Alumni Newsletter for 2007-2008

This has been another exceptional year in the history of our department. A highlight was the rollicking alumni party we enjoyed at Paramount Studios in LA, celebrating our founding chair, the heart and soul of UC Irvine Drama and, indeed, of theatre in America, Robert Cohen. Plans for the renovation of the Studio Theatre into the new Robert Cohen Theatre were unveiled. It was moving (and somewhat surreal), to be surrounded by so many talented and distinguished students from decades past. At events such as these, it becomes crystal clear that Robert is the glue that holds us together; we share an abiding admiration for him. Indeed, his uncompromising energy, vision, and dedication to our department are the principal reasons we remain one of the top drama programs in the country. Although all of this, including the party, may read like a retirement script, the fact is that Robert has no plans whatsoever to retire. Indeed, he continues to teach a full load at UCI, direct on campus and off, and write books, articles, and theatre reviews at a staggering rate. As he said at the party, "I think I've finally reached the midway point in my career." We're holding him to that.

It gives me great pleasure to announce that we've added three outstanding new artists to our design faculty: Holly Poe Durbin - costumes, Jaymi Lee Smith - lighting, and Vincent Olivieri - sound. We're delighted to welcome them and look forward to many years of fruitful collaboration. In other news, Bill Rauch accepted the artistic directorship at Oregon Shakespeare Festival and although he was with us for only two years, his impact on campus was profound. We'll be sure to remind him regularly: Once an anteater, always an anteater.

As you peruse the listings that follow, you'll marvel at the varied and significant accomplishments of our alumni. Each paragraph provides further evidence that UC Irvine Drama is a launching pad for distinguished careers in the arts. Our faculty teaches with the firm knowledge that current students will join our alumni force in shaping the future of theatre, film, television, and entertainment.

May your theatrical dreams come true,

Eli Simon
Chair, Drama
esimon@uci.edu

UC IRVINE DRAMA ALUMNI NEWSLETTER - 2007
Compiled and Edited by Robert Cohen

We'll start off with a paean to the 200+ alums and significant others that attended the February alumni reception hosted by School of the Arts Dean Nohema Fernandez at Paramount Studios in Hollywood. The event - scheduled to announce the impending remodeling and renaming of the Studio Theatre - was a glorious evening of nostalgia, reunion, and planning for the School's future. Alumni TANGI MILLER ('97), BOB GUNTON ('68), and JEFF GREENBERG ('72) were the Dean's invited speakers; original 1965 drama student LORNA BUCK COHEN ('69) was cited for her ongoing and consistent support, and a great time was had by all.

It was a particular treat for old-time UC Irvine hands, including your editor and JAMES PENROD ('74) (currently one of the School's Associate Deans) to see six of our original "Irvine Repertory Theatre" members at the Paramount event. JULIA CREAHAN HANNA ('69), whom we hadn't seen or talked to in the intervening decades, wrote afterwards, "It has been a very long time. And yet, that time has gone so quickly!" True enough. Other IRT members (the theatre ran from 1967-71) who attended the event included BOB GUNTON ('68), BETTY TESMANM ('71), ANNIE BLOOM, ELAINE BARNARD ('71), and JAKE GARDINER ('70). And IRT veteran (now a Houston native) ASTRID GABLOFFSKI, who attended the New York event, made up for missing the Hollywood one by stopping by the Studio Theatre for a peek at your editor's Fall production of Rabbit Hole. And we were thrilled to see another IRT performer, KAREN MCNEIL ('68), just before going to press with this issue: KAREN wrote us this fall that her "heart's deep longing was heard and manifested" and that she had moved back to Orange County" (San Juan Capistrano to be precise), and we gleefully recounted old tales and new adventures. More news of many of these "old hands" in the UC Irvine family dot the remaining pages of this newsletter, but for now we move on, in our usual random order...

JASON VANDE BRAKE ('07) let little grass grow under his feet after graduation - first appearing in Bryan Reynolds's Woof, Daddy! in the New York Fringe Festival, and, just as we went to press, taking the role of Amycus ("and about five other guys") in Tony Award-winning director Mary Zimmerman's production of Argonautika for its run at Berkeley Rep, and moving with the show to the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington and the McCarter Theatre in Princeton after that. "And, of course, there is the possibility of an Off-Broadway or Broadway run after that and I know, I know, don't count your chickens but it's just too hard not to at least consider the possibility." JASON had auditioned for the role following UC Irvine's New York Showcase, coming in second, but is happy to report "just because you didn't get the part doesn't mean you didn't get the part! I'm incredibly excited (and a little scared) but I'm pretty sure it's going to be amazing."

ALLISON LIDDI-BROWN ('85) has become one of the hottest directors on television; she now directs NBC's Journeyman on a regular basis, and has directed multiple episodes of Friday Night Lights, The 4400, Side Order of Life, Army Wives, What About Brian, Las Vegas, Unfabulous, and Brothers and Sisters - just in this current year.

The distinguished journal, American Theatre, published a major feature on KEN ROHT ('85) in the October 2007 issue, interviewing him during rehearsals for the Pocket Opera Company in New York where he was singing the role of Eros in Pumped Fiction. Citing ROHT as "a polymathic theatre artist who's risen from the thankless trenches of Los Angeles's mostly nonpaying, nonunion performance underground to become a sui generis auteur," and praising his direction and choreography at the Evidence Room and Theatre@Boston Court in the L.A. area, plus the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, South Coast Repertory and New York's Bard College. "What's so extraordinary about Ken," says the article (by director Peter Schneider), "is that every time I see his work or even just talk to him - there's no chance I could have done that. His mind is so interesting and unique and odd." Congratulations, Ken, for being our first polymathic alum!

In Hollywood, SCOTT KROOPF ('73) continues his film producing career, scoring in 2007 as the Producer of MGM's The Hunting Party (with Richard Gere and James Brolin) and Breach (with Chris Cooper and Laura Linney), and as Executive Producer of National Lampoon's Ratko: The Dictator's Son and the British film, Magicians. And SCOTT's 2008 and 2009 are already "fully booked" with upcoming films now in production.

And DAVID MANSON ('70) is the Executive Producer of the new (2008) FOX-TV series, New Amsterdam, with Danish star Nikolaj Coster-Waldau playing the titular detective: the pilot, directed by Lasse Hallstrom, has already grabbed public attention, and six episodes are ready to air as we go to press.

And in New York, JAMES CALLERI ('90) is expanding his Calleri Casting company, and soon will be on the masthead with one of his former UC Irvine professors as co-author of the eighth edition of the book, Acting Professionally, where JAMES will provide his global, all-media expertise on the ins and outs of how young actors can and do make their way onto the stages and screens of the theatre business and the entertainment industries. Most recently, JAMES cast the ABC-TV adaptation of A Raisin in the Sun (with Sean Combs), which he had also cast for its earlier Broadway run; his other film and TV shows for 2007 spanned the major networks: the upcoming Lipstick Jungle and Ed (NBC), Hope & Faith (ABC), Angela's Eyes (Lifetime) and Monk (USA), plus three Merchant Ivory films - Heights, The White Countess, and City of Your Final Destination in London - and many other off-Broadway theatre productions in NY and regional ones around the country. In addition to running his five-person office, JAMES is an Adjunct Professor at Syracuse University and leads workshops and professional acting discussions at NYU, UC Irvine and many other schools and theatres.

Meanwhile, back on the left coast, multi award-winning JEFF GREENBERG ('72) (Frasier, Cheers) is now the casting director of the new hit series, Ugly Betty. "I'm loving working on Betty - it's a terrific show with good scripts, great vibe, and great people - it's one of the most fun jobs I've ever had." Along with Betty, JEFF also cast the pilots for 1321 Clover and I'm With Stupid.

TYLER LAYTON ('95) gives a winning performance as the loose-cannon sister Izzy," said Talkin' Broadway about our alum's seventh season performance as a leading actress at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, where she previously played Cherie in Bus Stop, Alice Ford in Merry Wives, Christine in Room Service, Rosaline in Love's Labor's, St. Joan in Henry VI, Hero in Much Ado, Brooke in Noises Off, Perdita in Winter's Tale, Cressida in Troilus and Cressida, Callie in Stop Kiss and Bianca in Taming of the Shrew. Whew! But for next season, TYLER has decided to head off to Chicago - and begin the next phase of her acting - and possibly writing - career. "I felt it was time to stretch myself in new ways," says TYLER, who has now logged ten consecutive years on the Western Shakespeare Festival circuit (Colorado, Utah and Oregon).

MARK BEDARD ('06) meanwhile, in his very first OSF season, landed the role of Biondello in Shrew, and has now been cast in the lead role of Antipholus of Syracuse in the company's 2008 production of The Comedy of Errors.

LINDA ALPER ('71) was also at Ashland last year, for her 21st season and in the capacities of both writer and actress, receiving Talkin' Broadway's high praise for her "hip lyrics" - as well as her performance as the eccentric "Hedda Hopper-ish gossip columnist Betty Olivetti" in the OSF's world premiere of new musical Tracy's Tiger, which she somehow sandwiched between playing Aegeus in Midsummer Night's Dream and Emilia in Comedy of Errors. And CHRISTOPHER DUVAL ('98) the B'way talker said, "provides humor as the comic estate clerk" in The Cherry Orchard - while in his upcoming tenth OSF season he will be playing Tesman in Further Adventures of Hedda Gabler and Roderigo in Othello.

And speaking of Shakespeare festivals, ELISHA GRIEGO ('05) designed the lighting for Around the World in 80 Days and All's Well That Ends Well at the Colorado Shakespeare Festivals last summer.

LAURA STANDLEY ('97) continues to make waves with her Ground Up Productions in New York - called an "up-and-coming Off-Broadway troupe" by Playbill as they opened their Baby with the Bathwater production last November. LAURA is the company's resident director - her stagings of Burn This and the NY premiere of The People versus Mona were among the company's big hits over the past year - which earned plaudits from the New York Post ("a terrific, high-spirited cast" and the New Yorker.

And ANNA FITZWATER ('97) owing to her many roles in Ground Up and other NY companies, now has her Equity card, and at last report was starring in Ground Up's production of Christopher Durang's Baby with the Bathwater ("Fitzwater makes a particularly vivid impression, said Back Stage) which played at the Manhattan Theatre Source.

JON LOVITZ ('79) was once again the voice of Enrico Irritazio on The Simpsons, and filmed I Could Never Be Your Woman which was released in Europe. This year he will be co-starring with Scott Bakula in the feature film, The Science of Cool.

RICHARD GOULD ('80) after playing M. Firmin in the San Francisco Phantom of the Opera for many years (and "wearing costumes that cost more than entire production budgets of most plays that I've done"), has since moved to Los Angeles where he's "done a lot of concert work, premiering several new musicals and playing roles on Nash Bridges, West Wing and a beach movie that made Frankie and Annette's worst work look like Gone with the Wind. I recently got to play Fredrick in Night Music at the Curran, making an arc that began with playing Count Malcolm in the same show at UC Irvine. These were some high points. Not long ago, I went back to Irvine and sat in the Studio Theatre across from the scene shop with the black boxes and the folding chairs and started to get pretty welled up. Nothing makes an actor happier." Most recently, RICHARD has worked with LA Opera and the Berkshire Theatre Festival. "Like most of the theatre-oriented actors in my age bracket, I am looking a bit askance at where theatre has gone and my place in it. The suitcase packing gets to be a bit much. I confess to feel a bit distanced from the whole thing: The deeper I acknowledge my love of drama, the less intrigued I am with what I see around."

STEPHANIE KEEFER ('90) writes that she has been "teaching theatre for the past ten years at Santa Ana High School, where I established a Theatre Department (and, of course, brought in ArtsBridge). In January I finally turned to developing my own acting career. Last week I made my debut on The Young and The Restless!

EMILY ROGGE ('06) is in New York working up a project with SEAN TARRANT ('06) and writes, "I just finished up a wonderful summer at PCPA playing Kate in Kiss Me, Kate and in the cast of Company and I'm now about to start rehearsal as Antigone in Oedipus at Colonus at The Handcart Ensemble in NYC - such an exciting challenge!"

PATRICK ('05) and KYRA SABONGUI ('06) are in Vancouver, BC, where they have recently welcomed a fourth addition to their family: "Bodhi Gabriel Sabongui was born on Nov 3rd, 2007," PATRICK writes. "Our move North has proved fruitful in other ways too: KRYA had a great guest-star role on Stargate Atlantis before she began to show too much (memories of UC Irvine's Timon?) and I have also been working fairly steadily: I have a recurring role on the same show, a guest-star spot on the season premiere of The 'L' Word, a principal role in the feature film Tortured opposite Cole Hauser and Laurence Fishburne, and good roles in an independent Montreal film called Adam's Wall and Zack Snyder's Watchman - his big-budget follow-up to 300. I've also continued as a stuntman, getting shot, blown-up or smashed through windows on Bionic Woman, 24, Whiteout and The Mummy 3 (with Brendan Fraser). As a sideline, I've been teaching acting at John Robert Powers, and done a little coaching."

PATRICK also reports that DAREN HERBERT ('05) has returned from an 8 month gig in Japan. "DAREN's now married and living here in Vancouver. I can't tell you how comforting it is to have a friend nearby who speaks the same acting language as KRYA and me!"

ANDREW SAMONSKY ('03) will be understudying the role of Lieutenant Cable for the upcoming Broadway production of South Pacific at Lincoln Center in early 2008. This year he starred in the Denver production of White Christmas with Cameron Henderson and played Whizzer in an Actors Equity benefit concert production of Falsettos in Los Angeles, with Jason Alexander and Malcolm Getz in the other male roles. Quite some feathers in his cap!

The New York COYOTE REP is off and howling, with twenty UC Irvine alums featured in the company. Founded by JEANNE LASALA ('04) two years ago, with GLENN KALISON ('02) as Producing Director and DONNETTA GRAYS ('02) as Managing Director, the Coyote troupe has become one of the most talked-about small theatres in town, with feature columns appearing in both The New Yorker and (with a great photo!) The New York Times. The company is noted both for its "sound plays" (the subject of the Times and New Yorker features) as well as exciting new dramas by REBECCA TOURINO ('05) (The Naked Eye Planets) and honorary alum (she's married to alum/prof Phil Thompson) TIRA PALMQUIST (the upcoming Coyote Rising). REBECCA's play opened this year to stunning reviews, with Broadway.com praising "the superb writing of REBECCA TOURINO and flawless direction of MAGDALENA ZIRA ('06) matched by 100 percent solid acting - a four star performance tucked away on another Off-Broadway stage," New York Cool calling it "a magnificently tricky show that takes you on an emotional roller coaster ride so enthralling you can't get off," and Talkin' Broadway raving about the "fresh and engaging world premiere play" with its "enormously talented cast," headlined with particular praise for JEANNE and GLENN.

REBECCA TOURINO ('05), in addition to the premiere of her new play (above) and work as Coyote's Communications Director, has designed three acting course curricula for the Alliance Theatre Conservatory in Atlanta. She is also building a career as a professional proofreader (one client being your editor - who is fulsome in her praise) and preparing for the birth of her first little one (and we're not talking play manuscripts here). "Acting, at the moment, isn't really an option!" she admits.

GLENN KALISON ('02) directed Telescopes at the Coyote, with DONNETTA GRAYS ('02) in the cast, at the New York Players' Club on Gramercy Park. When not in the Big Apple, GLENN was in Dayton, Ohio playing Mitch Albom in Tuesdays with Morrie "at a beautiful old historic 1000+ seat theatre (completely restored) called the Victoria - it was a production of Dayton's Human Race Theatre Co."

And DONNETTA GRAYS ('02) was the "Woman of the Month" this December on Femme Noir - which praised UC Irvine's alum/thesp/Coyote Rep MD for her recurring role of Officer Ramirez on Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, her Broadway, Oregon Shakespeare and film/TV credits, and her "seriously sultry to outright wacky" voiceover work, which includes ads for Wendy's and Coca-Cola, and her role as the 'gansta' baby duckling, "Fluff Daddy" on Nickeolodeon.

JENN COLELLA ('02) was one of the featured performers at the very successful Coyote Rep Fundraiser - her starring roles in the Broadway High Fidelity and Urban Cowboy have clearly made her a "bankable attraction" for the new group. JENN has been working all over North America this year - which had a particularly high point when she co-starred with Donna McKechnie and Marin Mazzie in Beautiful Girls, a tribute to Stephen Sondheim coached by Sondheim himself, presented at the Colorado Festival of International Theatre in Colorado Springs. "A feast of show tunes and vocal one-upswomanship," declared the Colorado Gazette, adding that "All three performers are beautiful, supremely accomplished and utterly fearless" and praising in particular "rising star Colella's cute, girlish Red Riding Hood in 'I Know Things Now' and her sublimely neurotic delivery of 'Getting Married Today.'" Better than the press reviews, though, was Stephen Sondheim's commendations. "He came up to me after our opening night (which happened to fall on my birthday) and told me that he'd never heard "I Know Things Now" done better; that I didn't miss one acting beat and that he was thrilled to finally hear me sing his songs! Then, at a post-opening party for him, he stopped everything to sing 'Happy Birthday' to me! How the Hell am I gonna top that next year?" Other major credits for JENN this year were three off-Broadway shows: Don't Quit Your Nightjob, an improv/sketch comedy show with alternating casts of Broadway celebrities, followed by a new off-Broadway musical entitled Unbeatable, where JENN, as the lead, played a woman battling breast cancer, and finally Lonny Price's Kiki Baby at Primary Stages, "in which I play a four year old - not that big of a stretch, really! And then I'm going to Cancun for an American Express industrial! Thank goodness for industrials, they really help pay the bills when we're in-between production contracts." Meanwhile, JENN's partner JENY FOOTE ('00) completed her national tour as Jolene, the "girl from Oklahoma" in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and segued into the Encores! series production of Follies at New York's City Center - with an all-star cast led by Victoria Clarke, Donna Murphy and Victor Garber, and with Stephen Sondheim present for all rehearsals. And JENN adds more news: JENY and I are planning our upcoming nuptials for April 28th, 2008 - on our five year anniversary. You can print that, too, if you'd like! I'm so excited and PROUD."

TANGI MILLER's ('97) Love and Other Four Letter Words continues its US film festival tour. The romantic comedy (which she produced and stars in), recently won the Juror's Choice Award for Excellence in Producing, Screen writing, and Acting - Female Lead in New York, and has screened to packed audiences at the 15th Annual Pan African Film and Arts Festival, San Diego Black Film Festival, The Arizona Black Film Showcase, The Atlanta Spaghetti Junction Urban Film Festival, The Tupelo Black Film Festival, and most recently in Cannes during the 60th Cannes Film Festival. And her speech at the Paramount event was a dazzler - as was her outfit!

KELLY EASTON ('85) hit the young adult fiction best-seller list for the first time in 2001 with Life History of a Star - and she has now gone on to win the Golden Kite Award, the Julia Ward Howe Award, and has made the "top teen books for teens" list for Booksense and the American Library Association. Three of KELLY's new teen novels hit the stands this year: Afterschock, Hiroshima Dreams and To Be Mona, with And Spells To Bring You To Me expected on the shelves in early 2008. And KELLY's adult fiction appears in literary journals around the country: Frontiers, Connecticut Review, and Paterson Literary Review, among others.

JOEL GOLDES ('90) (aka The Dialect Coach) writes that he's had "an extremely busy year with both my private practice and dialect coaching on productions. I've worked twice with Nicolas Cage: On a Spanish dialect for a Salvador Dali biography and on a New Jersey accent for a film called The Wrestler. I helped Julia Ormond with her American accent on three projects, including one starring Lindsay Lohan (with a full complement of paparazzi). I coached Roger Daltry of The Who in four different accents (New York, Mississippi, Mexican, and as an African American woman) for an episode of CSI. I also worked on the set of NBC's Heroes (Irish and Cockney accents), was a featured guest on a VHI reality series about child actors, and text-coached Hamlet at The Rubicon in Ventura." Such large discourse clearly does not fust in JOEL unused!

JACOB RUSSELL-SNYDER has been living "in Paju, S. Korea, 6 km from the DMZ. I work at an ESL theme park called English Village - performing ESL shows, writing scripts, composing and recording music and hosting game shows. I have found that my "unique" brand of humor as well as my clowning, improv and musical skills have helped a lot in this job. A lot of the mask training I received [from UC Irvine prof/chair Eli Simon] has come in handy in ESL acting."

Onetime New Yorker JASON SPELBRING ('02) has moved 2,800 miles closer to UC Irvine: "I have accepted a full time teaching position at Sage Hill School in Newport Coast." We were delighted to see JASON, along with his Sage Hill chair CHRIS MARSHALL ('98), at UC Irvine's Rabbit Hole at the top of the current school year.

And CHRIS MARSHALL ('98) is very much enjoying his chairship and directing duties at Sage - which is a spectacular new private high school a mile from UC Irvine - and we were excited to see the photos of Scenes From an Execution which he directed this fall. And he was fortunately able to integrate his schedule in order to play "Frankie" and "the Doctor" in UC Irvine's production of Prof. Bryan Reynolds's new play, Blue Shade, which after its UC Irvine premiere toured to Prague and three cities in Poland last spring and to the Romanian International Theatre Festival in fall. Other UCI alumni involved with this production were and touring globally were, in the cast, MARTIN SWOVERLAND ('04), MERCEDES MANNING ('07) and BREANNE MOWDY ('06), while KEVIN KRECZKO ('08) stage managed, CHRISTA MATHIS ('09) designed costumes, LONNIE ALCARAZ ('94) designed the lighting, and a heroic KARYN LAWRENCE ('07) executed the lighting - and, in Romania, she sound and stage managed as well!

KEVIN KRECZKO was Production Stage Manager for the Western New York premiere of Leonard Bernstein's Mass ("with a cast of 120!" he exclaims) this Fall. This came after he had assistant directed Moon for the Misbegotten and before he premiered Broadway A La Carte at the Broadway Dinner Theatre. KEVIN is also a visiting instructor at Niagara University in New York, teaching in the introduction to theatre class and using a book, he acknowledges, written by one of his UCI professors.

MIA OSHEROW ('06) is the Managing Director of Upper Reaches Theatre Company in Long Beach, and began her reading series at the Koo's Art Center with Terrarium there in the fall.

CHARLES MACEO (THORNHILL) ('06) writes in about his first professional acting job, in Who Do You Love at the Wilshire Theater in Beverly Hills. "My role is decent-sized and I am very grateful that God has given me a wonderful starting ground."

JERRY HOFFMAN ('67) provides some winning vaudeville schtick as Mr. Mushnik," said the local critic of one of our earliest alum's performances this year. (JERRY was in your editor's very first UC Irvine class - in directing - in fall 1965 - and was a charter member of the Irvine Repertory Theatre thereafter.) This past year JERRY was in The Justice Box in L.A. and Mr. Mushnik in Little Shop of Horrors in Canada, and also featured as renowned paleontologist Charles Sternberg in Sean Phillips film, Sea Monsters, produced by the National Geographic Society and narrated by Liev Schreiver.

"Lighting by (alum/prof) LONNIE ALCARAZ ('94) highlights each scene and setting, effectively enhancing the set and the actor' critical moments," said the BackStage West critic regarding South Coast Repertory's production of Doubt.

JON SIDOLI ('92) is building the two-year training program at the William Inge Center in Independence, Kansas. "We have gone from zero to 25 students in the last two years and have had UC Irvine alums out as guest artists: LARRY BIEDERMAN ('92) was guest director at one of the staged playreadings in our Playwrights-in-Residence Program, and MICHAEL GROS ('81), now at Kansas State University, directed [ex-UC Irvine Prof William] Inge's Dark at the Top of the Stairs on his campus and used our extensive Inge collection for research - while staying in Inge's home and sleeping at the top of the stairs! Our Festival honorees this year were Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock and that was a blast."

And we heard from MICHAEL GROS ('81) (above) too, about his move to Kansas State: "After producing more than 70 Equity productions and having to constantly raise money and play politics with donors, Boards, staff, presidents, "artists" and oh so many others [at PCPA, where he was Artistic Director], this past year as a professor has been a pleasurable time of renewal. I spent most of last summer reading works on history, culture, religion, commerce, theatre theory (Nietzsche and Horace), governance, and mythology while preparing for a graduate class I now teach on Greek and Roman theatre. And after returning from directing Dark at the Top of the Stairs at the Inge Center's College Play Festival, I directed Fiddler on the Roof here, with full orchestra in a 1,800 seat theatre (the largest in which I've directed) and I'm now beginning preparation for Romeo and Juliet in the spring."

JASON HEIL ('96) has been enormously busy this year: "I played Antony Wilding in Enchanted April at Lamb's Players Theatre, and Lucentio and Capulet at the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival. Last winter, I had gone to NYC and London to do workshop versions of Zhivago - which may hit London in Fall '08. I'm currently about to close as Harker in Dracula at North Coast Rep, then back to Lamb's for two shows: An American Christmas and The Voysey Inheritance. In between, I'm directing Shaw's You Never Can Tell at Moonlight Stage Productions in Vista, which will take me through May." Yes, that's... busy!

JOHN GLORIA ('95) shot 10 commercials last year, "which was a personal record. I've really gotten comfortable in that arena. I also booked and shot an episode of Without A Trace - the FBI show starring Anthony Lapaglia. And my band, Good Ol' Country Railroad, just rolled out its first record.

JOHN STRAIN ('99) writes that he's playing Hitler - "again!" - in Disney in Deutschland at the aptly named Wunderland Theatre at the Next Stage in San Francisco. And that he and CHRIS DUVAL ('98) are completing a book of interviews with fight directors.

JULIE KIERNAN ('01) writes, "I have been working at Soka University of America (a new small liberal arts college in Aliso Viejo) since 2003, where I run weekly workshops on acting and have directed productions on campus. The school's mission is 'to foster a steady stream of global citizens committed to living a contributive life.' It's something I can really get behind and I enjoy coming to work everyday to contribute to building this new university."

KANCHAN MATTOO ('98) is working for state assembly member Lloyd Levine - a member of the House of Representatives for California. "I am enjoying myself and learning a lot."

MARIA HALL-BROWN ('84) was awarded a Golden Mike from the Radio and Television News Association this year - Golden Congratulations!

LARRY BIEDERMAN ('92) staged the L.A. premiere of Mickey Birnbaum's Big Death And Little Death for the Road Theatre this year, which he had first directed as a staged reading after a workshop for the bygone A.S.K. Theater Projects. "It's a sentimental journey to again direct this black comedy after so many years." LARRY is also "teaching some acting classes at Pasadena City College (and also Glendale Community College this spring) and directing pretty steadily in the circuit up here."

LEAH SPRINGMAN ('05) is now "working full time as a Senior Lighting Designer, (swanky title, huh?), for a lighting design company called Radiance Lightworks, a small but growing lighting design company in the Los Angeles area that does work nationally and internationally, designing lights for industrial/trade shows, themed environments (like Universal Studios), concerts and other events. Needless to say, I am very excited."

Marin Shakespeare Festival Managing Director LESLEY CURRIER ('72) was inducted this year into the Marin Women's Hall of Fame, and proudly donated her $1,000 prize to her company's Endowment Fund. "I want to support the long-term future of Shakespeare in Marin, which I hope will be a lasting legacy and service to the community for generations to come," she said.

And husband ROBERT CURRIER ('72), the MSF's founding Artistic Director, staged Steve Martin's translation of Carl Sternheim's The Underpants at the Ross Valley Players, which he followed by co-directing the two Henry IV plays in his company's summer Shakespeare season. "There is an electricity to these productions that is irresistible," said the San Francisco Chronicle of the hard-to-resist Henriad.

LAURA SIMMS ('07) tells us she is "getting some great auditions for guest star roles on network episodics, and a good amount of callbacks. I had a pilot audition yesterday, recorded a video game last week, and joined SAG. I worked on four independent films this summer, and ('06) and I did a Food Network commercial together. I'm looking forward to refocusing on career issues next month, as wedding stuff has split my attention this one. That's right; Zach and I are getting married next week!"

MATT MCNALLY ('05) is stage managing Jubilee! at Bally's Las Vegas and wrote into UC Irvine this year searching for an ASM to help him with the monster spectacle.

BEN KENBER ('99) writes, "the theater company I am with, 3KO Broadway Theater, just finished a show called Not Until Walter Gets Here, consisting of original material by company members. I directed a scene I wrote back at Second City called "The Abnormal Commercial," which was my little dig at the Wal-Mart monolith. I also performed a monologue I wrote about a young man who begs his mother not to move the family to a new town - inspired by the time I had to move in the 6th grade, one of the most frustrating moments in my life!"

HOLLY HOLSINGER ('91) is an Assistant professor at Cleveland State University where this year she had a very busy summer acting in Two Headed at the Cleveland Public Theatre and playing MaryAnn in Austin Pendleton's Booth for CSU's first Summer Repertory Season. "I also remounted my CSU production of Whirligig by Mac Wellman for the Cleveland Ingenuity Festival of Arts and Technology. I'm very busy teaching three classes this semester and am now getting ready to direct Machinal by Sophie Treadwell at CSU, and Between Life and Death by Gao Xingjian at Cleveland Public Theatre. Plus my son Raziel is in first grade, reads like a third grader, and has just accomplished swimming across the pool!"

RICK PRIGGE ('06) writes in: "I received some very good news this weekend. You are looking at an email from the man who is playing Brick in a national tour of Cat On A Hot Tin Roof! I get my equity card, a chance to play a classic American role and to take it on the road for four months. Life is pretty good sometimes!" Yes, it is! The play is produced by the Montana Repertory Theater and opens in Missoula. "Unfortunately the closest we get to CA is New Mexico," he adds. Too bad for us, but we enjoyed seeing RICK in the audience of UC Irvine's pre-season Rabbit Hole.

CHRISSIE MUNICH ('03), tells us she has been designing kids' shows at SCR for years but this year got a regular season show, directed by SCR co-Artistic Director, Martin Benson, on the company's Argyros Stage.

COLLEEN DOWLING ('02) is now Resident Lighting Designer, Lighting Director, and Professor of Lighting at PCPA Theaterfest.

ELLEN SNORTLAND ('74) wrote "popping with excitement" that Gloria Steinem and Helen LaKelly Hunt hosted a presentation of her documentaries Beauty Bites Beast and Now That She's Gone in New York City last May. "What a long road but what an exciting thing to happen," said ELLEN. "Now That She's Gone is what good theater is all about: funny and tragic, particular and universal," Steinham said on the invitation.

We happily ran into ERIC STEIN ('00) this fall at Utah's Shakespearean Festival. ERIC is teaching theatre in the Los Angeles area, and is also the lead singer in his band, "One Bad Apple" (which we caught on YouTube!). And this fall he played the starring role in Agatha Christie's The Unexpected Guest at Repertory East Playhouse in Newhall, reporting "We had a sold-out opening and many regulars have called it the best show the Rep has ever done!"

KITTY FELDE ('76) reports that "the University of Wisconsin Press is publishing my Bosnian war crimes play this fall in a collection of genocide plays." And we loved her beautiful piece on the lost art of sewing - and her friendship with a woman with whom she regularly sews - in the Los Angeles Times.

ALISA HAYASHIDA-DIEZ ('88) and MARYANN BURKE ('92) not only showed up at the Paramount event, they each had husbands in tow, whom we were delighted to meet.

We chatted with GARY GRAHAM ('73) and his wife Becky over dinner this year. Look for him this year in the new films Soulmates, Proving Ground, Dreams Awake, and InAlienable (a revisit, we assume to the Alien Nation films in which he starred as Detective Matt Sikes).

JENNIFER PAWLITSCHEK ('01), who's living in New York these days, was featured by her hometown newspaper (it's called The New York Times) in a multi-column feature on her exemplary work with foreigners on accent reduction. "Life here in NY has been full of lovely, joyous things like this. The article has had an amazing impact; more than my teaching at the UN and consulting with the South Korean diplomatic corps, it has legitimized me - not only my business but in my theatrical work, which now includes my personal invitation from Tina Howe to join her playwrights seminar! I'm always amazed by NYC's little surprises. Even after being here three years, I'm still madly in love with this city." JENNIFER latest theatrical adventure is "a completely revamped, all-original solo show, Physics of Love, with a wonderful theatre company called Emerging Artists Theatre."

GEOFFREY GOING ('99) writes that he and his cousin have composed and recorded songs for new musical work. Stay tuned.

BOB GUNTON ('68) writes joyously, "What with a happy marriage to a wonderful woman, honeymoon in Tahiti etc. I've been travellin' in some pretty high cotton. I recently found myself on the LA set of Rendition, where I was brought in to play Meryl Streep's husband. So, thirty years after Meryl and I made our Broadway musical debuts opposite each other (in the Brecht-Weil Happy End), we found ourselves enjoying a happy reunion. It was a memorable couple of days sharing a soundstage (even a bed) with this wonderful woman and transcendent actress." And BOB - in his role of "Ethan Kanin" on Fox TV's 24 - has also been promoted from Secretary of Defense to Presidential Chief of Staff, a permanent member of the 24 cast. Between takes, he's also filming a World War II miniseries for the BBC, "and later this month, Fracture, a major motion picture starring Anthony Hopkins and Ryan Gosling comes out featuring yours truly as - hold your breath! - a "good guy!"

REBECCA CLARK ('93) and her husband David are publishing their new speech text with Methuen and perhaps shooting a companion DVD to go with it. REBECCA spent last year covering for a voice teacher on leave at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, in London, and then headed to Oregon to coach Shrew (with recent alum MARK BEDARD ('06)) and Tempest - after which she joins David at the Stratford Festival in Canada where he'll be coaching! They're certainly what we can call a vocal duet.

BETH MALONE ('00) was acting up all over this year, first as "the very petite, shy Sister Mary Robert -- who has the show's most poignant song ("The Life I Never Led")," in Sister Act: the Musical, as reported by Atlanta INtown's theatre critic, who continued, "If I see this show twice, it will be to hear Ms. MALONE sing that song again." She might indeed see the show twice, as it's rumored for the West End next season. After that, BETH starred in The Break-Up Notebook, billed as "the world's first lesbian musical" at the Diversionary Theatre in San Diego, which went on to enjoy an October showcase at the industry-only Festival of New Musicals in New York, hosted by NAMT - the National Alliance for Musical Theatre, and future performances of that show seem likely in the coming season as well. BETH followed as Frankie in Jason Alexander's Reprise production of On Your Toes in Los Angeles, where critics once again provided raves: "Willowy and captivating as the songwriting ingenue, BETH MALONE crooned heart-rending numbers such as "Glad to be Unhappy" with consummate craftsmanship" from the Times and, from Variety, "a long-necked, tart-tongued gamine, MALONE possesses something of Barbara Cook's ability to revitalize a familiar song through the acting art... making you wish you never had to see any more musicals without MALONE in them." And if you haven't caught any such musicals, BETH's first CD came out at Christmas-time.

BRIAN EVANS ('93) is currently working at the University of Mississippi, teaching acting, voice and speech. "This is my third year here and I like it a lot. Teaching suits me. I've seen (alum/prof) PHIL THOMPSON ('89) a couple times over the last year, which was good. Other than that I stay very busy with my two little boys, Walker and Zane. My wife, Janice and I have our hands full with the little two and four year old comedians.

BRIAN NEWBERG ('98) is now teaching improvisation at Linn-Benton Community College in Oregon, after stints at community colleges in the S.F. Bay area. "Recently, this included Napa Valley College and Diablo Valley College, where I directed Rogers and Hammerstein's Some Enchanted Evening and Dario Fo's We Won't Pay, We Won't Pay. I also directed a stylized version of The Bacchae for the University of San Francisco. I also did some work as a teaching artist in Oakland, working with inner city youth to help them fashion a play (Keepin' It Real) about life in the ghetto. They picked the theme, and I worked with them to develop spoken word and scenes that we wove together into a show. Tough kids, tough themes, tough experience, and an amazing one.

KATJANA VADEBONCOEUR ('00) is now the Co-Artistic Director of the Washington Ensemble Theatre, where she directed Swimming in the Shallows last season - and also guest directed at the Cornish College of the Arts (Five Flights) and the University of Washington - where she directed "a new adaptation of Jane Eyre for a four-week run with their graduate acting program. This is the Polly Teale adaptation (from the Shared Experience company in the UK) which centers on a very sexy and explosive fusion of Jane's alter-ego with the 'mad woman' in the attic." Upcoming for the versatile Katjana is Noah Haidle's Mr. Marmalade, which opens in February '08.

"Director CARYN DESAI ('90) and a talented cast ensure that the Southland premiere of this frothy vehicle is an easy-to-digest crowd pleaser," said BackStage West of our alum-director's Five Course Love at the International City Theatre in Long Beach, which CARYN also serves as longtime general manager. Her ICT production of Song of Singapore at ICT also received "fabulous reviews," according to a reliable source, and for the company's 'Circle' Christmas Carol last winter she worked with alums SHERRY LINNELL ('72) (costumes), SEAN CAWELTI ('03) (sound design and puppetry) and MARK BEDARD ('06) on stage. She also directed Antigone at Long Beach City College, where she's been teaching part-time for 18 years. "I happen to love Greek mythology and Greek plays. This is a contemporary version and I have choreographed movement for the chorus: it is short but powerful."

CHARLIE HOUSTON is one of the many UC Irvine Drama novelists, and one of the most prolific as well - with his The Shotgun Rule and Half the Blood of Brooklyn: a Novel both published in 2007. We count this as his seventh novel, and more are clearly on the way.

CHRISTINA HUNTINGTON ('99) writes a long catch-up. Since graduating, my time has been spent doing two things: working & traveling, and often both at once! I backpacked through Europe with SUSAN CHOI ('98) & AARON COLEMAN ('97) and traveled through Japan with LAUREN POTTER ('99). My most recent travels have taken me to the Middle East and to Australia. I've also worked pretty consistently in commercials, TV, theater, and tons of independent film; shooting movies literally all across the world (the last one was in Seoul, Korea). One of the biggest highlights was being accepted into The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art's professional program in London - Dudley's voice technique really came in handy there! I've also been working my way up the ranks at The Groundlings in LA and am now a cross-over to the Voice-Over world, working on a Walt Disney Feature Animation. Getting to go to work in Mickey's Hat has been a childhood dream come true! I also recently finished a well-received San Francisco run of Eating Skeletons, an original play and have just booked the starring role in Altered Reality for MTV. Finally, I have two production companies: Sunday Afternoon Films which is jointly run by myself, FRANK GALLEGOS ('97), JEFF RENARD ('97), and LAUREN POTTER ('99). We have made three shorts and are working on our first pilot. And I live a block from JULIA LEE ('97), who, having taken several years off of acting to focus on real estate investment, is just recently back in the game, having a very exciting pilot season!" Great report, Christina!

MELANIE ABRAMS ('95) adds her name to the growing list of UC Irvine Drama's American novelists! "I'm currently living in Berkeley, California teaching creative writing at UC Berkeley," she writes. "I live with my husband, the writer Vikram Chandra. My first novel, Playing, is coming out in April with Grove Atlantic. Robert Haas, the US poet laureate, has this to say about it: "Part fable, part romance, this disturbing, tender, sometimes terrifying first novel announces, emphatically, the arrival of a very gifted new writer." Head to the bookstore, folks!

SHERRY LINNELL's ('72) "eloquent design elements... enhanced the evocative milieu," said Backstage West about our alum's costumes for the Theatre@Boston Court production of Street Angel Diaries which got a Critic's Pick citation from the venerable BSW.

PETER ANTHONY's ('88) Saint Joan was "touched by a man-made angel," said the Denver Post lead critic, John Moore, who went on to say "PETER ANTHONY may be the most distinctive theater director in Colorado."

ALLISON CASE ('05) spent a year in Orlando doing the title role (yup, a fish!) in Finding Nemo- the Musical, at Disney World, "and it has been going GREAT! I've had the chance to work with amazing professionals and Broadway talent, and getting a lot of wonderful exposure!" And ALLISON got much more exposure when she got back to New York - and landed the role of Crissy in the New York Public Theatre 40th anniversary concert production of Hair at the NYSF's Delacorte Theatre.

Our alums travel many long roads after graduation, but HENRY LEYVA ('92) beats most of us, completing a 26-mile marathon for the Team For Kids fundraising drive mounted by the New York Roadrunner Foundation! Many alums contributed on a dollars-per-mile basis.

When last heard from, AMANDA MCRAVEN ('07) was "currently directing Famine Plays at Theatre of Note in LA. with an all-UC Irvine production team -- an incredibly talented and fabulous group of women who are the reason I look good." Her UC Irvine team? Set by JEANINE NICHOLAS ('09), Lighting by KARYN LAWRENCE ('07), Sound by CORINNE CARRILLO ('09) and Costumes by CHRISTA MATHIS ('09)! And together they got the coveted LA Weekly "pick of the week!"

And a wonderful piece in Backstage West described L.A.'s Theatre of NOTE as a "Favorite Theatre Company to See," and described its "inception in the early 1980s - as created by UC Irvine grads KEVIN KARR, GARY LAMB ('80), JIM SCHENDEL ('80), ART CYBULSKI ('81), and MARC GORDON ('80)- intended to showcase what was at the time an underappreciated form. Another founding member, alum KITTY FELDE ('76), whose first play, Shanghai Heart was produced by the troupe, reminisced about the "early days downtown as a classically scrappy experience, with the group convinced that the area was on the cusp of an artistic boom and everybody pitching in to help." With Anjelica Huston and Jack Nicholson among the participants and patrons.

ANDREA CABAN ('07) and husband Mike are in New York, and playing on her UC Irvine contacts. "We're subletting from MICHAEL MORGAN ('05) while he and his family tour with The Lion King and TED KRYCZKO ('78) helped me record my demo material. JAMES CALLERI ('90) has called me in for 4 projects in the last month, I did a reading for CRAIG GEORGE ('91), and I'm screening plays for the JEANNE LASALA's ('04) Coyote Rep Circle. Pretty warm reception, I would say!

CRAIG GEORGE ('91) staged the premiere of Mike Folie's Alfred Kinsey: A Love Story at the Michael Weller Theatre in mid-Manhattan last summer, where, according to Gotham review, "a fine, sensitive cast under director Craig J. George" (Newsday) produced "a character study that is surprisingly intelligent and continually engrossing" (Backstage).

And multiple Grammy-Award nominee and winner TED KRYCZKO ('78) was back at UC Irvine teaching his expert class in voice-over to UC Irvine graduate acting students. TED, who is a Vice President at the Disney Corporation, oversees the celebrated Mouse's entire music production and voiceover activities (as well as performing voices himself from time to time), and his class was, in the words of his students, "Extraordinary!"

LAUREL HATFIELD ('05) has been cast as Andy in a new stage version of the Disney/Pixar feature film, Toy Story, we hear from alum/prof DENNIS CASTELLANO ('84). The show was rehearsed in Toronto, and will be workshopped for six months on the Disney Cruise Lines; if all goes well, LAUREL may make the move to Broadway. And MARTIN GIANNINI ('05) is appearing in Les Miserables at North Shore Music Theatre in Beverly, MA.

BILL NELSON ('76) kept us up on his "most recent film developments. (pun intended), which includes his playing "Philip" in the recently released Mr. Dungbeetle.

BRYAN DOERRIES ('00) brought us up to speed on his Philoctetes Project this year, which got a wonderful review in The New York Times - in the Science section! "On June 6th, an audience of physicians, surgeons, and psychiatrists at Cornell's Weill College of Medicine attended this special reading, starring David Strathairn, Jesse Eisenberg, and (UC Irvine Prof Emeritus) DUDLEY KNIGHT. In a post discussion, the doctors address issues of medical ethics, patient care, and chronic illness through the lens this 2500-year-old play.

Actually, DUDLEY wrote as well about the "new and excellent translation of Sophocles Philoctetes?" that BRYAN had created, noting that "I was Odysseus and Strathairn was Philoctetes - but by the time of the reading I was calling him "Phil." DUDLEY was also in Colorado this summer, doing a reading of Plainsong at the Denver Center, where he reported that "it was great to see MEGAN BYRNE's ('01) picture up on their roster of season actors featured in their main theatre - she had done a Rebecca Gilman play there and was apparently a big success with the company as well as with audiences. I also saw quite a good Funny Thing... Forum there with NEIL DAVID SEIBEL ('00) understudying."

JEFF MEEK ('83) missed the Paramount event because "I'm in New York playing Craig Montgomery on As the World Turns." Good enough reason, we admit.

ROSEANNE AURAN is now an Executive Assistant to the Legal Affairs Manager of SASCO Corporation. Speaking of the Paramount reunion, she writes, "I am happy for us all - as such recognition and dreams for the future of theatre will ensure that future generations may also experience and come to cherish the arts. My life and career have been shaped by what I learned at UC Irvine, where the faculty provided me with a focused perspective on life and the tools and passion to provide me the poise needed for training and people skills." ROSEANNE's career began with corporate jobs in Oslo, Norway and a post Norway's Central Crime Bureau, where "(ex-UC Irvine Prof) ASHLEY CARR's ('85) body language courses were of particular help in ensuring international security for the Olympic Games in Lillehammer. Little did I know that I would one day need that session where ASHLEY taught us how to walk into a room filled with royalty! And in my down time, I fell back on my love of theatre, and delighted in being able to understand Ibsen and Strindberg in their native Scandinavian tongues. UC Irvine's Drama Department continues to enlighten me to this day."

The ARYE GROSS ('78) family grew by 50% this year, as "Sophia Paulette Gross - the littlest Gross you've ever seen" - emerged into the world. "I'm anxious and overwhelmed and head over heels in love, ARYE writes. "We've moved back to Los Angeles, and are now living in Glendale in a lovely 95 year old craftsman bungalow that I've spent the last six months restoring/renovating." ARYE's TV series appearances this year were Burn Notice, The Riches, Medium, Numb3rs, Mystery Woman: In the Shadows, and Grey's Anatomy.

ANDREW HENKES ('00) has been accepted to begin a MA/PhD at UC Santa Barbara focusing on medieval theatre history. "I will be studying there under Jody Enders. I'm very excited to be getting back into the academic side of theatre. During the past several years, I've been living in NYC and both directing shows and volunteering regularly as an adjudicator for the New York International Fringe Festival.

ANNE JAMES ('96) wrote to say that "my second Law & Order: SVU aired Jan 23rd on NBC. Dr. Jane lives again! And she's accepted a voice/movement professorship at Cal State Fullerton, teaching alongside Joan Melton, DAVID NEVELL ('96), and MARIA COMINIS ('93). "Jet Blue and I are spending a lot of time together these days, that's for sure!

And DAVID NEVELL ('96) writes from Kiwiland, "I've just returned from my second teaching stint at Toi Whakaari, the New Zealand Drama School in Wellington, NZ. This time, I was there for seven weeks, teaching the voice curriculum and coaching a production of Twelfth Night. Among the many exceedingly kind and hospitable acts offered to me, I was invited to meet the Prime Minister at her residence, as I had directed a portion of the official welcome ceremony for Sir Ian McKellen and the RSC during their world tour of King Lear. It was a very exciting and fruitful trip."

JENNIFER EVANS RESTIVO ('07) has settled in NYC. "I've got a great apartment in Brooklyn and my first month in the city I actually shot two commercials. The first was a jeep promo ad for the History Channel and the other was for Pamprin. My managers have been doing a really great job getting me in for all kinds of film auditions and I've been lucky enough to start free-lancing with Atlas and Paradigm agencies. The perfect day job has not quite arrived, but I'm working as a digitizer, which is a really great experience because I'm learning about the editing process and get to work in a field similar to my own and learn invaluable skills."

CHRISTINE HALL ('87) writes to let us know "about an amazing opportunity. I've been chosen to teach dance to AIDS orphans in Ethiopia. I will travel with an accompanist to Addis Ababa in August to teach for two weeks with the Worldwide Orphan Foundation (wwo.org)

CHRIS LEEBRICK ('89) writes, "I continue to be blessed to make a living as a theatre artist (solo storytelling, acting, and directing homeschooled students in the plays of Shakespeare) which takes me all around the diverse and beautiful state of Oregon. I perform at schools, libraries, festivals and campfires. About once a year I go outside the northwest and have given recent performances in Florida, Montana, Arkansas, Idaho, and at the Australian National Storytelling Festival in Perth (an amazing experience!) I recorded a second CD (this one's called "Critters, Kids, and Cowboys") and, like the first, was honored with a national Storytelling World Award. Now I'm at work on a third CD, this one will feature spooky tales like Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart", urban legends and Appalachian ghost stories. And at the Lord Leebrick Theatre in Eugene (the company I co-founded along with RANDY LORD ('89), I was invited back on an equity guest artist contract to do a revival of Sam Shepard's "True West"; which this time I got to play it with my real-life brother, Richard! I seem to have thoroughly settled into the Portland area, am happily married and the biggest blessings in my life are my two cherubs -- Dylan and Samantha.

CLAIRE KENNELLY ('06) writes, "I started work the Monday after graduating at The Old Globe box office. There was a lot to learn and a complicated computer system to get used to. Three months after getting the hang of the box office routine a position opened up upstairs in our administration offices. The position was for the marketing assistant and so I immediately talked to my manager to have her pass my resume and a few good words along to the marketing director. Sure enough, a few weeks later I got the job and now have my own cubicle, phone extension, and business cards! I'd say it's quite an achievement for someone right smack out of college with VERY little job experience. Fortunately for me, the director seemed to like my drama and fine arts background. I am officially a full time employee for the Globe and loving (almost) every minute."

ASHLEY DUNN ('05) also landed "my first real job - as the new Assistant to the Executive Producer at Manhattan Theatre Club! I hit the ground running at their annual benefit last night, and I made it through my first official day today. I am so excited to be part of a company that has long been a part of the theater scene in NY."

CONSTANTINE ARVANATIKIS ('88) reports that his Don Carlos in Athens (that's Greece, not Ohio) "went very well. Phew!! Now on to devised theatre! No rest for the wicked...!"

CRAIG GARDNER ('95) is assuming the position of lecturer at Yeungnam University in South Korea.

CRISTA FLANAGAN ('01) sent us her great new comedy reel. She's now in her fourth third year as a writer/performer on MadTV, where she is famed for her impressions. She's also had key roles on TV's Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Practice, ER, and a recurring role on You've Got a Friend. She has recently partnered up with the team behind Ask A Ninja to create a video podcast called Hope is Emo. "I'm painting my apartment yellow this weekend," CRISTA reports, "and thinking about getting a bulldog and naming him Kevin."

MEHR MANSOURI ('87) continues as artistic director of the New York Children's Theatre Company, which, according to The New York Times this year, "is exactly what it sounds like. Actors, some as young as 4, perform in short musicals, including an acrobatically enhanced King Kunka Bunka and the Rotten Royal Rascals, about a widowed monarch's search for an heir - an intriguingly original musical in rap with rousing Russian-style music and dance." MEHR was the author as well as director of the show, which played in Greenwich Village.

We were delighted to have dinner with ELLEN PICKLER HARRIS ('73) this fall. Now a lawyer in Laguna Beach, she reports that her youngest son, Graham, was one of the lead actors in the Laguna High School production of Urinetown this fall. "The audience loved it," ELLEN exults, for good reason!

CYNTHIA BECKERT ('01) writes, "I just completed a run of Sam Shepard's Suicide in B Flat with Range View Productions at the Hayworth, directed by UC Irvine directing grad SCOTT WERVE ('03). It was quite successful. I love doing the strange, non-literal stuff, and early Shepard is all about that. Getting geared up now to attend a belly dance convention in San Luis Obispo, and then off to Florida to be with family for the holidays."

SCOTT WERVE ('03) is the Founding Producer, and MARIE WONG ('03) and GRANT VAN ZEVERN ('02) his co-founding members of Range View (see above), which now enters its third season of production, with the goal of "intersecting the sturdy aesthetics of the mainstream with the atypical creativity of the underground." Productions this past season included Stories of the Night Told Over, a "New Shakespeare Play" SCOTT had compiled, contemporary works (Handler, by Pulitzer prize winner Robert Schenkkan), lesser-known classics (the above Suicide in B Flat), fine dining happenings (Sonapalooza), and their most recent, the west coast premiere of Nami.

After her turn as Soledad in UC Irvine's Pedro Gynt, DAVINA FERRERIA graduated and worked as an actress and dancer with The Bilingual Foundation of The Arts in Los Angeles, acting and dancing there, and in students films, short films, North Hollywood plays and TV music videos such as: Cabbage Patch Kids, West Life, Las Vegas, Related, Charmed, La Cumparsita, Lone Mountain as well as in the local Spanish channels. "I also was fortunate to meet Sir Ben Kingsley, who taught me much about art and life and everything in between. Thanks to him I attended a summer session at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA) in London. Sir Ben became a great mentor and guide and helped me discover the magic wonders of Shakespeare as I played Viola, Joan of Arc, Roseline, Ophelia - and had one of the most productive and exciting times of my life."

We're happily back in touch with DEANNE LORETTE ('92), who writes, "I must say I have been very busy and with really great roles. I recently got to do a favorite at Actors Theatre of Louisville as Elizabeth Proctor. I'm finding that I love the challenge of roles that scare me. Maybe to a lesser degree while trying to figure it all out... but the rewards are greater once you do." In the fall, DEANNE headed to the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, DC to play the lead role of Queen Isabella in Edward II ("played incisively by the comely Deanne Lorette," said the Washington Post; "Lorette proves fiery and calculating as Edward's neglected Queen Isabella" said Washington City Paper). The production, in repertory with Tamburlaine (which she was also in), inaugurated the magnificent new Harmon Center for the Arts in the nation's capital.

DJ GRAY ('93) was the associate choreographer for the hit Broadway production of Xanadu - and also choreographed a sequence for NBC's upcoming television movie, A Year Without Santa Claus, featuring Harvey Fierstein and Michael McKean. DJ also assisted in the choreography for the Broadway revival of 110 In the Shade produced by the Roundabout and starring Audra McDonald. Earlier in the year she was back in California, teaching musical theater at Pomona College, directing/choreographing a musical revue for the Claremont High School theatre kids and performing as Bonnie in Anything Goes at the Candlelight Pavilion. But she also acknowledges, "I am enjoying being back in NY"

YVONNE SAME ('06) left the Memphis Playhouse in July, rehearsing the female lead singer track for three Princess Cruises luxury liners. She's the swing for that position when the ships leave the dock. But for the moment, "I am in Cohoes, NY with CR Productions' production of Miss Saigon where I am playing the role of Kim. We opened this past weekend to good reviews, and I am so glad to put this role under my belt. I am among some of the grandest people I've ever had the pleasure to work with, and actually, I can say that is true for all of my fledgling career. Lucky me!"

ASHLEY WEST LEONARD ('98) wants to spread the word that "bitchinpixel, my photography moniker and badass business entity, is up and running. I've been working on some incredible projects and shooting a wide variety of people, places and things. I've designed a website with a few galleries and many more to come."

ANNIE BLOOM thanks her classmates for her support - "I passed! I am so happy!" She's referring, of course, to her state boards for her Marriage and Family Therapist Certificate! ("Sort of funny - having been married and divorced three times!" ANNIE, now teaching in the CSU Los Angeles Department of Psychology, adds.)

LARRY BIEDERMAN ('92) received plaudits for his Big Death and Little Death at the Road Theatre in North Hollywood this spring: "There's energy and commitment from director LARRY BIEDERMAN and his game ensemble," said Backstage West.

"Surely Stephen Sondheim would admire the level of artistry attained by musical director (and UC Irvine prof/alum) DENNIS CASTELLANO ('84), who plays keyboards while conducting a chamber orchestra seated upstage, supplying the singers with the delicate contours they must traverse in the operetta-like score," said the Los Angeles Times critic of our alum-prof's artistry for South Coast Repertory last fall.

KATIE WILSON ('06) won the LA Weekly "Best Costume Design of the Year" award for her design for Machiavelli: the art of terror with the UCI Field Station Theatre at the Hayworth in Los Angeles last summer.

ALICIA ALBRIGHT ('01) appeared in All Shook Up at the Orange County Performing Arts Center this year; she was also one of the dance captains for this national tour, performing as a swing and - on the night that three UC Irvine faculty attended, in one of the featured dance roles!

KATHERINE MCLAUGHLIN ('06) had a featured speaking part and appeared in the ensemble in Annie Get Your Gun, conducted by alum/prof DENNIS CASTELLANO ('84) for The Civic Light Opera of South Bay Cities. KATHERINE had just received her Equity card and will appear in Annie at the Sacramento Music Circus.

JEFF RUBIO (aka FARKASH) ('04) let us know about his performance in Feeding the Monkey in Hollywood at The Gardner Stages in Hollywood. "It's a fun little piece," JEFF reports.

SAM ZELLER ('92) looked great, a colleague reports, in the Reprise production of Sunday in the Park in Los Angeles. SAM is currently filming the feature film, Chasing Tchaikovsky and has done numerous television spots, but he was most excited to be cast by Richard Maltby to play Dozer, a lead in Maltby's new musical version of the Washington Post 1985 film Mask, which is workshopping its way up the trail from Phoenix to "Maybe, we hope..."

LORI CULWELL's ('95) new hit novel, Hollywood Car Wash, was featured in a lengthy interview with our alum/author in Liz Kelly's "Celebritology" column in Washington Post this year. The book, about a young actress who finds herself thrust into the Hollywood industry machine - "reshaped, renamed, and dating a star with a big secret, hit Los Angeles where it hurts" said the Post, claiming that "Katie Holmes is reportedly beside herself about the situations in the book which eerily mirror her own life." LORI, a writer for ten years now, is mum about the specific identities, but tells us that the book is based on real people and events. "The title is a term coined to describe the transformation imposed on women in Hollywood. I moved back to Los Angeles from New York, got back in touch with some of my old friends in the industry, and decided that enough of the situations I heard were absurd and hilarious enough to warrant a whole novel. So the book is based on real stories, but it's fiction. I know a lot of people in the business, I went to high school with people who are now in the business, and frankly, if I had to guess, I would say there are MANY well-known people in the book who are going to think they recognize themselves and never talk to me again. In L.A., we call this the 'friend divorce.'"

"With its cyberlexicon and the whimsical brilliance, the standout funniest play on the program is Virtue L Sex by RICHARD MEDUGNO," ('81) said Metroactive in their review of our alum's new play Pear Slices at Pear Avenue Theatre in Mountain View. "MEDUGNO makes language delicious," concluded the reviewer. Earlier, RICHARD's play, Deaf Daughter, Hearing Father, a memoir about his daughter Miranda, was published by Gallaudet University Press, while his newest play, Silent Salzburg, is available at the publisher's website at authorhouse.com.

SELAH VICTOR ('03) was playing in the new musical, Is This Any Way to Start a Marriage? last summer at the Whitefire Theatre in Sherman Oaks. She's also graduating from Second City, and performed in four showcases at their Los Angeles playhouse.

New faculty member HOLLY DURBIN designed The Power of Darkness at the Mint Theatre in New York this summer, just before assuming her post (as Head of Costume Design) at UC Irvine in the fall, and discovered that her assistant stage manager was none other than UC Irvine drama alum LYNDSAY GOODE ('04). Small world, yes?

ALEX GOLSON ('78) writes in from Orange Coast College, where he heads the program and was given a great nod by OC Weekly this year as running the best college drama program in the area (UC Irvine's was awarded the best university program in the same column, we should add.). "All is well here except the students seem to be getting younger and more and more a mystery to me," ALEX says. "I am in the middle of directing another KITTY FELDE ('76) play, Man With No Shadow. It is an interesting one-act about the transition of radio to TV. A young and inexperienced cast but we are having fun. My son is ready to leave for college. I see PAUL BARBER ('77) occasionally after a 20 year break, and also JON LOVITZ ('79) and TOM SILBER ('77) - All seem to be doing fine. My book (Acting Essentials) has been picked up by Cornish Institute and Oregon U and was featured book at the London Samuel French."

PAUL BARBER ('77), a veteran writer/producer for film and TV, was filming an independent project in Laguna Niguel with the distinguished Robert Morse, and called your editor for his recommendations of a couple of actors who could play the "non-Mexican mariachi players" required by the script. Two were selected from the second year grad acting pool.

We were delighted to read THERESA J. MAY's ('82) article, "Beyond Bambi: Toward a Dangerous Ecocriticism in Theatre Studies" in the September 2007 issue of Theatre Topics this Fall. THERESA has argued for an increased interconnectivity between "nature" and "culture" in theatre studies since receiving her Ph.D. in this area at the University of Washington. Now an Assistant Professor of Theatre Arts at the University of Oregon, she is the founding director of Theatre in the Wild, where her "earth-based" theatre work includes community projects with the Karuk and Urok tribes of the Klamath River watershed. "My aim here," THERESA writes in the article, "is to call on theatre scholars to flesh out the way in which the human imagination participates in, and is integral to, our ecological 'situatedness'."

LIZ WARNER ('78) reports she is now a celebrity talent executive (booking celebrity guests for television programs). "I have been busy working on several TV projects this year," she reports, and she'll be coming down to visit as her son looks at UC Irvine as a prospective college.

WAYNE PYLE ('96) performed in Arabian Nights at Connecticut Rep this fall and Christmas Carol at Cincinnati Playhouse.

TINA POLZIN ('95) performed in the remarkable Car Plays with Moving Arts theatre company this summer. "It's a series of one acts that take place in cars - you sit in the parking lot in the cars not in the theatre. We've been getting great reviews! The name of my play is Last Chance Gas."

STEVEN ('04) and SHANNON JARREL IVEY ('04) were married in San Antonio on 7/7/7, at 7:07 pm., "which seems lucky enough for anyone!" SHANNON (now professionally known as SHANNON IVEY) says. "STEVE works as a talent manager (he's the genius representation behind WINDELL MIDDLEBOOKS's ('05) career) and is slaving away as a post-production coordinator for a film that his company produced. I'm still getting hired as an actor, having played Gillian in the "Wedding Singers" episode of All of Us on the CW Network and Lisa in "Not Without My Noodles" on Notes from the Underbelly which will air on ABC in December. I also play the recurring role of Elise on Voicemail, an ABC sitcom which will be shown on ABC.COM starting mid December. But my most exciting news is that I am now making money as a writer! My first feature film is called, E-Girl, which has been an amazing experience; we hope to start principal photography next year and already have Carrie Fisher and Buck Henry attached. And before the writer's strike, I was hired to write a couple of episodes of Days of Our Lives this fall, but that has now been put on hold for, well, obvious reasons."

JAKE DOGIAS ('06) moved to L.A. this year to test the left coast's waters. He's living with WINDELL MIDDLEBROOKS ('05) and has landed a role on an ER episode, along with ANGEL MOORE ('06).

And the above-oft-cited WINDELL MIDDLEBROOKS ('05) is, of course, impossible to miss if you watch TV at all - not only for his endearing Miller High Life and Dr Pepper commercials during football time-outs and between baseball innings, but his appearances on Entourage, Hannah Montana, Veronica Mars (where he plays the role of "Big Scary Man") and My Name is Earl.

RYAN SANDBERG ('07) has moved in one year from sitting on the Undergraduate Drama Council to performing on the national tour of Evita. "I'm really excited about it; Larry Fuller is directing," he reports. Yeah, Ryan, but those council meetings were pretty lively too, weren't they?

ROBERTO PRESTIGIACOMO ('03) writes that he is back from Miami "where I directed Julius Caesar for New Theatre. Everything remains well, Sofia is now 5 and will travel with me to Italy, Bethany works for the office of Cultural Affairs in San Antonio and is very happy about her new job, and I teach at Trinity University and am the artistic director of our professional theatre, Attic Rep." ROBERTO's season closer for his company was the local premiere of Back of the Throat by Yussef El Guindi, this December.

KENNETH VERDUGO ('01) is an Assistant Professor of Design and Technology at Florida State University, where he designed The USO Tribute for the campus's Haskins Circus Complex in Tallahassee, and The Vickings at the Thomasville On Stage & Company in Georgia.

ERIN CROUCH ('01) and TEAL WICKS ('05) appeared in the Encore original production of Stairway to Paradise, directed by Jerry Zaks on Broadway in May. The show was an original compilation of old revue sketches and songs from revues of the first couple decades of last century.

And TEAL WICKS ('05) was featured as Martha (aka Mrs. Thomas) Jefferson in the Goodspeed Opera House production of 1776, earning plaudits from The New York Times ("portrayed with verve by Ms. Wicks"), the Hartford Courant ("TEAL WICKS brings a confident ebullience to Martha Jefferson") and Variety, whose critic lauded her "lovely, lively presence and voice" (we could have told him that) and her "joyous and splendid" rendition of 'He Plays the Violin.'" MARCELLUS WALLER ('05) was also in the show, playing Leather Apron.

MIRLA CRISTE ('98) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Theatre and Film Studies at the University of Georgia, and writes, "Fall '06 found me directing The Man Who Came To Dinner on our mainstage at UGA. In Spring, I played Ophelia in Hamletmachine, a well-received production which then moved to Atlanta for a run at 7 Stages Theatre. Last summer I had begun experimentation that integrates contact improvisation and theatre in a way that retains the improvisatory nature of contact which has now become the focus of my creative research. At this writing, I'm about to enter tech with Urinetown, which I'm both directing and choreographing.

"Viewers can revel in the acting of TAMIKO WASHINGTON," ('92) said Back Stage West of the alumna-thesp's R&J Nurse which "encompasses high comedy and stark shock over the grim turn of events."

BIL GEKAS ('78) wrote in to say that "Having taught acting for many years, directed nearly sixty productions since I left UC Irvine, and raised my daughter to the point where she was named Best Actress at San Diego State last year (as a freshman), I've decided to go on to try for a University appointment," so if anyone is interested, send him an "e"!

"As the French candelabra Lumiere, JOSHUA FINKEL ('84) nearly outshone (pun intended) all the other performers," said the Thousand Oaks Acorn about our alum/thesp role in Beauty and the Beast for Cabrillo Music Theatre. Finkel led the show's most delightful musical sequence, the can-can-like "Be Our Guest," featuring a boutique of "high-kicking animated kitchen utensils," he tells us.

COLETTE SEARLE ('02), Assistant Prof at the University of Maryland, Baltimore (where she's a colleague of LYNN WATSON ('93)) is proud to show photos of her new baby, Simon Carpenter, born Aug. 3. "He is a great joy, and I'm loving every minute of parenthood!" COLETTE landed some great reviews for her production of Noah Haidle's Vigils at Washington's Wooly Mammoth Theatre in February. "The production, directed by D.C. newcomer Colette Searls, bursts with the off-color and off-kilter energy we've come to associate with this theatre, and exhibits the best use of the commodious new space since its opening last season," said the Washington Times. "Searls' staging makes it evocative and even moving," said the Washington City Paper, and the Washington Post added that "the intermingling of the here and the hereafter strikes just the right note of absurdity in director Colette Searls's pleasing treatment."

CONWELL WORTHINGTON ('00) was assistant stage managing Ray Charles Live at the Pasadena Playhouse when we heard from him this summer, among many other PSM and ASM assignments he held down at that theatre this year.

CYTHIA HERTEG ('01) designed costumes for the feature film, Never Say Macbeth, which played at the AMC Theaters in Downtown Disney for the FAIF Film Festival in Orange County this Fall.

It was great to talk to BOB DUNKERLY ('75) at the Paramount alumni party. He still lives and teaches/directs in Las Vegas and remains in contact with Honorary Emeriti Prof. BILL NEEDLES.

A big story in Theatre Forum this Summer featured SARAH RICHARDSON ('97) and the "energy, spontaneity and intellectual curiosity" of her Austin-based Rude Mechanicals. Founded by SARAH and four (undergrad) colleagues at the U of Texas who remain the company's "copads" (co-producing artistic directors), the "Rude Mechs" were featured for their production of Get Your War On, a "rabidly anti-Bush comic strip that has all Texas talking about it," and followed with a four-city tour concluding in New York. The Mechs - now with 24 members and a $200,000 annual budget - remain a genuine ensemble, where everyone has a hand in both script and staging. "It doesn't necessarily mean all voices are equal," SARAH says in the long interview, "but it does mean all voices are heard. We don't limit the notion of where a good idea can come from." SARAH moved to New York this year, but her involvement in the Mechs continues.

DAVID GREENSPAN ('78) (who had starred in the above Rude Mechs' earlier Lipstick Times) had more coverage in The New York Times than Paris Hilton this year. In March, Ben Brantley raved about his portrayal of Camus in the world premiere of Terence McNally's Some Men at Off-Broadway's Second Stage: "As an actor, Greenspan has repeatedly demonstrated just how much inflection counts, using his deadpan nasality to twist commonplace lines into uncommonly revealing stylishness. As a transvestite who sings "Over the Rainbow" in a piano bar on the day of Judy Garland's funeral, that most oversung of songs sounds fresh and heartbreaking; not just a time-encrusted anthem but a means of exploring a personality that, while very much of its time and place, is also uncompromisingly individual." In April, NYT second-banana Charles Isherwood gave our alum-actor-playwright-director a half-page career retrospective in the Sunday edition, claiming DAVID's series of successes "a testament to the ability of New York theater to accommodate the gifts of truly singular performers." In June, Isherwood again raved about DAVID's writing and his performance in his review of Argument, basically DAVID's one-man lecture on Aristotle's Poetics which the scribe termed "both learned and endearingly loopy." And in August, Campbell Robertson featured DAVID in his front-page feature "What? And Leave Show Business?" about the economics of acting, and describing the actor's life in New York, leading off the piece with a quote from DAVID and following with a five column feature on "The Character Actor: DAVID GREENSPAN" - which quotes DAVID as saying "I don't know of a period where people, except for a very lucky few or talented few, have not had had to constantly struggle to make ends meet, and/or subsidize themselves, while having a theatre career." So, if you get your copy of the UC Irvine Drama Alumni Newsletter, you can always catch up on this alum's career in The New York Times.

BARBARA MARTINEZ JITNER ('86) was the co-producer and second unit director of Capitol Films Bordertown, starring Antonio Banderas, Martin Sheen and Jennifer Lopez - who played a journalist investigating the 400 murders of Ciudad Juarez women in the past two decades.

We saw GERARD BABB ('84) a couple of times this year at UC Irvine events - he's now a big gun at the L.A. Times but his favorite graphic design is for the Playbill Magazine he puts out for LISA MATSKO HAMILTON's ('84) Professional School for the Arts, which includes GERARD and alum-prof DENNIS CASTELLANO ('84) of the UCI music theatre faculty.

We were delighted to see JESSICA MAY STEVENSON ('03) onstage in the leading role of Cubicle, a 22-minute "live sitcom" presented at TheatreExpresso in the Bank of America building in downtown Los Angeles, which specializes in "lunch-hour theatre that aims to enrich L.A.'s urban renaissance one play at a time." We were, without question, suitably enriched - and even urbanized - by our alum-thesp's performance.

"I went from producing two-and-a-half hour plays to 90-second cartoons for the Web," BRUCE BOUCHARD ('71) said to the TimesUnion business reporter who did a story on STEVEN ROTBLATT's ('73) burgeoning, L.A.-based Rubber Chicken Company, which makes animated greeting cards with voice-over acting featuring union actors (including STEPHEN) and witty writing. "We like to think of the e-cards as one part Saturday Night Live and one part Seinfeld," says BRUCE, who notes that the product is gaining favor as advertisements for companies such as classmates.com, Sysco, Citigroup and Tyson Foods. "They see that there's some original thinking here," chimes in STEPHEN, who is also a Professor of Animation at Cal State Los Angeles. After years of acting on TV, he explains, he went to animation school at 45 "to reach the people who are no longer watching television." Wanna Rotblatt card? Go to RubberChickenCards.com!

MONIQUE L'HEUREUX ('88) was honored by the Lester Horton Dance Awards in Los Angeles this spring as she captured the Horton Award for her lighting design of La Jupe by Backhausdance.

"DON GUY's ('99) gelid lighting" was praised by the L.A. Times for our alum's design for I have Before Me a Remarkable Document... at the Colony Theatre in Burbank. And DON's lighting for Neil LaBute's The Shape of Things at Chapman College provided "strikingly inventive design that seamlessly propelled the dozen different scenes and locations," according to OC Weekly.

JAMES SLOWIAK ('85) has co-authored, with Jairo Cuesta, the excellent new Routledge Press volume, Jerzy Grotowski, drawing on his experiences as Grotowski's chief assistant during the Polish luminary's years with the Objective Drama Program at UC Irvine, and his and Grotowski's subsequent years in Pontadera, Italy. We just missed JAMES and Jairo by two weeks at the Grotowski Institute in Wroclaw, Poland last May, where the two co-founders of the New World Performance Laboratory had conducted a three-day work session in Performance Ecology - employing practices they have developed with their company in Ohio, where JAMES also serves as a Professor of Drama at the University of Akron.

LOUIS CARAZO ('07) wrote in to say that "I got a job teaching at the Acting Corps and have booked a few things. A commercial/print shoot for INTEL two short films. I feel really good about getting more film on my resume, and some of the material is great; I'm the lead in a show that's in Spanish with an Argentinean dialect, and can't wait to talk to (alum/prof) PHIL THOMPSON ('89) about it!"

A very nice letter arrived from a very busy and much traveling TERESA POND ('03) in Alaska, just as she was coming off directing Shakespeare in Hollywood at Cyrano's Theatre in her hometown of Anchorage ("Pond's cast has mastered the rapid-fire delivery you'd expect from, say, the Marx Brothers, and couldn't be more fun to watch!" said the Daily News critic.) "I'm now off to direct Run for Your Wife (an old British farce) at Millbrook Playhouse in Pennsylvania," TERESA reports. "Right after I get that show up, I'm off to California to direct Nickel and Dimed for Western Stage Theatre, and I'll then be directing Much Ado About Nothing at The Loft Theatre, a professional theatre on New York's Long Island. Last summer I also started working for the Broadway 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, casting audience volunteers for the performances and learning a great deal about the world of commercial theatre and making all sorts of contacts! It is a great 'day job' when I'm in town!"

It was fantastic having lunch with JOHN (JAKE) GARDINER ('70) in our mutual hometown of Laguna Beach this spring. JAKE presented us with Tide Pools (Moon Tide Press, 2006), a poetry collection which includes five of his new poems (one dedicated to BOB CURRIER ('72)) and all very beautiful. JAKE teaches Shakespeare and Poetry these summers for the Gifted Students Academy on the UC Irvine campus (one of his favorite exercises is the Three Witches from Macbeth) and has been giving poetry readings literally around the world - from Eastern Europe to South America, with Laguna in between.

Amidst a "superb cast, LISA ROBINS ('79) excels as the kindly hostess," said BackStage West of our alum-thesp's star turn in veteran filmmaker Paul Mazursky's production of The Catskill Sonata at the Hayworth Theatre in Los Angeles last summer.

STEVEN BURDMAN ('95) opened his New York Classical Theatre for the eighth season, announcing that his productions have now been seen by over 35,000 people in free, roving performances in Central Park and (starting last year) Lower Manhattan. This year's season included Love's Labor's Lost and The Beaux' Stragegem.

OMAR RICKS ('06) writes, "I just shot my first commercial yesterday. It's the promotional that leads into the very beginning of the NBA All-Star game on TNT.

PAIGE BOWLES was cruising the internet and happened onto the fact that the UC Irvine volleyball team won the National Championship, "which led this odd mind to thinking about Irvine and Drama and old friends. I am in contact with MARK BYRD ('68), DAVID VINCENT ('67), JERRY HOFFMAN ('67) and CHRIS HAYES ('68). I am hoping to retire in three or four years and then plan to do something meaningful - ride horses, sail boats, read books, meditate, exercise, or volunteer in the inner city or maybe just do nothing for some time."

JEFF PARVIN ('03) writes that life is going very well in New York. "I've moved on from the development department at Disney Theatrical Productions to Production Associate (corporate-speak for Associate Production Manager) for Mary Poppins on Broadway. I'm savoring the chance of working with both Disney and Cameron Mackintosh. Things are busy gearing up for the awards season, but have settled to at least a sane level after getting the show through opening night." JEFF is also happy to report "the birth of my daughter, Molly June Parvin, on November 22nd."

PETER KUO ('05) reports, "I've been living and working in Los Angeles since I graduated from UC Irvine over 2 years ago. Previously I was the Membership Coordinator at the LA Stage Alliance, a service organization that works with over 300 Theatre Companies throughout Los Angeles and other outlaying counties and runs the Ovation Awards. Recently I became the PR & Marketing Manager at East West Players, the nation's premier Asian-American theatre company. I've also been doing some work with Cornerstone Theater Company, Sacred Fools, and Moving Arts, as well as producing, acting and directing a show that opens tomorrow for three weekends. Although very expansive, you really get a sense of how small the theatre community in Los Angeles is."

NOEL IRIBE ('04) recorded three of his songs at a Hollywood Studio this year, and remains in regular touch with his classmates in what he calls "Irvine in LA."

ROGER MICHEALSON ('84) continues "to book commercials (two last year) and my wife Kathy Fitzgerald completes her run in The Producers on Broadway this April."

SETH DONSKY ('90) was in LA writing for pilot season this summer. "I just had a pilot optioned in NYC, but it can't be written about in the newsletter yet (some legal holdups - a life lesson!)."

Veteran screenwriter DAN SANDERS ('83) said he "auditioned a nice young woman today from Sande Alessi's agency for something on the Discovery Channel, who said she went to UC Irvine and graduated in (I think) 2004. I wanted to get her name to put on my postcard list, but everyone was too busy." If this rings a bell, folks, let DAN know your current whereabouts!

SHANNON JARRELL IVEY ('04) guest starred on the CWTV's season finale of All of Us as 'Gillian' - an over-excited gal from Oklahoma.

MICHELLE CASTILLO ('04) was in the King and I at San Gabriel Valley Music Theatre Season finale at the Civic Auditorium.

BRIAN THOMPSON ('84) made four films this year, Roney's Point, Ultimo Justo, Flight of the Living Dead, and the spoof film, Vardell Duseldorfer (where he co-starred with GARY GRAHAM ('73)). But his best adventure was in Teotihaucan, Mexico: "In the temple of the four elements, I had memories of the UC Irvine neutral mask class taught by Kaf Warner where we became the elements and then after we were in touch with a single element then we could meet the other elements. Neutral mask was a fantastic class that moved you into a deeper more spiritual and creative place. You had to just trust the process and not try to perform. It was a mind-expanding experience. A sensation that I obviously have not forgotten.

RONAL STEPNEY ('80) was sorry to miss the Paramount alumni event "but I was certainly there in spirit. I was in the middle of directing Picasso at the Lapin Agile here at Florida Gulf Coast University, which if I must say was a successful production." RONAL holds down the post of Assistant Professor of Theatre on the campus.

ELIE GORETSKY ('90) has a new name now, but we can't seem to find it in the thousand-plus alumni mailings we received this year. But we can report that, under whatever name, ELIE's still working in Indio for Riverside County Mental Health. "I have about 400 more hours of therapy I need to complete before I can take the MFT licensing exam; it will probably take me the rest of the year to complete."

ELIE also was kind enough to fill in some other alumni news, having gone with MICHELLE DAHLIN ('90) to two-time Primetime Emmy Award nominee BOB KUSHELL'S ('92) house in Encino for a surprise b-day party for his wife. "Bob is writing/producing for In Case of Emergency on ABC while continuing to develop his own material. He has also been workshopping an original musical to which he has written the book and lyrics. We also bumped into ROBERT VAUGHN ('90) and LAUREN ROEDERSHEIMER ROEDY ('90), who married several years ago. LAUREN is a special education teacher for L.A. Unified and works with emotionally disturbed adolescents. She has received accolades for her work from the Mayor. ROBERT works for the in-house archives at Paramount (stock footage, etc.), and enjoys the work very much. They both looked amazing and it was the first time I had seen them since 1990!" Thanks, ELIE, for the updates! Now, how about your new name?

JENNIFER ROSZELL ('88) understudied Julianne Moore on Broadway this year in David Hare's Vertical Hour, opposite Bill Nighy. It was one time we were rooting for the understudy to stand in on the night we came to the show (particularly since Moore had been roundly panned for her performance), but it didn't happen. Too bad, though we should acknowledge that Ms. Moore was no slouch in the role. (But hey, JENNIFER would have been far better!)

TREVOR BISHIP ('06) writes, "I am currently in St. Louis, directing an obscure 17th Century Spanish Golden Age Comedy, Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz's House Of Desires, for Washington University. Before that, he had staged the west coast premiere of Larry Kramer's Just Say No at the Theatre of NOTE in Hollywood, carrying on the UC Irvine participation in that NOTEworthy company, founded in 1981 by alums KEVIN CARR ('84), KITTY FELDE ('76) and MELANIE MACQUEEN ('77).

BETTY TESMAN ('71) received a UC Irvine Emeritus Award from former Chancellor Jack Peltason this year - and also an Emeritus Award from the Western Arts Alliance, where she was an officer for many years. Congratulations to one of our first alumni and emeriti!

We saw one of Dr. RICK HABIB's ('82) great columns in the Chattanooga Pulse</