Dear Friends of Drama,
Happy Spring! It’s exciting as always around here as we head into the final stretch of the 2025-2026 academic year!
This month, we close out our 85th season with our final show, Pulitzer-prize-winning Branden Jacob-Jenkins’ Everybody, based the play on the 15th-century morality play, Everyman. Professor Chi-wang Yang directs an all-undergrad cast in this production, in which each night the performers’ roles are determined by lottery to determine which role will be played by which performer.
In the coming weeks, a new exhibit will open in the lobby of the Glenn Hughes Penthouse Theatre, featuring the history and significance of this important building: the first theatre-in-the-round (arena) playing space in the United States. Professor Odai Johnson and the PhD Students in Theatre History and Performance Studies, with help from UW Libraries Special Collections, have assembled photos and documents telling the 86-year-old theatre’s story, including its dramatic move from the south corner of campus to its current site.
This spring saw the success of our inaugural IGNITE New Works Festival, a fantastic event taking place over a three-days in the Glenn-Hughes Penthouse Theatre and several venues in Hutchinson Hall. The festival featured FRESH, RISKY, and ODD offerings in theatre, performance, and visual art installations from over twenty artists from all over the University! Congratulations to the Student Committee, Committee Heads Sebastián Bravo Montenegro and Rachael Herren, faculty and staff organizers and mentors, and the well-over-100 artists, cast and crew members that contributed to this event.
Thanks to all who spread the word about this year’s Husky Giving Day in April. We met our goal for donations and unlocked PhD alum Ken Cerniglia’s generous challenge gift! The School of Drama HGD campaign raised close to $3,000 over the course of the day and helped bring the total raised by the University of Washington to $2million. Let’s do it again next year!
The collaboration between the School of Drama and the Department of Neurology to provide simulation exercises for Neurology resident physicians with Drama student actors playing patients and caregivers in high-stakes scenarios is entering its fourth year. The important program has recently been featured in the College of Arts and Sciences News, the UW Medicine Newsroom, and UW’s Instagram.
Our School of Drama grad and undergrad students continue to amaze us with their creativity, service, and leadership. Among the students who have been honored in the past year are BA student Luna Croné-Baron, who was honored this year with the distinguished UW President’s Medalist Award; PhD Student Rachael Herren, who was recognized at this spring’s Undergraduate Research Symposium with the 2026 Outstanding Undergraduate Research Mentor Award; MFA Directing student Ren Langer who is the recipient of the 2026-27 Graduate School Chester Fritz International Research and Study Fellowship; and BA student Natalia Poliakova, who received a prestigious Mary Gates Research Scholarship.
This spring we have two retirements of cherished members of the School of Drama community: Undergraduate Advisor Eloise Boyle and Professor Valerie Curtis-Newton. We are grateful to Eloise and Val for their profound impacts on the School and our students and wish them all the best in their well-earned retirement!
And finally, we offer our hearty congratulations to our 2026 graduates of our Professional Actor Training Program, PhD Program, and the actors, directors, designers, and scholars in our BA Program. We look forward to celebrating with you at our Spring 2026 graduation ceremony in the Floyd and Delores Jones Playhouse. This year’s graduation speaker is LA-based casting director and producer and BA alum Jamie Castro.
Read about some of these stories and more in this Spring’s newsletter!
Scott Magelssen
Executive Director