DAVID GEFFEN SCHOOL OF DRAMA AT YALE CELEBRATES THE CLASS OF 2023
Monday, May 22, 2023
University Theatre
Ceremony
James Bundy, Elizabeth Parker Ware Dean
Florie Seery, Associate Dean
Chantal Rodriguez, Associate Dean
Carla L. Jackson, Assistant Dean
Ru-Jun Wang, Faculty Marshal
Ariel Yan, Registrar
Welcome
Land and Labor Acknowledgment
Remarks
Presentation of Prizes
ASCAP Cole Porter Prize
Edward C. Cole Memorial Award
Carol Finch Dye Prize
John W. Gassner Memorial Prize
Bert Gruver Memorial Prize
Allen M. and Hildred L. Harvey Prize
Alan Hendrickson Award
Morris J. Kaplan Prize
Julian Milton Kaufman Memorial Prize
Jay Keene and Jean Griffin-Keene Prize
Leo Lerman Graduate Fellowship in Design
Dexter Wood Luke Memorial Prize
Donald and Zorka Oenslager Travel Fellowship
Pierre-André Salim Prize
Bronislaw (Ben) Sammler Mentorship Award
Frieda Shaw, Dr. Diana Mason OBE, and Denise Suttor Prize for Sound Design
Oliver Thorndike Acting Award
George C. White Prize
Herschel Williams Prize
Theron Rockwell Field Prize
Presentation of Certificates and Degrees
Closing Remarks Reception
Please join the graduates for a reception immediately following this ceremony at the Iseman Theater, 1156 Chapel Street, New Haven.
A very special thanks to David Chu of c2 inc. for providing today’s live captioning.
Class of 2023
Technical Internship
Bennet Theodoro Goldberg
Saida Joshua-Smith
Xi Lin
Certificate in Drama
Rudi Goblen
Master of Fine Arts
Nathan Page Angrick
Kyle Artone
Jacob Basri
Malachi-Andre Beasley
Megan Birdsong
Katherine Carroll Cassetti
Hsun Chiang
Travis Christopher Chinick
Tyler Tiava Cruz
Olivia Cygan
Samuel DeMuria
Ruanthi Shimali De Silva
Patrick Falcon
Emeline Wong Finckel
James Lincoln Fleming
Aisling Galvin
Anthony Grace
Jason Thomas Gray
Aidan Anne Griffiths
Mia Sara Haiman
Lily Elizabeth Haje
Tavia Elise Marian Hunt
Rebecca Annie Jean Kent
Juhee Kim
Mihir Kumar
Leyla Levi
Marcelo Martínez García
Doctor of Fine Arts
Michael Steven Breslin
Jasmine Moore
Erin Sims
Margaret Ransom McCaffery
Ehinomen Amajuoritse Okojie
Abigail Chinazam Onwunali
Madeline Margarete Pages
Chor Yan Pang
a.k. payne
Andrew Francis Petrick
Jiahao Qiu
Evdoxia Ragkou
Catherine E. Raynor
Andrew David Riedemann
Henry Rodriguez
Esperanza Rosales Balcárcel
Nicholas Stephen Ruizorvis
Sarah Elizabeth Scafidi
Bryn Scharenberg
Jen Seleznow
Matthew Jordan Sonnenfeld
Oluwaseun Kayodè Soyemi
Ashley Mildred Thomas
Hannah Tran
Miguel Christopher Salva Urbino
Isuri Madara Wijesundara
yao
Faith-Marie Afia Zamblé
Graham Mitchell Zellers
Lauren East Dubowski
Land and Labor Acknowledgment
Yale acknowledges that indigenous peoples and nations, including Mohegan, Mashantucket Pequot, Eastern Pequot, Schaghticoke, Golden Hill Paugussett, Niantic, and the Quinnipiac and other Algonquian speaking peoples, have stewarded through generations the lands and waterways of what is now the state of Connecticut. We honor and respect the enduring relationship that exists between these peoples and nations and this land. We also acknowledge the legacy of slavery in our region and the enslaved African people whose labor was exploited for generations to help establish the business of Yale University as well as the economy of Connecticut and the United States.
History of the School
Yale University founded a Department of Drama in the School of Fine Arts in 1924 through the generosity of Edward S. Harkness, B.A. 1897. In 1925, while the University Theatre was under construction, the first class of students was enrolled. George Pierce Baker, the foremost teacher of playwriting in America, joined the faculty to serve as the first chair of the department, and the first Master of Fine Arts in Drama was conferred in 1931.
In 1955, by vote of the Yale Corporation, the department was organized as a separate professional school, Yale School of Drama, offering the degrees of Master of Fine Arts, Doctor of Fine Arts, and Certificate in Drama (for those students who complete the three-year program without having the normally prerequisite bachelor’s degree).
The School is now David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University in celebration of a $150 million gift made by the David Geffen Foundation in 2021 to support tuition remission for all degree and certificate students in perpetuity.
Iconography of the School
The shield of David Geffen School of Drama, designed by Theodore Sizer, incorporates the gold spear from William Shakespeare’s coat of arms on a gray background with gold footlights and a red stage curtain drawn back by three decorative gold buttons and a gold tassel.
The David Geffen School of Drama mace, designed by Ming Cho Lee, is an interpretation of the comedy and tragedy masks that are established symbols of theater—tangible representations of the act of taking on a character. As the central idea of his design, Professor Lee foregrounded the elevated emotional value of these icons to highlight theater’s eloquence in expressing the range of human experience.
Yale
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