1970's
D.C. (Dave) ANDERSON's (76) new CD of original songs Our Story - was released in March of this year and, along with all of his previous recordings, is available on iTunes! - Visit www.youtube.com/davidcameronanderson to watch videos of his recent concert at the Metropolitan Room in New York City.
While touring in the First National Tour of The Drowsy Chaperone as Mr. Feldzieg, CLIFF BEMIS (70) took time out to shoot a role in Billy, The Early Years, a feature film which chronicles the early life of Dr. Billy Graham. Shot on location outside Nashville, TN, Cliff plays the role of Dr. Mordecai Ham, a "fire and brimstone" evangelist who was instrumental in Billy Graham's decision to become an evangelist himself. The film was directed by Cliff's good friend, actor/director Robby Benson, and is due in theatres this fall. Beginning November 14, 2008, Cliff will play the role of Ezekiel Foster in Irving Berlin's White Christmas on Broadway at the Marquis Theatre.
KATHY CANNAROZZI HARRIS (76) was awarded the California Educational Theater Association Leadership Award for 2008. The award was presented at the CETA conference in Hollywood by actor John Lithgow. The award was given for creating a theater festival for Southern California Schools called "Role-About" in which students can perform in a day-long festival. The emphasis is on the acting (thus the title role). In the past five years more than 3000 students have performed. They are judged by industry professionals and there is a college fair held on the site as well.
In addition to several recital and concert appearances in and around Cape Cod this summer THOMAS CRUMB (78) will appear as the Sacristan in Cape Cod Operas production of TuccinisTosca in mid-August.
JANET HORVATH WILSON (76) is the Associate Professor and Associate Chair of the School of Theatre at Illinois State University.
BJ JONES (72) took Northlight's production of Larry Gelbart's new play Better Late starring Frazier's John Mahoney to the Galway Art Festival in Galway Ireland during the summer. B.J. was nominated for the Suzie Bass award in Atlanta for his production of Glengary Glen Ross at the Allicance and he also directed at the Actors Theatre of Louisville. Next year B.J. will directed Grey Gardens at Northlight Theatre where he is the Artistic Director.
RIC ROSE (78) continues to teach, dance, and create at the University of Florida School of Theatre and Dance. He choreographed (yet another) production of West Side Story, as well as some original work. He also choreographed for the Hippodrome State Theatre's world premiere of College, the Musical, dancing an original work at the Florida Dance Festival.
BETTE LOU VERSACI HIGGINS (74) returned to B-W to present Letters in the Margins as part of the WWII project with Jack Winget during his production of A Nightmare of Crime.
BARBARA WEIKAMP (78) is a practicing Shiatsu Therapist, and will continue her studies in Oriental Medicine in the fall. Barbara teaches voice at the Community Conservatory of Music in Doylestown, Pennsylvania.
1980s
JOHN AUGUSTINE (83) acted in another ultra low budget independent film during the summer playing a neurotic divorce lawyer and husband to Sachi Parker (Shirley MacLaine's daughter) The "other man" is Keir Dullea playing husband to his actual current wife Mia Dillon. Augustine has written another one-act for the summer shorts festival in NYC. His plays Augustines Confessions are published by playscripts.com
SUSAN DILLON ROBERT (88) has seen a lot of performing since May of '07. She has been in four shows and is auditioning for a fifth! She is working on renewing her teaching certificate (English and Drama) and looking forward to getting a classroom.
STEVEN J. McCARTHY, PhD. continues to serve as the elementary theatre specialist for Los Angeles Unified School District. He supervises 60 elementary theatre teachers serving 392 of the current 501 elementary schools within LAUSD. He can be reached at steven.mccarthy@lausd.net.
JOHN NOLAN (81) appeared with fellow B-W alumni Cindy Petronzio Smith and Charles Eversole (along with non-B-W alums Cathie Brenkus and Bruce Holloway) in Family & Friends, a benefit cabaret performance, at the Cassidy Theater. B-W Professor Suzanne Strew directed, choreographed and introduced the production.
CHUCK AND LESLIE TISDALE (89) Leslie teaches at Old Brooklyn Community Middle School where, this year, both Natalie (5th grade) and Jacob (7th grade) will be students. Chuck is the technical director at Shaker Heights High School. Chuck's brother, Michael, has written a play called "Gold Star, Ohio", and Chuck is a member of the cast! The show opened in October at Cleveland Public Theatre. Go to the link http://www.goldstarohio.com/ for more information about the play.
ROBERT JOHN ZOMBAR (84) finished a production of Tommy at Near West Theatre. Robert writes, Just wanted to congratulate the B-W students on a couple of excellent shows I had the chance to experience A Nightmare of Crime and Brooklyn. Incredible works!!
1990s
MICHAEL BENSON (95) has been accepted into the Penn State School of Theatre Masters of Fine Arts program for Scenic Design and Technology. The program only accepts two people a year. It also comes with a full tuition waiver and an assistantship. He will be working in the prop and paint shop to start, and then possibly move over to teaching undergraduate scene design classes.
RYAN DIETZ (99) in the past year performed as The Professor in All the Great Books (Abridged) both at The Hangar Theatre in Ithaca, NY and then joined the Reduced Shakespeare Company and toured Ireland for 2 1/2 months in the fall. 2008 has been great thus far having been involved with a workshop for Theatreworks USA called If You Give a Pig a Pancake and Other Story Books plus another date with the RSC. Check www.joshandryan.com for updates.
DANIEL HAHN (91) directed a production of Macbeth at B-W spring semester 2008. He was very happy with all of the work the students did.
JILL HARBAUGH (95) had gone back to school to pursue a Masters in Library and Information Science, but decided she missed working in theatre. She went back to work, subbing as a stage manager for Playhouse Square, and then eventually back to Opera Cleveland for a season as PSM in 2007. This past January through May 1 she worked at Florida Grand Opera as an ASM. During the summer Jill worked at Cain Park as the assistant to the general manager.
PATRICK (90) and CHRISTINE (FONDAW 92) JANSON - Christine made her return to the stage last summer in Nine at Cain Park and enjoyed the experience greatly. Patrick played five different character roles during the summer in Harold and Maude: An Intimate Musical at Cain Park. He will also appear in Grey Gardens at the Beck Center in the spring of 2009
MARK KOBAK (90) finished his year with College of Wooster where he was visiting professor of theatre teaching set design and designing the season. He will be the executive director at The Ariel-Ann Carson Dater Performing Arts Centre in Gallipolis, Ohio. The theatre is a 465 seat restored American Victorian Opera House. There is a resident union regional orchestra with area theatre filing out the schedule.
PETER NAEGELE (91) presented a poster at a data fluency conference in March, had vodcasts of his SPSS labs featured during two professional development conferences this spring at Reed and Occidental Colleges. He gave a faculty lecture on vodcasting in the classroom at a technology conference at Oberlin on May 29th and his band Mercury Project [myspace.com/mercuryproject] performed at Ingenuity Fest Cleveland on July 25th.
AMY PICAR (99) lives in NYC and works with alumnus, Ryan Dietz at The Actors Fund as a special events assistant.
CORRIE PURDUM (99) spent her fourth summer working with the Idaho Shakespeare Festival on The Crucible and Into the Woods. This fall she returned to Great Lakes Theater Festival as the stage manager for Into the Woods.
CLAY VAN SICKLE (98) is working as an armorer and stuntman in California. He will appear in the upcoming Babysitter Wanted Lost Warrior, Left Behind and will be completely engulfed in flames in Urban Assault. He is also on the roster as the T-1000 in the Terminator 2 3D attraction at Universal Studios Hollywood.
2000s
BRYON F. ABENS (02) returned to STAGES St. Louis last summer for his second season, working on A Little Night Music (which became one of the best reviewed shows of the St. Louis 2007 theatre season), The Full Monty, and Crazy for You. After getting Crazy for You up and running he returned to the Kansas City Repertory Theatre to ASM their production of Doubt. Following Doubt he returned to Ohio and the world of opera to work on the Toledo Opera productions of Il Trovatore and Cavalleria Rusticana.
MARY CHAMBERLAIN (07) is in her second year of graduate school at the University of Akron in the arts administration program.
CAT CLAUSE (04) currently lives in NYC and is an assistant at CESD Talent Agency. In addition to that she is a competitive ballroom dancer in International Latin.
BRANDON DUBEANSKY (05) finished as a page for NBC and became a manager for the program. He is also in charge of audience services for Saturday Night Live. Brandon hope to start a master's program at Metropolitan College of New York for an MBA in Media Management.
JENN GOODSON (02) was recently promoted to manager, Investor Relations at Epiq Systems, Inc (NASDAQ: EPIQ). She is only two semesters (PHEW!) away from completing her MBA at Fordham University with a dual concentration of Finance and Media Communications.
TONY HANF (06) works at Cleveland PlayhouseSquare and was a part of the new logo launch and 08-09 Broadway series announcement. He is the arts education program coordinator and also served as the technical supervisor for the Westfield Insurance Studio Theatre in the Idea Center at PlayhouseSquare.
AMANDA HARLAND (05) enjoyed the view at Colorado Shakespeare Festival in Boulder during the summer working on Woody Guthrie and Henry the Eighth before returning to The Cleveland Play House for the 2008-2009 season!
KATIE KOCIK ('06) for the past year has been performing/assisting as dance captain in the first National Tour of Playhouse Disney LIVE! She will be continuing in the fall on the International Tour.
ALICIA LaVECCHIA HANSEN (05) is the Annual Fund/Special Events Manager at Great Lakes Theater Festival. She also serves on the advisory board for the Delta Iota chapter of Phi Mu at Baldwin-Wallace College.
BRIAN MARSHALL (00) and PIERRE-JACQUES BRAULT (01) celebrated the 10th Anniversary of Mercury Summer Stock with Honk!, Blood Brothers, Blue's Clues Live!, and The Utter Glory of Morrissey Hall. www.mercurysummerstock.com. Pierre has a full season of freelance directing around the area including Seussical at Willoughby Fine Arts and The Good Doctor at The Ensemble Theatre. Brian will return to Virginia Musical Theatre where he will direct the Virginia Premiere of the musical Jane Eyre.
DAN MARSHALL (02) has been accepted and will attend New York University's Graduate Musical Theatre Writer's Masters Program.
CAMERON CALEY MICHALAK (05) was the theatre production manager for Cain Park this past summer. He is the assistant technical director for The Cleveland Play House for the second season in a row, where he designed the set for Tuck Everlasting and Emperor's Groovy New Clothes.
KATY MICHEL after graduating in '05 moved to Portland, Oregon. In addition to stage-managing, she is on staff at Portland Theatre Works, where she is on the script selection committee and the marketing manager. Katy has been a full-time touring puppeteer for Tears of Joy Theatre for the past two seasons. She will be directing their touring show The Reluctant Dragon.
CARLI TAYLOR MILUK graduated from B-W in 2005 with a BA in Dance and Theater. Her Cleveland performance credits include Morrison Dance, Meg Louise Dance, Great Lakes Theater Festival, Cleveland Shakespeare Festival, Cleveland Public Theater, Fourth Wall Productions and the Magic Mike Productions magic shows. Carli has worked as a guest artist with Cleveland Public Theater, Solon Center for the Arts, Jete Dance Centre, Brecksville Theater on the Square, Brecksville Center for the Arts, Olmsted Performing Arts, The Arts Academy and Olmsted Falls High School. International credits include a European tour for Armed Forces Entertainment as the host of a puppet show with Natural Bridges Puppet Production Company.
AMARA ODONNELL (08) is attending classes at the Atlantic Theater Company in NYC.
REBBECCA PRICE (07) is with the David Copperfield show in Las Vegas. She started as a production assistant in January and was promoted to warehouse manager within a few months.
KARAH VANCE, ('06) attends law school at Cleveland Marshall of Cleveland State University, and during the summer studied under the nation's exclusive International Entertainment Law program in London, taught by some of the nation's top entertainment lawyers out of Los Angeles. She is a member of Playhouse Square's outreach program The Reading Company, performing children's storybooks, and also a member of the CSU theatre department's improv acting group.
JASON YACHANIN (03) appeared in Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead. It premiered in NYC last May.
CYNTHIA ZITTER 07) is an actress with the California Theatre Center in Sunnyvale, CA . CTC is a children's theatre company that has a home theatre and also tours all over the west coast and internationally. In the summer, CTC does adult repertory and teaches a conservatory theatre program to children in the Silicon Valley.
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