Several of our PhD alumni participated at the Mid-America Theatre Conference in Cleveland, OH from March 6-9, including Lisa Jackson-Schebetta (PhD 2010, Assistant Professor, University of Pittsburgh) who co-chaired the Theatre History Symposium, and Tamara Underiner (PhD 1997, Associate Dean for Research at the Herberg Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University) who served as the Theatre History Respondent.
Samer Al-Saber (PhD, 2013) recently won a fellowship from the Harvard Mellon Summer School on Theatre and Performance Research. Lezlie Cross (PhD, 2013) received two offers for tenure-track positions and has accepted the offer from the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, where she has been teaching for the past year.
Lydia Fort (MFA Directing, 2006) was named the new Executive Artistic Director of Mo’olelo Performing Arts Company.
Lynn Shelton’s (BA, 1987) newest feature film, Laggies, opened to rave reviews at Sundance and was immediately picked up for distribution. School of Drama Advisory Board member Ron Leamon (BA, 1974) was the film’s costume designer.
Jessica Martin (BA, 2008) won an Indie Series Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy for her work on Wrecked. Quinlan Corbett (PATP, 2008) is starring in the world premiere of Eduardo Machado’s Worship at Theater for the New City. And Tommy Smith‘s (BA, 2001) Fireman at Echo Theatre Company just wrapped to rave reviews. Doug Scholz-Carlson (MFA, 1994) made his Portland Opera directorial debut with Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor. Barzin Akhavan (PATP, 2007) and Monique Robinson (PATP ’12), began their 2014 season at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Joel McHale (PATP, ’2000) will be headlining the White House Correspondents Dinner on May 3rd. And BA alums Rainn Wilson and Holiday Reinhorn launched a new nonprofit aimed at using art to empower adolescent girls in Haiti.
On local stages, Brian Culbertson (BA, 2013) followed up appearances at Intiman’s Summer Festival with a performance in Strawberry Theatre Workshop’s The Normal Heart. Elena Flory-Barnes (BA, 2010) James Lapan (PATP, 1989) and Carl Kennedy (PATP, 2010) all participated in Mirror Stage’s reading of Greg Kalleres’s Honky at the UW’s Ethnic Cultural Center. Melanie Burgess (MFA, 2002) designed the costumes for two spring productions at Seattle Shakespeare Company.