USC Callboard 2021-22

75 UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

SCHOOL OF DRAMATIC ARTS |

Celebrating Over 75 Years of Theatrical Excellence

2021/22

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

dean Emily Roxworthy vice dean Lori Ray Fisher associate dean of communications Delphine Vasko editor in chief Stacey Wang Rizzo graphic design Christopher Komuro writers Allison Engel Phillip Jordan Celine Kiner Stacey Wang Rizzo Delphine Vasko

It is truly an honor to welcome you to this issue of Callboard — my first as the new dean of the School of Dramatic Arts.

Since I began work here on July 1, I’ve been struck by the fierce pride and loyalty SDA alumni, students, parents and friends have for this School. The more stories I hear and people I meet, the more I understand why this School remains a touchstone for the thousands who have studied, taught or worked here.

The last few months have been a celebration at the School.

Not only have we been celebrating our return to the classrooms, rehearsal rooms, design labs and theatres, but we are also celebrating an incredible milestone for the School — 75 years of the dramatic arts at USC. And we are also celebrating the momentous announcement of a nearly 40,000-square-foot new home for the School in the center of the University’s rich arts corridor.

I hope you will join us in this celebration not only through these pages, but at one of our productions, or a virtual or in-person event.

Thank you for your continued support of the School and our dynamic students. It means everything.

photographers Capture Imaging Craig Schwartz Photography ©2021 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 the SDA Communications Office at sdacomm@usc.edu or mail to: USC School of Dramatic Arts Attn: Communications Office 1029 Childs Way Los Angeles, CA 90089

Emily Roxworthy DEAN

We want to share your SDA memories!

To help celebrate our 75th anniversary, the School of Dramatic Arts is collecting memories from our community to share during our yearlong celebration. Submit your stories from your time at SDA through words, images or videos at dramaticarts.usc.edu/75stories. #SDA75 PICTURED: Donald Webber Jr., left, and Emily Goglia in a 2008 USC School of Dramatic Arts mainstage production of Carousel.

@USCSDA @USCSchoolOfDramaticArts

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THEN AND NOW

T H EN When the USC Department of Drama was established in 1945, Professor and Department Chair William C. DeMille taught classes and rehearsed plays in Old College, the second building ever erected at the University.

His office was a large room in the basement of that building; and Touchstone Theatre served primarily as a teaching space upstairs, while larger productions were performed in Bovard Auditorium. In 1948, Old College was set to be demolished and the moment the drama department (and DeMille — pictured, left) moved out was captured in this black and white image from that year.

NOW Recreating that moment, current School of Dramatic Arts Dean Emily Roxworthy (pictured, left) stands with students Corey Gifft and Mikaela Villalpando in October 2021 on the steps of the School’s new home, which will soon break ground. The 40,000-square-foot space, which once housed the United University Church, is set to open after renovations in December 2023. This redesigned and renovated building will be a central location for SDA students, faculty and staff to come together to cultivate the next generation of diverse storytellers and share the power of creativity with the entire community. — READ THE STORY ON PAGE 18.

INSIDE

75+ Years in the Making 4

Celebrating an epic journey of excellence at USC and a look into the School’s future in dramatic arts education.

Plus, a historic timeline of the School on Page 5 & a look back at Edinburgh Fringe Festival on Page 8.

Getting to Know the Dean 9

Dean Emily Roxworthy shares about her vision, why she chose the School and plans for the near future.

12 Extraordinary

Lead the Way

Artists

Five alumni were honored this fall for their commitment to, experience in and impact on the dramatic arts.

• Forest Whitaker ’82 on Page 13 • Michele Dedeaux Engemann BA ’68 on Page 14 • Donald Webber Jr. BFA ’08 on Page 15 • Greg Holford BA ’80, MFA ’82 on Page 16 • Grant Heslov BFA ’86 on Page 17

18 A

New Homebase

A historic building will be revived and redesigned to become a vibrant home for the School.

20 The

Power of Storytelling

Jameelah Nuriddin BFA ’06 is creating change through her work as an award-winning storyteller.

A photo recap of the School’s 75th anniversary celebration, a theatrical journey through SDA’s past, present and future.

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ALUMNI MARQUEE

22 The

Odyssey Celebration

SUPPORTERS OF DR AMATIC ARTS

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A look at the School of Dramatic Arts’ last 75 years of dramatic arts education and where it’s headed into the future of theatrical excellence.

B Y S TAC E Y WA N G R I Z Z O

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H EN T H E S C H O O L O F

Dramatic Arts embarked on a journey as an official unit at the University of Southern California in 1945, it started out humbly with four faculty members, two productions in a school year, and 15 classes housed mostly in the Old College building.

What kindled all those years ago has grown tenfold: The School now has more than 125 faculty and staff members, at least 20 productions in a given season (plus dozens of student-initiated and -produced shows), and approximately 135 classes that have multiple course offerings per semester in buildings spread to the corners of campus.

To say the least, it’s been an epic adventure, 75 years in the making.

Powerhouse of Talent “The School of Dramatic Arts has established a reputation for providing our students with a rigorous grounding in the craft of theatre that is taught by working artists on a campus situated in the entertainment capital of the world,” SDA Dean Emily Roxworthy says.

The School now serves a student population of more than 600, recruiting hundreds of toptier artists for its programs that are consistently ranked as some of the best in the world.

The impact of its dramatic arts education speaks for itself. The School’s legacy spans the globe through its remarkable alumni and faculty, whose accomplishments have shaped and effected change in the industry. To name a few: Its history comprises of notable performers.

Philip Ahn — one of the most recognized Asian American actors of old Hollywood. Comedy trailblazer John Ritter. LeVar Burton — a champion for childhood literacy for 20 years through his series Reading Rainbow. Award-winning artist and activist Forest Whitaker. Alma Martinez, with her prolific career and research focused on Chicanx and Latin American popular-political theatre. [ C ON T IN U E D ]

A GLIMPSE OF SDA HISTORY 1880 USC Founding Instruction in the speech arts begins.

1895 First Program School of Elocution offers a two-year curriculum in voice culture and dramatic interpretation.

1920 Major Degree The first four-act play ever produced, Booth

Photo Archive/USC Libraries

Tarkington’s Mister Antonio, celebrates the granting of an oratory degree.

1945 Drama Department Drama is officially a department, with William C. DeMille as chair until 1953. His office is in the basement of Old College, where he teaches and rehearses.

1945 Touchstone Theatre Touchstone Theatre in Old College is primarily a teaching space. The Scene Dock, where sets are built and painted, is located in a former barn across Figueroa Street.

1946 Institute of the Arts The Institute of the Arts is established, until 1967, to include Cinema,

Drama, Fine Arts, Radio, Speech and the College of Music.

1948 Stop Gap Theatre Old College is torn down, including Touchstone Theatre, and the Stop Gap Theatre becomes the new home for the drama department. The Scene Dock relocates to 35th Street, near Hoover.

1950 First PhD The first PhD degree with an emphasis in the field of drama is granted with the formation of the Division of Communications.

1964 Scene Dock Relocations The Scene Dock is relocated to a warehouse on 37th

Street, near Vermont.

In 1976, the Costume Shop is located on the second floor.

1966 School of Performing Arts The School of Performing Arts is created to include the School of Music, and the divisions of Cinema and Drama.

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Also, a longtime Trojan presence behind the scenes of the stage and screen. Tim Dang, who served for 23 years as the artistic director of the nation’s longest running professional theatre of color, East West Players. The late scholar, playwright and civil rights activist Endesha Ida Mae Holland on faculty.

Grant Heslov and Todd Black, producers of awardwinning major motion pictures that include films taking a critical look at issues facing our country.

To list all of the magnates of SDA and their accomplishments would take up an entire magazine of its own, as the number of impactful writers, performers, producers, agents, managers, designers and beyond goes on and on.

Qualities of an SDA Trojan For alumnus Howard Schmitt MFA ’82, who has been an SDA staff member for 40 years and runs the School’s Costume Shop, the University’s location and the solid network within the Trojan Family have been a common thread for this wealth of talent. “… becoming a part of the USC identity was how quickly I met, and worked with, USC alums. Within a month of enrolling, I met a couple of grads from the MFA design program, who were working on a TV pilot. The first two summers after coming to USC, I participated in John Blankenchip’s Theatre Festival USA/USC — where I met and worked with alums from the ’70s, ’60s and ’50s. Some of these alums I was still working with more than 25 years later,” he says.

During his first day on campus, Schmitt recalls Duncan Ross, who succeeded John Houseman as the drama division chairman, speaking on “the importance of international culture in Los Angeles as a part of theatre education.” The alumnus adds: “I still remember him commenting on the significance of all the languages that were spoken in Los Angeles — that idea of looking outside of your own world and observing others.”

1966 Park View The Division of Drama moves to larger headquarters at Park View.

students, alumni, and faculty travel to perform at the celebrated Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

1976 Bing Theatre The Bing Theatre is built, thanks to the generosity of USC Trustee Anna Bing Arnold.

1966 Edinburgh Fringe Festival The Festival Theatre USC-USA theatre company is created.

For 23 seasons between 1966 and 2005, USC

1970 BFA and MFA programs The Division of Drama establishes BFA and MFA professional degree programs.

1976 Greenroom Theatre A former sculpture studio (previously a stable, then storage for the Trojan Marching Band) reaches its final incarnation as the Greenroom Theatre.

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Perhaps also at the core of this success is the special qualities of the School’s community, an interconnected and collaborative group that have been collectively active, involved and dedicated to SDA. (More than a third of the faculty and staff have served at the School for more than a decade, about a dozen of whom have served more than two.)

“For me, the most enjoyable part about being a faculty member at USC has been experiencing students’ journeys through higher education. I take pleasure in watching them learn, grow and create; and in being able to refer them to artists who can help them enhance their careers,” USC Distinguished Professor Velina Hasu Houston says.

Houston — who has been on faculty for 30-plus years, and whose roles have included associate dean of faculty, director of MFA Dramatic Writing, head of undergraduate playwriting and resident playwright at SDA — has seen the School’s “ever-evolving” journey since it became an independent school in 1990. “… [the alumni] leave their educations stimulated and inspired to illuminate their art. That determination and commitment motivates them to express themselves creatively and with enthusiasm,” she adds.

Programs in Spotlight Along with its community, the School’s programs over the years have had pioneering moments as well. In 1966, USC became the first American university to perform in the international Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the largest arts festival in the world.

Several of the School’s current programs are also paving the way in dramatic arts education. The medical clowning program, which integrates the art of clowning into healthcare and community settings, partners with top hospitals in Southern California. The Master of Fine Arts in Acting and in Dramatic Writing admit some of the most diverse talents in any graduate acting or playwriting

1984 The School of Cinema-Television The School of Performing Arts is disbanded and separate schools are established for Music and Cinema-Television.

The Division of Drama is housed in CinemaTelevision until 1990.

1984 Drama Center An on-campus building, formerly a communications center for the Olympics, becomes the Drama Center.

1990 School of Theatre Based on its excellence and the strength of its programs, the Division of Drama becomes the

independent School of Theatre on July 1.

1990 Stop Gap Theatre demolished Stop Gap Theatre is torn down for not meeting earthquake codes.

1991 Massman Theatre The Drama Center auditorium is converted into Massman Theatre.

program in the nation. Meanwhile, the musical theatre program draws on the expertise of a trio of USC’s leading arts schools for an experience made possible by the wisdom of three distinct, specialized faculties of dramatic arts, music and dance.

Today, an important component to bolstering the future of the School has been its focus on equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI). One of the School’s key priorities in this area includes accessibility for current and prospective students through means such as scholarships and formulating a more inclusive recruiting process.

“As social issues persist today, it is powerful for me to see that USC is prioritizing social change as a key element of its mission,” Whitaker ’82 says. “This can be seen through the [Whitaker Peace & Development Initiative]’s recent partnership with [SDA]’s Institute for Theatre & Social Change in which we’ve just begun to develop plays at our partner middle schools that focus on social justice themes. As individuals, we all have a responsibility to impact our world and stand up for the things we believe.”

This year, the School launched its Office of EDI, dedicated to programming that promotes dialogue, awareness and allyship, and to strengthening its efforts to create an inclusive environment for its students, alumni, faculty and staff. With the purpose of enhancing the social, academic and creative development of the entire SDA community, the EDI office hosts

workshops, trainings, events and a physical space to foster a safe community to uplift and nurture the diverse creativity of historically marginalized voices.

“I am proud of the fact that SDA enables its students to pursue both artistic excellence and the potential for our art form to contribute to necessary social change.

As dean, I am very proud that we offer our students both rigor and impact, and I will look to expand and deepen this dual focus,” Dean Roxworthy says.

Dramatic Arts’ Leading Role Anticipating and adapting to the needs of the artists and community at large have been driving forces in the development and transformation of dramatic arts at the University.

When USC opened its doors in 1880, the arts had an undeniable place on campus. In the University’s early history, courses like dramatic reading and oratory were a part of the core liberal arts curriculum. Student life encompassed opportunities such as junior and senior class plays and a Shakespeare Dramatic Club.

The demand of dramatic arts studies eventually led to the creation of the Department of Drama, founded in 1945 by playwright, author, producer and director William C. DeMille — also co-host of the first Academy Awards and older brother of American cinema founding father Cecil B. DeMille. [ C ONT IN U E D ]

1993 Costume Shop moves The Costume Shop and classes previously taught in the University Church basement and sanctuary, and in Taper Hall, are moved into the Physical Education Building.

1997 Scene Dock Theatre The Greenroom Theatre is destroyed by fire in 1996. The Scene Shop is converted into the 99-seat Scene Dock Theatre to replace the Greenroom Theatre. The Scene Shop moves to 32nd Street, opposite the Robert Zemeckis Center.

2008 Technical Theatre Laboratory The Technical Theatre Laboratory, an 8,000-square-foot space housing the scene shop and storage, opens.

2008 McClintock Building The McClintock building is completed, providing

new classroom space, offices, a voice-over recording studio and a black box theatre.

2012 School of Dramatic Arts The School of Theatre is renamed the School of Dramatic Arts to better represent the training students receive.

2017 Career Center The first-ever Career Center launches, providing graduating students opportunities, resources and management-style services.

2021 Office of EDI The first Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion is established.

2021 New Building A new building is announced with the remodel of the historic building that previously housed the United University Church.

Watch video highlights of the School's last 75 years at dramaticarts.usc. edu/callboard21

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The formation of the drama department was indicative of the growing importance dramatic arts had on the University population and the vital role it had on its community. Many of the first drama students were returning World War II veterans arriving to USC on the GI Bill; and, early on, the School put the reigns of artistic expression and examination of humanity in the hands of its students through its experimental theatre workshops.

The latter courses have been offered current day, providing students opportunities to be responsible for all aspects of a production, from play selection to performance.

Finding a Home Since the University’s inception, the School has taken on many forms — from classes around USC to the Department of Drama, Division of Drama under the School of Performing Arts, School of Theatre and the current School of Dramatic Arts. And throughout these iterations, the School’s teaching, work and performance spaces have been scattered across campus. Several historical documents cite the challenges SDA faced without a central location.

With the exception of the Bing Theatre — the first and only building constructed for SDA, thanks to USC Trustee Anna Bing Arnold, back in the 1970s — the School adopted other various spaces over the decades, some of which were as obscure as an old post office on Vermont Avenue, grocery store and barn. Two theatres that no longer exist today, Stop Gap and Greenroom theatres, were located in a defunct relay station and stable, respectively.

Nevertheless, the lack of a dedicated building is near its end.

Suitably, during its diamond celebration of the past, present and future, the School announced its upcoming move into a new home on campus: a redesign and renovation of a historic building, which once housed the United University Church, for the 21st century. Centered along USC’s arts corridor, the venue will allow for the facilities to meet its students and faculty at the level of their craft and embody the collaboration within a central space.

This moment signals how far the School has come since its modest beginnings. It is now ready to embark on its next chapter: an exciting journey that comprises of a new home base about to break ground, an ever-invested community of artists and supporters, and robust training programs that prepare students to take on and lead a transforming industry.

“As we look to our next 75 years, Los Angeles and Hollywood have become part of a constellation of entertainment capitals around the world and so the diverse, globalized education that SDA offers its students today is more relevant than ever before,” Dean Roxworthy says. “At the same time, what it means to be a ‘working artist’ in today’s entertainment industry, particularly for dramatic artists, involves a broader array of mediums and platforms than ever before, which is why we train students for the stage, screen and digital media.”  8

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Representing USC at the Largest Arts Festival in the World

BY CELINE KINER

JOHN BLANKENCHIP was a professor at the USC School of Dramatic Arts for more than 50 years — teaching theatre workshops, known as Experimentals, directing and design. He was beloved among the School’s community for his “let’s make it happen” outlook and penchant for mentorship. A 1979 article in the Daily Trojan notes that “the consensus among the students is that he spurs action and deflates swollen egos with amazing dexterity.”

Blankenchip is often remembered for his leadership of the Festival Theatre USC-USA overseas program.

Through his direction, USC became the first American university invited to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1966. The company mounted works for 23 seasons at the Fringe through 2005, and performed in London, Amsterdam, Paris and Germany — in addition to Edinburgh.

SDA alumni cite their love of the festival experience for its fast-paced intensity; in 2001, the company performed 90 shows of 13 different productions over 23 days. Students and alumni would switch roles from show to show, from acting to operating tech to directing and beyond.

A USC News article shares that “Howard Yates, a 1995 graduate who first came to the Fringe in 1996, remembers performing that year while he had chickenpox.” The show went on, no matter what: some were performed to sold-out audiences, and some to a single person in the house. Blankenchip is quoted in the article, saying “That time we had one person in the audience, the kids wanted to know if we were going to do the show. Of course, we do the show. He bought a ticket didn’t he?” 

Watch a video about John Blankenchip at dramaticarts.usc.edu/ callboard21

Meet Dean Emily Roxworthy

BY ALLISON ENGEL

EMILY ROXWORTHY , whose appointment at SDA

began July 1, is a scholar-artist with degrees in theatre arts, literature, and performance studies from Cornell University (MA) and Northwestern University (BS and PhD). She was most recently on the theatre and dance faculty of the University of California, San Diego, where she also served as Associate Vice Chancellor of Faculty Diversity and Equity, Provost of Earl Warren College, and Associate Dean of the Graduate Division.

She also is the creator of an educational video game prototype, Drama in the Delta, that used digital roleplay technology to recreate life in a Japanese American internment camp during World War II. Dean Roxworthy is also the author of two scholarly books, The Spectacle of Japanese American Trauma (2008) and The Theatrical Professoriate (2020).

Q: What makes the dramatic arts necessary in the 21st century?

Dean Roxworthy: What’s so unique about theatre is that it’s this ancient storytelling technology that just never really goes away. For centuries, we’ve been talking about the death of the theatre. It never goes away because it’s so necessary and necessary now more than ever. We always talk about the theatre as a place of healing: a spiritual, but not religious, coming together. One of the origins of theatre is, of course, ancient Greece, but one of the differences between theatre then and theatre now is that, in ancient Greece, a third of the citizens came out to each of these huge performances and today we are not touching anywhere close to that proportion of the population. We’ve learned a lot of lessons from the pandemic about ways we can provide better access and reach. [ CO N T IN U E D ]

PHOTO BY

Ryan Miller/Capture Imaging

Dean Roxworthy has a national reputation as founder and artistic director of Workplace Interactive Theatre, a company that uses roleplaying to help employees find solutions to diversity and inclusion problems in their workplaces.

Callboard interviewed Dean Roxworthy recently for the following Q and A:

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“We’re zeroing in on articulating an identity for the School that is about how students are empowered through pluralistic training to go out and change the industry, which starts and ends with a rigorous grounding in the craft of theatre” Dean Emily Roxworthy addresses the audience at her installation on Oct. 6.

The reason theatre is so healing, and I’ve experienced this in my own work with my theatre company, is that it’s really a place where we can wrestle with what it means to be human on a human scale. Having a human up in front of us telling a story, putting themselves on the line, and translating really complex, complicated issues and conflicts down to a human scale helps us get to a place where people can not only empathize but start to problem solve and figure out ways to intervene.

I think that this experience of confronting complicated issues and conflicts through theatrical storytelling should be something very central on the USC campus — theatre should be an experience shared across campus not only because it makes us culturally literate, but it also helps us move forward as a society and as a community. SDA is so excited to be renovating the historic building at Hoover and 34th Street as our new drama center and, when it opens in 2023, it’s going to be so central on campus. I want it to be a place where the whole Trojan community comes together.

What is it about teaching that appeals to you?

Do you have examples of working with students that have stuck with you through the years?

What appeals to me about teaching in general is the idea of empowering students to be active participants in the world — active producers and consumers of culture as well as critics of culture. I don’t usually teach acting classes, but I teach classes to actors so they can think of themselves as creative in all sorts of different ways.

With that said, my favorite thing to do is involve non-theatre people in the making of theatre. I’ve seen what that does, not just to the self-esteem of young people, but also to involve scientists and other really cerebral people in making theatre in an interactive way, 10

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USC Photo/Steve Cohn

which is what my theatre company is all about. Everybody has some story of when theatre has touched them, and to be able to be actively involved is really magical.

It has so much potential for social change as well.

During summer, a course I would often teach is public speaking, which is a required course for undergraduates who plan to go to graduate school for pharmacy. These are usually science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) students who had never gotten up in front of a group of people to speak or perform. Some of them are intimidated by simply standing up and introducing themselves. To go from that to being able to give a powerful seven-minute persuasive speech was just so incredible to watch.

For STEM students, often you’re teaching the only arts class they will ever take. At UCSD, I also taught large film classes — including one on animation, which was really fun because we got to connect students of every major to this fundamental part of their childhood.

When I taught Toy Story, I taught them about all the craft behind making that film, and suddenly they’re revisiting their childhood at this moment that they’re becoming adults at college. And I always, in all of my classes, require some kind of performance or “maker” assignment. In this course, the requirement was to make a stop-motion animated short film. And students said “I’ve never done anything like this before. How on earth am I going to do this?” That’s really, really fun to see them do something they never thought they could do and showcase it in front of their peers. It’s really wonderful.

What is it that made you most excited to join the community of artists at the School of Dramatic Arts?

What I think is really unique about SDA is how pluralistic our approach to theatre training is. It ticked a whole

lot of boxes for me. Obviously, I’m very involved with theatre for social change, and to actually have an Institute for Theatre & Social Change while simultaneously offering a degree in musical theatre — that was a huge draw for me. Despite the fact that I’m not a musical theatre artist, I’m hugely passionate about musical theatre, especially socially engaged musical theatre.

Do you have a favorite?

I have several [socially engaged musicals that] I’ve been obsessed with over the past 10 years. The two top ones are Allegiance, the first Broadway play ever about the Japanese American internment experience from World War II. It was a star vehicle for George Takei, the Star Trek icon and social media star. As a small child, he was interned at a camp in Arkansas.

Allegiance is a musical about the Heart Mountain concentration camp, which was in Wyoming. It premiered at the Old Globe in San Diego and then went on to Broadway. I actually wrote a scholarly article comparing my video game with Allegiance. The premise comes from The Producers — what’s the worst idea in the world for a musical? You assume that, right up there with a musical about Hitler, is a musical about the internment experience or a video game about the internment camps. And yet something really profound happens when such an entertaining medium and such a serious topic are brought together in the right way.

I also love Come From Away, about 9/11, which premiered at the La Jolla Playhouse and also went to Broadway. And of course, I’m a huge fan of Rent.

You were saying how pluralistic SDA is.

Any other examples?

Yes, the BFA acting program and how it’s been transformed for stage, screen and digital media. It’s training students to be media agile, and adapt their talents to any medium. Last season, I checked out a few SDA productions [that were online during this past academic year] and what was so interesting to me about them is that it’s very clear they were using Zoom really intentionally instead of just trying to translate live in-person production onto Zoom. You saw the actors playing to the laptop camera in very specific ways, using the framing of the Zoom screen. It wasn’t even cinematic, it was specific to Zoom.

[SDA comedy professor] Kirstin Eggers told me she would say to her students: “This might be our last chance, guys. We might never get to perform on Zoom again. We’ve got to do everything amazing that can be done on Zoom while we still have the chance.” Which I thought was a great way to turn the limitations of the pandemic into a virtue.

I think that’s what SDA is doing. It’s empowering students in all these different mediums by teaching them how their talents can be applied to the opportunity at hand, so they can figure out what they want to do with their unique voice and how they want to impact the world when they graduate.

Looking ahead five years, what major things do you hope you will have accomplished at USC? My top goal relates to the fact that I think SDA should be recognized and ranked, frankly, much higher than it is, given the strengths of the programs here. My job is to very effectively tell SDA’s incredible story. We’re zeroing in on articulating an identity for the School that is about how students are empowered through pluralistic training to go out and change the industry, which starts and ends with a rigorous grounding in the craft of theatre.

We’re really proud of the diversity of our recent cohorts of undergraduates and the historic diversity of our MFA dramatic writing and acting programs. And we’re trying to train and empower students who can then go out and change the entertainment industry in all its different forms. And so that’s a really great story.

In fact, I also would like to grow the graduate offerings of the school in terms of professional master’s training in various areas, including how the dramatic arts can be used to advance equity, diversity and inclusion in all sorts of industries, particularly entertainment and higher education. My interactive theatre work is inspired by Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed, which has also inspired [SDA professors] Brent Blair and Anita Dashiell-Sparks, so we have critical mass in terms of artists and scholars at SDA who can offer this kind of training to working professionals who want to change their own fields. It’s essential that we share the magic of theatre-making with the world.  Watch Dean Emily Roxworthy's installation speech at dramaticarts.usc.edu/callboard21 DRAMATICARTS.USC.EDU

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The School of Dramatic Arts honors five inspiring alumni who have made a difference in the dramatic arts through their commitment, artistry and engagement.

Extraordinary Trojans Forest Whitaker ’82 Michele Dedeaux Engemann BA ’68 Donald Webber Jr. BFA ’08 Greg Holford BA ’80, MFA ’82 Grant Heslov BFA ’86

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Watch the awardees’ acceptance speeches and tribute videos at dramaticarts.usc.edu/ callboard21 USC CALLBOARD

Forest Whitaker

and a UNESCO Special Envoy for Peace and Reconciliation, Forest Whitaker ’82 has long combined a keen eye for observation with a heart for humanity. He credits his mother for each of those traits, which draw from the same well — one filled with empathy.

Whitaker’s mother, Laura Francis Smith, graduated from USC with degrees in special education and psychology, then became a teacher for children with disabilities. His mother’s relentless curiosity and compassion for others opened Whitaker’s mind to new worlds. “My mother showed me that life existed outside the conflicts and problems of my neighborhood,” he says.

Whitaker himself took a more circuitous route to his calling. He began his college career at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, on a football scholarship.

After a serious back injury, he dropped football and switched his major to music. Soon, he became intrigued with opera and transferred to USC to study classical voice.

“As I walked around campus that first year, I felt a tremendous sense of opportunity and possibility,” Whitaker says. Indeed, as his mother taught him, he remained open to possibilities unseen. After being accepted into both USC’s musical and acting conservatories, he chose to change routes once again, this time to drama.

At USC, Whitaker learned a powerful lesson that changed how he approached his new craft.

“The faculty here taught my classmates and me that while we existed as individuals, our greatest successes as artists would come from our capacity to channel our talents into the dynamics of an ensemble,” he says. “Our greatest artistry wasn’t going to be found in isolation.”

As he gained agency in the film industry, Whitaker began choosing his films and characters based on the opportunity to highlight social justice issues or help expand consciousness — his own, as well as others’.

“Throughout the four decades since my career began, film has been a way for me to continue my search to understand the intricacies of mankind and how I’m linked to humanity…” Whitaker says. “What I couldn’t have known, when I was leaving USC, was that assuming many different types of characters would let me open a door to let others take a peek at the joys, angers, and pains from both myself and throughout humanity, and use those experiences to illuminate their own lives.”

AS BOTH AN OSCAR-WINNER

’82

Today, Whitaker is widely recognized as one of the greatest actors of his generation — perhaps best known for his performance in The Last King of Scotland, for which he received an Academy Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role.

That same film provided a seminal life experience off-screen, too. In researching his role as dictator Idi Amin, Whitaker had the chance to talk with child soldiers in Uganda. “The emptiness in their eyes reminded me of my own friends who joined gangs,” Whitaker says. “It was violence seeking purpose…something shifted in me after that.”

In 2012, he founded the Whitaker Peace & Development Initiative (WPDI), which promotes peace, reconciliation and social development within communities long marked by violence and conflict. The WPDI offers hope and practical new paths forward for young women and men across the world and in the United States. That includes here in Southern California, where the WPDI is working with the School of Dramatic Arts’ Institute for Theatre & Social Change to develop plays with social justice themes for WPDI partner schools in Los Angeles.

This year, Whitaker received SDA’s Robert Redford Award for Engaged Artists for his exemplary quality, skill and innovation in his craft as a performer, as well as his public commitment to social responsibility.

He also continues to encourage rising artists at SDA and elsewhere to realize the impact they can make — beyond the stage or screen.

“Inside each of you there’s a divine spark,” Whitaker says. “It holds those you love, your beauty, and your purpose. Together, all of our sparks become a flame that can light up the world. You hold great power. From first-hand experience, I know the arts can amplify strength and resilience.

“I ask you to consider what sort of things you can do through your art or your life. Take a chance or a small step toward how you think our society can evolve into something greater.” 

BY PHILLIP JORDAN DRAMATICARTS.USC.EDU

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Michele Dedeaux Engemann BA ’68

MICHELE DEDEAUX ENGEMANN

didn’t intend to study theatre at USC. Her plan was to become a teacher.

“Even though my mother said I was a very dramatic child, I don’t think she meant it as a career suggestion,” Engemann says with a laugh.

But she’d enjoyed the musicals she’d done in high school, and in her first year at USC, she was tempted enough to take a theatre class from John Blankenchip, legendary professor, director and theatre designer.

“He made me do this soliloquy from The Merchant of Venice,” Engemann recalls. “I broke down three times trying to do it. I wanted to leave. But he said, ‘No, no, no,’ and he had everyone stay until I did it. My classmates were so supportive.”

Eventually, she made it through the scene.

The breakthrough sparked something in her.

“The thrill was doing it in front of my fellow students,” Engemann says. “I wanted to know how everyone else did it. How did they grasp what the part meant? How did they keep themselves calm? I started thinking, ‘What could I do if I dug down deep and really tried this?’ That intrigued me beyond anything else.”

The experience set her on a new course. Engemann has now spent 51 years as a member of the Nine O’Clock Players, the oldest children’s theatre company in Southern California. And she’s a longtime supporter of the Pasadena Playhouse, where she’s been an actor, volunteer and board president.

Thankfully for USC, Engemann has also remained a forever Trojan. Currently a trustee, she previously served as the founding chair of SDA’s Board of Councilors and played an instrumental role in establishing SDA as an independent school within the University. In recognition of this extraordinary and unwavering commitment to and support of the School, she received SDA’s Alumni Service Award in the fall.

Today, she and her husband Roger are helping raise funds to renovate the historic United University Church building as a new home for the School of Dramatic Arts.

BA ’68

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“The whole idea is so thrilling,” Engemann says. “It will give us a true arts corridor along 34th Street with all the arts schools so close together. Then, USC Village is just across the street, so it will be easy for students to come over and watch something. Our SDA students will be establishing a whole new era of the dramatic arts at USC.” Establishing something wholly new at SDA is something Engemann knows a little about, too. Back in 1966, Blankenchip — the professor who wouldn’t let her quit her first Shakespearean soliloquy — enlisted Engemann to join his fledgling Festival Theatre USCUSA. That same year the company, comprised of USC students and alumni, became the first university troupe to perform at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland.

Engemann traveled with the company three summers in a row, often performing four shows a day for three weeks straight. The company also performed in Amsterdam, Berlin and London.

“Being exposed to different cultures as a young person was amazing,” Engemann says. “And doing four shows a day, you learned a lot! The discipline, the camaraderie, the improv. Learning how to stay in the moment from show to show. That whole experience bonded me with the stage and with USC for life.”

Bonded, indeed. One year, during an Edinburgh show, she fell off the stage from a height of about eight feet.

The fall broke her back, though she wouldn’t learn that until she finally went to a doctor two months later in Los Angeles. Until then, Engemann kept on performing.

“I spent the next six months in a lovely back brace,” she recalls, “but it was worth it!”

Suffice it to say, her dedication to the arts — and to USC — are beyond question.

“USC gave me such a gift,” Engemann says. “Theatre training has helped me as a person and allowed me to help others. I have a passion for it. I love everything about it. It’s not for everybody to be the director or the actor.

But it is for everybody to go and experience it, to give it a try. It’s a life lesson. It’s creativity. It’s community.

And I’m so grateful that I’ve gotten to be part of it.” 

BY PHILLIP JORDAN

Donald Webber Jr.

DONALD WEBBER JR. BFA ’08

recalls walking into his audition for the School of Dramatic Arts’ Bachelor of Fine Arts program and wondering how the experience could feel so familiar.

“I walked out of that room and I felt so good.

I was like, ‘I really hope it’s me,’ ” he says. “It felt like home, you know? And then it was so easy once I got my acceptance letters; it was a no-brainer.”

All the other schools he had considered, he says, melted away. He was eager to work with Vice Dean Lori Ray Fisher and professor Jack Rowe, who had left a warm impression in the audition room.

“He understood how to make you feel good as an actor, no matter what you were doing. Jack was a great coach; he would root for you,” Webber remembers. “He helped me understand that this acting thing, it’s serious business, but it’s really fun.”

Webber is one of only a few actors to play both Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr in Hamilton, and has also performed with the show on Broadway and in the Puerto Rico engagement opposite LinManuel Miranda. He has also appeared on Broadway in Motown the Musical and Holler if Ya Hear Me, and off-Broadway in Whorl Inside a Loop. In the fall, he was recognized by the School with the Broadway Spotlight Award for his consistent and outstanding stage career. But the transition to having a stellar theatrical resume was not as simple as it may seem, especially for a performer as effusively charming as Webber.

“I thought I was going to graduate and get on a plane to New York City and go be on Broadway immediately. I think we all do,” he says.

Instead, he spent a few years after graduation auditioning while he taught drama at his high school, St. Bernard in Playa del Rey, where his beloved acting teacher had retired. Just out of college, he was excited to share the lessons he had learned from Rowe and so many other mentors at the School and beyond.

BFA ’08

A few years into teaching, as he cued the curtain to fall on his students’ last performance of the semester, Broadway called (he remembers seeing the 212 area code display on his phone). He flew to New York the next day for a Jersey Boys callback and ended up spending two years on tour with the show.

Now, as Burr and sometimes Hamilton, Webber has big shoes to fill. But he doesn’t aim to imitate other actors’ performances. In fact, his close friendship with the production’s original Burr — Leslie Odom Jr., who he met at USC — has taken some of the pressure off. Webber remembers a faculty member bringing in Odom, who was one of her clients, as a panelist when he and his class were preparing for their senior acting showcase. The pair immediately hit it off.

“We stayed connected. And so it was a lot easier to go see him play this role when they were off-Broadway,” he recalls. “That night, I told him, ‘This is it. This is your Tony.’ He was like, ‘Thank you, man. I’m working hard.

I feel like I’m acting through the tips of my fingers.’ ” Webber thinks more about ‘acting through the tips of his fingers’ than he does impersonating Odom’s Burr onstage.

Webber has carried this philosophy with him to the screen as well, from Marvel/Netflix’s Punisher to NBC’s The Wiz Live. Up next on his call sheet is Apple TV+ series Severance, directed by Ben Stiller, where he will act alongside Adam Scott, John Turturro and Patricia Arquette.

In the meantime, Hamilton is back on tour and performances are in full swing. Webber keeps his role fresh by remembering a bit of wisdom he picked up at SDA. “I learned at USC that we are artists examining what it’s like to be human. We, literally, are just being human beings,” he says. “We happen to be on a stage and the lights are dimmed over there, and the spotlights are on us, but we’re just humans and at the end of the day, we’re showing the audience what it’s like.” 

BY CELINE KINER

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Greg Holford WHEN GREG HOLFORD BA ’80, MFA ’82

first set foot on the USC campus, he was actually an English major. But with insatiable interests in music, art and technology, it wasn’t long before he ended up as the musical director for an on-campus production of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. It was during this stint that School of Dramatic Arts professor John Blankenchip noticed Holford’s artistic spark, especially his talent for storytelling, and crafted a plan to expedite the student’s theatre education so he could direct on a larger scale.

Now, after a 35-year career of creating and directing themed experiences and spectaculars globally, Holford has seen it all.

His projects hold world records in media projection, aerial technology and more, and he has led pioneering research in pyro drone innovation and execution. His internationally renowned indoor spectacular, Fantasea of a Kingdom at Phuket Fantasea in Thailand, has run for 22 years, and is still celebrated for its use of technology and narrative.

Most recently, Holford served as creative director of the Diriyah Gate Project in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, inaugurating the new UNESCO World Heritage Site; and as creative director of a series of shows at the Burj Al Arab in Dubai for Amway China. He received the Production Innovation Award from the School in the fall for his artistry in the field.

“The School of Dramatic Arts embraced me and ingrained two big things: never stop dreaming of what you can create, and never stop learning,” he says. “I started off knowing nothing.

Now, I look at what’s going on worldwide.”

As an undergraduate in the theatre program, Holford directed several shows. One of his favorites was Working, a musical based on the book

by Studs Terkel, where he met alumnus Forest Whitaker ’82. He also recalls directing Elizabeth Swados’ Runaways, which toured that summer to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

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BA ’80, MFA ’82

Holford remembers his time at Edinburgh fondly — the responsibility of switching quickly from sound design to props management and beyond widened his director’s perspective. One year, he even performed in the festival production of You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown.

An early innovator, Holford started a variety show at USC called Rock Theatre, which blended musical theatre and rock genres and lived beyond his tenure as a student. He even directed an early stage adaptation of Fame in his senior year, and went on to earn an MFA in directing at the School before moving on to the big leagues. For Holford, SDA was a safe place to experiment, to build expertise and confidence that prepared him for the scale of his career after graduation.

“When you do your first multi-million dollar show on the outside, you have to get it right. That’s one of the luxuries of USC. You didn’t have to get it all right; you could make mistakes, and learn from them,” he says.

Whether the alumnus is working with 20 students on campus or thousands of performers, lights, drones and projections broadcast worldwide, Holford keeps the story at the center. His dramatic training taught him the value of storytelling, even at the most expansive scale.

“No matter how technically complex it is, it’s about telling a story and telling it well, in a creative way,” he says.

Almost 40 years after graduating, Holford looks back fondly at his SDA education. He recalls inspiring meetings with alumni and professors who were active in the entertainment industry.

Their paths, he says, showed him the possibility of succeeding in a career he loved, telling stories for audiences around the world.

“You have to have the foundation; the foundation allows you to reach out into the future,” he says.

“I never forget where I came from.” 

BY CELINE KINER

Grant Heslov GRANT HESLOV BFA ACTING ’86

is an actor, director, writer and producer who has earned Academy, Producers Guild, Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild, British Academy of Film and Television Arts awards, among others.

And he can pinpoint where the momentum for his career began: on USC’s campus.

“The fall of 1982, I still remember meeting my classmates for the first time at the fountain outside Bing Theatre,” Heslov recounts. “There was just an excitement and sense of possibility we all felt. It was the freedom that comes with being on your own for the first time. And the newfound access we had to all these brilliant minds and amazing resources that we’d never studied before.”

Heslov is still great friends with several classmates he met that first day. That includes fellow SDA alumnus Tate Donovan BFA ’86, who was featured in a video tribute to Heslov that was shown at the School of Dramatic Arts’ 75th anniversary benefit last September.

Another actor featured in that tribute video was George Clooney, who also met Heslov in 1982 — fortuitously, as Clooney recalls. Back then, Clooney bummed $100 off Heslov to pay for some head shots. It was a sound investment on Heslov’s part, and the beginning of a lifelong friendship.

“He is a consummate friend,” Clooney says of Heslov. “And what you should all know about your former student is that he makes the world better. …

He is a really good man.”

In 2006, Heslov and Clooney founded Smokehouse Pictures. It’s in recognition of how their company has supported emerging talent that Heslov and Smokehouse Pictures earned SDA’s 2021 Corporate Leadership Award — an award that honors a company or producer who consistently puts the quality of the actor “front and center.” Since teaming up, Heslov and Clooney have written, directed and produced films — including Good Night and Good Luck (nominated for six Academy Awards), Leatherheads, The Men Who Stare at Goats, The Ides of March, The Monuments Men, Argo (winner of the

BFA ’86

2013 Academy Award for Best Picture), Money Monster, Our Brand is Crisis, Suburbicon and The Midnight Sky. “When it comes to developing trust and relationships with actors, it starts with the material,” Heslov says.

“Developing material that attracts good actors.

Working with good directors who attract good actors.

“But it’s also about creating a good set. We keep working with people if we love their work and their working style. Nobody wants to work with a pain in the ass. Do great work and be nice. That’s it.”

As Heslov’s career expanded into directing and producing, what he learned during his acting studies at USC remained as relevant as ever.

“It was in college where I first learned how to analyze plays and scripts,” he says. “That’s something I still apply every single day. Plus, being an actor myself gives me greater insight on how to talk to actors, treat actors, and know what good acting looks like, in my own opinion, at least.”

Heslov also credits his BFA for helping him understand, early, all that goes into making a play or film.

“We didn’t just act,” he says, “we were building sets, doing lighting, costumes, voice. You learn all of it. And it all turns into real-world application. In fact, as soon as we graduated, some of us started a theatre company of our own in L.A. We built our own sets, we raised our own money, we recruited the casts. I was learning how to be a producer right away.”

So, what would Heslov’s USC-student-self think of the industry heights he’s achieved since that first day at the fountain outside of Bing Theatre?

“He’d be proud, I think,” Heslov says. “Probably a little surprised. I mean, my goal was just to be a working actor. Just make a living as an actor. I couldn’t imagine anything beyond that back then.

That would have been enough. I just wanted to be doing plays, TV, movies, anything. Having someone, anyone, want to pay to watch you act, to watch you perform your craft, that’s all you really care about as an artist. Everything beyond that is a bonus.” 

BY PHILLIP JORDAN

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B Y D E L P H I N E VA S K O

There’s No Place Like Home The School of Dramatic Arts finds a new building at the center of USC’s arts corridor.

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central home for the School. Set to be completed in December 2023, the significant revival and interior redesign of this building will provide the School of Dramatic Arts with a state-of-the-art, nearly 40,000-square-foot home at the center of the USC campus. It will be a place where students, faculty and staff can come together to cultivate the next generation of diverse storytellers and share the power of creativity with the entire community.

“I see this as a bold step in the continued transformation of SDA,” says Dean Roxworthy.

“This facility will not only enable us to expand our innovative teaching and research, but I am confident that it will spark a new era of creativity among our students and faculty as they collaborate to create and share powerful and transformative stories that will inspire much-needed social change.”

PHOTO BY

SINCE ITS FOUNDING, the School of Dramatic Arts has been a community of creative itinerant players, ready and willing to make magic in the unlikeliest of places — from the former barn that became the original Scene Shop to a converted streetcar relay station known as the beloved Stop Gap Theatre.

Generations of alumni have their favorite space where they were challenged to tell powerful stories and grow as artists and humans. But, with facilities scattered across campus, the School has often struggled for space and a central location to call home and build community.

That’s all about to change. Earlier this fall, Dean Emily Roxworthy and Chair of the School’s Board of Councilors Joshua B. Grode announced the renovation of the historic building that once housed the United University Church as a vibrant new

Ryan Miller/Capture Imaging

Watch a flythrough video of the new building at dramaticarts.usc.edu/ callboard21

The state-of-the-art facilities within the newly renovated building will allow students the opportunity to access technologies being utilized across the entertainment industry.

The reconfigured historic five-story building will increase student support services: SDA’s innovative Career Center, which serves as a bridge to the industry and empowers students to be self-sustaining working artists, will have a cutting-edge new home in the building. Additionally, the new Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion will have a grounding space that ensures the success of all students, where collaboration in and across affinity groups can change the face of the entertainment industry.

Plans also include two new performance venues (a 110-seat flexible theatre where the church’s sanctuary previously stood, and a smaller cabaret space for studentinitiated productions) — as well as a digital media suite, audio design lab, vocal practice rooms, rehearsal spaces and classrooms for programs ranging from musical theatre to improv comedy. These new facilities will allow students the opportunity to access technologies being utilized across the entertainment industry – ensuring that students graduate with the ability to adapt their talents to any medium.

Plus, a new cafe and garden courtyard will serve as gathering spaces for SDA’s 600 students to network with guest artists, faculty and staff, and connect to the wider university community.

USC is long known for its unrivaled legacy of creative artists, and with the School of Dramatic Arts moving into this new home at the intersection of Jefferson and Hoover, four of the University’s premier art schools (SDA, Thornton School of Music, School of Cinematic Arts and the Glorya Kaufman School of Dance) will be just steps away from each other — enabling unprecedented interdisciplinary partnerships among these Trojan artists and cementing robust creative and professional networking opportunities.

Great care is being taken to preserve the historic feel of the Italian Romanesque

Revival-style building yet make it a sustainable home for 21st century artists, an appropriate nod to the School’s long history of grounding students in the classical foundations of the theatrical craft while exposing them to the vast range of new applications possible in today’s entertainment industry.

While religious programming has not been offered in the building for years, Varun Soni, dean of Religious and Spiritual Life at USC, is confident that “the spirit of the building will endure. That’s because religion and theatre overlap in so many significant ways,” says Dean Soni. “Both theatre and religion work to build community, to bring people together to change hearts and minds, to create meaning-making rituals, to tell new stories and share new experiences and to develop empathy for other perspectives and worldviews.”

The renovation, which will be seeking LEED certification for green building strategies, will retain many of the building’s original features — including the ceiling and trusses, and the rose and stained-glass windows. On the National Register of Historic Places as part of the University of Southern California Historic District, the building was designed in 1931 by C. Raimond Johnson, an alumnus of and one-time lecturer for the USC School of Architecture. Johnson served as university architect for USC from 1937 to 1955 and designed some of the campus’s notable buildings, including the Biegler Hall of Engineering (BHE) in 1939 and the Allan Hancock Foundation (AHF) in 1940.  As the School works to realize its fundraising goals for the Drama Center, there are still naming opportunities available. If you are interested in helping cement the School’s crucial role as a leading force in the dramatic arts, please contact Associate Dean of Advancement Sara Fousekis at fousekis@usc.edu.

BOARD OF COUNCILORS

Michele Dedeaux Engemann Founding Chair Joshua B. Grode Chair

Patrick J. Adams Chris Andrews Lorrie Bartlett Todd Black Lauren Booth Connie Britton Michael Chiklis Megan Colligan Michael Felix Brad Fuller Lori Furie Kourosh Gohar Gary Lask Alexander LoCasale Dr. Steven Nagelberg Byron Pollitt Rik Reppe Lois Robbins Linda Bernstein Rubin Anthony Sparks Rik Toulon Blair Underwood Noelle L. Wolf ALUMNI LEADERSHIP COUNCIL

Adam Blumenthal Kate Cannova Mona Raffle John Coffey David Fickas Jaclyn Kalkhurst JP Karliak Devin M. Kelley, Co-Chair Alex LoCasale Sean Lask Deanna Morgan Henry Martone Tomm Polos, Co-Chair Michael Schwartz Pranav Shah John Villacorta Adrienne Visnic

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Success in Post Award-winning artist and alumna Jameelah Nuriddin shares about her fulfilling career giving voice to marginalized communities.

PHOTO BY

Bob Turton

JAMEELAH NURIDDIN BFA ’06 has made a career out of socially-conscious storytelling. Part of her success is an ability to adapt to new technology — and to pivot when obstacles arise.

A case in point: In 2020, Nuriddin was all set to direct a series of live-action short films urging young Black women in Alabama to learn about government and register to vote. She and her producing partner had grant money, had cast several Alabama teens and were ready to shoot.

Then, COVID-19 shut down production.

Nuriddin and her crew switched to animation, using voiceovers from the teens. Although Nuriddin, an award-winning film editor, had not worked in animation before, she came to appreciate its creative possibilities.

“It changed me as an artist,” she says. “I had to adjust, but I found so much creativity while playing with a new medium to bring in many new ideas. It deepened my ability to tell a story because I couldn’t rely on some of the things I had always relied on.”

The animated docuseries, Shaping Our State, has been warmly received, and is being submitted to festivals. Nuriddin now

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is in talks to do similar work in Georgia.

“We want everyone to see the series because it has a very empowering message,” she says. “There are so many more states that need this and need to push more women of color to have positions of leadership.”

Nuriddin’s latest project, a short film about a Black woman’s mental health journey called Wholeness, just finished filming. It encompasses live action and rotoscope, which she describes as “a blur between live action and animation, where you paint over live film.” It is a deeply personal project where she employed many of her talents — as an actress, director, writer, editor and producer.

She hadn’t planned on taking on all those roles herself, but she decided not to wait until she could afford to hire others. “I wanted to have more people have credits on the film, but I didn’t want to wait,” she says. “I felt really resolute, like this is going to happen. And I think a lot of artists can recognize that in themselves.”

Nuriddin’s storytelling almost always focuses on giving voice to marginalized communities, particularly Black women. Another recent

BY ALLISON ENGEL

An artist who does it all, Nuriddin starred in, directed, wrote, edited and produced the short film Wholeness.

project has been video interviews with scientists, funded by the National Institutes of Health, to demystify scientific fields of study for young people of color. The videos release in 2022.

The Atlanta native, who now lives in Los Angeles, is generous in her praise for her School of Dramatic Arts professors. Many taught her lessons that she uses daily.

“Brent Blair is one,” she says. “He taught a lot of Linklater (voice work), and that has stayed with me my entire life. I still do the exercises any time I’m getting ready to perform or do an audition. And I learned tempo from Stephanie Shroyer, who is a very beautiful physical theatre teacher.

“Physical theatre connects to editing because when you are editing people, you are editing their bodies and their facial expressions.

When people blink or exhale to get a breath, that’s the time to cut to something else. It’s a natural rhythm, and if you betray that, there’s something off about it.”

Nuriddin, who first learned editing in high school using VHS tapes, jumpstarted her abilities when she came to USC. “It was

through the theatre and film friends I made and the short films we would make and the 48-hour film festivals that they had on campus that I started to edit all the time,” she says.

Admittedly, Nuriddin has been quick on her feet to learn new things. “Even though the settings change and the details change, the core of storytelling remains the same. People are looking for an emotional connection, and a protagonist who has to overcome something, internal or external. The more you, as an editor, work to accentuate what the actor, director and the writers already have put into a film, the better the product is. And that’s why a lot of people call the editor the final writer of any project.”

She credits the rise of digital cameras and the revolution in streaming and distribution for a welcome expansion in the universe of people able to tell their stories. “When film was very expensive, you needed a gatekeeper with tons of money and you had to convince a boardroom full of people to do something,” she observes. “Now, you can literally get a few of your friends together, and if you do it well enough, it can become a wild success.” 

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In an evening dedicated to its storied history at USC and the wide impact it has made through dramatic arts education, the USC School of Dramatic Arts celebrated more than 75 years during an anniversary benefit in Founders Park on Sept. 9.

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During the event, five dynamic alumni were honored for their outstanding commitment, engagement and breadth of experience as artists. Honorees included Forest Whitaker (Robert Redford Award for Engaged Artists), USC Trustee and SDA Board of Councilors member Michele Dedeaux Engemann (Alumni Service Award), Donald Webber Jr. (Broadway Spotlight Award), Greg Holford (Production Innovation Award), and Grant Heslov & Smokehouse Pictures (Corporate Leadership Award).

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Read about the event and view more images at dramaticarts.usc. edu/callboard21

PHOTOS BY

Clockwise from top left (Names in left to right order): 1 Faculty member and award presenter Larry Powell and Associate Professor and emcee Luis Alfaro. | 2 Alumni Leadership Council members: Adrienne Visnic, Sean Lask, Kate Cannova, JP Karliak, Co-Chair Tomm Polos, Co-Chair Devin Kelley, Pranav Shah and David Fickas. | 3 Roger Engemann and award recipient, USC Trustee and SDA Board of Councilors member Michele Dedeaux Engemann. | 4 Los Angeles theatre leaders: Pasadena Playhouse’s Danny Feldman, Latino Theatre Company’s Jose Luis Valenzuela, Center Theatre Group’s Michael Ritchie and Professor Oliver Mayer. | 5 Award recipient Grant Heslov and SDA alumnus Tate Donovan. | 6 Award recipient Greg Holford. | 7 Bachelor of Fine Arts musical theatre students performing a musical number at the end of the evening. | 8 Event Co-Committee Chair Michelle Chiklis, SDA Board of Councilors member Michael Chiklis, Dean Emily Roxworthy and her daughter Lucy Roxworthy. | 9 Olivia, Mya, Grant and Lysa Heslov.

10 Event committee co-chairs Shauna Torok Reppe and Michelle Chiklis. | 11 Award recipient Donald Webber Jr. | 12 USC President Carol L. Folt, Dean Emily Roxworthy and SDA Board of Councilors Chair Joshua B. Grode.

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Alumni Marquee CL ASSES OF 1 9 6 0S & 1 970S Michele Dedeaux Engemann BA ’68 recently received the Alumni Service Award from the USC School of Dramatic Arts.

— READ MORE ON PAGE 14.

John Ritter BA ’71 was featured in a television special, called Superstar: John Ritter, about the late alumnus as part of a docuseries examining mavericks who shaped American culture.

Norma Zuckerman BA ’71 earned a master of arts in theatre at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, writing her thesis on the impact and influence of The Diary of Anne Frank on middle and high school students. She is founder and artistic director of the Jewish Repertory Theatre of Nevada, where she produced awardwinning productions with Tovah Feldshuh, Hal Linden, Hershey Felder, Loni Anderson, among others. Zuckerman also produced, directed and performed The Diary of Anne Frank at The Smith Center for the Performing Arts in Las Vegas.

LeVar Burton ’76 was named PEN/Faulkner’s first Literary Champion and the grand marshal for the 2022 Rose Parade.

Andy Tennant BA ’77 is a producer and director for television series The Kominsky Method, and directed the film The Secret: Dare to Dream.

CL ASS OF 1 9 80S Debbi Dachinger BFA ’80 is a syndicated, award-winning podcast host, nominated for two People’s Choice Podcast Awards, a Webby Award, interviews celebrities on the red carpet, has been interviewed on more than 1,500 media outlets, and is the author of four international bestselling books. For over 13 years, Dachinger has hosted the Dare to Dream podcast. She is also a keynote speaker at high-level national events; a media personality, who has been seen in the news, documentary films, on the cover of magazines; and is a regular Published Magazine contributor.

Tim Dang BFA ’80 is featured in a video game called Ghost of Tsushima. He is also the arts and culture leader of the LA County Economic Resiliency Task Force.

Greg Holford BA ’80, MFA ’82 directed a show for Amway China International in Dubai. He recently received the Production Innovation Award from the USC School of Dramatic Arts.

— READ MORE ON PAGE 16.

Teresa Storti MFA ’81 performed as the titular character of Erma Bombeck: At Wit’s End at the Curtain Call Theatre in New York.

Todd Black BFA ’82 produced Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, as well as Dr. Death, A Journal for Jordan, Being the Ricardos and Uncoupled.

Randy Johnson BFA ’82 wrote and directed the one-man theatrical show My Story: Unleashed. Johnson made his Broadway debut as playwright and director of the Tony Award-nominated musical A Night with Janis Joplin, and co-produced and associate directed the West Coast premiere of Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart almost immediately after graduating from USC. Forest Whitaker ’82 starred in Jingle Jangle, which earned him a NAACP Image Award nomination, and stars in the film Havoc. He also narrated Frederick Douglass’ memoir, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave for Spotify. He recently received the Robert Redford Award for Engaged Artists from the USC School of Dramatic Arts.

— READ MORE ON PAGE 13.

Marguerite MacIntyre BFA ’84 wrote the Peacock series Vampire Academy.

Gregory Fawcett BA ’92 is an actor, producer and screenwriter currently in pre-production for Street Death Fight, and post-production for Of God and Kings and The Last Victim. Other works include The New Adventures of Robin Hood, Point Pleasant and Jack Woody. He was an executive producer and actor in the Netflix film Street.

Anthony Sparks BFA ’94 is writer, producer and showrunner of Choir on Disney+, a docuseries on the Detroit Youth Choir. He is creating a scripted companion series that will air on the platform as well. He is also showrunner and producer of Queen Sugar.

Kevin Mambo BFA ’95 recurs on the Netflix series Hit & Run as Detective Newkirk. He also performed as Charles Boyd in a virtual production of pen/man/ship by Christina Anderson at Molière in the Park, as well as a reading of Romeo N Juliet at the Pittsburgh Public Theater and a reading of Atlantic Theater Company’s African Caribbean MixFest.

Alma Martinez MFA ’95 was in a virtual reading of Electricidad at Center Theatre Group in November 2020. She was also in an audio theatre recording of the play Bump, produced

by L.A. Theatre Works, alongside faculty member Inger Tudor.

J. August Richards BFA ’95 has a recurring role as Joe in the HBO Max series Generation, and will Tate Donovan BFA ’85 stars in the films Worth and star as Victor Dashkov in the upcoming Peacock Blood Relative, as well as the TV series Macgyver. series adaptation of Vampire Academy.

Grant Heslov BFA ’85 is producing the Buck Rogers reboot, the Amazon Studios film The Tender Bar, a docuseries on the Ohio State sex abuse scandal, and George Clooney- and Julia Roberts-starring film Ticket to Paradise. He also produced the Netflix film The Midnight Sky. He and his company Smokehouse Pictures recently received the Corporate Leadership Award from the USC School of Dramatic Arts.

— READ MORE ON PAGE 17.

Anthony DiMaria BFA ’89 directed and produced feature documentary Jay Sebring....Cutting to the Truth about the revolutionary Hollywood stylist and his untimely demise at the hands of the Manson family. The film features Dennis Hopper, Quincy Jones, Nancy Sinatra and Quentin Tarantino. He also played Matty Flynn in Ray Donovan and Howard Fox in Woody Allen's Cafe Society.

C L A S S O F 1 990S Timothy Omundson BFA ’91 is a recurring character on This Is Us.

Stacy Alley BA ’96 is head of musical theatre and associate professor of musical theatre/ dance at The University of Alabama, and was elected as Musical Theatre Educators’ Alliance president.

Jason Ginsburg BA ’96 helped launch Discovery+ and manages Discovery Channel content for that streaming service, as well as the Discovery GO app. His first screenplay, Age of Stone & Sky: The Sorcerer Beast, premiered this year.

Danny Strong BA ’96 is showrunner, writer and executive producer of the Hulu series Dopesick.

Robin Veith BFA ’96 created, produced and wrote the drama series Candy.

Bari Newport BFA ’97 recently became the artistic director of Florida theatre GableStage.

Michael Uppendahl BFA ’98 directed and executive produced the FX series Impeachment: American Crime Story.

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CL ASS OF 20 0 0 s Shiri Appleby ’01 stars in the Disney+ series Big Shot, and directed episodes of television shows Grown-ish, Mixed-ish and New Amsterdam.

Elizabeth Ho BA ’06 was most recently seen in Call Me Kat and performed in the Zoom play Missing Ingredient.

Meagan Lopez BA ’06 left her decade-long career in digital Jason Beeber BA ’01 is the advertising as the global digital co-host of the Make That Paper business director at the New Podcast, a show that talks about York Times in Paris, France, the day jobs and side-hustles to become a filmmaker. artists do (or have done) to Two years into Lopez’s support the pursuit of their filmmaking career, she won nine awards for artistic careers. her first short film and is in post production for her first feature length documentary called Charl Brown BA ’01 executive produced a concert Through the Eyes of Others. version of the musical Cursed, a new musical that streamed on YouTube. He is also a vocalist in the Dan Rib BA ’06 is the technical director of Mizel music group The Doo Wop Project.

Arts and Culture Center in Denver, Colo.

Eric Ladin BA ’01 has a recurring role in the fourth Jennifer Sarvas BFA ’06 founded a resume and final season of Netflix’s Ozark. coaching business called At Your Sarvas to help entertainment workers communicate their Sean Mulvihill BFA ’02 produced and directed the transferable skills and find new opportunities feature film Act Social — starring Colin Mochrie, during the pandemic. best known for Whose Line is it Anyway? The film explores the fields of drama therapy and applied Boni B. Alvarez MFA ’07 was a writer for the improvisations and asks the question: Can a “Yes Coeurage Ensemble’s The Nomad Project.

And” philosophy save the world?

Beck Bennett BFA ’07 stars in the Netflix Kate Cannova BA ’03 produced the off-Broadway animated film The Mitchells vs. The Machines. production of A Commercial Jingle for Regina Comet at the DR2 Theatre. She also recently Ben Giroux BA ’07 is the voice executive produced a concert version of the of the title role (Nate) of musical Cursed, a new musical that streamed on Nickelodeon's new Big Nate YouTube. animated franchise, and has a recurring role on Nickelodeon’s Patrick J. Adams BFA ’04 is a recurring character Danger Force, Netflix’s The Big on the Amazon series A League of Their Own and Show Show, Disney’s Coop & will star in Richard Greenberg’s Take Me Out at Cami. He served as showrunner for That Totally the Second Stage Theater on Broadway in 2022. Made Up Comedy Show on The CW Network; produced and directed Vanilla Ice’s music video, Laura Beckner BFA ’04 wrote and directed the “Baby Got Buns”; launched the production film Willing to Go There. company Small Red Cape; and produces TikTok content for 3.6 million followers.

Chastity Dotson BFA ’04 ran 300 miles to promote awareness for young girls of color in Louisville, Ken.

Vivian Kerr BA ’05 recently wrote, directed, and starred in her feature film Scrap — co-starring Anthony Rapp, Lana Parrilla and Beth Dover.

She also recently starred in and directed the short film Julian.

Rachel Stander BA ’05, under her A Season of Rain banner, is producing the feature film Scrap.

Principal photography was completed in Los Angeles this summer and the film is currently in post-production.

Jessica Smith ’07 is a writer and producer for Apple’s sci-fi show Wool.

Deborah Ann Woll BFA ’07 stars in the film Willing to Go There.

Devin Kelley BFA ’08 stars in the short film Reception and stars as Clementine in the upcoming online series Down the Middle.

Donald Webber Jr. BFA ’08 is currently performing as Aaron Burr in the And Peggy touring cast of Hamilton. He recently received the Broadway Spotlight Award from the USC School of Dramatic Arts.

— READ MORE ON PAGE 15.

Ryan Eggold BFA ’06 stars as Ted in the 2020 film Ray Chase BA ’09 voices Raizel in the English Never Rarely Sometimes Always and will appear in dub of Noblesse and Roswaal L. Mathers in the upcoming Tyler Perry film A Jazzman’s Blues. the English dub of Re:ZERO – The Prophecy of the Throne.

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USC CALLBOARD

Briga Heelan BFA ’09 has a recurring role as Samantha on the CBS television series B Positive.

Peter Vack BFA ’09 plays Jim in the HBO Max series Love Life, starring Anna Kendrick. He also starred in the films PVT Chat and Grow.

Julie Taiwo Oni MFA ’09 was selected to participate in Center Theatre Group’s 2021-22 L.A. Writers’ Workshop.

CL A S S OF 201 0s Sara Fox BFA ’10 received her first Emmy nomination for Outstanding Fantasy/Sci-Fi Costumes for her work on Disney’s The Mandalorian.

Brooke Butler BA ’10 stars in Tidal Wave Entertainment’s horror thriller Lantern’s Lane.

She is recognized for her role in the Netflix show All Cheerleaders Die. McKinley Belcher III MFA ’10 stars in the HBO limited series We Own This City.

Nichole Sakura BA ’11 stars in the television series Superstore and was the role of Haru in Star Wars: Visions.

Raphael Corkhill MFA ’11 plays Shawn in the Peacock original drama Dr. Death.

Jonathan Muñoz-Proulx BA ’11 directed the radio play 90403: Santa Monica, episode “Plucker,” as part of Antaeus Theatre’s The Zip Code Plays.

He also produced the 2021 Garry Marshall Theatre New Works Festival.

Melanie Newby BA ’11 is a working actor in Atlanta, GA. Some of the notable shows in which she has been featured are AMC’s Halt and Catch Fire, FOX’s The Resident and HBO Max’s Doom Patrol.

Karan Soni BA ’11 wrote and starred as Ravi in the Duplass Brothers Production film 7 Days, and will star in the film Not Okay and Amazon’s The People We Hate at the Wedding. He also stars in the comedy fiction podcast series Dark Air with Terry Carnation and has a recurring role in Netflix’s Special.

Melanie Avalon BA ’12 is the author of What When Wine and hosts The Melanie Avalon Biohacking Show and The Intermittent Fasting podcasts.

Zach Kaufer BA ’12 was promoted to senior manager of professional licensing at Concord Theatricals, overseeing Equity regional and first-class productions of titles from the catalogs of Rodgers & Hammerstein, Tams-Witmark, Samuel French and The Musical Company (Andrew Lloyd Webber).

Alexander Ludwig ’12 plays Ace Spade in the upcoming Starz series Heels.

Jon Rudnitsky BFA ’12 stars in the film All My Life and as Mike Devries in the FOX series The Big Leap.

Madhuri Shekar MFA ’13 received the Dramatists Guild of America’s Lanford Wilson Award, which is presented annually to a dramatist based primarily on their work as an early career playwright. She will also write the script for the third installation in the Sister Act film series.

Pia Shah MFA ’13 was selected to participate in Center Theatre Group’s 2021-22 L.A. Writers’ Workshop.

Greer Grammer ’14 stars as Sarah Weddington in the film Roe v. Wade and Grace in the film Deadly Illusions, as well as in Dark Star Pictures’ Ted Bundy: American Boogeyman, opposite Chad Michael Murray.

Claire Adams BA ’15 has been working in New York and Los Angeles — most recently, as Lauren in Kinky Boots and in Into the Woods at the Hollywood Bowl. She is currently in London working towards her MA in Classical Acting from the London Academy of Dramatic Arts.

Amelia Brookins BFA ’15 was awarded The 2019 Madeleine Ginsburg Grant by the Associations of Dress Historians for her work at Shakespeare’s Globe Library and Archive in London. She catalogued the archive files containing fashion history research by costume designer Jenny Tiramani (2012 Tony Award).

Taubert Nadalini BA ’17 performed as Jack in the staged reading of The Importance of Being Earnest, A Wilde New Musical at Musical Theatre West.

Roland Buck III BA ’15 will star in the 2022 film Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin, directed by William Eubank.

Marc Hills BFA ’18 was cast as Jack Ford, Jerry and Betty Ford’s second eldest son, in the upcoming Showtime series The First Lady.

Jay Lee BA ’15 is the recurring role of Chris Park in CSI: Kat Meister BA ’14 successfully Las Vegas and performed transitioned to stage managing in the virtual speakeasy online and worked with the experience Into the Mist.

California Democrats for He is also an adjunct their DNC Fest, as well as lecturer at SDA, directing for Election Day events and several shows over the years.

Veterans Day celebrations.

In addition, they worked with the Center for Dylan McTee BA ’15 stars in the horror film Constitutional Rights in their online activism Wrong Turn. work and celebrations, including “Justice Beats” and “From Stonewall to Minneapolis.”

Daniel Rashid BA ’15 performed in the 2020 film Beast Beast, as well as the virtual speakeasy James Morosini BA ’14 received the grand experience Into the Mist. prize for his short I Love My Dad at the Philip Labes BA ’15 was the musical opening act 2020 ScreenCraft Comedy Screenwriting Competition. for Jason Mraz during his summer tour.

Madigan Stehly BFA ’14 was nominated this year for two Emmy Awards — including Outstanding Lighting Design/Lighting Direction For A Variety Special for his work on the 62nd Grammy Awards and Outstanding Lighting Design/Lighting Direction For A Variety Series for FOX’s So You Think You Can Dance. He has previously earned two Emmy awards and two Emmy nominations.

Inda Craig-Galván MFA ’17 had her play a hit dog will holler as part of the JAW Play Reading Series at Portland Center Stage. Her play Welcome to Matteson! performed as an online reading at the Passage Theatre in 2020, and a monologue she wrote was included in a collection called If I Should Wake, which streamed at the Greenway Court Theatre. Her short play Dwelling Codes debuted as part of Company One Theatre’s virtual event Remaking America: An Inaugural Message to the New Administration.

Miles Fowler BA ’15 recently joined the FOX medical drama The Resident as a series regular, playing the character Trevor.

Julia Stier BA ’18 wrote and acted in a series of monologues called The Pandemic Papers, featuring the work of several SDA alumni.

Abby Light BFA ’19 was the lighting designer from Sept. 2020 to Jan. 2021 for the first-ever Presidential Studio, which was used by the Biden/Harris team throughout the presidential campaign and transition to the White House.

Gideon Wabvuta MFA ’19 was recently appointed as a literary manager for Echo Theater Company.

Calahan Skogman MFA ’19 stars as Matthias in the Netflix series Shadow and Bone.

CL A S S OF 2020s Miguel Ángel García BFA ’20 stars as Moco in the Netflix drama Blue Miracle, opposite Dennis Quaid.

Briana Henry BFA ’14 was nominated for a Daytime Emmy for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her role as Jordan in General Hospital.

Jordan Tyler Kessler BA ’20 starred as Elliott in Isaac Jay BA ’15 can be seen in FX’s Impeachment: the world premiere of John Guerra’s The Last, American Crime Story.

Best Small Town at Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum.

Kapil Talwalkar BA ’15 will star in the NBC Night Court sequel.

Charrell Mack MFA ’21 appeared in the world premiere of D.G. Watson’s ASCENSION with Scott Felix BA ’16 directed five shows for Shia Echo Theater Company at the Atwater Village LaBeouf ’s Slauson Rec Theater Company. He Theatre. also created production company Sunflower Pictures, which focuses on independent short Galen J. Williams MFA ’21 stars in Larry Powell’s films, and published his poetry book, Mediocre Emmy-nominated digital series The Gaze. He Sunflower, through Barnes & Noble. will also join the cast of Jeremy O. Harris’ Slave Play at the August Wilson Theatre on Broadway.

Shane Paul McGhie BFA ’16 starred in the film The Last Shift, opposite Richard Jenkins and Ed O’Neill, and the film Foster Boy, opposite Matthew Modine.

A RE Y OU A N A LU M O F T H E S C H O O L ?

Tonatiuh Elizarraraz BA ’14 stars in the ABC pilot Promised Land.

Perry Mattfeld BFA ’16 stars in The CW’s series In the Dark, which is in its third season.

Colin Woodell BFA ’14 stars in the upcoming Michael Bay action-thriller Ambulance.

He was recently nominated with the cast of The Flight Attendant for a SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series.

Tell us what you’ve been up to and we’ll feature it in Callboard ! Email the SDA Communications Office at sdacomm@usc.edu.

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Supporters of Dramatic Arts The USC School of Dramatic Arts would like to recognize the generosity of the following individuals and organizations who have supported the School over the past year towards core programs such as professional development, scholarship, new facilities 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 ascent and future achievements.

VISIONARY CIRCLE

SEASON SPONSORS

DIRECTORS

ANGELS

Anonymous* (4) Dr. and Mrs. Peter Bing and the Anna H. Bing Living Trust Lauren and Mark Booth* George N. Burns Trust Roger and Michele Dedeaux Engemann* Katherine B. Loker Martin Massman Trust Robert and Elizabeth Plumleigh —In Memory of Karen Plumleigh Cortney* Alice, Teresa and Byron Pollitt

Anonymous (2) Connie Britton Christine and Gabriel Dassa* The Lawrence and Megan Foley Family Foundation Lori and Simon Furie Kristin and Warren Geller* Perry C. Hoffmeister and Hilary C. Hoffmeister* Pamela and Mark Litvack* LoCasale Consulting, Inc.* Michael and Melissa Meyers* The Polos Family Karyn and Paul Staubi* Jeff and Cathie Thermond

Anonymous Chris and Jennifer Andrews Randolph and Ellen Beatty Todd S. Black and Ruth Graham Black MaryLou O. Boone Kate and Joe Cannova Michael and Michelle Chiklis Eileen Cornish —In Memory of Michael Keenan Sumner and Angela Erdman Kristin Fontes Brad and Ally Fuller Eugene and Wendy Garcia Lorena Gonzalez Allison and Keyes Hill-Edgar Lynn Hunt-Gray and Robert Gray Gary and Karen Lask Babette Markus Mark and Sandra Nelson Sally and Howard Oxley Joni Ravenna Sussman Rik Toulon University Advancement USC Alumni Association Drs. Kellie Yoon and Stephen Treiman

Jonathan and Adrienne Anderle Theodore V. Arevalo Mark H. Bevan Jack Bleck Pamela and Chris Canter Els Collins Regina K. Eremia Trust James Fousekis Lorraine J. Gildred-Conlan Catherine and Burnett Hansen LATC Deborah Mack Dr. Willa Olsen Mary Reveles Pallares Madeline Puzo —In Honor of Els Collins Mona and Benjamin Raffle Irene and Andrew Robinson Abe and Annika Somer Marissa Stahl The Sykes Family The Performers Mindset – Joe Towne John Villacorta Rafael Yglesias and Ann Packer Linda Yu

DEAN’S CIRCLE

Anonymous* (2) The Auen Foundation Rama Backer* Victoire and Owsley Brown III* George and Dyan Getz* The H.N. and Frances C. Berger Foundation Michael P. Huseby Family* Steve and Jerri Nagelberg* Richard and Diane Weinberg

EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS

Anonymous The California Wellness Foundation Legendary Alexander and Megan LoCasale* Adrienne Visnic* PRODUCERS

Anonymous Gregory Caruso PATRONS OF TRIBUTE Terence Dedeaux and Albert and Bessie Warner Christine Marie Dedeaux Fund EPIX Entertainment, LLC Joan Beber Grant Kathryn and John Fund of the Gilbertson Jewish Community The Heslov Family Foundation* Cindy Kahn The Ella Fitzgerald and Steve Marker Charitable Foundation Michael and Debbie Felix* Jeff Kribs Vida and Kourosh Gohar* Christine Marie Ofiesh The Phil Allen Marilou and Mark Mentorship Scholarship Hamill Family* Rik Reppe and Carla and Bill Pelster* Shauna Torok Reppe Linda Bernstein Rubin James and Leslie Visnic* and Tony Rubin* Noelle L. Wolf

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USC CALLBOARD

BENEFACTORS

Hossein Akbari and Maria C. Akbari-Feo Anonymous Janet Billups —In Honor of Mark and Kate Burton and Marilou Hamill Michael Ritchie Sheri and Andrew Ball Scot and Wendy Claus Clara Y. Bingham Michael and DeAnna and Joe G. Finnerty III Colglazier Emanuel Bachmann Rob Cutietta and Foundation USC Glorya Kaufman —In Memory of School of Dance / Emanuel O. Bachmann, USC Thornton B.S. 1932 School of Music Melvin and Doris Hughes Tate Donovan Dennis Cornell Lenahan Suzanne Durrell Mark Marion and and Ian McIsaac Sheila Grether-Marion Dr. David Emmes J.W. Woodruff and and Ms. Paula Tomei Ethel I. Woodruff Sara Fousekis Foundation and Greg Derelian Mark and Glenda Hilliard J.P. Karliak Matthew and Heather Lillard PATRONS

FRIENDS

Dorinda Marticorena and Steve Slater Pamela Monroe Scott S. Mullet and Jenelle Anne Marsh-Mullet Elizabeth O’Connell Albert and Kathleen Osterloh —In Honor of Michele Engemann Nancy Ritter The Roxworthy Family Michael Charles Solomon Samuel Sonenshine Stanley’s Garden Foundation —In Honor of Michele Engemann Nancy and Peter Tuz USC Town and Gown —In Honor of Michele Engemann Mark Varo Daria T. Yudacufski CHAMPIONS

Anonymous Anschutz Film Group, LLC Molly Basler Cindy Chanin Elizabeth Daley Seana Daley Chris Funk Emily and Rollin Gallagher Casey Gardner J.T. Garcia Tyson R. Gaskill Kim Gillingham Marty Gonzalez Yessica Gonzalez Ezekiel Goodman Andrew Grumpert Brendan Hedges Mary Lou Karliak Nancy and Jack Larson John and Eva Lino Jan and Michael MacDougal Veronica McFarlane Michael J. Moore Jana Norris Amy Ross Natalie Summerfield Sibyl Wickersheimer

John J. Adams Anthony and Angelle Albright Hugo Alvarado Alzheimer’s Los Angeles Thomas Cunningham Anawalt Brenda Kadrie Anderson and Brian Anderson Erin Anderson —In Honor of Tina Haatainen Jones Andrei Belgrader Briana Nicole Billups Brent Blair Dr. Julie R. Brannan Debbie Brendel and Barron Wall Matthew and Margaret Breslin Robin and Robert Burg Andrew R. Caddes Michael Cantor Paula Cizmar John and Eva Coffey Donald Collins William and Nancy Dannevik Donald Dean David Dixon Whitney Ellis Linda E. Ewing Donald B. Fields and Myla Lichtman-Fields Noah Finn —In Memory of Jack Rowe Jill and Jonathan Fisher Lori Ray Fisher and Eric Fisher Paula Forrest Sara Fox Andre Garner Michael and Antoinette Garrett Cheryl Geremia and Richard Schulsohn Johnny and Marie Gillespie Jason Ginsburg Maryellen Gleason and Kim Ohlemeyer Professor Jenny Guthrie and Andrew Wedemeyer Estelle and Matthew Hicks Allyson Hill David Hornblower Collie and Charlie Hutter Nona Johnson Michael Kuser Matthew Lebowitz

FRIENDS

Patrick and Elisabeth Ledwell Yeon Jin Lee Mary Lewis Brandon Lim Brooke MacDougal Edward Manning and Laurie Anne Wood-Manning Jasmine Marie Mencias Jennifer and David Mitchell —In Honor of Matthew Mitchell Patrick Brian Murphy Kathleen Dunn-Muzingo Alexander Tri Minh Nguyen Laura Obiorah Ogunyemi Olubukola Ogunmola Professor Natsuko M. Ohama

IN-KIND DONORS

Yoni Ovadia Richard O’Young Jeffrey Parker David and Pamela Patch —In Honor of Kimberly A. Patch Timothy James Pauer Jeff Perry Nancy L. Pierandozzi Leslie Ann Pittman Peter Ploszek Yelena Podkolzina Craig Questa Mark Riggs Dr. Robin Romans Philip and Christina Ronstadt Virginia Ross Amanda and Daniel Sanderson Joshua and Violeta Sapkin Talia Saraceno

Donald Schmidt and William Purves Sarah Schuessler Angela Scott Pranav Shah Michele Shay Rick and Jeanne Silverman Ashley K. Singh Patrick Skelton Dean and Cherie Stebner —In Honor of Zachary Steel Margaret and Robert Stratford Beverly Suzuki and Adrian Lopez Charles L. Swick and Linda M. Reilly-Swick Natsuki Takano Danielle Thorpe Jason Turner

Eleanor E. Vade Bon Coeur Delphine and Matt Vasko Sabina Zuniga Varela Jamie and David Way James J. and Laurie Hom Wen Laura West Lauren Willems Grace E. Wright Brett Wyman Guiyan and Xinwen Xue

Amy King Dundon Berchtold University Club of USC Anonymous Balboa Bay Resort and Club Del Mar Thoroughbred Club Dulce Elyse Walker The Larry and Megan Foley Family Foundation Gale’s Restaurant Vida and Kourosh Gohar Mark and Marilou Hamill Greg Holford IWC Schaffhausen Lavo Restaurant LoCasale Consulting, Inc.

Lucky Bird Fried Chicken Linda and Tony Rubin Christine Marie Ofiesh Palm Springs Women in Film and Television (PSWIFT) The Pink Pig Pure Hermosa Health and Skincare Smokehouse Pictures TAO Group The Resort at Pelican Hill USC Alumni Association USC Athletics USC Hotel

*Represents multi-year pledge

WE HOPE YOU WILL CONSIDER BECOMING A MEMBER.

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

Photo by Craig Schwartz

Continuing A Legacy.

Over the last 75-plus years, SDA has changed the lives of its students, its audiences and its community. And this all has been made possible because of YOUR SUPPORT. As we continue to celebrate SDA’s 75th anniversary, you are now part of a long-standing tradition of providing students with a top-ranked, progressive and interdisciplinary dramatic arts training experience!

Today, you can continue our tradition by supporting scholarship, theatre and social change programming, and the professional development of our students with a gift by texting the keyword SDA75 to 41444, or by visiting ignite.usc.edu/drama.

DRAMATICARTS.USC.EDU

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ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED

University of Southern California

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA SCHOOL OF DRAMATIC ARTS

Los Angeles, CA 90089-0791

dramaticarts.usc.edu

USC SCHOOL OF DRAMATIC ARTS 2021/22 Season of Plays

PHOTO BY

Craig Schwartz

SPRING 2 02 2

MFA Acting Year 3 Repertory Feb 11-26 | Scene Dock Theatre

Blade to the Heat

by Oliver Mayer Directed by Edgar Landa

Seize the King

by Will Power Directed by Michele Shay

As You Like it

by William Shakespeare Directed by Kate Burton Feb 24-27 | Bing Theatre

The Odyssey

by Mary Zimmerman Directed by Stephanie Shroyer Mar 3-6 | McClintock Theatre

@USCSDA @USCSchoolOfDramaticArts

In the Red and Brown Water

The Tempest

by William Shakespeare Directed by Robert Bailey Apr 21-24 | Scene Dock Theatre

MFA Dramatic Writing New Work Festivals Year 1

A Chorus Line

Godspell

Year 2

by Tarell Alvin McCraney Directed by Anita Dashiell-Sparks Mar 31–Apr 3 | Scene Dock Theatre

Conceived and Originally Directed and Choreographed by Michael Bennett Book by James Kirkwood and Nicholas Dante Music by Marvin Hamlisch Lyrics by Edward Kleban Co-Choreographed by Bob Avian Directed by Tim Dang Mar 31–Apr 10 | Bing Theatre

Conceived and Originally Directed

by John-Michael Tebelak Music and New Lyrics

by Stephen Schwartz Originally Produced on the New York Stage by Edgar Lansbury / Stuart Duncan / Joseph Beruh Apr 21-24 | McClintock Theatre

May 2 | Inner-City Arts

April 13-17 | Massman Theatre

Year 1

May 20 & 21 | Carrie Hamilton Theatre at the Pasadena Playhouse

The Hamlet Project

By William Shakespeare Edited and Adapted by Edgar Landa Directed by Edgar Landa Apr 7-10 | McClintock Theatre

For more information, visit

dramaticarts.usc.edu/on-stage