bachmann Ellen M. Jowitt Peter E. Chang Stephen & Jennifer Bendheim Foundation Casey Kalmenson Amanda V. Charney Gadi & Suzanne Joan Beber Gretchen Kanne Roxana Alberti-Chappell Ben-Menachem Yvonne M. Bogdanovich Mitchell T. Kaplan Yun Ho & Sarah Choi Joan Challman Sara Bancroft-Clair Bob & Iwona Kasprowicz Christopher & Tammy Collins Marsha Gilman & Pierson Clair Roeban Katz John Cramer Caroline Williams Goddard The Casa Luca Dylan C. Kenin Samantha M. Davidson Terry & Debbie Hammer Foundation, Inc. Soo Nyun Kim Trevor M. Davis Charles W. Haynes Anonymous Randolph & Ellen Beatty Roger & Michele Dedeaux Engemann Brad & Ally Fuller Kathryn & John Gilbertson Mark J. & Elizabeth L. Kogan Philanthropic Fund Gary & Karen Lask Marshall Sonenshine & Therese Rosenblatt Marc & Meryl Winnikoff

Cleared by Ashley, Inc. Dr. J. Perren Cobb & Mrs. Cynthia Cobb Freddie & Andrea Fenster Jeff & Marie Fishman David & Debra Jensen Marguerite E. Maclntyre Holly & Andrew McCloskey Brian & Linnell McRee Douglas & Elissa Mellinger Cathy Moretti Scott S. Mullet & Jenelle Anne Marsh-Mullet Tim & Vicki Rutter John & Cyndy Scotti Rick & Jeanne Silverman Abe & Annika Somer Jeff & Cathie Thermond Ruth Tuomala & Ernest Cravalho Gloria A. Vogt-Nilsen Carol & Grover Wilson

William Kohne Rabbi Susan E. Laemmle & John Antignas Tyler Lain James R. Lane & Jill Reusch Lane Sheri W. Langer Jonathan R. Langley Josh Larsen David Leaf in memory of David Anderle Patrick & Elisabeth Ledwell Mary Lewis Lucille Liberatore Mitchell & Karen Light Kimberly M. Linares Madeline G. Lindsay Violet A. Lorenzen Stephen M. Lowe & Marilyn Levin Roger A. Lowenstein Karan Lyons Malek Malekzadah & Tayeba Salhi Michael Mantell Babette S. Markus-Weir Sherry Goldsher Marsh & Jeffrey Marsh Lauren S. Martin Marzipan Entertainment, Inc. Nicholas J. Masi, Jr. John V. McCarthy Mykle M. McCoslin Susan J. McDonald & Stephen O’Beirne Lucan S. Melkonian Randle Mell & Mary McDonnell Michael & Antonia Melon Kevin & Laura Merritt Michael & Gwen Miguel Kelly Roebuck Mishell Orlando Montes James & Kathleen Muske Cristina Gutierrez Neel & Beala B. Neel Michelle A. Odigie Stephen J. Oreste Beau Ossorio Jessica L. Perlman Erica Perth Steven Peterman & Susan Duffy Peterman Jeffrey M. Pierce

Mike & Kristin Poe Joshua W. Poole Kathleen N. Porter Dreem Qin Alan Rachins Joni Ravenna Philip & Christina Ronstadt Mark D. Rossen & Mary Gwynn David & Melissa Rothblum Torey A. Rubin Thea M. Rubley James Patrick Ryan Kris A. Sandheinrich Talia Saraceno Grace J. Sarsody Irwin & Sandra Sitkoff Douglas & Carolynn Sizer Patrick & Debbie Skelton Michael J. Skloff Jeffrey & Catharine Soros Emmanuel J. Spero & Hyeon-Sook Spero Elliott Stahler Norman Stephens & Tracy Fairhurst Victoria C. Stolper Brent H. Sudduth Kurt Sutton Charles Swick & Linda M. Reilly-Swick Elizabeth Szabo Natsuki Takano Donald & Diane Thompson John & Evelyn Tipre in memory of James Durbin Jr. Anne Fomon Ulloa & Joseph J. Ulloa Eleanor E. Vade Bon Coeur James J. Wen & Laurie Hom Wen David M. West Adam & Kaily Westbrook Kevin M. Wibberley Ross M. Wyngaarden Beth T. Zeitman David W. Zucker Stephen Zuckerman

BOARD OF COUNCILORS

Michele Dedeaux Engemann, Founding Chair Michael Felix, Chair Patrick J. Adams Lisa Barkett Todd Black Steve Braverman David Bridel Denise Chamian Greg Foster Brad Fuller Robert Greenblatt Donna Isaacson Gary Lask Alexander LoCasale Michael Meyers Linda Bernstein Rubin James D. Stern Rik Toulon PARENT AMBASSADORS

Steve & Abbey Braverman Suzanne Bruce, MD & Malcolm Waddell Elizabeth & Thomas Dammeyer Scott & Deborah DeVries Mike & Stacy Lederer Ernest & Raphael Morgan

Have you remembered the USC School of Dramatic Arts in your estate plan? Through thoughtful and early planning, we can help you build your legacy @ SDA. Estate and other deferred gifts provide critical support to the USC School of Dramatic Arts, and endow a lasting legacy to the School, our students and the larger arts community. The university’s gift planning office can guide you on gifts made through wills and living trusts, retirement plans and more. Your generosity — today and tomorrow — will empower SDA to be the standard bearer in dramatic arts training.

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For more information about giving to the School of Dramatic Arts, please contact Sara Fousekis at 213-821-4047 or fousekis@usc.edu.

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2016/17 Season of Plays A Lie of the Mind

By Sam Shepard Directed by Alan Freeman Scene Dock Theatre Sept 29 — Oct 2, 2016

Mockingbird

By Julie Jensen Directed by Andi Chapman McClintock Theatre Sept 29 — Oct 2, 2016

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

By William Shakespeare Directed by Jeanette Harrison Bing Theatre Oct 6-9, 2016

Escape from Happiness

By George F. Walker Directed by Christopher Shaw Scene Dock Theatre Oct 20-23, 2016

Side Show

Book and Lyrics by Bill Russell Music and Lyrics by Henry Krieger Directed by VP Boyle McClintock Theatre Oct 27-30, 2016

Romeo and Juliet

By William Shakespeare Directed by Kelly Ward Bing Theatre Nov 3-6, 2016

USC CALLBOARD

A Little Night Music. Photo by Craig Schwartz.

Magnolia

By Regina Taylor Directed by Khanisha Foster McClintock Theatre Nov 17-20, 2016

Middletown

By Will Eno Directed by Andrei Belgrader Scene Dock Theatre Nov 17-20, 2016

MFA Acting Repertory Scene Dock Theatre Feb 3-Mar 5, 2017

Uncle Vanya

By Anton Chekhov Translated by Sharon Marie Carnicke

Angels in America, Part One: Millennium Approaches

By Tony Kushner Directed by John Rubinstein

Antigone X

By Paula Cizmar Based on the play by Sophocles Directed by Anita Dashiell-Sparks

The Rivals

By Richard Brinsley Sheridan Directed by Andy Robinson Bing Theatre Feb 23-26, 2017

The Kentucky Cycle

By Robert Schenkkan Directed by Stephanie Shroyer McClintock Theatre Mar 2-7, 2017

Facing Our Truth: Ten Minute Plays on Trayvon, Race and Privilege By A. Rey Pamatmat, Dan O’Brien, Dominique Morisseau, Mona Mansour, Winter Miller, Marcus Gardley, Tala Manassah, Quetzal Flores Directed by Shirley Jo Finney Scene Dock Theatre Mar 30-Apr 2, 2017

Evita

Lyrics by Tim Rice Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber Directed by Tim Dang Bing Theatre Mar 30- Apr 9, 2017

Mr. Burns, a post-electric play

By Anne Washburn Score by Michael Friedman Lyrics by Anne Washburn Directed by John DeMita Scene Dock Theatre Apr 20-23, 2017

Spring Awakening

By Frank Wedekind Translated by Edward Bond Directed by Laura Flanagan McClintock Theatre Apr 20-23, 2017

New Works Festivals YEAR 1

New Play Readings

Parkside International Residential College, Room 1016 May 1, 2017 YEAR 2

Playwrights Workshop Massman Theatre Apr 7–23, 2017 YEAR 3

Play Project

Carrie Hamilton Theatre at The Pasadena Playhouse May 19-20, 2017