National Showcase Calendar

Be sure to check out URTA’s National Showcase Calendar! Lots of listings for New York and Los Angeles, ranging from undergraduate pro-grams on up to MFA show-cases. Links, locations and contact information can all be found for each listing.

Click Here for Calendar.

Or visit www.urta.com. The Showcase Calendar is listed under the “Other Services” tab.

2013/2014 Members

University of Arizona/Arizona

Repertory Theatre Arizona

State University Brandeis

University California

Institute of the Arts

California State University-Fullerton

California State University -

Long Beach/Cal Rep

University of California-Irvine University of California-Los

Angeles University of

Cincinnati, College-

Conservatory of Music

University of Connecticut/

Connecticut Repertory

Theatre E-15 Acting School

London Florida State

University/Asolo

Conservatory University of

Florida Illinois State

University/Illinois Shakespeare

Festival University of

Illinois Indiana University

University of Iowa/Iowa

Summer Rep Kent State

University University

Maryland Michigan State

University University of

Minnesota University of

Missouri-Kansas City/Kansas

City Repertory Theatre

University of Nebraska-

Lincoln/Nebraska Repertory

Theatre University of

Nevada Las Vegas/Nevada

Conservatory Theatre

University of North Carolina,

Chapel Hill/PlayMakers

Repertory Company

Northern Illinois University/

SummerNITE Northwestern

University Ohio University/

Cincinnati Playhouse in the

Park Ohio State University

Pennsylvania State University/Centre Stage

Purdue University

University of South Carolina

Southern Methodist University

Temple University

University of Tennessee/

Clarence Brown Theatre

University of Texas-Austin

University of Virginia/Heritage

Theatre Festival University

of Washington University of

Wisconsin Madison

Photo Op This photo of UConn’s production of Much Ado About Nothing caught our eye. It features Guest AEA Actor, David McCann, who CRT has hired using the URTA-Equity contract. It also features three women who all attended the URTA Auditions a couple of years ago! Congrats to (l-r) Olivia Sacco-manno, Sarah Wintermeyer and Khetanya Henderson. Happy to see some of the NUAI results! Photo by Gerry Goodstein.

End of the Sarah Era! Former URTA President and Executive Director of the University of Washington School of Drama, Sarah Nash Gates, will retire from a 35 year ca-reer in higher ed. “20 years of being De-partment Chair is enough,” said Sarah. “It is time to be a Costume De-signer again.” She will be de-signing Carousel for the 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle this winter. Reflecting on her life in theatre [so far—there is still lots more to come!] Sarah writes, “Theatre education has become more sophisti-cated in the past 30 years, both at the undergraduate and MFA levels. I believe there is a deeper understand-

(Continued on page 10)

Spring 2014

URTA Update “This news is old enough, yet it is every day’s news” Measure for Measure III, ii

Continuing Education at the NUAIs Offering additional opportunities for candidates has long been a part of the NUAI program. Seminars with faculty and industry professionals offering guidance, sug-gestions and information have been well received, but in 2014 the series took a giant leap forward when URTA added more area-specific options. These included voice and movement workshops in New York and Chicago, a session for lighting designers and “What to Expect from a Campus Visit” for Costume Design/Tech candidates. Don Hill from UC Irvine, who co-presented a seminar on developing industry contacts, said, “The group setting allowed for a more relaxed exchange of ideas and infor-mation and the one-on-one follow-up questions after-wards gave everyone an additional opportunity to fine-tune a first impression.” Michael McNamara, Lighting De-sign faculty from Purdue was impressed with the com-parisons he and the other panel members were able to make about their programs, the amount of information they were able to cover in a short time, and also with the quality of the questions that came from the candidates. An Actor in Chicago who attended the Graduate School seminar wrote, “I found the session informative and I really appreciated the panelists willingness to speak frankly about their programs.” Another participant attended the Michael Chekhov Technique workshop in NYC led by Hugh O’Gorman (CSU Long Beach). She

(Continued on page 8)

CalArts School of Thea-ter has introduced two unique classes dealing with immersive enter-tainment. Mark Thomas

from On Track Themes. Inc. targets his course, Commercial Content Development and Production, toward the development and management of multimedia content in a com-

mercial environment. Michael Jung, Vice President of Theatrical Development at the Walt Disney Company, has created the Art of Themed and Immersive Enter-tainment, to provide students with an opportunity to see the creative possibili-ties through different forms of theatre. Working under the constraints of exciting and interactive storytelling, students ap-ply their theatrical philosophies and knowledge to reach various demograph-ics through collaboration and team-work. Both classes provide a valuable bridge between the academic and pro-

fessional worlds.

News from UCLA: Professor Neil Peter Jam-polis was the lighting designer for the Sacra-mento Philharmonic & Opera’s production of Giuseppe Verdi’s Il Trovatore. Director of Pro-duction Dan Ionazzi created the lighting de-sign for the Geffen Playhouse’s presentation of Slowgirl, first mounted this past summer at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company. Graduate costume design students Adam Alonso and Caitlin Doolittle were both named winners of Art of Fashion: A Design Com-petition at the Timken Museum of Art in San Diego. Each student was awarded with a $5,000 prize. The competition included a total of eight UCLA costume design graduate stu-dents who created half-scale costumes based on Thomas Gainsborough’s late 18th-century painting “A Peasant Smoking at a Cottage Door” (currently on loan from the Hammer Museum to the Timken).

CSU Fullerton’s MFA design faculty member Fred Kinney assisted Pamela Howard, OBE in The Spirit of Brouček installation at The World Stage De-sign in Cardiff, Wales and The Radio Hour. A newly commissioned work by noted com-poser Jake Heggie

and librettist Gene Scheer is being staged by CSUF Associate Dean James R. Taulli at Pa-cific Chorale with CSUF theatre professor Eve Himmelheber cast in the role of Nora. Faculty member Debra Lockwood will design lights and MFA Directing student Jeremy Lewis will stage manage. CSUF Head of Directing Mark Ramont is an Excellence in Theatre Education Award recipient from the Region VIII KCACTF.

University of Connecticut/Connecticut Repertory Theatre: 2014 opened with Much Ado About Nothing directed by guest director Paul Mullins and AEA guest actor David McCann. In our studio theatre, we premièred MFA Puppetry student Penny Benson’s adap-tation of Goblin Market and we opened the new Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry theatre with the première of MFA Puppetry student Anna Fitzgerald’s Reverse Cas-cade. On April 24th Legally Blonde, The Mu-sical opens, directed and choreographed by SDC guest Gerry McIntyre with AEA guests, Nicole Lewis, Courtney Hammond, and David Adkins. The semester’s special guest was Carlos Garcia who led School of Fine Arts students in the devised creation of Tito’s Dream. Connecticut Repertory Theatre’s sum-mer season will start with A Chorus Line. Richard Kline (Three’s Company) and Jerry Adler (The Good Wife) will star in Neil Simon’s The Sunshine Boys and the summer will close with Gypsy. Both MFA and BFA Actors have NYC Industry Showcases this spring.

University of Florida recently wrapped up the Spring season with a Master Class by Ben Vereen. He was presented with the Linda Wil-son Lifetime Achievement Award for Excel-lence in Theatre. The Summer Season starts with By the Way, Meet Vera Stark by Lynn Nottage and directed by Tim Altmeyer playing June 12-15 and July 9-12. Next up will be Twentieth Century by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, adapted by Ken Ludwig, and di-rected by Dr. Judith Williams playing July 17-20. The summer season ends with Swamp Dance Fest, directed by Tiffany Rhynard, a month long dance intensive which culminates in a performance of new works showing July 31-Aug. 3.

Indiana University’s Department of Theatre, Drama, and Contemporary Dance recruited its first class in the newly created MFA Costume Technology program, headed by Professor of Practice, Heather Milam. Broadway Producer and IU alumna Harriet Newman Leve visited

Page 2 URTA Update

Ellie Wyman and “Roo” in CSUFs produc-tion of Legally Blonde: The Musical. Photo by Jordan Ku-bat

Closing celebra-tion of Penn State's $2.2 Billion campaign, pro-duced by the School of Theatre. Photo by Dan Robinson

Page 3

the Bloomington campus as the annual Ralph L. Collins Memorial Lecture series speaker. Tony Award-nominated actor, and IU Theatre alumnus, Arian Moayed, visited campus to receive The College of Arts and Sciences Outstanding Young Alumni Award. Both visitors met with stu-dents in the Department of Theatre, Drama, and Contemporary Dance.

After more than six years, the University of Iowa Theatre Building is under con-struction to fully recover from the flood of 2008 and protect it against future floods. New dressing rooms, classrooms, offices, a costume shop, and storage will bring new vitality to the facility. Every wire, ca-ble and duct that once originated in the basement is being moved to the roof in a new “penthouse” - a process of a scale that’s hard to imagine. A new patio en-trance to the building will make it more beautiful and accessible than ever. Mean-while, the department presented the world premiere of Makeover, a new musi-cal hopefully on its way to New York. And our annual live-streaming event with the Moscow Art Theatre – and this year an-other with a theatre in Iraq – added spe-cial life to the spring semester.

Michigan State University has received its second grant from the Stage, Directors and Choreographers Foundation as part of the Guest Artist Initiative to bring in Joe Barros (Producing Artistic Director of the New York Theatre Barn) to direct Carrie The Musical next October. MSU Alum, Michael Price has created an annual in-ternship for an outstanding MSU student at Goodspeed Musicals where he is retir-ing as Executive Director. Stratford Thea-tre Festival’s Resident Teaching Artist, Edward Daranyi, recently directed Cyrano de Bergerac. It was his third production at MSU in as many years as part of a Fa-mous Affiliate grant.

UMKC Theatre– Design students partici-pated in a Hairspray “charrette” along with Life of Pi Oscar-nominated designers David Gropman and Karen Schultz Grop-man. Professor John Ezell has been nominated by the St. Louis Critic Circle's annual award for "Best Set Design" for STL Rep's The Mousetrap. Student Doug Macur was a finalist for the Hemsley Lighting Internship. TD students are auto-

mation finalist at USITT conference. Click HERE to read article. Third Year MFA actors returned from their NYC showcase—check them out HERE. Ed Stern directs Love’s Labours Lost May 2-11.

At University of Ne-braska, the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film closed its season with Sarah Ruhl’s In the Next Room directed by guest Jeremy Skidmore featuring Eq-uity actress Crashonda Edwards. An im-portant part of the School mission is to provide experiences for students to work with guest professionals. Both Mr. Skidmore and Ms. Edwards have done extensive work across the country. Graduate student Clayton VanWinkle was a finalist for the prestigious Gilbert Hem-sley Lighting Internship. He will also be representing the departmentbat the na-tional Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival. Freshman A. J. Orth will represent the School in the Theatre Man-agement Initiative.

Penn State recently presented their pro-duction of Blood at the Root by Domi-nique Morisseau (2014 winner of the Kennedy Prize for Drama) at the Ken-nedy Center. Directed by Steve Broad-nax, head of the MFA Acting Program, the play received the KACTF's Hip Hop Theatre Creator Award. This is the most recent instance of Penn State's commis-sion of plays for their MFA acting stu-dents. The Production has been invited to return to South Africa following a successful tour there last summer and will be presented at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland in Au-gust. Negotiations are currently underway to present the show in addi-tional venues.

University of South Carolina reports that Professor Jim Hunter will step down as Chair of the

Michigan State’s pro-duction of Cyrano de Bergerac (Photo by Chris Haug)

CSUF’s production of School for Lies, di-rected by MFA candi-date Jeremy Lewis. Photo by MFA Acting student Jordan Kubat.

Page 4 URTA Update

Page 5

UIUC Gets Busy (Again) With the Bard

As you know, our Department of Theatre and the Bard are >likethis<! This summer:

MFA alum Danforth Comins continues playing leading roles in his 11th season

with Oregon Shakespeare Festival. MFA alum Samuel Ashdown has accepted

an offer at the Utah Shakespeare Festi-val. This summer, he plays Prince Hal in Henry IV, Part I and Willoughby in Sense and Sensibility. Next summer, he'll play Hal in Henry IV, Part II and in 2016, he will continue in the role in Henry V!

At Utah Shakespeare Festival, MFA alum Bri Sudia is cast in Into The Woods and Sense And Sensibility; MFA alum Drew Shirley is in Twelfth Night and Comedy Of Errors.

American Players Theatre features MFA alums Christopher Sheard (as Romeo and Treplev in The Seagull) and Eric Parks as well as BFA alums Cristina Panfilio and Abbey Siegworth. Faculty member Robert Ramirez is Voice and Text Coach.

Current MFAs Timuchin Aker and Wigasi Brant are in the acting company of the Illi-

nois Shakespeare Festival. At the Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre,

alum Robert Quinlan directs Hamlet; fac-ulty member Robert G. Anderson is Polo-nius and Launce in Two Gentlemen Of Verona, and BFA alum Jessica Dean Turner plays Silvia in Two Gents and Adri-ana in Comedy Of Errors.

Current MFA Thom Miller will be Iachimo in Cymbeline and Macduff in Macbeth at

the Texas Shakespeare Festival. Faculty member JW Morrissette is going

for his 6th summer with Interlochen, where he will play Antonio in The Tempest and direct Henry V.

BFA senior Nick Narcisi is in the acting company of Riverside Shakespeare in Iowa.

At Door Shakespeare in Wisconsin, MFA alum Leslie Handelman is Goneril in King Lear and Adriana in Comedy Of Errors; MFA alum Victoria Caciopoli is Cordelia in Lear and the Merchant in Comedy and BFA alum Joe Boersma is Dromio in Com-edy.

Congrats to all!!

Department at the end of the spring semester, af-ter a successful 10 years

in the position. Recently, Hunter designed lighting for Richard III at the Folger Theatre; the production was directed by Assoc. Prof. Robert Richmond. As part of AATE's Theatre in Our Schools Month, Asst. Prof. Peter Duffy coordinated a workshop for educators with leading process drama expert Pamela Bowell, as well as a performance from award-winning storyteller Awele Makeba. USC exhibited at the USITT Conference, during which three graduate design students - Xuemei Cao, Meredith Hart and Vera DuBose - were chosen to have their work showcased at the Prague Quadrennial. Recent guest artists have included Jim Helsinger and Brad DePlanche from Orlando Shakespeare Theatre, who directed The 39 Steps, and actor Richard Sheri-dan Willis, who performed Claudius in Hamlet.

Temple University presented the rock-musical classic Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical this spring to sold-out crowds. Tony-award winner Melba Moore, of the original Broad-way cast of Hair, visited the department in March to offer advice to the students and conduct a master class with members of the cast. She is one of several artists to visit this year. Last fall, Broadway legend Barbara Cook and award-winning composing team Benj Pasek and Justin Paul held master classes on cam-pus with support from the George & Joy Abbott Center for Musi-cal Theater at Temple University.

Our Hero By: Kristin Kulasik

Sincerity is difficult to find but at The Westin Michigan Avenue, we are fortunate to have team members who demon-strate it every day. We’d like to recognize, Daniel Pena, a front desk agent who goes above and beyond for our guests. One morning, a guest, “Sue” (not her real name), ap-proached Daniel in a panic. Her Pomeranian, Fiona, had jumped out of the car as she was unloading luggage and dis-appeared. Daniel immediately took charge, helping Sue find contact numbers for animal shelters and other services that might be able to help. While grateful for his efforts, Daniel could see Sue was devastated. After his shift, he headed out-side to enjoy some unseasonably fine weather. A few blocks away, a white ball of fur caught his eye—yes, it was Fiona! Despite wandering around for hours, she seemed quite calm. According to Daniel, “She was very friendly, and even let me pick her up.” Just as he was heading back into the hotel, Sue was coming out. She saw Daniel cradling her precious puppy and shouted with joy—a heartwarming reunion! Everyone, including Daniel, was shocked that he, of all people, had been the one to find Fiona, but no one was more ecstatic than Sue. Daniel refused a reward, but she gave him a Starwood Gold points card in recognition for his help. Daniel said that it felt great to have made a guest so happy, and he was glad he could make the reunion possible. That is one of the many reasons why The Westin Michigan Avenue is so lucky to have Daniel Pena. He is a team member who truly is here for our guests, and we couldn’t be prouder.

Education…Experience. Connecting the Dots by Richard Cadena, Technical Editor, Lighting & Sound America

There’s a meme on George Takei’s Facebook page showing two panels. One is a random field of dots under the headline Knowledge. In the other, under the headline Experience, the dots are all connected. It’s self explana-tory, but what’s not self-evident is that experience doesn’t always teach the right lessons. I once worked a show that was to use four followspots. I went to the rental company to pull the followspots, and found the green grounding wire on every one of the pow er supplies was broken, which creates a potentially lethal situation. It’s not as if these wires had been broken the day or week before. They were frayed and oxidized, and looked like they had been that way for months, if not years. When someone uses a light like that and finishes a show, they might think, “Well, that went well. I suppose there’s no need for that green wire after all!” And they could be dead wrong. If one other wire inside the fixture were to break and come in contact with the metal housing, the next person to touch it and a grounded piece of metal, like a scaffold or railing, at the same time, could be seriously hurt or killed. Experience doesn’t always teach the right lessons, but the combination of education, training, and experience can’t be beat. George Takei is right; education and train-ing creates the dots, and then experience connects them.

URTA Update Page 6

Page 7

The Univer-sity of Texas at

Austin produced the seventh iteration of UTNT (UT New Theatre). Curated by Professor Steven Dietz, one of today’s most prolific writers, UTNT showcases new plays from playwrights in the MFA program. UT has been heralded nationally as an incubator for new work (American Theatre). Nota-ble alumni include Lisa D’ Amour (2011 Pulitzer Prize Finalist, Detroit), Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig (2011 Wasserstein Award Recipient, The World of Extreme Happiness), George Brant (2008 Keene Prize for Literature, Elephant’s Graveyard), and Kirk Lynn (2011 USA Fellow in Theatre Arts).

The University of Tennessee is thrilled to report that several of its Graduate Design students won awards at the 2014 SETC Design Competition!

Josafath Reynoso: 1st Place Scenery, The Hairy Ape

Kenny Foster: 1st Place Lighting, The Whipping Man

Poua Yang: 1st Place Costumes, Mary Stuart

Jason Ammons: 3rd Place Scenery, The Whip-ping Man

Kristin Geisler: Ready to Work Award: Triad Stage

University of Washington School of Drama launched our Winter quarter with two workshop productions from our MFA directing students: the world premiere of Reading to Vegetables by E.M. Lewis and a near sold-out run of The Arabian Nights by Mary Zimmerman. This Spring, we are thrilled to welcome Tony-nominated director Wilson Milam who will lead our production of Vaclav Havel’s The Beggar’s Opera. We also welcome back Whit MacLaughlin, artistic director of New Paradise Laboratories, to continue working with our MFA students in creating a devised piece to be performed as part of our main stage season next October.

New Faces @ LDI’s Broadway Master Classes

The “Broadway Master Class” series features top de-signers and artisans sharing insights in an intimate set-ting. While the three creative consultants remain con-stant—Jules Fisher, Abe Jacob and Zachary Borovay—there are many new faces for 2014. Lighting design speakers include Mark Barton, David Weiner, and Japhy Weideman, while veteran faculty member Don Holder will discuss lighting with award-winning choreographer Twyla Tharp. The Projection se-ries features Ben Pearcy of 59 Productions (War Horse; Hedwig And The Angry Inch), projectionist Brian Beasley, projection designer Dan Scully (Rocky), and Driscoll Otto and Caite Kemp. Composer/designers Mark Bennett and Lindsay Jones join veteran Leon Rothenberg on a panel about wearing two hats. Nevin Steinberg returns for a conversation with the legendary composer John Kander. Some hot young talents will sit on an assistants panel including Joshua Reed, Anthony Mattana, Alex Neuman, and Will Pickens. This is just the tip of the iceberg! Click HERE for the complete Broadway Master Classes schedule. URTA members and students can save 50% on all registration options by using promo code BDWY50.

UW’s production of Arabian Nights. Photo by Mike Hipple

Miller Voice Method - a Review In conjunction with the Chicago NUAIs, URTA presented an in-troduction to the Miller Voice Method, led by John Patrick from the University of North Carolina. The workshop was very suc-cessful, so we asked John to share some thoughts.

There is an unavoidable expectation when an early career actor attends an audition, including the NUAIs. The very desire for a job, or entrance into a competitive train-ing program, can move the actor away from the present moment and into a world of fantasy, strategy, and seem-ingly "professional manners." These behaviors create ten-sion and perpetuate habitual patterns that actually veil the unique personality and talents of the candidate from the auditioners. Working with the candidates right in the midst of the high-stress environment of the NUAIs was quite revela-tory. Integrating training and exercises into real world cir-cumstances can prove difficult, but my workshop felt truly relevant and helpful. To discuss the fear of auditioning and explore tools in response to this fear, literally 10 minutes before they head upstairs for interviews, is an incredibly viable environment. Distracting a result-oriented mindset back into a place of curiosity and play empowers early career professionals as they meet opportunity with their preparation. I felt incredibly grateful to be there with them at that unique time. And they all felt grateful to you, too JP. Thanks! ~ URTA

URTA Update Page 8

Connecticut Repertory Theatre Summer Season A Chorus Line, by Marvin Hamlisch, Edward Kleban, James Kirkwood, Nicholas Dante and Michael Bennett, Directed & choreographed by Cassie Abate. June 5 – 14. The Sunshine Boys, by Neil Simon, Directed by Vin-cent J. Cardinal. June 19 – 29. Gypsy, by Arthur Laurents, Jule Styne and Stephen Sondheim, Directed by Vincent J. Cardinal, Choreo-graphed by Cassie Abate. July 10 – 20. http://crt.uconn.edu/

Indiana Festival Theatre Season Godspell, by John-Michael Tebelak, Stephen Schwartz, Directed and choreographed by George Pin-ney, Musical Direction by Terry LaBolt, June 9-29. School House Rock Live! by Scott Ferguson, George Keating, Kyle Hall, Lynn Ahrens, Bob Dorough, Dave Frishberg, Kathy Mandry, George Newall, and Tom Yohe, Directed by Lee Cromwell. June 21-July 12. Twelfth Night, By William Shakespeare, Directed by Jonathan Michaelsen. July 5-26. The Miracle Worker, By William Gibson, Directed by Dale McFadden. July 11-27. Moses Man, by Casey Filiaci and Deborah Haber, Di-rected by George Pinney, Musical Direction by Ray Fellman. August 22-24. See theatre.indiana.edu

University of Iowa Touring production of the musical, Respect, directed by Eric Forsythe,

Michigan State University What I Did Last Summer, by A.R Gurney, directed by Lynn Lammers. June 11-14 Detroit by Lisa D’Amour, directed by Mark Colson. June 18-21. Ruthless, by Joel Paley and Marvin Laird, directed by Deric McNish. June 25-28 The Weird, by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, director TBA. June 13-28. The Summer Circle, written and directed by Rob Roznowski. June 13-28.

Nebraska Repertory Theatre Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike by Christopher Durang, directed by Doug Finlayson, July 10 – August 8. Circle Mirror Transformation by Annie Baker, directed by Virginia Smith, July 17 – August 9. Unnecessary Farce by Paul Slade Smith, directed by

Alan Knoll, July 23 – August 10. See unl.edu/rep

Sara’s Word of the Day: charette

I speak some French, and recognized the etymol-ogy when I saw it in the UMKC Member Listing, and while the designers amongst us may have already known, I had no idea what the word meant. Since I was curious, and I have ADHD, I looked it up rather than finish my taxes. According to Wikipedia, a charette (pronounced [shuh-ret], sometimes spelled “charrette”), is an in-tense period of design or planning activity. Cynthia Stofiel from UMKC clarified that “architecture stu-dents used to follow the French masters around for classes with everything loaded on to a wood cart, a charette.” The term can refer to “any collaborative session in which a group of de-signers drafts a solution to a de-sign problem.” Charettes take many forms, and are used to generate, dis-cover or even invent solutions while integrating the aptitudes and interests of a diverse group of people. They are even used in urban planning, such as in this public notice: "Please be advised that the City of DeLand, FL will hold a design charette at the Sanborn Activi-ties Center, regarding proposed improvements to the Activities Center." I thought the word appropriate and accurate to describe what happens in the URTA Board meet-ings, which I have been sitting in on for the last 17 years. Our organization is not like any company I have ever worked for, and certainly unlike any pro-duction I have worked on. Rather, URTA seems more akin to a giant ongoing, ever-evolving design project. Sometimes the solution is not more money, just better design. The NUAIs are even a charette of sorts if you think about it—a vehicle to the next level!

wistfully commented that it was too bad it hadn’t been held BEFORE that day’s Auditions. Ralf Remshardt from University of Florida re-marked, “When students come to the NUAIs directly from their undergraduate program, the very idea of “ ‘graduate school’ seems remote and sometimes even forbidding. It's our job to demystify the process of selection and graduate admission.” URTA plans to develop the Continuing Education program to serve immediate needs of candidates, by presenting seminars and workshops that are sensi-ble, productive and pertinent. We look forward to bringing the artistic talents and skills of our fabulous recruiters out of the classroom to the participants at the National Unified Auditions and Interviews.

Continuing Education (Continued from page 1)

Page 9

Scenes from the 2014 NUAIS

The key to efficient and trouble free audi-tions in NYC? Well caffeinated Stage Man-agers. Thanks Jillian, Anna and Cyndy!

Students from Azusa Pacific University “hope they get it” at the

Candidates trudging through Times Square the night before NYC Auditions begin.

Street view, from the Westin on the morning of the first day of Auditions in Chicago.

Hugh O’Gorman leading a Chek-hov workshop in New York.

Don Hill (UC Irvine) and David McGraw (University of Iowa) at the Director/Stage Manager seminar in New York.

Professor James Gage (UC-CCM) re-viewing design portfolios in Chicago.

1560 Broadway Suite 1103

New York, NY 10036 Phone: (212) 2211130

Fax: (212) 869-2752 E-mail: info@urta.com

If you want your institution’s information included in the

next issue of URTA Update, forward it to

sfalconer@urta.com. Next issue: October 2014

URTA Update is published bi-annually by The

University/Resident Theatre Association

Design and Editor:

Sara Falconer Contributors:

Scott Steele, our National Sponsors, and our Member

Institutions

2015 NUAI Dates

New York URTA Acting Auditions: Fri Jan 23 - Mon Jan 26

Satellite Auditions: Sat Jan 24—Tue Jan 27

Directing and Stage Mgmt: Sat Jan 24

Chicago Design/Tech

Thu Jan 29 - Sun Feb 1 Directing, Stage & Theatre

Mgmt: Sat Jan 31 URTA Acting Auditions: Mon Feb 2 - Thu Feb 5

Satellite Acting Auditions: Tue Feb 3 - Thu Feb 5

San Francisco Combined Acting Auditions:

Sat Feb 7 - Sun Feb 8

Applications will be avail-able in August.

Page 10

Sweepstakes Winners!

Once again, URTA offered a sweepstakes to NUAI candidates, thanks to our good friends at The Westin Chicago Michigan Avenue. Candidates who were US residents were eligible to enter by “Liking” the URTA Facebook page. Ten lucky winners were selected at random to receive $100 gift cards from Amazon.com.

A hearty ‘thank you’ to all who participated, and especially to The Westin Chicago Michi-gan Avenue. The winners are:

William Acker, Sanford, MI Leo Bond, Warner, NH Justino Brokaw, Albuquerque,

NM Robert Gagnon, New Paltz,

NY Kayli Jackson, Logan, UT Samia LaVirgne, Sacramento,

CA Megan Leathers, Winchester,

MA Kathryn McGaughey, NYC Samantha Pistoresi, Santa

Clara, CA Sydnie Ponic, Albuquerque,

NM

ing of what ‘professional standards’ truly are among the URTA membership.” She adds, “Of course, communication has changed, making it easier to share ideas and best practices with people across the country. That said, there is still work to do to help aspiring young theatre artists understand what they should be doing to prepare themselves for pro-fessional training.” Sarah has certainly inspired and prepared an entire generation of artists, and will be much re-membered for her considerable outreach skills. Sarah joined the URTA board in 2000, serving con-secutive terms as Director, Treasurer, and Vice President. She was appointed President in 2007 to replace Brant Pope, and was then elected to a term of her own (‘08-’10). Among many achievements under her leadership, URTA created the MAPRC group to simplify the membership application proc-ess, making it considerably more user friendly. “Being a member in URTA automatically provides an extensive network of colleagues,” reflects Sarah. “As a Chair, this network has proven to be invalu-able, but it has been my work with the Board, and the lasting friendships I’ve made, that are the most worthwhile of all.” The University of Washington salutes Sarah on June 3 with a reception at the Jones Play-house. Shakespeare wrote, “Our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.” (As You Like It Iii). Sarah, on behalf of URTA membership, we wish you happiness, suc-cess and good health. You will be missed!

The Sarah Era (Cont from page 1)