2006 fall clockworks
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FROM THE PR E S I D E N TMARK SCHULMAN
Earlier today, I hosted acommunity meeting(remember those?) at
which we celebrated andengaged in a dialogue. For themajority of our readersGoddard gradsthat sounds
f a m i l i a r, Im sure. At leas t yo uare familiar with the dialogue
part. Sometimes in our past, either there have beentoo many challenges to make us feel like celebratingor we have just been too whats the right wo r d maybe distracted to celebrate healthily.
The days of dialogue remain. Im sure you wo u l d
agree there will never be a Goddard without dia-logue, some of it difficult.
But now I also want to insist that we pay attentionto celebrating as we reinvent Goddard. What to cele-
brate? To name a few thing s:
The New England Association of Schools andColleges, our accrediting agency, has determined that
we are an essentially sound institution and reaffirmedour accreditation until 2010.
An anonymous donor gave us the largest single
gift from an alumnus/a in Goddards history, $500,000in honor of board member (and Tim Pitkins daughter-in-law) Clo Pitkin.
Our enrollment continues to grow steadily, andwe have an ambitious growth plan to increase ourf u l l - t i m e - e q u i val ent number to about 1,000 over thenext several ye a r s .
The campus looks better than it has in years, giv-ing us a collective sense of improvement and (at last!)a reduction in the deferred maintenance.
Speaking of the campus, the Greatwo o dGardens have won a prestigious award from theCultural Landscape Foundation. Log onto the foun-
d a t i o n s we bsite , w w w. t c l f . o r g, an d see L an dsli de2006.
We have made organization-wide strategic andtactical planning a clear institutional priority, with anintegrated planning process to make sure all the puz-zle pieces fit together.
The Board of Trustees is at its largest size andsteaming ahead at full speed as the policy-setting ando versight entity of the college.
I hope you will join us in this celebration, and Iknow you will join us in the continuing, albeit occa-sionally difficult, dialogues. You, as alumni andalumnae of this unique institution, are, after all, the
best evidence that we have reason to honor our past,celebrate our present and anticipate our future.
L e t s not forget history, even the troubled an d trou-bling times, but lets also express joy that at this
moment we are thriving, and doing so with integrityand lan.
L e t s not forget h istory, even the troubled and troubling times, but lets also expressjoy that at this moment we are thriving, and doing so with integrity and lan.
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As a child growing up in Salem, Mass., Hillary Smith
found fertile ground for cultivating an interest in
s p i r i t u a l i t y.
Because of Salems reputation as the site of the infamous
Salem witch trials, it has become a kind of mecca for people
interested in alternative spirituality and philosophy, Hillary
says. So, as a kid, I had easy access to these ideas as well as
the people who practice them. She would spend her days
combing the local witches markets and bookstores, searching
for information on ESP, reincarnation, astral projectionany
subject dealing with the mystical or metaphysical.To d a y, as a student in Goddards individualized studies
M A program, Hillary is still searching, still delving into the
mysteries of the unknown and unseen. Her musings have
e vo l ved somewhat since her days in Salem, and she has
focused her masters program on consciousness studies.
I began my Goddard studies with the question, What
does it take for large shifts of consciousness to take place
within society and within the individual?
Her thesis, which she says emerged from Goddards
organic, magical process of following your instincts and
following the path of your learning, concentrates on
Paradox and the Reconciliation of Oppos ites. It looks at
the different, sometimes antagonistic forces that exist with-in the individual and explores how one might bring them
into a complementary existence, or oneness.
She likens it to the Jungian psychology of bringing oppo-
sites of the self into wholeness, instead of getting sucked into
the confusion and chaos of feeling like yo u re separated into
t wo different people . Although this may seem a we i g h t y
subject, Hillary is no stranger to intellectually-challenging
puzzles. She has spent her life grappling with the intangible.
After leaving her native Salem and earning a bachelors
degree in journal ism from New York Unive r s i t y, Hillary left
the East Coast and landed a job in New Mexico as a writer and
editor for an alternative weekly magazine. For two years, she
explored and wrote about metaphysical subjects, gathering agroup of friends with interests similar to her own. A l t h o u g h
her magazine writing gave her a chance to delve into her own
spiritual interests, she found it, likewise, to be limiting.
Writing has been a passion of mine for a long time, she
says. I think I decided at one point that I wanted to get out of
journalism as my career because it was taking away from my
own creative juices.
It was then that her path took another turn and she wa s
introduced to shamanism, or the spirituality of indigenous
peoples. I found that it really spoke to me and called to me,
she says. For the next several years, she threw herself into
shamanism, studying and taking workshops on the subject
and finally traveling to Peru to study with shamans living in
the Andes Mountains.
The shaman is an individual who has the ability to go into
altered states of consciousness and gain extrasensory knowl-edge and healing powe r, she explains. Theyre the healers
and visionaries for their community.
She worked with the Qero people, the last of the Incas who
l i ve in the High Andes, and spent time in the jungle as well. Her
experiences led her to write two books on the subject, both
under the name Hillary S. Webb (Webb is her middle name)
Exploring Shamanism and Travel ing Between the Wo r l d s
Conversations with Contemporary Shamans. The latter is a compila-
tion of interviews with medicine people from around the wo r l d
One of the great things about shamanism is its provided
me a set of tools for having some extraordinary experiences
with consciousness, she says.
She found the consciousness studies program at Goddardalmost by chance, through a link on a website she was visiting
She says the program has given her the chance to stretch her
previous experiences into new areas. Yo u re there with peo-
ple who can speak at such interest ing and deep leve l s .
With her August graduation just around the corner, Hillary
says she is ready to move on to whatever is next, but she is
going to miss Goddard and its people tremendously. Im
completely in my element when I m at Goddard.
by Kelly Collar
Explorations
Hillary Smith during her time with shamans in the Peruvian A n d e s .
s t u d e n t p ro f i l e
in Consciousness
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Bill grew up in the Alabama part
rural Chester County to be exact, wherethe most exotic people we met were Catholics. But this
place is where he goes to find grounded people. Its the
place where he learned that if you dont understand the
peopl e outsi de of Washingto n, D.C., yo u re wasting yo u r
time.
A lifetime anti-war activist and an experienced analyst
of U.S. aid policies, Bill is the executive director of the
Center for International Policy (CIP), which he co-founded
in 1975, three years after he finished studying in the
Southeast Asian studies program at the Goddard-
Cambridge Graduate School for Social Change (GCGS).
I m doing what G oddard wants me to do, he says. I
got to D.C. in the early 70s and sta rted doing what I wa s
trained to do.
The CIP is a progressive research and advocacy organi-
zation whose effect on Washington rests mainly with its
allies in the legislative branch. We work in partnership
with our allies and try to enlist the support of interest
groups and activist organizations to bring other members of
Congress around to our point of view, Bill says.The CIP has several programs that try to change unjust
international policies. For instance, its Cuba program focuses
on ending the 44-year U.S. economic embargo of Cuba and
the ban on Americans traveling to Cuba.
The journey to making change in Washington his
l i f e s work starte d when he was an adolesc ent. Bill, whose
parents and the majority of his family are Republicans,found intellectual solace with his Aunt Charlo tte. She wa s
a pro fessor at Wellesley C ollege for 32 year s an d a ve r y
p r o g r e s s i ve li bera l.
She was the only liberal on my fathers sidea
Kennedy-type liberal, Bill says. She was an amazingwoman. Each ye a r, he s pent a month wi th h is aunt, trave l-
ing in the United States and abroad and being exposed to
political and societal ideals lacking at home in Chester County.
Taking what he could from his aunts tutelage and after
gra duating from Mercersburg A c a d e m y,
he made his way to Boston Universi ty tostudy politi cal science. The switch fro m an A l a b a m a - l i k e
town in Pe n n s y l vania to the BU campus, the hot bed of
radical liberalism, was a change Bill says he was more than
ready for. He attended during the height of the anti-
Vietnam War movement, a time period he considers a cul-
tural revo l u t i o n .
There was a tremendous energy and all sorts of politi-
cal activity. There was at least a demonstration a month in
Boston, he says. I was never a real in sider, but I wa s
a l ways in the middle of things .
His main duty was to organize people. He jokingly
points out that he was given special status as an activist
due to his familys comfort-
able financial situation
During and after his time at
the unive r s i t y, Bil l travele d to
conferences in Canada and
Europe to meet with represen-
t a t i ves fr om the Vi e t n a m e s e
g o vern ment. At the conf er-ences, he also came in contact
with Jane Fonda, Tom Hayden
and Fred Branfman, who we r e
all top American anti-wa r
activists at the time.
Meeting with the
Vietnamese helped me gain abe tt er se ns e of who the
e n e m y was and what their
o b j e c t i ves were , he says. They saw us as occ upiers a n d
i n vaders, while A m e r i c a n s were told we were liberators .
He started the groundwork for his career while attend-
ing BU, working part-time as a bartender, becoming a pro a t
charming customers, honing the skills of a sharp salesman
and collecting excellent tips . I l ike to this think this wa s
the real beginning of my fundraising training.
Connecting Activism and the Nations CapitalWashington Matters:B ill Goodfellows sounding board is Pennsylvania. When speaking ofPennsylvania, he brings up political commentator and pundit JamesCarville. You know what Carville said about Pennsylvania, dont you? hesays. Theres Philadelphia on one end, Pittsburgh on the other, and thenin between you have Alabama.
BY ALLISON KRUISE (MFAW)
Bill Goodfellow (G-C 77)
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He also studied with Howard Zinn, the author of
A Peoples Histo ry of the United States . Zinn, a leader in anti-
war activism, became Bills mentor early on. He is the mostcharismatic teacher we had. He was at the center of eve r y-
thing, Bill says. He wants people to be skeptical. He
taught us that those in power write history, own newspa-
pers and dictate the narrative of our lives.
Zinn was also the one who s teered Bill to Goddard, say-
ing, Even revolutionaries need graduate degrees. Zinn
recollects the situation with a bit more detail, saying he
nudged Bill toward Goddards Cambridge gates because he
thought it would give him the breathing room and the
thinking room he needed. It would encourage him to take
the initiative in organizing his own education, Zinn says,
and he would encounter teachers an d s tudents who we r e
on his political wa velength and make him part of a commu-
nity where he would feel comf ortable.
At first Bill was a bit skeptical about going to graduate
school, wanting to get out and get invo l ved instead. I did-
n t want to be an academic. I wanted to be an activist. Zinn
introduced him to Dr. Cynthia Frederick, his future profes-
sor at Goddard and, at one time, the director of the school.
She and her expertise are Bills fondest memories of his time
at Goddard. She was so disciplined and smart and stern.
She brought academic rigor into the program, he says.
U l t i m a t e l y, go ing to Goddard was serendipi tous for him.
He and just two other students worked with Frederick in
the Southea st Asian studi es pr ogram. He says that it wa s n t
the subject matter at Goddard that has stuck with him but
the methodology and Fredericks unique abilities.
After completing his studies at Goddard, he took the
analytic al and organ izational skills he l earned into a wo r l d
that needed social change. He took these things with him to
Washington, D.C., when he attended a Nixon counter- i n a u-
gural rally and was offered a job: Fred Branfman asked Billto come work at the Indochina Resour ce Center (IRC). A f t e r
a trip to Boston to collect his old VW bus, he headed back to
D.C. to become a researcher and fundraiser at the IRC.
We s aw ourselves as a bridge between the activism-aca-
demi c world and the policy wo r l d - Washington, D.C., he
explains. We understood that Washington matters.
In December 1974, he took his analytical skills to
Southeast Asia and spent six months in Vietnam and
Cambodia, researching and writing papers opposing the
continuation of Amer ican f unding of the wa r. When I we n t
o ver there, I didnt know the end was so near.
He calls his final months in Cambodia the most intenset wo months of my life. He became the IRCs Cambodia
exper t when he moved into a once-r itzy, non-air - c o n d i-
tioned, electricity-less hotel. Although he first chose to take
a penthouse suite on the top floor, he quickly decided to
m o ve closer to the ground when another patron told him of
the rockets that crashed through the top floors of buildings
You didnt have to go far to watch a battle, he says. I
n e ver experienced death until I was there. I saw so much
blo od and gore. He came close r to death than he wo u l d
h a ve liked when a command post he visite d came under
attack . He remembers diving behind palm l ogs that we r e
more like caves and mortars blowing up du st and dirt mere
feet from him. It was a very dicey hour or two.
Bill came back to the United States in May 1975 due to
the evacuations of Americans, but also because he was an
a n t i - war activist without a wa r. When he arrived back in
Washington, the IRC closed down, and Bill and three other
people opened up the Center for Inter national Po l i c y.
It is here that he continues to advance the need for socia
changethe same thing Goddard promoted with the help
of Cynthia Frederick.
Taking his education and his experience, along with the
help of others, Bill kept with the cause to try and make sure
history did not repeat itself. We opened up the CIP i n
order to keep lessons of the war alive, he said. We wa n t-
ed to bring activists together to develop relationships with
key senators and congr ess members in Wa s h i n g t o n .
He has lived in the nati ons capital ever since. He live s
there now with his two children and wife, Dana Priest, a
Washington Post reporter who won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize
for beat reporting.
As the executive director and the only co-founder stillwith the center, Bill is in charge of keeping alive a $3 million
budget by fundr ais ing and writing proposal s to founda-
tions, organizations and individual donors. Jokingly, he
humbles his job duties by saying that he just writes letters
to rich liberals.
In all seriousness, he takes prides in his lifes work. He
says he remains committed to the CIPs mission of promoting
a U.S. foreign policy based on international cooperation,
demilitarization and respect for basic human rights.
Meeting with the Vietnamese helped me gain a better sense of who the enemy wasand what their objectives were. They saw us as occupiers and invaders, while
Americans were told we were liberators.
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Born with a love of drawing, painting andespecially history, she says it was serendip-
itous that I actually found costume designthe one profes-
sion that met all of my interests. I called Deborah at her
home in Los Angeles to learn more about her career and the
path that led her to Hollywood.
I was always interested in costume design, she says,
from birth. Her nascent interest took root during her
childhood experiences at Camp Laughton, a camp for the
deaf her parents owned in the Catskill
Mountai ns. Her mother, a we l l - k n o w n
teacher and school principal for the
deaf in New York City, ran the campfor over 30 years with Deborah s father.
Among her many memories of camp
are Tuesday night bunk nights, in
which every cabin had to put on a
s h o w, complete with costumes, for the
rest of the camp. Deborah would scour
the campgroundthe cabins, bath-
house and dining hallin search of
costume materials.
I always said I could make any-
thing out of a paper place mat, a batht o wel and sheets , she says . As theworld saw in Anima l House ... 20 ye a r s
of bunk nights.
She made all the togas for the films
infamous toga party, a scene credited
with introducing the toga party to pop-
ula r coll ege cult ure. The y we r e n t
couture, but they re what the eve n i n g
r e q u i r e d .
Recalling the film, which she made withher husband, director John Landis, Deborah
says she had never been to a fraternity party, and her hus-
band had nev er even been to col lege, hav ing been expe lled
from high school in the 10th grade. John had never been to
a fraternity in his life, and we made the fraternity movie of
all time.
She collaborated with her husband, whom she met at 19
through her Goddard friends, on more than 10 films,
including An Am er ic an We rewo lf in
L o n d o n an d Trading Places. She also
worked with Steven Spielberg on
Raiders and 1 9 4 1, Loui s Ma ll e onC r a c k e r s, and Co sta-G avras on M a d
C i t y.
D e b o r a h s early passion for history
formed the foundation for her work. She
says historical research is one of the
most important tools for making cred-
ible and authentic characterizations.
During her film work, she would start
the design process by learning eve r y-
thi ng abo ut the fil ms cha ra c t e r s
where they were born, who their par-ents were, where they lived and theirsocioeconomic background.
E very costume designer, whether
t h e y re designing C r a s h or Pride and
P re j u d i c e, goe s throu gh the sa me
process, she says. People tend to
think that costume design is only for
period and fantasy [films], when the
bes t cos tume design is done every day
DESIGNINGWOMAN
Deborah Nadoolman Landis has a knack for making something out ofnothing. An accomplished Hollywood costume designer, president ofthe Costume Designers Guild and a 1972 Goddard alumna, Deborah hasshown her ingenuity creating costumes for such films as Ani ma l Ho use, T h eBlues Brothers, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Coming to America, for which sheearned an Academy Award nomination.
BY KELLY COLLAR
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on contemporary and modern films.
Recent films like S y r i a n a and B ro k e b a c k
M o u n t a i n, she says, have done a beauti-ful job with costume design. A n o t h e r
good example, and one of her f a vo r i t e
recent movies, is Tr a n s A m e r i c a .
I cried, she says. And how much
more of a hardened, sophisticated, jaded
audience could I possibly be?
But before becoming a hardenedmovie industry insiderbefore her
c a r e e r, two chi ldr en and adv a n c e d
degrees in costume designDeborah
was a Goddard student.
Getting to GoddardA sea vo yage seems an unlikely
place to begin a Goddard education,
but that s wher e De bo ra hs start ed
when she was just 15. She and her fam-
ily were sail ing home to New Yo r k
after a visit to London when they metJack She edy, a fe llow passeng er who
happened to be a Goddard professor.
Their acquaintance and his musings
about the college made an indelible impression on her, one
that stayed with her through high school.
He had so impressed my family and had so impressed
me with his warmth, she says, that when it came time to
look at colleges, she journeyed to Plainfield for a first-hand
look. When I went up to Goddard to visit, I felt at home
there, she says. It was natural for me.
E ven before her trip to Goddard, Deborah was already
versed in the language of experimental education. As a
child, she says she was unidentified learning disabled, or
ADD, and she was kept back by her testing anxiety.
I was desperate to get out of the New York City school
system, she says. I knew that I had a lot more to offer
than testing had shown.
Her frustration led her to read S u m m e rh i l l, by edu cation
pioneer A.S. Neill. She was so captivated by the book that
she wrote to Neill and began a wonderful correspondence
with him; she has kept his letters to this day.Deborah describes her time at Goddard as an incubation
perioda necessary rite of passage. This was a place for
special peopl e who didnt fit into other, more conve n t i o n a l
settings, she says. It was filled with a creative, ground-
breaking group of folks.
Some of these folks were David Mamet, who was her
t h eater T.A., and classmates William H. Macy and Howa r d
Ashman, who later became a playwright and lyricist.
Deborah also became invo l ved wi th the Bread and Pu ppet
T h e a t e r, whic h was in-residence at the
time at the Cate Farm. It was her
i n vo l vement with other creat ive spir its
and her artistic work as a student that
led her to consider costume design as a
c a r e e r.
She remembers having a conve r s a-
tion in the cafeteria with Mamet and
Paul Vela, head of the theater depart-
ment, about the viability of costumedesign as a lifes vocation. That wa s
the turning point, she says.
After graduating from Goddard, she
gathered experience as an assistant in
the Champlain Shakespeare Festiva
and in summer stock before enrolling
in UCLAs masters program in cos-
tume design. After shed received her
M . F.A., she worked at N BC televis ion a s
a costume wardrobe stock girl. While she was cleaning and
sorting costumes, she developed her own costuming skillsthanks to her supervisor and mentor, Angie Jones, who
made sure she had a full apprenticeship in costume design
By the time I got to design a movie, I was totally pre-
pared, she says. I always considered myself as one of the
most resourceful people on the planet.
Promoting the Profession
To d a y, wi th a fu ll
career as a wo r k i n g
designer to her credit and
a Ph.D. in the history of
design from the Roya lCollege of Art in London,
Deborah spends her ener-
gies raising awareness of
the profession, both inand out of Holl ywo o d ,
and reaching out to other
designers.
Costume design is a
2 4 - h o u r- a - d a y, seve n - d a y -
a - week endeavo r, with no
time to do anything, she
says. Yo u re lucky if yo u
Photos: a taste of Deborah Nadoolman
L a n d i s costume design. Left top, Deborah
Nadoolman Landis; left bottom, Raiders of the
Lost Ark(1981); immediate left, Animal House
(1978); bottom, Coming to America ( 1 9 8 8 ) .
continued on page 21
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21CLOCKWORKS SUMMER/FALL 2006
can get to the ladies r o o m .
She is in her fifth year as president of the Costume
Design ers Gu ild (Loc al 892), the un ion representing wo r k-
ing Hollywood costume designers. She also teaches at theU n i versity of Southern Cal ifornia and at the Amer ican F ilm
Institute and earlier this year gave a class at the Wo m e n
Directors Workshop.She has turned to her first lovehistoryto pen a num-
ber of books chronic ling the wor k of Hol lywood des igners,
including S c reencraft: Costume Design (Focal Press, 2003)
and 50 Costumes/50 Designers ( U n i vers ity of Califo rnia
Press, 2005).
This fall, Regan Books/Harper Collins will publish her
coffee table book, D ressed: A Century of Hollywood Costume
D e s i g n. The University of California Press will also be pub-
lishing her doctorate in two volumes; the first,Deconstructing Glamour, wil l be ready in 2007.
Her books help shed light on the c ostume designers role
in storytelling, in making fictional characters come to life
When I mention that costume designers also seem to influ-
ence popular fashion, Deborah says she has never beeninterested in fashion. What Im interested in is culture and
how the stories on screen move us.
She says that when fas hion comes from film, its becausea character has touched the viewe r. She points to the cos-
tume she designed for Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost
A r k, which became a cultur al icon. It s because people
l o ved his char acter.
Deborah feels people would understand more f ully wha
costume designers do if they would think of them as cultura
anthropologists instead of designers.
I t s s o much mor e than a jacket and a hat, she says. It
really becomes a thread in the culture; it becomes part ofthe zeitgeist.
DESIGNING WOMAN, continued from page 13
S k y, a li terar y journal featur ing the
work of MFAW faculty and alumni/ae.
w w w. t a r p a u l i n s k y. c o m
Kelsey (Rogers) Perchins ki (IBA 0 1 )
of Portland, Maine, produces artwo r k
for nonprofit fundraising and hosts a
c h i l d r e n s ra di o sh ow on WMPG(online streaming at w w w. w m p g . o r g) .
She is beginning to produce independ-ent radio productions and hopes to do
more vo i c e o ver wo r k .
Joan Peters (IBA 0 4 ) of Candler, N.C.,
works as a mental health professional
at a state agency that provides assis-
tance for persons with mental illness,
substance abuse challenges and deve l-opmental disabilities. Her newe s t
hobby is creating stained glass pieces
featuring lesbian and gay themes.
Jan Quac kenb ush (MFAW 0 5 ) o f
Binghamton, N.Y., had a one-act play,
S t r a w d o g, pr oduced by the Know
Theatre Company as part of its third
annual Local Playwri ghts and A r t i s t s
F e s t i val in Bingh amton.
Davi d Rob son (MFAW 0 6 ) o fWilmington, Del., had a sh ort play, Yo u
R a n g, produced in the Acme Theater
P r o d u c t i o n s New Works Wi n t e r
F e s t i val in Mayna rd, Mass. He also
r e c e i ved a $5,000 fel lowship fro m the
D e l a ware Div ision of the A r t s .
Forrest Roth (MFAW 0 4 ) of Buffalo,
N . Y., is a flash fiction writer who
was featured in a Buffalo News a r t i c l e
on the genre, which features super-
short stories that stand on their own asworks of art. He organized a reading
series devoted to flash fiction at theBig Orbit Gallery.
Kristan Ryan (MFAW 0 2 ) of Brooklyn,
N . Y., will publish a novel, The Hair
Princess and the Hog Temple Incident,
this fall (Behler Publications). She wa s
recently promoted to assistant vice
president of student affairs at theInterboro Institute, a business-cen-
tered coll ege in New Yo r k .
Robert Sheely (PSY 0 5 ) of Coralville,I o wa, works as an add ictions therapi st
in the department of psychiatry at the
I o wa City VA Medical Center.
Jessamyn Smyth (MFAW 0 4 ) of Gill,
Mass., had a short story,A M o re Per fect
U n i o n, nominated for a Pushcar t P rize.
Her play, Jenny Haniver, opened at TheShea Theatre as part of the second
annual Playwrights Festival of New
Works. Her theater company in
Western Massachusetts is called
Basilisk Productions.
Margaret Konwawennontion (Kelly)
Sta cey (IBA 0 1 ) of Kahn awa k e
Moh awk Te r r i t o r y, Quebec , cred its
Goddard for helping her to recognize
aspects of her cur iosity that traditiona
u n i versitie s dont allow or value.
Mark Thellma n (MFAIA 0 5 ) o fMerchantville, N.J., provided photo-
graphic illustration for a book by
Marianne Hieb, Inner Journeying
t h rough Art Journaling: Learni ng to See
and Record Your Life as a Work of Art
(Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2005).
Nag ueya lti Warren (MFAW 0 5 ) o fLithonia, Ga., published a poem,
G r a n d m a s Gir l, in the Apri l iss ue of
Essence Magazine.
Sara h Wash (MFAW 0 5 ) o f
Minneapolis, Minn., had an article,
The Healing Po wer of F lowers, in
U t n e m a g a z i n e s March/April issue.
Low ell Will iams (MFAW 0 6 ) o f
Nashua, N.H., writes to say that the
original version of The Warmth of the
C o l d won best original new play at the
New Hampshire Theatre Awards in
M a n c h e s t e r, an awar d based on writing
not the production itself.
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Suzi Kaitz and Jonathan Katz go back a ways. They met on
Christmas day in 1979. Suzi didnt know it was Christmas.
I didnt know it was 1979, Jonathan recalls. Suzis sister,
Sharon, had attended Goddard, as had Jonathans sister,
Phyllis, before him. When Suzi and Jonathan met, she was a
neuro-anatomist and he was directing a six-piece band.
They married and have kids every nine years like clock-work. So far they have two daughters, 23 and 14, and live
in Newton, Mass.
In the spring, Comedy Central released the first season
of D r. Katz, Professional Therapist on DVD. The cartoon fea-
tures Jonathan as Dr. Katz. All of his patients are comedi-
ans. Dr. Katz really was a show about a father and a son,
Jonathan repor ts , and they had a kind of ver y sweet, lov-
ing relationship. The series ran for six seasons, garnered
an Emmy, a Peabod y Award, and two Cable Ace Awa r d s ,
and was distributed internationally. Jonathan spoke with
me by phone about his work and life.
BONNIE BLADER: Tell me about Goddard.
J O N ATHAN KAT Z : I arrived at Goddard when it was still hip
to be a lost loser. I was so thrilled to meet other people who
were also slightly displaced in the world. I came in 1965,
only they had no place to put us, so we waited in our cars
for more than three yea rs u ntil they built Northwo o d .
B B: Who were your mentors there?J K: Paul Vela meant a lo t to me. He was very wonderful, and
he actually gave me the sense that there are things about
theater that might be fun. Then [David] Mamet showed me
how it could be fun for the audience, too.
B B : He was your classmate?
J K : Yes, David wrote a revue at Goddard and cast me and
three other people in it, and Paul Vela, and he did some-
thing very unconventional and brave for Goddard College.
He cha rged eve r yone 50 cents to come in and see the play
Do you know why?
B B : N o .
J K : He wanted to pay the actors. It was my first experience
in the professional theater.
B B : And experiences beyond Goddard?
J K : One of the first jobs I had after Goddard was for the
New York City Department of Parks. I had a job title, Mr.
Games, and Id travel around with the puppet show from
playground to playground. New York Parks had a puppet
t h e a t e r. We d go into reall y scar yfor mene ighborhood s
and I would have to keep the kids entertained until the
puppet show started, and many times I would have to say
things like, Simon says, Put down your weapons. That
was my firs t job in the real wo r l d .
B B : Who were your mentors after Goddard?J K : Oh, so many. A comedian who has since passed awa y
named Ronnie Shakes. He died as a very young man of a
heart attack. Woody Allen as a comedian, not a s a parent so
much. My wife.
B B : Were you trying to learn something specific from each?
J K : Well, Ronnie Shakes was somebody who knew how to
write a joke in a way that was so beautifully elegant. Illg i ve you an exa mple o f one of my favorite jokes of his. I ts
about therapy: Ive been seeing the same therapist for
about 12 years, and yesterday he said something that
brought tears to my eyesNo hablo Ingls. I love tell ingthat to people who have n t heard it b efore because its a
very efficient and elegant way of making people laugh.
B B : So making a joke is an art and a skill?
J K : Yes.
Jonathan Katz, actor, writer andcomedian, has a wit so quick thatthe jokes that come in a conversation with him come as a surprise even
when you expect them. He quips as easily as most people breathe andcant stop, he has half-lamented to his wife, Suzi, probably in a joke.
by Bonnie Blader (MFAW 97)
PAGING DR. KATZ:An Interview with the Comedian
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7CLOCKWORKS SUMMER/FALL 2006
B B : How do you work?
J K : My days begin with me going into my recording studio
in my home and recording this make-believe radio showcalled H ey, We re Back. I get very l ost in it because I can
imagine that its on the air and people are listening, people
are call ing in. So I have a very active, maybe hyperactive ,
imagination. I thinkand this is going to sound a little pre-
tentiouspart of being able to create stuff is a certain kind
of ability to confuse reality with make-believe, which also
could be called psychotic. Theres a certain amount of crazi-ness invo l ve d .
B B : And about how long might you work on your imaginary
p r o g r a m ?
J K : Until I get hungry or thirsty or want another cup of coffee.
B B : Is there some point where you say, This is a good idea.
J K : Or I say this is a good idea but I have a funnier idea,
because my ideas and my jokes are alway s competing
against each other. I have about six episodes of the make-
b e l i e ve show.
B B : And what will you do with it?
J K : I have a manager in New York and an agent in Los
Angeles, so I get to play make-believe all day and then they
get to try to turn it into income. And, occasionally, it doesnt
turn into income; it just turns into something I find amusing,
and you might hear it on public radio, which is possibly the
least lucrative form of entertainment.
B B : Do you have a favorite type of comedy?
J K : I m drawn to death and morbidity as a comedian, but I
also like silly. I like physical comedy. Danny Kaye is some-
body who used to make me laugh. Steve Mart in that s a
whole different kind of comedy Ive never mastered.
B B : Do you ever think about who your audience is? For
example, you say death and morbidity is your favorite sub-
ject matter
J K : Well, I ll g ive you an example. This is one of my favo r i t e
jokes : My aunt died this week. She was crema ted, and we
think thats what did it. If an audience goes to a comedy
club and the comedian says something of a sexual nature,or something intimate, theres a certain kind of discomfort
and tension that allows for comedic release. I like to make
people slightly uncomfortable with comedy, and in life, I
t h i n k .
B B : How would your youngest daughter describe your wo r k
to someone else?
J K : T h e y re my toughest cro wd, my family. My 23-ye a r- o l d
has been giving me a courtesy laugh f or about 15 years, and
my 14-ye a r-old is much funnier than me, so they know that
I m in the comedy busin ess, but they are not parti cularly
a m u s e d .
B B : As a comedian, have you always been ab le to make ends
m e e t ?
J K : I have n t always been able to make them meet, but Ive
been able to mak e them ackno wledg e the existence of the
other one. That is such a cryptic joke. Boy, thats probably a
joke you could deconstruct at Godda rd.
B B : Ill probably laugh when I rehear it on the tape.
J K : It wa s n t so goo d.
B B : Can we get back to ?
J K : Oh, yes. My wife was often the breadwinner i n our fam-i l y. When I asked her r ecently about how she felt living
with somebo dy who wa s n t ea rning enough money on a
regular basis, she said, It was different because you had a
dream. So I wa s n t jus t your typic al slug . I star ted out
writing songs, you know. I was a songwriter long before I
was a comedian.
B B : H a ve I heard your songs?
J K : I have a song that was recorded and released as a single
called No Place for a Lady. It was recorded by a guy
named Buzz Kason and was released in Denmark.
[BONNI E BLADER TRIES NOT TO LAU G H ]
J K : So it was released in Holland.
B B : Interesting place to be released.
Jonathan Katz during one of his nine appearances with David Letterman
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8 CLOCKWORKS SUMMER/FALL 2006
J K : E very once in a while, I get a ch eckever y th ree ye a r s
for less than $5, and that money c ontinues to flow. I wrote a
song with David Mamet called This Heart is Closed forAlterations, and that was recorded on Mork and Mindy, a
TV show, and aired, so for that song, every once in a while,
I get a check for $11.
B B : Yo u re pretty creative .
J K : A c t u a l l y, right now, its almost a bor n-again creative
thing. Born again is a poor choice of words, but its kind ofa surge, a creative surge.
B B : I know that you have multiple sclerosis. Has it found its
way into your creative life or had an impact on it?
J K : Well, certainly, the physicality of my work has changed.
The last movie I did was with Eddie Murphy, D a d d yD a y c a re, and the dir ector of that movie was ver y acc ommo-
dating because he wanted me in that particular role. One ofthe things Im very good at and Ive always been good at is
asking for help. When you have a disability, you can either
get angry about people not accommodating you or you can
ask them to help you. But the thing Ive discovered is thati t s easier to live with MS than to pretend not to have it. A n d
t h a t s almost like my mantra.
B B : Do you restrict yourself in any way with regard to yo u r
c o m e d y ?
J K : My guideline is that if it makes me uncomfortable, its
probably not a good idea. I ha ve an enormous capacity forbe ing inappr opriate . And I live in a very po li tica ll y cor-
rect tow n. Just to be sa fe, I re fer to eve r y b o d y w h e t h e r
t h e y re gay, st ra ight
bla ck or whi te a s an
Asian.
B B : What degree d id yo u
graduate with?
J K : A B.A. Its better than
the MS.
B B : In what?J K : You know, no one
e ver asked. I just said
I went to Goddard and I
winked. But everything I
learned helped me in
some odd wa y. Im a day-d r e a m e r, and there wa s
n e ver a better place to dothat. At Goddard, I learned about music, acting, writing
and, yes, making fancy boxes out of clay and fine glass. I
learned to sulk while other people danced in time to the
m u s i c .
B B : Do you have any advice for aspiring performers?
J K : My advice to aspiring performers is get a notebook and
a tape recorder, or if it makes sense a video camera ... and
d o n t be afra id to borrow liber ally from yo u r s e l f .
Above: the cover of theD r. Katz
DVD. Below: Jonathan performswith his band, Katz and Jammers, circa 1980. Another Goddard
graduate, Andy Pitt, plays the guitar at left.
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15CLOCKWORKS SUMMER/FALL 2006
A L U M N I / A E P O RT F O L I O
SHIFT
Tammy Vitale (I MA 97)
Tammy Vitales first book, Shift, is a blueprint of her journey
through social change to self actualization. It is a triumph
over dark forces and the internal quarrels that eventually
turn into strength. Womens self realizations are surprisingly
the same: mainstream, women poets live through a sense of
isolation, guilt, then the powerful current of hope that upliftsthe poem from the page.
Grace Cavalieri, The Montserrat Review
Xlibris Corporation (2004), $10
SISTER CHICAS
Lisa Alvarado (MFAIA 04), Ann Hagman Cardinal,
Jane Alberdeston Coralin
Sister Chicas tells the story of three young Latina friends in
Chicago. They meet while working on the school paper, but
during their weekly coffee dates, they form a friendship that
gives them the sisters they never had. Together, they strug-
gle to figure out their identities and learn how to fit their
rich heritage into their lives as modern Norteamericanas.NAL Trade (2006), $12.95
THE GUYND
Belinda Rathbone (GGP 77)
I knew when I married the man that I married the mansion,
be gi ns Be li nd a Ra th bo ne s ca pt iv at ing me mo ir of he r
relationship with a Scottish lairdand with his 400-acre
ancestral home, the Guynd. But there was much that this
urban American did not know. Finding herself in a setting
like that of many a classic English novel, both enchanting
and treacherous, Rathbone shares hard-won lessons in deal-
ing with a grand but crumbling Georgian mansion.
The Quantuck Lane Press (2005), $23.95
ACROSS THE HIGH DIVIDE
Laurie Wagner Buyer (MFAW 01)In poems touching, tough and erotic, Laurie Wagner
Buyers new collection explores the passion and pain of a
womans journey into her sensuality and her quest for a
partnership promising self-fulfillment on every level
Writing from a sensibility that is as feminine as it is unsen-
timental, she probes the deepest heart of womens relation-
shipstheir turmoil, their tenderness and their wrenching
fragility. Kathlene Sutton
Ghost Road Press (2006), $13.95
DANCE MOVEMENT THERAPY: A HEALING ART
Fran J. Levy (RUP 67)
Dance Movement Therapy: A HealingArt, now in its third edition, has won
the acclaim of dance educators and
creative arts therapists worldwide. It
includes, among others, new sections
on multiple personality (dissociative
disorder) and physical and sexual
abuse.
Third edition (2005), $60
Goddard Alumni/ae: Have You Published a Book? Send us a copy for inc lusion in the Alumni/ae Portfol io !
P lease send notif icat ions and books to : Sarah Hooke r, Goddard Col lege, 123 P i tk in Road, P la in f ie ld , VT 05667.
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14 CLOCKWORKS SUMMER/FALL 2006
Get in touch with t he Alumni/ae Off ice: [email protected]; to l l - f ree, 866-614-ALUM
Se nd a cl as s no te or up da te you r ad dr es s: al umni no te s@ go dda rd .e du ; ww w. g o d d a r d . e d u / a l u m n i / u p d at e s. h t m l
A L UM N I /AE CORNER
Regional Gatherings: On March 11, when the Board ofTrustees met in Port Townsend, Wash. (a new residency
location for the MFA in writing program), local alumni/aemet wi th Alumni/ae Director S arah Hooker. They were ve r y
excited about Goddard expanding to the West Coast and we r e
familiar with Centrum, the local arts and education center
at Fort Worden State Park that hosts Goddard residencies.
On April 21, Baltimore alums Marlo (RUP 97) and Matt
Saindon (RUP 98-01) hosted Goddard graduates at the
Clipper City Brewing Company, where Matt works. Sixteen
alumni/ae enjoyed the event, capped off with a tour of the
facility and beer tasting. David Hoffberger (ADP 81) took
Alumni/ae Director Sarah Hooker to an Orioles game.
Jim Feeney ( RUP 64) and Joan Appel (ADP 77) organized a
gathering on April 22 at the Philadelphia home of Philip
Zuchman (GGP 73) and Deborah Gross-Zuchman (GGP
81). Several of the 13 alumni/ae who attended shared cre-
a t i ve a rtwork. Al umni/ae Director Sarah Hooker and Dean
of Finance Daryl Campbell gave updates on Goddard and
e n j o yed the hospi talit y of the Zuch mans.
3-D Map of Goddard: Teresa Stockman (RUP/IBA 0 3 )g a ve Goddard the resul ts of her final study: a three-dimen-
sional relief map of the Greatwood Campus and Pratt
L i b r a r y. The 18- by 24-in ch map is accurate to scale in itse l e vations and buildings, and it is intricately detailed. Next
time yo u re on campus, check it out in the Alumni/ae Corner.
New Alumni/ae Publications: Two literary magazines haveissues coming outTarpaulin Sky (w w w. t a r p a u l i n s k y. c o m ),
edited by Christian Peet (MFAW 03), and The Pitkin Review
( we b . g o d d a r d . e d u / p i t k i n ), edited by current MFA students.
Graduates gathered at thehome of Philip (GGP 7 3 )
and Deb Zuchman (GGP
81) in Philadelphia. Left,
Jim Feeney (RUP 6 4 ) ,
Daryl Campbell (Dean of
Finance), Elizabeth
Frankie Rollins (MFAW
01) and Rebecca (Hearn)
Vaughan (GGP 81). Right,
Philip Zuchman, Joan
Appel (ADP 77) and
Susanna Mayer (IBA 0 3 ) .
Above, alumni /ae gather at breakfast in Port Townsend. Left , Gabriel
Jacobs (RUP 51); right, George (RUP 51) and Jane (RUP 51) A n s l e
Above, Baltimore alumni/ae gather at C lipper City Brewing Company.
Top left, Marlo (RUP 97) and Matt Saindon (RUP 98-01); top right,
Dick McClary (RUP 69), Jean and Ed Adams (RUP 70-71); lower left,
Dorris Alcott (ADP 80) and Mary Hardcastle (MFA I A 04); lower right,
Marshall Anders (ADP 79) and Charles Rahn (ADP 77).