David Geffen School of Drama 2024 Commencement

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DAVID GEFFEN SCHOOL OF DRAMA AT YALE CELEBRATES

THE CLASS OF 2024

Monday, May 20, 2024

University Theatre

Ceremony

James Bundy, Elizabeth Parker Ware Dean

Florie Seery, Associate Dean

Chantal Rodriguez, Associate Dean

Carla L. Jackson, Assistant Dean

Nancy Yao, Assistant Dean

Paul Walsh, Faculty Marshal

Ariel Yan, Registrar

Welcome

Land and Labor Acknowledgment

Remarks

Presentation of Distinguished

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

Lawrence and Rita Holder Lighting Design Award

Pamela Howard Prize

Morris J. Kaplan Prize

Julian Milton Kaufman Memorial Prize

Teaching Awards

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

Presentation of Certificates and Degrees

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 2024

Technical Internship

Nicole Isabella Goldstein

Amani Jaramoga

Destany Page Langfield

Cheuk Kit Lau

Certificate in Drama

Robert Michael Salerno

Suet Laam Tsang

Annie Wang

Rolanda Burnett, Jr. Eugenio Sáenz Flores

Master of Fine Arts

Omid Akbari

Garrett Carter Allen

Risa Ando

Whitney Andrews

Nakia Shalice Avila

Nicolas Cy Benavides

Aholibama Madai Castañeda González

Alexus Jade Coney

Michael Allyn Crawford

Samanta Yunuen Cubias

David DeCarolis

Jason Dixon

Samuel Woodhull Douglas

Giovanna Alcântara Nacif Drummond

T.F. Dubois

Diego Sebastián Eddowes Vargas

Forest B Entsminger

Safwon Farmer

Rebecca Diane Flemister

Sydney Raine Garick

Hannah Fennell Gellman

Karl J. Green

Annabel Guevara

John Anton Horzen

Gabrielle Samantha Hoyt

Jacob Avi Hurwitz

Lucas Frazier Iverson

Malik Tyreece James

Luanne Jubsee

Karen Anne Killeen

Natalie Anne King

Chloe Beth Knight

Joseph Patrick McAvoy Krempetz

Stefani Chiayi Kuo 郭佳怡

Xiaonan Liu 刘晓南

Janiah Lockett

Miguel Angel Lopez

Nat Lopez

Augustine Lorrie

Charlie Éilís Lovejoy

Stanley Arthur Mathabane

Max Monnig

Bobbin Alexis Marie Ramsey

Carolina Reyes Rivera

Doug Robinson

Rebeca Lauren Robles

Alan Kinnebrew Roy, Jr.

Suzu Sakai

Jacob Daniel Santos

Kiyoshi Patrick Shaw

Yu-Jung Shen 沈毓融

Samantha Lindsay Skynner

Danielle Stagger

Luke Tarnow-Bulatowicz

Léa Tubiana

Cameron Waitkun

Michael Winch

Amelia Windom

Samuel Jackson Zeisel

Kim Zhou

Yichen Zhou

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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