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Theatre & Dance Alumni

FACULTY NEWS:

Tom Haughey, technical director and faculty, is the scenic designer for Wilmington Drama League’s production of Rent which runs in early 2010.

Joan Mary Morgan, design faculty, was the costume designer/artist in residence for the Phelps-Clifton Springs Community Theatre in NY. Her designs for The Producers were awarded the Excellence in Costume Design by the T.A.N.Y.S. (Theatre Association of NY State) . Joan was costume designer for A Comedy Of Errors by the Arden Shakespeare Guild, DE and scenic designer of Camelot by the Brandywiners, Ltd presented at Longwood Gardens, Kennett Square, PA. In addition, she designed a mural entitled "We Are The World" for a school in Seattle, WA.

Igor Roussanoff, costume studio supervisor and faculty, is designing the costumes for a new production of The Nutcracker for The Baltimore School of the Arts.

Kathryn MacMillan, adjunct, recently earned a Barrymore Award nomination for Outstanding Direction of a Play with her work on The Hothouse with the Lantern Theatre Company in Philadelphia. The 15th Annual Barrymore Awards for Excellence in Theatre in the Philadelphia area will be handed out Monday, October 5, 2009 at the Walnut Street Theatre.

SUMMER 2009:

Several of our students have found theatre and dance work over the summer. Here's a sampling of what our students did:

Briana Choynowski is spending her summer as the technical director intern for the Fulton Opera House in Lancaster, PA. Among the shows they are working on are Les Miserable, Hello, Dolly! and Dial M for Murder.

Pete Collier is on the electrics crew at Plays in the Park in Edison, NJ.

Cameron Edris is performing with the Mt. Gretna Theatre in Mt. Gretna, PA. Among the shows he will be performing in are Hello, Dolly! and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. He will also participate in their Children's Theatre summer season.

Ian Potter returns to the 72nd season of the Lost Colony Theatre in Manteo, NC to play the principle role of Old Tom. Lost Colony is the largest outdoor theatre on the East coast.

Don Rider and Danielle Shinder are working as Theatre Camp counselors at the Lionville YMCA.

Don Rider will also be a co-vocal coach for a choir of the Broadway Dance Center in downtown Manhattan.

Lucy Smith was the assistant makeup designer for Seussical and makeup designer for Rent at the Wilmington Drama League and on the makeup crew for Pirates of Penzance with the Savoy Company.

Jason Stump is working at Busch Gardens' Sesame Street Forest of Fun performing in two shows: The Sunny Days Celebration and Dine with Elmo and Friends.

Frank Schierloh and Doug Atkins are working at the Knoebels Amusement Resort.

WCU DANCE PROGRAM SUCCESS AT ACDFA:

Time's Cruel Joke, a choreography work by WCU alum Jillian Glace '08, was selected for the annual gala at the recent American College Dance Festival Northeast Conference held at Penn State University, March 5-9, 2009. This is the first time in WCU's dance program history that this honor has been achieved. Glace's work was one of 10 selected out of 48 works brought by schools with BA, BFA, MA, MFA and dance minor programs. Dance faculty Liz Staruch and Gretchen Studlien-Webb accompanied 24 WCU dance students to the conference for performances, master classes and adjudication comments from three professional dancer/choreographers.

WCU SUCCESS AT KC/ACTF :

Shannon Powlick won regional recognition in Prop Design for the WCU production of Noises Off at the KC/ACTF regional conference recently held at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.

FACULTY NEWS:

Juliet Wunsch, design faculty, was recently elected to Chair of Region II of the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival.

Liz Staruch, dance faculty, presented her choreographic work "Come Clean" in the Spiel Uhr Dance Series in Philadelphia. Seven WCU dancers performed in a professional concert along with four other dance works.

CONFERENCE REPRESENTATION:

Department of Theatre and Dance student Margot Pollack was part of a five member student panel selected to represent WCU at the Undergraduate Research Day at the Pennsylvania Capitol on October 7, 2008 by the WCU Provost's Office. The work compares the extensive media accolades and rhetoric from the story of Elizabeth Smart, a white girl who was abducted from her affluent family in 2002, to the much less-known story of Erica Pratt, a six-year old African American girl from Philadelphia who also suffered child abduction and saved herself from her captors by chewing through the ropes which bound her. Mentor on the project was Dr. Lisa C. Huebner, Women’s Studies and Department of Anthropology and Sociology.

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