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Dear Alumni and School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies' Family,
It has been a stellar academic year for the School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies (TDPS)! On May 19th we graduate 8 new Doctors of Philosophy, 12 new Masters of Fine Arts, and 30 Bachelors of the Arts! The School’s 2017-2018 Season saw eight Main Stage Theatre and Dance productions, eight student-produced Second Season shows and countless local, national, and international performances and scholarly presentations. TDPS continues to work tirelessly to advance and transform the research and practice of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies through our commitment to excellences and innovative education in the performing arts. The artistic and scholarly work of our faculty, students, and you, our alumni, reflects our focus on inquiry, investigation, collaboration, and creative research.
In addition, this year we received a generous gift with which the School inaugurated the
International Program for Creative Collaboration and Research (IPCCR)
. The director of this new initiative, Dr. Franklin Hildy, has established a strong partnership with the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Prado in Madrid, and the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium and Brussels as well as with the Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library, and the School of Music. On September 20 and 23 of 2018 we will launch an interactive performance based on a series of painted panels digitized by the Victoria and Albert Museum, called the
“Triumph of Isabella,”
which is one of the first depictions of street performance. Students and faculty from all disciplines in TDPS have been engaged in research, design, and performance to launch this immersive, interactive event in September and to celebrate the completion of two “World Outreach Classrooms” that will allow TDPS students to work with partners across any distance.
The advisory Board of Visitors for TDPS is thrilled to have two new alumni members, Leayne Freeman Dempsey and Sara Cooper (
the Cooper Review
). This year the Board created a student award in their name which will begin serving students in 2018-19 academic year. Thank you to our wonderful Board of Visitors!
In April, TDPS hosted the
Black Theatre and Dance Symposium
with keynote speakers
Paige Hernandez and Shirley Jo Finney and we also hosted a Mad-Dash Festival
in Dance that brought community, students, and professional dancers together for 3 days of rigorous art and discipline.
Eighteen nominations for Helen Hayes Awards went to students, faculty, and alumni affiliated with TDPS, and were winners in 5 categories. Congratulations to all!
We are hosting an alumni event this fall in New York City and in March 2019 on campus around our New Fearless Play Festival. We hope that many of you will join us to network with each other! Your presence out in the world, with all the varied and wonderful careers you have followed, makes us deeply proud. Staying connected with you gives our current students a vision of what they can one day accomplish.
I wish you an excellent and creative summer, and I look forward to seeing you in the near future!
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Leigh Wilson Smiley, Director
University of Maryland School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies
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In this newsletter:
- Alumni Event
- Feature Story
- Alumni spotlights
- Alumni production notes
- Alumni placements, publications, and awards
- Thank you
- TDPS 18/19 Season
Stay in touch by emailing your news to
tdpsmarketing@umd.edu,
share and tag (UMD_TDPS) us on social media!
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If you're in the Los Angeles area join us on Thursday, June 7th for Fe
arless Conversations
, a compelling panel discussion highlighting the opportunities and challenges facing the Entertainment industry today. Hear from an esteemed panel of Terp alumni as they take a deep dive into their journey building careers in a variety of arenas, and respond to the hot-button issues shaping the current industry landscape.
Rooftop reception preceding and following. For more information and to
register visit
alumni.umd.edu.
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A Unique Path Leads to Broadway
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Many people would give up after going on over forty auditions in one year, knowing that the odds are not stacked in their favor. As a trained hip-hop dancer, that took only a few theatre courses,
Aurelia Michael
(‘08) was a non-union, African American female performer, with only two theatre shows under her belt, a big dream and an even bigger determination to snag a role in a Broadway production. This year, she realized a goal that was fueled years ago after graduating from University of Maryland’s School of Theatre, Dance and Performance Studies. Though not without disappointment and hard work, Aurelia is proof that dreams do come true. Aurelia Michael is currently working on her first Broadway show,
Summer: The Donna Summer Musical
. Read
more.
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Cristian Lemus (BA Dance '15)
Cristian Lemus is currently working as a dance teacher at Northwood High School in Silver Spring, Maryland. Lemus is the first male dance teacher instructing within Montgomery County Public Schools. Throughout the year he choreographs multiple genres of dances and integrates core subjects within his lesson plans, while preparing his students for their school's Winter and Spring Dance Concerts.
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Sisi Reid (BA Theatre '15)
From August 2017 up until early May,
Sisi Reid was living in Ann Arbor, Michigan where she started volunteering with the Prison Creative Arts Project (PCAP) and co-facilitated a weekly theatre workshop at Cotton Correctional Facility in Jackson, Michigan. From May 23 to June 13 she will be in Brazil with PCAP to visit, create, and perform with 5 different programs.
Sisi will also be premiering the solo version of her play
Rock, Paper Scissors which she will perform at UDESC in Florianópolis and Espaço PeQuod in Rio De Janeiro.
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David Phelps (BA Theatre '12)
David Phelps just finished his first year at Yale School of Drama in the Technical Design and Production Program. This summer, he will be working as the Technical Director for
New York Stage and Film, a company dedicated to producing new works that has helped shepherd shows like
Hamilton and
The Wolves to Broadway success.
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Christopher Martin (Phd '10)
Chris Martin has been working as a network engineer at Cisco Systems since 2013, and on May 1st he was promoted to be the Account Manager covering NOAA.
His son Jesse graduates from Montgomery Blair HS this month and will be attending Mount Saint Mary's in Emmitsburg MD to study Cybersecurity.
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Erin Bone Steele (PhD '12)
Erin Bone Steele is a company member of the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company in Baltimore, MD and will be directing
Love's Labour's Lost for the Summer Outdoor production in 2019. Erin recently co-curated the gallery exhibit "Ira Aldridge: Theatrical Trailblazer," in association with Morgan State University's James E. Lewis Museum of Art and the CSC production of
Red Velvet by Lolita Chakrabarti.
Erin is also working with Brookewood & Avalon Schools on their drama program for grades 5-12, and is active in several community theatre projects at Silver Spring Stage. She is also a volunteer assisting with international refugee resettlement efforts in the Maryland-National-Capital area through a partnership between Lutheran Social Services and Grace Episcopal Church, Silver Spring, MD.
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Nora Ambrosio (BA Dance '84)
Nora Ambrosio just celebrated her 30th year as a professor in the Department of Dance at Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania. This September, she will complete a three-year term as the Chairperson for the Commission on Accreditation for the National Association of Schools of Dance. She is on the Board of Directors for the Lincoln Park Performing Arts Charter School and Slippery Rock Development, Inc. She just completed the 8th edition of her book
Learning about Dance: Dance as an Art Form and Entertainment, and the 3rd edition of
The Excellent Instructor and the Teaching of Dance Technique, to be published summer 2018 by Kendall Hunt Publishing Company. Nora is an active choreographer, creating new dances each year for both student and professional performers.
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Bridget Garwood (BA Theatre '05)
Bridget Garwood was cast in the West Coast premiere of award winning play
Key Change. She was one of 5 members of the first American cast to perform in this powerful social justice play. Details about the show, it's history, and reviews for the show can be found
here.
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Jessie Laurita-Spanglet (MFA Dance '14)
In the fall of 2018,
Jessie Laurita-Spanglet will begin work as a Research Assistant Professor in the department of Theatre and Dance at Wake Forest University. This summer her article "Moving A Dance History Course" will appear in NDEO's D
ance Education in Practice journal. She is also currently serving as a co-interventionist on a new NIH-funded clinical trial called "iMOVE: A Randomized trial of Dance on Mood, Balance and Brain in Alzheimer’s Disease." In this trial they are testing the effects of improvisational movement on people living with mild cognitive impairment.
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Vannia Ibarguen (MFA Dance '09)
Vannia Ibarguen is currently Artistic Director of Global Water Dances, a project that connects and supports a global community of choreographers and dancers to inspire action and international collaboration for water issues through the universal language of dance. They organize a biennial event where more than 100 locations around the world dance simultaneously to raise awareness about the importance of water.
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Gwen Grastorf (BA Theatre '04)
Gwen Grastorf is nominated for a 2018 Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Play - Helen category, for her performance in
The Late Wedding at The Hub Theatre, directed by Kathryn Chase Bryer. Gwen is a permanent company member with Happenstance Theater, who also have six nominations this year for their hit summer show
Bon Voyage! A Happenstance Escapade. Happenstance's next show
BAROCOCO will be premiering at this year's Capital Fringe Festival. You can learn more about Gwen's work at
gwengrastorf.com or
happenstancetheater.com.
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Kate Spanos (PhD '16)
Kate Spanos was awarded a post-doctoral U.S. Scholar Fulbright award to conduct ethnographic research on frevo dance in Recife, Brazil. Her study examines how this regional carnival dance contributes to cultural resistance and the valuation of popular culture in the northeastern state of Pernambuco. You can visit her research blog at
frevo.thekatespanos.com.
Last December, Kate also published an article based on her dissertation research entitled, “Dancing the Archive: Rhythms of Change in Montserrat’s Masquerades,” in the 49th volume of the journal
Yearbook for Traditional Music.
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Sean Hoagland (BA Theatre '05)
Sean Hoagland formed a production company, Domani Productions, for both theater and film productions. He'll be producing
Danny and the Deep Blue Sea off-Broadway in the fall at the Davenport Theatre. He recently finished his short film
What Tomorrow Brings (starred in, co-wrote, and produced) at the beginning of the year. In August, he’ll be reprising a role from
Occasionally Nothing in the Dream Up Festival at Theatre for the New City. And, finally, last year he performed in an Off-Broadway production of
Luft Gangster directed by Austin Pendleton.
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Michael Boynton (PhD '17)
Congratulations to
Michael Boynton
for being
awarded the 2017-2018 Prize for Innovative Teaching from The Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) and The Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, Region IV (KCACTF) this February! A rare and prestigious honor, this award celebrates the best, most innovative professors of theatre across the country.
Michael's dissertation was titled: "Performing Nerd: The Nerd Stereotype in American Popular Culture." He now holds the position of Assistant Professor in the Jacksonville State University Drama Department.
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Ashley David (BA Dance '14)
Ashley David recently moved to Auckland, New Zealand where her passion for dance and the arts and her background/previous work and internship experiences helped her land a position with The New Zealand Dance Company as their Marketing and Development Co-ordinator. Additionally, she continues to teach dance through an organization called Shut Up & Dance where she helps people who swear they "can't dance" channel their inner Beyoncé to move confidently through class & life.
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Deb Sivigny (MFA Theatre '04)
Alumna
Deb Sivigny was recently featured on theatre blog Howlround for her playwriting and design work on
Hello, My Name Is with The Welders. Deb was also nominated for three 2018 Helen Hayes awards including one for Outstanding Costume Design - Helen and two for Outstanding Set Design - Helen.
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Anu Yadav (MFA Performance '13)
Anu Yad
av was recently profiled in
American Theatre
magazine as one of
“Six Theatre Workers You Should Know.”
. Anu is a
DC Public Library Inaugural Artist-in-Residence and a DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities Artist Fellow
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Meghan Abadoo (MFA Dance '16)
Meghan Abadoo was select
ed as one of Dance Magazine’s
“25 to Watch in 2018
"
and received a write-up on the
Dance View Times
blog .
Dance Magazine
recognizes early-career dancers, choreographers and companies, each year, who are on the verge of “breaking out”
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Kosha Engler (BA Theatre '99)
Kosha Engler works as an actress, voice artist and writer lin London, where she has lived since 2005. She recently played Hannah Langridge in the Emmy-nominated British drama 'Victoria' season 2 for ITV/PBS and played Gertrude, Ophelia, Horatio and Rosencrantz in a three-person 'Hamlet' at the Park Theatre, London. Kosha has been the voice of Maybelline UK since 2012 and you can hear her as sassy elephant Suzy and 20 more characters in the upcoming Disney/Gaumont cartoon series 'Furiki Wheels'. She has voiced and done motion capture for dozens of video games including 'Star Wars Battlefront II,' 'Horizon Zero Dawn' and 'Xenoblade Chronicles 2'. She also writes screenplays. Her latest feature, 'The Fantasy Ridge,' was a Final Draft Big Break 2017 Top 10 Finalist out of 7000+ entries. Her latest news is at
kosh
aengler.com
.
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Jared Paul (BA Theatre '99)
Alum Jared Paul was a speaker at this year’s TerpTalks during UMD Homecoming weekend. He spoke to and met with student leaders to inspire future UMD graduates.
Jared is a Hollywood producer who created Faculty Management & Productions to help entertainers create concerts, festivals, and other collaborative endeavors. Fun fact: he also spearheaded the reunion of New Kids On The Block!
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- Pointless Theatre's Rite of Spring features the work of a number of alums: Matt Reckeweg (Direction and Story), Patti Kalil (Story), Frank Labovitz (Costumes), Sadie Leigh (Performer), Rachel Parks (Performer), Anna Lynch (Performer), Lex Davis (Fight Choreography).
- Marci Rodgers (MFA Design '16, Board of Visitors) designed the costumes for Spike Lee's "She's Gotta Have It" on Netflix. Marci designed with Spike Lee's on BlacKkKlansman, a movie that will premiere in theaters August 10th, 2018 and will be featured at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2018. Marci's new project, an adaptation of Antoinette Nwandu's Pass Over, was premiered on Amazon Prime and was also selected for the Sundance Film Festival.
- Vaughn Midder and Meghan Abadoo revived their Second Season show Wake Up! (2015) in a two-day showcase at Dance Place in NE D.C. on May 5 & 6, 2018.
- Kayla Coutts (BA Dance '16) choreographed and performed in a student showcase for Columbia University Medical Center's graduate dance showcase. She also performed in Anna Tan's piece Cerebral in the DUMBO Festival on October 8 in Brooklyn, NY.
- Erica Philpot (BA Theatre '13) was cast as Elizabeth in the national tour of Dirty Dancing, in which she performs many of the iconic songs heard in the movie including "I've Had the Time of My Life" and "You Don't Own Me." http://us.dirtydancingontour.com/tickets/tour-tickets/
- In November, the We Happy Few production of The Dog in the Manger by Lope De Vega fetured the work of three UMD alums: Moyenda Kulemeka (costumes; BA Theatre ‘16), Jason Aufdem-Brinke (lighting; BA Theatre ‘00 and TDPS Board of Visitors), and Jimmy Stubbs (set; BA Theatre ‘17). You can read more about the production in The Washington Post.
- Caroline Clay (MFA Performance '13) lead the cast of Dominique Morisseau's Skeleton Crew at Studio Theatre this past fall. Caroline's performance was praised by the Washington Post.
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Do you want us to share your recent and upcoming work?
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Alumni Placements, Publications, and Awards
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Natasha Joyce was just accepted into UCLA's MFA in Screenwriting program, one of the country's most prestigious and competitive programs. Natasha will start the program in the fall.
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E.B. Brooks recently won an Ovation Award for Best Costume Design and nominated for a Drama Critic Circle Award.
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Danika K Ingle Wiggins '98
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Alumna Danika K Ingle Wiggins is now the assistant principal of Summit Hall Elementary School in Gaithersburg, MD.
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Thank you to for sharing your alumni stories, keeping in touch and continuing to be TDPS representatives that model innovation, collaboration and entrepreneurship in the performing arts. If you would like to come back to TDPS to share your professional expertise with current students we'd love to hear from you.
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Do you have news to share with the TDPS community?
The School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies
advances and transforms the research and practice of the performing arts
through a commitment to excellence and innovative education.
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Kenia Prophet, Coordinator of Marketing & Communications
Jonelle Walker, Graduate Assistant
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