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ALUMNI:

Emily Swallow (U.Va. ’01) has just joined her former UVA student colleague Ben (Schenkkan) Mackenzie (Drama ‘01) on his new television series, Southland.  Ben plays the one of the leading regular roles in the series, and Emily will be playing a recurring role.  The series is currently shown on Thursday evenings on NBC.

FACULTY:

Tom Bloom, Chair, Associate Professor, Scenic Design
Tom has been invited to attend Ming's last Clambake at Lincoln Center.  Held every spring at Lincoln Center, Ming's Clambake, organized by Ming Cho Lee and his wife Betsy, is a showcase for the brightest talents in stage design.  Student designers from the top design schools all over the country come to NYC for Ming’s two-day event and party.  Students present their portfolios and discuss their work with Lee and other professional designers and teachers.  The upcoming 2009 Ming’s Clambake will be the final Clambake for Ming and Betsy Lee. 

Kate Burke, Associate Professor, Voice and Speech
Kate presented “The Similes and Metaphors of Resonance” at the Lessac (Voice) Training and Research Institute Annual Conference in Carlsbad, California in January, 2009 as well as "Telling Our Healing Stories” with Terri Powers, a discussion sponsored by the Theological Horizons Foundation in the Bonhoeffer House, Charlottesville, VA (Audio version available at www.theologicalhorizons.org). She has been awarded U.Va. Sesquicentennial Associateship for the Spring 2010, and she plans to offer voice training and to study voice training methods in Australia, Ireland, Italy, Korea, Spain, Sweden and Scotland.  Kate also received $17,536 from the Page Barber Interdisciplinary Scholarship (A collaboration of the Departments of French Language and Literature, Drama and Music) to bring the Caribbean Theater company Siyaj to Charlottesville during the Fall 2009 semester.  Siyaj is from the French West Indies, and during their visit, they will participate in 2 public performances, workshops and a lecture on Caribbean theatre and literature by Guadeloupean playwright Maryse Conde.

Bob Chapel, Professor
Bob will be spending his 22nd summer with the Heritage Theatre Festival -- producing six shows and directing two -- Oliver! (directing), Moonlight and Magnolias, On Golden Pond, Little Shop of Horrors, Pump Boys and Dinettes and Red, White, and Tuna (directing).  Former U.Va.ers returning to act in  Heritage shows this summer include Evan Bridenstine, J.P. Scheidler, and Cady West Garey.  After the summer season concludes, Bob will then serve as the academic dean for the Fall 2009 U.Va. sponsored Semester at Sea- an around the world voyage, traveling to Spain, Morocco, Ghana, South Africa, Mauritius, India, Viet Nam, Hong Kong/Shanghai, Japan, and Hawaii -- leaving from Halifax, Nova Scotia on August 28 and arriving in San Diego on December 14.

John Frick, Professor, Theatre History
John chaired the meetings and activities of the American Theatre and Drama Society at this year's ATHE convention in New York, before stepping down after three years as President. In May, Frick presented a keynote address, titled "The Representation of Violence and the Violence of  Representation: Uncle Tom's Cabin and the Appropriation of Race on the American Stage,"  at the Third International Conference on American Theatre and Drama in Cadiz, Spain.   The month earlier, he presented the same paper at The Mary and David Harrison Institute for American History, Literature and Culture, and he hopes to present it for a third time at The Harriet Beecher Stowe Center in Hartford, Connecticut.   His review of The Enchanted Years of the Stage: Kansas City at the Crossroads of American Theater, 1870-1930 by Felicia Hardison Londre was published in Theatre Research International and his article, "But is it Art? 'Reading' Popular Entertainment," appeared in What Should I Read? University Press of Virginia, 2008.

R. Lee Kennedy, Associate Professor, Lighting Design
Lee received Drama Desk nomination for his lighting design of Bury the Dead. Congratulations, Lee! http://www.dramadesk.org/press084.html






H. Caitlin McLeod, Assistant Professor, Stage Management/ Production Coordinator
Caitlin’s second daughter, Analyse was born on in early April.  We at the Drama Department send our congratulations to the happy family!

Michael Rasbury, Assistant Professor, Sound Design
Michael will be serving as Sound Designer for The Lost Colony Outdoor Drama in Manteo, North Carolina.  He has provided Sound Design for The Colony since 2006 for an estimated 200,000 spectators.  The Lost Colony is the nation’s oldest and longest running symphonic outdoor drama.  The production includes a troupe of dancers, singers, and actors.  The costume design and production design is provided by William Ivey Long, a five-time Tony award winning designer.  Michael will create cinematic, surround sound, environmental ambience for the production as well as control all aesthetics for the sound of the production.  The process includes multiple recording sessions and sound creation.

Earlier this semester, a new piece of software called “Resonance” was released including a sound set from Rasbury’s http://www.earthrecordings.com sound site.  Resonance (get your copy at http://www.resonance-asm.com/) was developed by William Stepp and was designed to be an ambient sound mixer and binaural beat generator.  The purpose of the software is to facilitate concentration, relaxation, or meditation.

Rasbury’s original piece, Max Understood, has made the “short” list for inclusion at this year’s National Alliance for Musical Theatre (NAMT).  If selected, it will be one of eight original works presented as forty-five minute staged readings before an audience of producers from the nation’s regional theatres.  Rasbury co-wrote this piece with Nancy Carlin of Berkeley, California.  To listen to this work, visit http://www.michaelrasbury.com/maxunderstood.htm.

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