expression winter 2004

Expression

Time to Make Up Students practice the art of theatrical makeup

A World Without WiresCutting-edge technologies and tools are reshaping everything from communication to marketing

A Novel ConnectionFive young alumni take writing workshops to an electronic level

T H E M A G A Z I N E F O R A L U M N I A N D F R I E N D S O F E M E R S O N C O L L E G EW i n t e r 2 0 0 4

2 Expression Winter 2004 3 Expression Winter 2004

Time to Make Up See story inside onthe legendary theatrical makeup coursesof Mary Ellen Adams.


ExpressionT H E M A G A Z I N E F O R A L U M N I A N D F R I E N D S O F E M E R S O N C O L L E G EW I N T E R 2 0 0 4

Memory Lane

Campus Digest

A Novel Connection

Time to Make Up

A World Without Wires

Notable Expressions

Alumni Digest

Class Notes

Profiles

My Turn

Poetic expressions from days gone by

The first endowed professorship at the College, a new diversity effort is launched, and more

Five young alumni take writing workshops to an electronic level

From beauty to horror, students practice the art of theatrical makeup

New tools and technologies are changing the face of communication, marketing, and the world of the deaf

A compendium of accomplishments in various fields

Photo coverage of alumni gatherings from around the nation, a preview of Alumni Weekend 2004, and more

Read the news about your classmates

Poet Denise Duhamel ’84 explores gen-der politics and more; Chuck Willis ’79 edits cutting-edge commercials

A veteran news producer examines the new era of television news production

2

3

6

10

14

20

24

29

34

36

Expression

6

10

14

Executive Editor David Rosen

Editor Rhea Becker

Writer Christopher Hennessy

Design Consultant Charles Dunham

Expression is published threetimes a year (fall, winter and spring)for alumni and friends of EmersonCollege by the Office of Public Affairs(David Rosen, associate VicePresident) in conjunction with theDepartment of Institutional Advance-ment and the Office of Alumni Relations (Barbara Rutberg ’68, director).

Office Of Public Affairs [email protected](617) 824-8540fax (617) 824-8916

Office Of Alumni [email protected](800) 255-4259(617) 824-8535fax (617) 824-7807

Copyright © 2004Emerson College120 Boylston St.Boston, Massachusetts 02116-4624


Memory Lane In This Issue

Have you, like thousands of other Americans, logged on to the website of a 2004 presidential candidate lately? If so, you are participating in a revolutionary new movement as the Internet alters the landscape of what we know about American politics. A look at this cultural shift is just one part of our cover story, “A World without Wires,” which examines innovations in the wireless world that affect all of our lives, from mobile marketing to communication for the deaf and hard of hearing.

Students at Emerson have for many years learned the craft of stage makeup under the gentle tu-telage of Mary Ellen Adams. Take a look at our vibrant story and photo essay on this fascinating world of greasepaint, spirit gum and the other accoutrements of theatrical makeup.

A group of young writers who met at the College while studying as graduate students in the M.F.A. program in creative writing have tai-lored a unique way to conduct writ-ing workshops long distance. Read their story and learn how five alums have kept the bonds of their friend-ship and professional lives alive well beyond their college days.

We hope you enjoy this issue.

-Rhea Becker, editor

Student writers have long had an outlet on campus for the fruits of their creativity. The Scribe, for instance, was a student literary journal which was launched in 1953 and continued to publish twice annually until 1970, when it was renamed the Emerson Review. The Review is still being published today. What follows is a sampling of some student writing from The Scribe’s heyday.

Youthful Reverie

Expression welcomes short letters to the editor on topics covered in the magazine. The editor will select a representative sample of letters to publish and reserves the right to edit copy for style and length. Send letters to: Editor, Expression, Office of Public Affairs, Emerson College, 120 Boylston St., Boston MA 02116-4624; [email protected].

View from Dartmouth Streetby Anne Ritchey

Shadow FlowersFade betweenSpires of twilight,And do not bloomExcept the rich growthOf brick and rubbleCleaves to the Alleys;And SkyAnd summer,In plastic petalsOf light laughterAnd the hop-scotchOf a child petrifiedIn a make-believe forestStone trunks deny.These are the bones of the eveningDull as the morning twilight.This is a faceless windowBreaking laughter.This is where the sun fledHop-scotch,Among the numberedSoft-blue morningsLayering into rubbleWithout a cry.

Love Poemby Joe Newman

Raindripping from tangled hairas she fumbled for change. “Two peppermint sticks.”

“Red or green,” the storekeeper managed.

Leaving apuddle of rain,she started for the streetsucking the sweetnessfrom stale candy.


Campus Digest

New England’s largest collec-tion of modern and contem-porary works. The 7,800-sq.-ft. Lois Foster Wing, which opened in October 2001, doubled the exhibition space and added an outdoor sculp-ture court.

Mrs. Foster is a Fellow of Brandeis University, a founder of the Friends and Patrons of the Rose Art Mu-seum, a former member and current honorary member of the Board of Trustees of the ICA, and a former overseer and current Visiting Com-mittee member of the MFA.

Dr. Foster earned his doctor of veterinary medicine degree from the Middlesex Veterinary College in 1946 and is the founder, chairman emeritus and past president of Charles River Laboratories, a major medi-cal and scientific research company. He is a member and former chairman of the Brandeis University Board

Henry and Lois Foster have provided leadership and financial support to a num-ber of leading educational, cultural and medical institu-tions in the Boston area, including the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (MFA), the Institute for Contem-porary Art (ICA), Brandeis University and its Rose Art Museum, the Tufts School of Veterinary Medicine, Mas-sachusetts General Hospital and Emerson College.

Mrs. Foster has focused much of her interest and energy on contemporary art, and was instrumental in the creation of the Henry and Lois Foster Gallery for Contemporary Art at the Mu-seum of Fine Arts in Boston. She has taken a special inter-est in the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis, which houses

Henry and Lois Foster have long history of giving

Henry and Lois Foster of Boston and Palm Beach have established an endowed professorship in contempo-rary art practice and theory at Emerson College through a gift of $1.5 million. It is the first endowed chair in the history of the College.

“This magnificent gift represents a milestone in the history of our College,” said President Jacqueline Liebergott. “It will enable us to enrich our curriculum and to add a first-rate con-temporary visual artist to our faculty. We are enormously grateful to the Fosters, and we look forward to working with them in the months and years ahead.”

Liebergott noted that Lois Foster, an Emerson alumna (1949) and honorary degree recipient (2003), is considered an authority on contemporary art and is one of New England’s foremost art collectors and patrons.

“Lois has directed her boundless energy and talent to supporting artists and art institutions and in so doing has improved the quality of life for generations of Great-er Bostonians and visitors to our region,” Liebergott said. “I am delighted that she has now chosen to work with our students and faculty here at Emerson.”

The Henry and Lois Foster Professorship of Con-temporary Art Practice and Theory resides in the Depart-ment of Visual and Media Arts within Emerson’s School of the Arts.

Grafton Nunes, dean of

the school, said that in filling the chair the Col-lege will seek “a prominent individual who is a current practitioner, deeply engaged in the issues of contempo-rary art, with a deep appre-ciation of and substantial background in contemporary art theory, history, criticism and methodology.”

Nunes said the new professor will teach courses

in art making and aesthetics on the undergraduate and graduate levels. The goal, he added, “is to expose our students to the highest and most progressive levels of practice and to demonstrate how a grounding in the theory and history of art can liberate and educate the ar-tistic endeavor. The chair will enable us to move the study of contemporary visual arts

Henry and Lois ’49 Foster establish chair in contemporary art at College

at Emerson to a new level of sophistication.”

Mrs. Foster hopes that the establishment of the new chair will “stimulate a serious interest in the visual arts among some Emerson students, even as it enriches the quality of life for all. Not everyone can perform on a stage, but everyone can enjoy the visual arts.”

of Trustees, a trustee of Tufts University and chairman of the Board of Overseers of Tufts Veterinary School. He is past president and diplomate of the American College of Laboratory Ani-mal Medicine; Honorary Life Trustee and past board chair (1991-94), Museum of Fine Arts; and Honorary Trustee, Massachusetts General Hospital.

Lois and Henry Foster


Students, faculty, staff, alumni, trustees, overseers and other friends of Em-erson gathered in several venues during the last week of October to celebrate the opening of the new Tufte Performance and Production Center and the Levy Market-ing Communication and Journalism Wing as well as the grand reopening of the Cutler Majestic Theatre.

On Thursday, Oct. 30, more than 400 people packed the ballroom of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel to pay

tribute to Ted ’51 and Joan Cutler, who made a lead gift toward the recently completed restoration of the theater. The guest list – a veritable who’s who of Boston’s business, artistic and philanthropic communi-ties – included Boston Mayor Thomas Menino. After din-ner the group joined nearly 800 other people at the theater for a special Majestic centennial performance of Porgy And Bess.

The next day Menino returned to campus along with U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and U.S. Rep. Michael E. Capuano

(D-Boston) to help dedicate the Tufte Center. President Liebergott paid tribute to Trustee Marillyn Zacharis, whose family made a lead gift toward construction of the center, which is the first entirely new building in Emerson’s history.

On Saturday, the School of Communica-tion dedicated its new Levy Marketing Communication and Journalism Wing in the Walker Building. Partici-pants included Richard ’68 and Sheryl Levy ’68, who funded the facility.

Tufte Center dedicated with gala weekend; Cutler Majestic Theatre celebrated

The 210-seat theater and its adjoining lobby on the third floor of the new Tufte Performance and Production Center has been named the Semel Theater in recognition of a major gift from Terry Semel, chairman and chief executive officer of Yahoo! Inc., and Jane Semel.

President Liebergott announced the naming at the Oct. 31 dedication cer-emony for the Tufte Center.

“Terry Semel is a giant in both the communication and entertainment indus-tries, and we are delighted that he has chosen to support Emerson College,” Liebergott said. “We look forward to working with him as we explore new and inno-vative ways to enhance our programs in these fields.”

Prior to joining Yahoo! in 2001, Semel spent 24 years at Warner Bros., where he was most noted for his

Yahoo! CEO Terry Semel funds theater in Tufte Center

role as chairman and co-chief executive officer. He and his business partner, Robert Daly, helped build Warner Bros. into one of the world’s largest and most creative media and entertainment enterprises. Prior to Warner Bros., Semel was president of Walt Disney’s Theatrical Distribution division and previously was president of CBS’s Theatrical Distribu-tion division.

Semel is the father of Courtney Semel ’03.

Trustee Marillyn Zacharis discusses the significance of the new Tufte Performance and Production Center at dedication ceremonies in October.

The College recently so-licited bids for construction of a 14-story campus center and residence hall on the so-called “Piano Row” site at 144-156 Boylston St. Sealed bids from general contrac-tors were submitted in early January and reviewed by the Office of Administration and Finance.

The 185,000-sq.-ft. facility, designed by Stubbins Associates of Cambridge, will include residential suites, athletic facilities, offices and meeting rooms for student organizations, informal gathering places for off-campus students, rooms that may be used for small-group rehearsals and performances, dining facili-ties, and offices for the Dean of Students and his staff.

Construction is ex-pected to begin this spring and be completed by the fall of 2006, according to Robert Silverman, vice president for administration and finance.

Bids solicited for new campus center, residence hall

An architect’s rendering of the new campus center/residence hall. Construction is scheduled to start this year with completion in 2006.


Elma Lewis ’43, pioneering force in Boston’s arts and cultural community, dies

Mayor Thomas Menino presents Ted ’51 and Joan Cutler with a proclamation designating Oct. 30, 2003, Ted and Joan Cutler and Majestic Theatre Day in Boston.

Actor Glover to kick off diversity effort at College

Actor Danny Glover, known for his roles in The Color Purple and the Lethal Weapon series, will come to campus in February as the first Balfour Distinguished Speaker on Diversity in the Communication Industries. The event launches a diver-sity initiative at the College. Glover has worked exten-

Trustee Vin Di Bona ’66 in the Vin and Cara Di Bona Control Room of the Di Bona Family Television Studio in the new Tufte Center.

Elma Lewis, a 1943 graduate of Emerson College and a driving force in the advancement of culture and the arts in Boston’s African- American community and beyond for half a century, died Jan. 1 at the age of 82. She had suffered complications from diabetes for many years. Lewis opened the Elma Lewis School for the Performing Arts in the city’s Roxbury section in 1950, six years after earning a master’s degree from Boston University School of Education. In 1968 she “brought Boston’s African-American community to international prominence”

by founding the National Center for Afro-American Artists in that same community in 1968, The Boston Globe reported. For many years, Lewis also operated the Elma Lewis Playhouse in the Park. She also produced and directed the annual Black Nativity Christmas pageant. In 1981 Lewis received a so- called “genius grant” from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. President Reagan awarded her a special arts medal two years later. “Elma was an artist whose medium was people,” said Emerson President

Jacqueline Liebergott. “She could squeeze insight and creativity from a turnip. She was a monumental influence on arts education not only for the thousands of African-American students who came through her programs, but also for the wider arts community in Boston and the nation at large.” Barbara Rutberg, Emerson’s director of alumni relations, noted that Lewis was the recipient of an Emerson Alumni Achievement Award and an honorary lifetime member of the Alumni Association Board of Directors. “She cared deeply

about Emerson,” Rutberg added. “When the College was considering moving to the suburbs in the 1980s she spoke out forcefully against this. She believed that Emerson should stay in the city because this gave life to the kind of work our students do. She was confident that suitable facilities could be found, and she was right.”

sively in theater as well as in film and television. He is also passionate about community activism and philanthropic ef-forts. Glover is involved with the Vanguard Public Founda-tion based in San Francisco, and he was honored in 2003 with the NAACP Chairman’s Award.

The College’s diver-sity effort is supported by a

$500,000 grant from Fleet National Bank, trustee of the Lloyd G. Balfour Founda-tion. The Foundation arose out of the estate of Lloyd G. Balfour, who was the owner of L.G. Balfour Co., the renowned Attleboro, Mass., manufacturer of class rings, membership insignia and other related products.

Trustee Sheryl Levy ’68 (center) and Richard Levy ’68 (right) were joined by President Liebergott and Dean Stuart Sigman at a Nov. 1 dedication ceremony for the new Levy Marketing Communication and Journalism Wing in the Walker Building.

7 Expression Winter 2004

In an ideal world every writer would have a

group of trusted colleagues who lived nearby and

had enough time to dedicate a few hours a week

to discussing everyone’s work over coffee. It’s

a fantasy in today’s busy and mobile world, but

a group of Emerson alumni who are also profes-

sional writers have found a way to improvise.

M.F.A. degree holders Lara Zeises ’01, Lau-

rie Stolarz ’00, Tea Benduhn ’00, Kim Ablon

Whitney ’03 and Steven Goldman ’04 all met

while they were students in Emerson’s gradu-

ate program in creative writing. What started

as casual meetings before and after classes to

brainstorm, share ideas and help each other

Any faculty member in the M.F.A. program in creative writing will tell you that in addition to graduating with a solid foundation in writing, students leave with a network of fellow writers who will become their most important resources.

Writing workshops in which writers critique each other’s work are the mainstay of any M.F.A. program. Friendships develop quickly when one’s hard work and sometimes deepest feelings are offered up to a group of strangers.

After Lara Zeises and her fellow writers dispersed, each member of the group sent their work to everyone else and individual comments were returned to the writer. But this format didn’t allow for the back and forth that is crucial in a workshop. “The benefit of being in a room together is that you can instantly respond to something that someone brings up and reach an agree-ment together,” explains Benduhn. “Also, there is the opportunity for

Five

young

alumni

take

writing

workshops

to an

electronic

level



work through blocks grew into workshops at

each other’s homes. But when Benduhn moved

to Atlanta and Zeises left for Delaware, the

group was on the verge of fading away.

And this wasn’t just any group of young

writers: among them are award-winning

scribes as well as authors published by Knopf/

Random House and Simon & Schuster.

Thinking creatively, the group decided to

make their workshop virtual – using e-mail to

simulate a writing workshop. “It just made sense

to find a way to keep it going,” explains Stolarz.

“We were all really committed, and we all really

loved and respected each other’s work.”

With online comments in the round-robin format we’re able to see what the previous commenter(s) have written and pitch in whether or not we agree.

Tea Benduhn

addressing new issues that you hadn’t thought would have been important to mention. And you can ask for clarifica-tion right on the spot.”

In order to make it feel more like a regular workshop where one person builds on another’s comments, Zeises recommended using the tracking func-tion in Microsoft Word’s software in which suggested edits appear in various colors, therefore enabling the author to see the original edits as well as the edits the others propose. Then the author can accept or reject the changes as he or she sees fit.

The group, whose members share an interest in writing for young adults, uses a round-robin format. Every week, each member sends out an excerpt of a novel or sometimes a short story to one appointed member of the group. That member reads the work and com-ments, using the tracking function. Then the next week the piece is passed forward to the next person in line who adds his/her comments. The cycle continues until the piece ends up with its originator.

Five

young

alumni

take

writing

workshops

to an

electronic

level

The round-robin format fosters more of a sense of ‘back and forth’ and was an immediate hit with the group. “With online comments in the round-robin format we’re able to see what the previous commenter(s) have written and pitch in whether or not we agree,” explains Benduhn. Adds Zeises, “The format started because we missed having conversations about the pieces, so now we have some interaction by reading and responding to each other’s comments.”

Kim Ablon Whitney joined the group when the round-robin format was already in place. “I had met Lara at Emerson and reconnected with her after I graduated. She told me about the group and invited me to join, which was very generous,” says Whitney. “I was welcomed into the group and was impressed by the well-thought-out format they had in place. It makes it possible for people who live in differ-ent areas but share the same passion to help each other.”

The group also serves as both a support system and a networking opportunity. The members celebrate a book acceptance, coax each other through periods of writer’s block, and announce opportunities that others may not be aware of—like a new liter-ary magazine that’s looking for stories.

“We’re always cheering each other on, offering advice and feedback. Writ-ing a book from conception to finished project is such a huge endeavor and to have people follow you through the ups and downs, pitfalls and blocks along the way brings you closer,” says Stolarz. “We also look out for each other in

Tea Benduhn’s first novel, Gravel Queen, was published by Simon & Schuster in March 2003.

Steven Goldman’s short story, “David and Alice: 17 Lines About the End of the World,” will be published in the spring issue of the Gettysburg Review. His essay, “The Contents of My Backpack,” is forthcoming in Phi Delta Kappan.

Laurie Stolarz’s first novel, Blue is for Nightmares (Llewellyn, 2003), is the first in a trilogy. The second in the series, White is for Magic, is due out in May.

While everyone in the group admits that a virtual workshop isn’t as satisfying as sitting around a dining room table, the online group also has its benefits. “One of the advantages is that you can do it on your own time, fit it in with your own schedule,” says Benduhn. “And, of course, the great-est benefit is that you can stay in touch with the people whose reading you trust. It allows you to keep going with the group, no matter where in the country you all now live.”


terms of marketing and inform one another about what’s going on in the field—anything to help further each other’s careers.”

Adds Zeises, “We’ve all worked on each other’s novels for so long that sometimes I feel like it’s more of a team effort, and a success for me is a success for all of us. Likewise, when one of us suffers a setback, I think I feel it almost as much as whoever it’s happening to.”

“I think one of the most impor-tant things I get out of the group is encouragement,” says Steven Goldman. “I feel like they take me seriously as a writer – a sensitive point for me since I’m the only one without a published book. I also really enjoy reading the early drafts and watching the books develop.”

“I’m so grateful that we have the group and that we’ve kept it together – in whatever form, online or other-wise,” says Stolarz. “I rely so heavily upon them. I just don’t feel as confi-dent sending something off to an editor

Kim Ablon Whitney’s first novel, See You Down the Road, will be published by Knopf/Random House in early 2004. The book won the 2001 Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators Judy

Blume/Work-in-Progress Grant for a Contemporary Young Adult Novel and the 2002 PEN New England Children’s Book Caucus Discovery Award.

Lara Zeises’ Bringing Up the Bones (Delacorte, 2002) was an honor winner in the Delacorte Prize for a first young adult novel and was named one of the New York Public Library’s 2003 Books for Teens. Her next book, Contents Under Pressure, will be published in April.

if it hasn’t been critiqued by our group. So many times I’ll get suggestions back that have been completely right on – things I’ve overlooked, things that need more development, more clarity. I honestly feel the group has made me a better writer and a better reader and that has definitely helped further my career.” E



From beauty to horror,

students practice the

art of theatrical makeup

instruction, demonstrations, compliments and witty asides. Soon, “weʼll start sag-ging and bagging you,” she added with a laugh.

Adams has taught Makeup for The-ater, and its companion course, Makeup for Film and Television, at Emerson for more than 20 years. She began at the College as a costume designer in the 1970s and assisted Jack Stein, an Emer-son instructor at that time

One morning last semester, a dozen Emerson students grew old, really old, in a matter of minutes – an aging process that took place under the gentle guidance of makeup-magician Mary Ellen Adams.

Around the perimeter of the instruc-tional studio in the new Bobbi Brown and Steven Plofker makeup suite at the Tufte Center, the students sat at their work stations facing mirrored walls with an

array of equipment and materials spread before them: tubes filled with flesh-toned makeup, brushes, spirit gum, sponges, lip and eye liners, synthetic hair, and other accoutrements of theatrical makeup.

They began by dabbing foundation on their faces. “That shade will help take the ʻyoung ̓right out of you,” enthused Adams, assistant professor of performing arts, as she glided around the room in her almost-floor-length apron, offering lively

Time to Make Up


Story and photos by Rhea Becker


From beauty to horror,

students practice the

art of theatrical makeup



and the pioneering founder of a Boston-based theatrical makeup compa-ny. She also worked with Dennis Curcio of the Makeup Place and completed specialty training with Vincent Kehoe, founder of the Research Council of Makeup Artists.

In Adams’ laboratory-like classes, students learn new techniques in each session and immediately practice them – on their own faces. “You have a nine-inch-square palette,” said Adams, as she takes her students on a journey that begins with basic color composition and contouring, and travels through old age, clown face, fantasy, nose putty – and, finally, sometime around Hal-loween (during the fall term) – blood



and wax scars. Near the end of the course, students observe demonstra-tions in casting a life mask upon which they can practice makeup application.

“Each week’s class builds on what they are learning about their face,” said Adams.

During one recent session, Adams recruited class member Jeff DePaoli ’04 for a demonstration of crow’s feet. He sat in a chair in the center of the room as Adams did her magic. “Oh, your young, little faces,” she mock-lamented, “I’m drawing road maps on them.”

For students who are planning to act in the theater, the course is indis-pensable because theatrical performers traditionally apply their own makeup. For those who are not planning on performing, the course is useful in a variety of other ways. “If they become a drama teacher, they will know what supplies to buy and how to guide their students,” explained Adams. Or for aspiring film production designers, like

Elena Bisordi ’04, the class offers valu-able background in an area in which they will one day supervise. Students who will someday become theater directors will be able to communicate to designers on their productions and have a practical sense of what they are asking the performers to do.

During one recent class, students learned how to apply crepe hair, which is used to create realistic-looking beards and mustaches. It is made of wool and comes in braided plaits. The plait is heat-treated to straighten it, then pulled apart and applied in small patches. Each student swabs spirit gum onto the chin or upper lip, then presses the ma-terial into place and trims it. “You don’t want to whack the beard off square,” Adams reminded her class. “To make it more realistic, give it an irregular

bottom.”After learning each technique,

students fill out a one-page makeup record, making note of the particular foundation, highlights, shading, lip colors and other supplies that were used. Then students line up to have their photos taken by Adams. The pho-tos help the students see if their faces ‘read’ at certain distances. Then it’s time for the students to tidy their work stations, clean their faces, wash their brushes and pack up their personal makeup kits.

The final ‘exam’ involves the selec-tion of a character from a play and the creation of an original makeup design for that character.

Emerson students who do not enroll in Adams’ makeup courses can still gain valuable instruction if they perform in any large production. The student designer supervising costumes or makeup will be instructed as needed by Adams, who will then, in turn, offer a group lesson for the cast. E

The air is thick with an invis-

ible energy – cellular telephone

calls, e-mail, Internet surfing,

pager text messaging, Wi-Fi

technology. An array of “smart”

machines and technologies are

coming at us at the speed of light,

and they’re all part of a wireless

world that’s changing how we

interact with each other.

“True liberation” is how Thomas

Vogel, assistant professor of

marketing communication at

Emerson, sees this revolution.

“Wireless communication em-

beds communications tools in

our private lives.”

Take a look at some of these in-

novations that are just the tip of

the wireless iceberg.

A WORLD WITHOUT WIRES


By Christopher Hennessy and Rhea Becker

information comes a “branding mes-sage” for a product like Johnny Walker, for example.

In the United Kingdom, Mer-cedes-Benz is sending text messages reminding drivers their car is due for service and offering to book an appoint-ment at the press of a button or two.

Texting is also being used to make TV shows interactive. During a recent run of Fox Television’s American Idol, where young singers competed for a record deal, 7.5 million AT&T Wireless customers voted for their favorite sing-er via text messaging. Some voters were then sent coupons for an American Idol CD. Getting viewers to interact is just one more way to “engage customers in a socially richer customer-company dialogue,” Vogel believes.

Next up for mobile market-ing? GPS (global positioning system) technology will soon allow marketers to send messages to wireless users notifying them, for example, of sales at particular retail stores at the mo-ment they are walking or driving by the establishment.

Vogel points out that marketing messages “can reach you at any time, wherever you are.” Wireless marketing, viewed as an “individual, intimate way” to reach consumers, is relatively cost- effective and has a high response rate, he adds.

Consider the free service called MoBull Messenger in the Tampa Bay, Fla., area that sends subscribers mes-sages that include coupons to about 100 area restaurants, sporting events, nightclubs and retail stores. The sub-scriber list has grown more than 700 percent in one year.

One trend gaining popularity is the “short code,” numeric codes that users punch into their phones in order to receive information or enter contests. When users punch in “4CAST,” the Weather Channel’s code, their phone is sent on-demand weather updates. Coca-Cola drinkers can input codes from bottle caps that represent points they later redeem for prizes at a promotional website.

When marketing makes life easier, who can pass it up? A company called Vindigo has developed software that can turn a PDA (personal digital assistant) or Internet-ready cell phone into a “personal navigator,” giving it the ability to use applications like Map-Quest, which provides driving direc-tions and city maps, for example. The software also allows users to peruse restaurant/bar reviews and entertain-ment listings. Along with the requested

The new frontier of marketing is tak-ing shape in an unexpected place – on the screen of your cellular telephone. “Mobile marketing,” which most often uses text messaging as its medium, is being touted as “the next great frontier” of marketing.

By offering sweepstakes, coupons and customer surveys via text messag-ing, among other strategies, businesses are able to reach the 100 million Amer-icans who own text-enabled wireless devices like cellular phones.

“Young people are more willing to sign up for things in exchange for being recipients of marketing mes-sages,” says Thomas Vogel, assistant professor of marketing communication at Emerson.

When Madonna released her 2003 album American Life, for example, a “texting” campaign allowed 19,000 participating fans to send their friends text messages giving them the option to listen to tracks and even purchase the record.

According to projections from the Mobile Marketing Association, the business of marketing to wireless customers could be worth $5 billion in two years.

Marketing via text messagingT e x t i n g , 1 - 2 - 3 , T e x t i n g :


You’re stranded on the side of the road with a flat tire and there’s no one in sight. For 28 million Americans who are deaf or hard of hearing, taking out a cellular telephone to call for help is not necessarily an option. However, the deaf and hard of hearing are turning more and more to wireless and Internet technology, such as pagers and text- and instant-messaging, to improve their ability to communicate.

“Cellphone-size messaging gadgets like the BlackBerry and the T-Mobile Sidekick have caught on quickly with the deaf since being introduced a few years ago, giving them freedom to move around and communicate like never before,” a recent Associated Press story reported. Emerson audiologist Bethany Milner agrees: “It’s a quality of life issue and it’s an access issue, being able to participate in the same types of conveniences [as the hearing world].

Win or lose, Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean has already made history.

Former governor of the thinly populated state of Vermont, Dean entered the race as a real dark-horse candidate. Somehow he succeeded in raising record-breaking levels of fund-ing, catapulting to the front of the pack early on. How did he do it? In large part, by harnessing the power of the Internet during the crucial first stages of his campaign.

“Clearly, Howard Dean and the Dean campaign caught others by sur-prise when he got well out in front in both fundraising and in reaching out to his constituents through weblogs [on-line diaries],” says Jerry Lanson, chair of Emerson’s Department of Journal-ism, who teaches a course on The Road to the White House.

Many experts agree that the Internet has altered the landscape of political campaigning. Perhaps most impressive is the money Dean has raised online. Supporters sent in about $7.6 million in the second quarter last year, which was $3.8 million more than Dick Gephardt, for example, and $1.7 million more than John Kerry. “The word is that his average campaign contribution is under $100, and the people who are making those contribu-tions are to a large extent on the Web,” says Lanson. “The Internet has created a kind of grassroots democratization of [Dean’s] campaign. He is really the one who has mastered this kind of virtual fundraising.”

Two websites that are unaffiliated with any candidate have helped fuel the race to win the Democratic presidential nomination. Meetup.com allows users to effortlessly set up meetings with other

T h e E l e c t r o n i c R o a d

t o t h e W h i t e H o u s e :

In terms of everyday communication, freedom, independence and safety is-sues, I think it can make a huge, huge difference in their lives.”

Pagers can mean an on-the-go ability to communicate with a wider social world. Milner, an assistant pro-fessor in Emerson’s Communication Sciences and Disorders department, points out that being able to text-mes-sage or page a friend (for example, for a quick cup of coffee as you pass by their home) enables the deaf to partake in “those things that make your world go ’round.”

One way the deaf use pagers is similar to the way the hearing use radio, says Milner. For example, a handheld device called the WyndTell offers a subscription service that allows users to access news, weather, traffic

M a j o r P a g e r s :

Paging devices for the deaf


pad tiresome. A device called the Treo, by Handspring, looks like a phone with a built-in keyboard. The Nokia 9290 is a cellular phone that opens like a book to reveal a color screen and keyboard. There’s even a clip-on keyboard ac-cessory for cellular phones called the Chatboard from Ericsson.

Some deaf people are using two-way video conferencing to com-municate via sign language, but on the horizon for the deaf is the same conve-nience made portable with the FOMA series (Freedom of Mobile Multimedia Access) from NTT DoCoMo. The series includes a handset with a built-in video camera that can facilitate two-way video calls.

T h e E l e c t r o n i c R o a d

t o t h e W h i t e H o u s e :

reports and even information on where closed-captioned movies are playing. The device is made by Wynd Commu-nications, which specializes in wireless services for the deaf.

There are life-saving uses for such devices as well. As events unfolded during the Sept. 11 attacks on New York City, deaf people using pagers in New York received up-to-the-minute infor-mation on what has happening.

The WyndTell also allows the deaf to text-message a live operator, who then phones a hearing recipient and reads aloud the message. The recipient can then have the operator transmit a text message back to the deaf person’s pager.

Companies are also developing technology to make the use of wireless devices easier for the deaf, who might need to type in longer messages and find punching a cellular phone’s key-

people in their own cities or towns who share their interests, whether it be scu-ba diving, knitting or “Kerry in 2004.” Wesley Clark, for example, boasts some 60,000 Meetup members nationwide, and he heartily praises the website and its goals: “We haven’t had anything this powerful in American democracy since 1772.” Using Meetup last fall, the Dean campaign organized some 138,000 volunteers to meet at more than 800 locations to work for the candidate.

Another site, MoveOn.org, is a pro-gressive online political action commit-tee that boasts approximately 2 million members. It held the first-ever ‘Internet primary’ in June 2003, in which more than 300,000 people participated. As the 2004 presidential campaign heated up, MoveOn made a name for itself by holding a “Bush in 30 Seconds” competition in which filmmakers cre-

ated 30-second political ads which were critical of President Bush’s policies. MoveOn members logged on to vote for the finalists.

“The candidates, using the Internet, have a cheap mechanism for shaping the public perception of them well before they have the money for television ads,” says Lanson. “It’s another direct vehicle for communica-tion from the candidate to the public that does not rely on getting the news media to cover your event or spending thousands and thousands of dollars to put ads on the air.”

The Internet has also eased the way for masses of young people to get involved with politics for the first time. Now, whether Dean and the other candidates can turn Internet success into votes on Election Day is a page of history still waiting to be written.

Politics and the Internet


Phot

o by

Ric

k Fr

iedm

an

“No one gets their news anymore from just one medium,” says former CNN producer and Emerson Assistant Professor Janet Kolodzy. The Internet, with its array of multimedia capabili-ties, is changing the way Americans get their news and how journalists report it, say experts at Emerson. News consum-ers want access to news at any time and wherever they happen to be, says Kolodzy.

Millions of Americans are log-ging on to websites like the popular MSNBC.com and CNN.com and count-less others to receive news augmented

who submitted 11,000 budgets, and won a Batten Award for Innovations in Journalism. MSNBC.com produced an award-winning series of “guided tours” called “The Big Picture.” The three web tours, which explored Iraq, the 2002 elections and the Oscars, respectively, integrated video, audio, text, quizzes, interactive polls and even games.

To use the “new storytelling medium” of the web, as Kolodzy puts it, Emerson professors are teaching students not only how to use the latest technologies in a brand-new state-of-the-art teaching newsroom, but they’re challenging students to focus on what print and broadcast media each do best and how to integrate them on the

The face of radio, long considered the low-tech little brother of the media world, changed last month – in per-haps one of the biggest transformations in the industry since 1961 when FM was established, widening the band-width and greatly enhancing broadcast quality.

“Radio’s not just about AM and FM,” says Pierre Archambault, audio expert and associate professor of media arts at Emerson. Digital technology – in the form of HD radio, satellite radio and even Internet-based radio – is changing how we get our music and news.

Last month, iBiquity Digital Corp. released HD radio technology, which for the first time will transmit digital audio and data alongside the existing AM and FM analog signals. This tech-nology will allow listeners to experience the radio dial in CD-quality sound and

“virtually eliminates the static, hiss, and pops associated with today’s radio,” says the company. Reportedly, digital radio will make AM radio sound like FM and FM radio sound like music from a compact disc.

The technology also provides access to wireless data services that, combined with display screens on HD radio-enabled receivers, will call up information like song titles, artist’s names, traffic updates, weather fore-casts and sports scores, for example.

HD radio technology, which has been in development for more than 10 years, was introduced to the consumer market during the 2004 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January. The first consumer product that will feature this new technology is the Kenwood HR Radio Tuner, which

B r a v e N e w s W o r l d :

with “streaming” video, video and audio clips, color photos, slide shows, animation and interactive graphics. It has become standard practice to receive breaking news “e-mail alerts” and to e-mail stories to friends.

In fact, thousands are wirelessly downloading up-to-the-minute news off the Internet with a new genera-tion of laptops, cellular phones, PDAs (personal digital assistants) and other gadgets, all able to “sync and go.”

More and more, news media are using the web to pursue new ways to deliver the news and explore the issues of the day. In 2002, Minnesota Public Radio, for example, created the “Budget Balancer,” a web game that challenged users to fix the state’s $4.2 billion deficit. The site received 7,000 visitors

Multimedia news for the Web

Digital radio

B e y o n d t h e D i a l :


web. The new way of thinking about news is called “convergence journal-ism.” Graduate students, for example, are planning web projects that bring together print stories with interactive features like chat rooms, graphics such as city maps and even music down-loads, says Kolodzy. A recent student’s online story, covering the 2003 Mas-sachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruling allowing for same-sex marriage, included a student reporter’s video package interspersed with video clips of Governor Mitt Romney’s reaction and an interview with a law expert.

In the future, Emerson Profes-sor Emmanuel Paraschos sees what he calls “the newsroom without walls,” where reporters will use laptops, video camcorders, cellular phones and the Internet to report, edit and file stories

First-year Emerson students often take their introductory courses with a small group of classmates who remain with them throughout their freshman year. To enhance this bonding experience, what could be more natural than to create a web presence for the group? This web

‘portal’ could give students access to the syllabi and other elements of the curricula, resources for the courses, a discussion board for communication among students and faculty, a bulletin board to post announcements, and much more.

Now, thanks to a $200,000 grant awarded to the College last fall by the Davis Educational Foundation, Emerson students – at both the undergraduate and graduate levels – will begin to benefit from such online “learning portals” through a pilot project that is currently underway. “It’s a way of constructing a more intimate and richer environment for learning,” says David Bogen, executive director of the College’s Institute for Liberal Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies.

The portals can be designed in two different ways: they can enhance an already-existing real-world community (as in the example above), or they can create online communities from scratch, says Bogen. For example, one project being discussed is a learning portal for students in Emerson’s Global Marketing graduate program. The site could not only provide access to information regarding the course for current students, but graduates of the course and even prospective students might participate as well. Further, this web portal could provide connections between alumni or between alumni and employers and could provide portfolio space for students and alumni.

“The idea of learning portals that augment the already-existing community structures of the College is extremely powerful,” says Bogen. “The potential for extending creative, intellectual and social communities is enormous.”

from anywhere in the world. A single news story could be filed by a journal-ist reporting in Singapore, edited in a newsroom in Athens, and transmitted from a server in Cambridge, Mass.

Paraschos adds, “The next huge step for journalism is wirelessness,” noting the creation of a soaring num-ber of “hot spots” – places from cafés to doctors offices to residences – where users can receive and transmit data wirelessly. This means even more flex-ibility and mobility for reporters in the field, he says. In fact, Emerson student reporters working for an on-campus online news service have written, edited and filed stories on their computers without ever having visited one of the College’s computer labs.

will attach to a car’s existing stereo. A similar product is Panasonic’s digital receiver, which will resemble a stan-dard car stereo and will not need to be attached to an existing device.

Digital broadcasting is also being delivered to listeners via two major satellite radio companies, XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio. These companies offer subscription radio ser-vices that send clear streams of digital music and news directly from satellites orbiting the planet. Archambault notes that XM Radio offers about 100 chan-nels, comparing it to cable television in the scope of options available. XM reports it has 1 million subscribers. Sirius, with 102 channels, has 200,000 subscribers.

XM, which bills itself as “the next generation of radio,” offers original programming, 30 channels of news,

talk, sports and entertainment, and its own professional deejays (or “stream jockeys” as Sirius calls them). XM provides exclusive radio content from the likes of MTV, VH1 and NASCAR, for example. And in a bold move, Sirius reportedly made a seven-year, $220 million deal to secure the rights to broadcast National Football League games.

Along with the emergence of sat-ellite radio and Internet radio networks streaming to anywhere in the world, could there be a digital radio revolution afoot? Archambault says, “You have expanded choices, and you’re no longer relegated to the region you’re in. We’re already communicating globally, and I think people want to feel that they have instant, global access [to radio].” E

Web ‘Portals’ Open Windows for Emerson Students



MusicMorgan Page ’03 and fellow music producer Greg Shiff recently released a hit single on John Digweed’s London-based Bedrock Recordings. “All I Know” came out in fall 2003 and entered the BBC’s Top 40 Dance tracks at spot No. 31, continuing to top sales charts at record stores around the world. Page, a recent Boston to L.A. transplant, works in entertainment marketing at M80. His position as online team director keeps him busy with campaigns for Missy Elliott, John Lennon, and Rock The Vote. When he’s not working as a “desk-jockey,” Page produces music for various electronic labels around the U.S. and Europe.

Anya Singleton ’97 has just released her self-titled debut jazz CD and is performing to sold-out crowds at the famed Triad Theater in New York City. Her CD, from Hybrid Music Productions, is available online and at stores. For the CD she collaborated with Joey Melotti, Liza Minnelli’s musical director, and popular guitarist Michael Aarons. Singleton, who also

LiteratureAudrey Glassman Vernick ’86 and her sister, Ellen Glassman Gidaro, have chosen to use the art of famed Mississippi folk artist Tim Brown to illustrate their first children’s book, Bark & Tim: A True Story of Friendship. Brown grew up in the 1920s and ’30s and has used his paintings to remember his childhood, his family, his dog Bark, and to share what life was like for a young African-American child growing up in that era. Bark & Tim includes 16 of his works as well as a biographical section on the artist. Audrey lives in New Jersey and was awarded a

Notable Expressions

performs in film, TV and in New York theater, has appeared in independent films and on television shows such as Law & Order and Sex and the City. She appears in the feature film Mona Lisa Smile, which stars Julia Roberts.

Another “band to watch” in 2004, according to Alter-native Press Magazine, is Orange Island, with alum Chuck Young ’03 on drums. Triple Crown Records, a label synonymous with bands making waves in under-ground punk scenes, re-leased Orange Island’s first self-titled CD. Orange Island is maintaining a relentless tour schedule to promote the CD and has been selling out at venues such as the Pal-ladium in Worcester.

Morgan Page ’03

fiction fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts in 1999.

A book by Jon Oliver ’73, Lesson One: The ABC’s of Life, aims to help adults implement a proven plan to aid children in developing the life skills and internal discipline necessary to learn and thrive in today’s society. Oliver is executive director of the Lesson One Foundation in Boston, a program that has developed an elementary school curriculum that teaches children specific, definable skills, including self-control, self-confidence, responsibility, problem solving and cooperation. The ABC’s of Life has been endorsed by entertainer Bill Cosby, Harvard psychiatrist Alvin Poussaint and Marian Wright Edelman, president of the Children’s Defense Fund, as well as many others.

Anya Singleton ’97


Deadly Kin, a novel by mystery writer Tom Eslick, MFA ’91, has been published by Viking Press. The mystery begins with the strange death of a young hiker as Eslick weaves a tale of family ties, love and suspense. Eslick’s other novels are Tracked in the Whites and Snow Kill. Eslick is chair of the English Department at Proctor Academy in Andover, Mass., and is currently at work on his fourth mystery.

Ben Herosian ’99 has published his first book, The Adventures of Bennett Bengal (Lilyfield and Co.), a children’s book about a disabled tiger. Herosian’s book is based on personal experience: Herosian was

born missing both feet and his right hand as well as the loss of facial nerves (so he cannot smile), the result of a rare genetic disorder called Mobius Syndrome. Hero-sian’s Bennett the Bengal is also born without any hind paws, which “shocks” all of “Jungleville,” where he lives. A portion of the book sale proceeds go to the Variety Club of British Columbia, a fundraising organization based in Canada that helps families who have children with special needs. Herosian is a native of Winnipeg. He has already penned the second and third parts of Bennett Bengal’s adventures.

Jason Roush ’97 and Chris-topher Hennessy, MFA ’00, are among the poets published in the new volume Gents, Bad Boys and Barbar-ians: This New Breed, an anthology of new gay male

poets edited by Rudy Kikel and published by Windstorm Creative. Roush and Hen-nessy are among about 30 poets from around the coun-try selected to appear in the anthology. They have pub-lished poetry, respectively, in journals like the James White Review and Ploughshares.

FilmA documentary by Patricia Alvarado, MA ’94, Getting into Fenway, won a New England Emmy for best sports documentary. The film chronicles the story of 19-year-old Manny Delcarmen, his dream of

pitching for the Red Sox, and the tense negotiations between Manny’s father and the Red Sox “Suits” to sign a $900,000 starting contract. It aired on La Plaza, a Latino series on WGBH-Boston. Alvarado has been producing music specials for La Plaza for more than six years. Her films have won her six New England Emmy awards, two Golden Eagle awards and four Telly awards.

Matt Talesfore ’95, director of photography for Ludicrous Productions, recently worked on the new film Freedom Park, shot on location near Boston. The film is a comedy about two men who have lost touch with their hometown. They return after 10 years, deep in gambling debt, and decide to create a gambling ring for peewee sports using an ice cream truck as a cover.

Tom Eslick, MFA ’91 A book by Audrey Glassman Vernick ’86


Ludicrous Productions, a California-based company founded in 1989, has won several awards, including an Emmy nomination, for its films, television shows, music videos and commercial projects.

In a multi-page Wired magazine spread titled “Matrix Revelations,” Emerson alumnus and writer-director Andy Wachowski is revealed as one half of the quirky duo behind the immensely popular Matrix film trilogy, the final installment of which opened in November 2003. Wachowski co-wrote and co-directed all three films with his brother Larry.

Wired reveals that Andy was “a top student in his introductory film class” with Emerson Associate Professor Claire Andrade-Watkins.

Emerson film graduates Jeremiah Zagar ’03 and Nathan Caswell ’02 are enjoying “unbelievable” success with their film The Unbelievable Truth, already winning awards at festivals. The film tells the story of Samuel Pinkus, a 10-year-old who develops a compulsion for photography in the midst of a family crisis. The more pictures he takes, the further he detaches from the world, until his only means of coping with life is through a camera. The film won an award at the Philadelphia Film Festival, and it has screened at the following film festivals: Woodstock, New Haven, Tribeca, Atlanta, Seattle and Woods Hole.

Adam Briggs ’01 stars in a new independent film called How Soon is Now, which had its premiere screening in October at Chapman University in Orange, Calif. Briggs plays Marty, a lovesick teen who doesn’t fit in. The movie follows Marty’s frustrating search for his dream woman.

Ken Willinger ’79 and wife Florence Del Santo recently won the national Emmy Award for Public and Community Service from the Television Academy of Arts and Sciences for their hour-long documentary No Greater Love. The film details all aspects of organ transplants and donations, from recipients to donors and their families. The film follows the stories of people affected by organ donation from around the country and the filmmakers observed organ transplant surgery.Willinger, the film’s direc-tor of photography, hopes

Mario Cantone ’82 (left) in The Violet Hour.

Mark Hall Amitin ’70

Ser

ge O

uakn

ine

Joa

n M

arcu

s


the film encourages people to talk about organ dona-tion with their families. It has aired on PBS stations throughout the country and is a Banyan Commu-nications Production (St. Louis). Both Willinger and Del Santo have previously worked for CNN and NBC.

TheaterImani Henry ’92 wrote and performed B4T: Before Testosterone for the Theater Offensive’s Out on the Edge Festival. The play was directed by Emerson’s Maureen Shea, chair of Performing Arts. The play layers the stories of three black, masculine, female-bodied people through the use of video installments, monologues and scenes. “In alternating among his three characters, Henry educates without preaching and amuses without deprecating. From start to finish, it is a delicate balance, and Henry never missteps,” said a Boston Globe review.

A symposium on the theater career of Mark Hall Amitin ’70 was held in fall 2003 at New York University. The event and exhibition, called “Visions for a Changing Theatre,” examined the theater companies and performing artists of Universal Movement Theatre and World of Culture, both

of which are represented by Amitin. His aim has been to bring experimental and socially concerned work to diverse audiences. He has taught, lectured and conducted workshops on experimental and traditional theater all over the world. He has also written extensively for arts publications. The exhibition continues (at the Fales Collection) through March 12.

The American Alliance for Theatre and Education has honored Patricia Lindberg, MA ’82, with the Youth Theater “Director of the Year” award. Lindberg teaches at Plymouth State University in New Hampshire. Previous Emersonian award-winners in the theater education field include Beth Murray, MA ’81, and Wendy Lement, MA ’88, who shared the Alliance’s award for the best doctoral dissertation in the field two years ago. Lement’s production of Salem’s Daughters, which she also wrote, ran at Maudslay State Park in Newburyport, Mass., last year as part of Theater in the Open.

Spiro Veloudos ’74 is presiding over Boston’s Lyric Stage Company as it enters its 30th year. Since his appointment as artistic director in 1998, Veloudos has won three Elliot Norton Awards for Outstanding Direction. Boston magazine has also named Veloudos Best Theater Artistic Director.

Actor Mario Cantone ’82, aka Anthony on HBO’s Sex and the City, has landed a deal with Imagine TV to star in and co-executive produce a new comedy series centered on two characters, a gay man and a straight Italian guy. Cantone may play both roles. The show is targeted for the 2004 season. He is also ap-pearing on Broadway in the Manhattan Theatre Club’s The Violet Hour.

Alumnus Paul Tetreault ’84 has been named producing director for the prestigious Ford’s Theatre in Washing-ton, D.C. Tetreault will be re-sponsible for programming the season’s new produc-tions as well as overseeing the administration of the theater and enhancing its role as a national cultural treasure. Tetreault said one of his ideas is “to underscore the American identity of Ford’s,” reported the Wash-ington Post. “I think of the theater as a place to re-evalu-ate the American classics,” he said. For the past decade, Tetreault was managing director of the Alley Theatre in Houston. The Alley The-atre is known for its world premieres, collaborations and dedication to classic American and world drama. World premieres during Tetreault’s tenure included Eve Ensler’s Lemonade and Frank Wildhorn’s musical Jekyll & Hyde.

TelevisionKevin Bright ’76, the Emmy-winning executive producer behind Friends, along with fellow executive produc-ers David Crane and Marta Kauffman, were honored last fall at the Museum of Television & Radio’s annual gala in Beverly Hills. Friends “has revolutionized quality primetime entertainment,” museum officials said in announcing the honor. Past gala honorees include Barbara Walters, Martin Sheen, Mary Tyler Moore, David E. Kelley, Alan Alda, David Brinkley, Carol Bur-nett, James Burrows and Sid Caesar.

Emmy-winning producer Max Mutchnick ’87, of Will & Grace fame, along with the cast and creative team of Will & Grace, appeared on the Bravo program Inside the Actors Studio. Host James Lipton normally talks solely with actors; previous guests have included Glenn Close, Kevin Costner, Sally Field and many others.

Vin Di Bona ’66 was re-cently honored in a special edition of the Hollywood Reporter celebrating 300 episodes of the show he created, America’s Funniest Home Videos. The Novem-ber 2003 issue includes a special section, splashed on the magazine’s cover under the title “Anatomy of a Hit,” which probes various facets of the hit show and looks at Di Bona’s long career.


Alumni DigestAlumni Weekend Save the Date: June 11-13, 2004

We know it’s winter in most of the places where Expression is currently be-ing read, but in a few short months, it will be June, and that means Alumni Weekend at Emerson College.

“Celebrating Milestones – Alumni Weekend 2004” will be held June 11-13. This year we’re fortunate to have two such milestones to celebrate: the first is the 35th anniversary of EBONI, the black Emerson student and alumni organization. EBONI members will participate in special social and network-ing events as part of Alumni Weekend. For more infor-mation, contact the EBONI Exchange at [email protected].

Second, this year also marks the 10th anniversary of the Master’s Program in Health Communication, a collaboration with the Tufts University School of Medi-cine. Events include “how-to” workshops on talking to the media and developing a risk communication plan for communities and organiza-tions. For information, con-tact Timothy Edgar, director of the Graduate Program in Health Communication, at (617) 824-8743 or [email protected].

Also featured during the weekend will be the popular Alumni College, showcasing current Emerson faculty teaching brief classes on topics that will engage everyone.

When all is said and done, Emerson College is judged by the success of its alumni. So, one of the high

points of Alumni Weekend is the Alumni Achievement Awards ceremony. This year’s recipients are: Maxine Baker ’73, Randy Barbato ’82, the Rev. John Coffee, Bill Miller ’74, Alex Tse ’98, Honey Waldman ’46 and Chuck Willis ’79.

On Saturday eve-ning, dine and dance amid the dinosaurs at Boston’s Museum of Science. And on Sunday morning you can cap the weekend with the annual faculty/alumni brunch, where you can relax with some of your favorite professors and classmates. Last year, more than 150 people showed up. Don’t miss it! And don’t forget

the traditional opening night welcoming dinner on Friday and the reunion class luncheons on Saturday. So much fun, so little time!

We’ll send you a complete Alumni Weekend 2004 brochure in the spring, but you can find current in-formation on residence hall room availability at http://www.emerson.edu/alumni/ (click on the Alumni Week-end link) or hotel rooms at a special rate at the Hyatt Regency Boston-Financial District (1-800-233-1234). Ask for the Emerson College rate for June 11-13.

See you in June.

– Barbara Rutberg ’68director, Alumni Relations

– Sandi Goldfarb ’78president, Alumni Association

trip Nation were on hand to share their story about how and why they decided to come up with Roadtrip Nation, which tells the tale of two college-age people who travel the country in an RV interviewing an array of people to discover how

More than 25 alumni came back to campus last fall to share their experiences and talk about the paths they took to get to where they are today in their lives and careers. The authors of Road-

Roadtrip Nation

they chose the roads they’ve taken in life. The offices of Career Services and Alumni Relations hosted the campus event, “Road Trip Nation.” Attendees were encouraged to “define your own road

instead of traveling down someone else’s. Listen to yourself. You have to have the strength not to accept a life of gray mediocrity, but paint your own masterpieces around your passions, your values and your beliefs.”


Symposium on Women’s Influence in the Marketplace

to see just how much “hands-on” experience the students had, and the state-of-the-art digital equipment that the students got to use. After being in the corporate television and radio world for 15 years, there is no ques-tion that the reason I am where I am today is because of the great opportunities I was given at Emerson Col-lege. I am proud of this great institution.

Thank you so much for an exciting afternoon. I really appreciate your showing me how much Emerson College has advanced. If anyone would like to contact me, please feel free to visit www.thehollywoodscoop.com.

Many Happy Returns

Alumnus Wendy Whea-ton ’88 had not been on the Emerson campus since she graduated 15 years ago. The following is an excerpt from a letter she wrote to the College’s Alumni Relations office follow-ing an autumn visit:

After years of being in the corporate entertainment and radio field, I recently got a chance to revisit my alma mater, Emerson College. I hadn’t been on campus since graduating in 1988. My excitement and pure joy could barely be controlled as I visited the new buildings, theaters and journalism department – the field I ma-jored in. I was overwhelmed

Emerson College and the Boston-based Arnold Worldwide, an internationally acclaimed full-service advertising and market-ing communication agency, are co-sponsoring a symposium that will look at the impact of women’s changing demograph-ics. How have women’s roles changed in the last several decades? How does this affect their participation in society? What products and services are of interest to them? Exploring these questions will help determine what we need to know in order to be effective marketers to this increasingly diverse market. The symposium will take place on Thursday, March 18, from 4-7 p.m. in the Semel Theater in the Tufte Center, 10 Boylston Place. Invitations and announcements will be mailed in mid-February. For more information, call 1-800-255-4259 or contact Kathleen LaRoque, associate director of Alumni Relations, at [email protected].

cxxcxNew England Chapter

The New England Chapter of the Alumni Association gathered in November at Jimbo’s Seafood Restaurant in Quincy, Mass., for a meal and camaraderie. From left are Paul Ricci ’65, Nancy Polizer ’72, Eric Torvi ’98 and Jana Torvi ’98.

It was at Emerson Col-lege, back in 1984, that I first began on-air in radio, and I am still going strong. Today I am syndicated nationally in radio and own my own syndication and production company.

All the best, Wendy Wheaton

Wendy Wheaton ’88 at the WERS studios during her recent return to campus.


Archival images from College’s history to be cataloged

Digital copies of selected materials from the College Archives are now on view on the Web as part of a pilot digitization project.

For the Digital Ar-chives Project (DAP), 50 key images from the Archives were digitized, including photographs of past presi-dents and former faculty members, the first building ever owned by the College, and the early activities of the broadcasting, drama and speech therapy departments. Each image was scanned at three different resolutions: a 1600 dpi Tiff file to serve as a preservation copy, a 300 dpi Jpeg file available to be distributed for use in approved publications, and a 72 dpi Jpeg to be posted on

the web. The results of this pilot project may be viewed at http://library.emerson.edu/archives/digital/index.html.

The goal of the project is to digitize archival items to make these materials available to a wider audience, and to protect original docu-ments from the wear and tear of repeated handling.

“Eventually, these images will be available through the Library catalog,” said College Archivist Robert Fleming.

This project was made possible by the generous support of Trustee Marillyn Zacharis.

Washington, D.C.

More than 75 Wash-ington, D.C.-area alumni, prospective students and their parents took part in an informative discussion, “The ‘New’ News: Promises and Pitfalls of a Multime-dia News Environment for Journalists and Society,” at the National Press Club in November. Alumni panelists offered their professional expertise about the changing news environment.

The presenters were (from left) Dan Dayton ’67; Jerry Lanson, chair of Emerson’s Department of Journalism; Art Silverman ’71; David Grossman ’82; and Stuart Sigman, dean of Emerson’s School of Communication.

Students at the WERS station at 130 Beacon St. in the 1950s


This past holiday season, the College hosted a special event for 60 children and their chaperones from the Hawthorne Youth and Community Center in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston. The annual event is President Liebergott’s thank-you to the members of the Trustee, Overseer and Alumni boards for their service to Emerson throughout the year. The children came to the Emerson campus on the Common to attend a performance of the Trinity Repertory Company’s production of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol at the Cutler Majestic Theatre. Before the performance, guests enjoyed lunch and decorated gingerbread cookies with some local alumni and members of the boards. ABOVE: Children from the Hawthorne Center. RIGHT: President Jacqueline Liebergott with Alumni Board member Rod Lindheim ’93 and his son, Andrew, who attended the show.

Boston

Attending the Washington, D.C., event were Jim Duffy, MA ’00, and Alyce Myatt ’74.

Attending the discussion were (from left) Terra Cusack Meyer ’01, William M. Meyer IV ’02, Susan Stevenson-Popp ’01, Josh Shama ’01 and Hannah Hirshfeld ’01.


Emerson honored its Emmy-nominated alumni at a President’s Society (contributors of $1,000 or more to the College) reception hosted by television producer Vin Di Bona ’66 at his Los Angeles home in November. ABOVE: From left, Grafton Nunes (Dean of the School of the Arts), Steve Welch ’92 (Emmy winner), David Steinberg (nominee), President Jacqueline Liebergott, Jay Bienstock ’87 (nominee), Chrisi Karvonides-Dushenko ’83 (winner) and James Smith ’84 (nominee). Other Emmy winners not pictured are Eric Drysdale ’93, Robert Mackler ’72 and Amy Schmitz-Levine ’99.

Los Angeles

LEFT: Henry Winkler ’67 (right), executive producer of Hollywood Squares, with Robert Madden, executive vice president of Kingworld, which produces Hollywood Squares, and President Jacqueline Liebergott hosted more than 150 alumni on the set of the game show (above) in November to enjoy a performance by Professor Emeritus Ken Crannell (far left).

Michael J. Solomon ’60 and his wife, Luciana, with Vin Di Bona.


Class Notes1945Carol Zendman Howell has published her second mystery novel, Meddling in Murder (iUniverse), which takes place in rural Maine. She writes: “Old Emersonians never die, and they don’t fade away either.”

1961 Roberta (Binder) Aungst was elected last fall to the executive board of ASHA (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association) as vice president for professional practices in audiology. She is now semi-re-tired after 30 years as director of audiology at ENT Associates in Norristown, Pa. She is cur-rently working as an indepen-dent contractor in Cape May and Atlantic counties, N.J.

1964Glenn Laxton was inducted into the prestigious Silver Circle of broadcasting in No-vember 2003 during ceremo-nies at the Harvard Club in Boston. The Circle recognizes men and women who have spent at least 25 years in television. Glenn is currently a reporter for WPRI/Fox Eyewit-ness News in Providence, R.I., and is also the station’s com-munity affairs director.

1966Jeffrey Starr Mararian, J.P., was recently certified by the Massachusetts State Police as a private detective (P.I.) in the Commonwealth of Massachu-setts. He continues to host his New England Cable TV show Jeffrey’s World. Friends can reach him at [email protected].

1969Moonyene Jackson-Amis received a Women in Gov-ernment Service Award of Excellence from the Maryland Women for Responsive Gov-ernment at a recent ceremony at Goucher College. Moonyene is a retired lawyer and has been a member of the Easton Town Council for two years. She also serves as a member of Easton’s Emergency Task Force, the Maryland Municipal League Committee and the Mid-Shore Regional Council.

1970Lloyd Roach is president/CEO of Route 81 Radio LLC based in West Chester, Pa. He recently acquired 12 new radio properties in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions. The radio stations will serve Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Philadelphia/West Chester, Harrisburg/Carlisle and Elmira-Corning, N.Y.

1974Donna Copman is now Donna Copman Speers. She re-mar-ried in 2001 to “a lovely man from Ireland,” John Speers. She would love to hear from

old friends: Ann DeCrosta, Louise London, Ruthie, Lee, and Stuart, etc. She can be reached at [email protected]. “Everyone, please write! Good wishes to everyone from the Class of ’74!”

1977John Glynn has accepted the position of copy editor for the Zondervan branch of Harper-Collins Publishers. Zondervan published the current top-10 title The Purpose-Driven Life, by Rick Warren.

1981Pat Cole Simmons is publish-ing her first book, an anthol-ogy called Love is Blind, to be released in February 2004. It’s three novellas about blind dating.

1983Peter Mones and his wife, Renee Fields, celebrated their first wedding anniversary on Oct. 13. The couple met when they were both working at the Jewish Museum (92nd Street) in New York and were mar-ried in a Humanistic Jewish ceremony in 2002. Peter’s Phi Alpha Tau fraternity broth-ers, Bob Dutton ’83 and Matt Morgan ’84, flew in for the celebration. Peter is currently assistant museum shop man-ager at the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memo-rial to the Holocaust located in Battery Park. Renee is a project manager of the Inter-national Federation of Secular Humanistic Jews.

1984Richard Bischoff is founder and creative director of CreativeCoverage.com, which provides website, writing and

Elayne Kessler ’69 represented Emerson at the inauguration of the new president of Yeshiva University, Richard Joel.


media services to companies in the San Francisco Bay and Boston areas. Richard is also a SAG actor with film, the-ater and commercial credits. To reach Richard, write to [email protected].

1985Danna Call’s play, I’ve Hit an Iceberg, was produced by Manhattan Theatre Source in its Estrogenius One-Act Festival, and it will soon be published in an anthology of the festival’s plays. Scott Bar-row ’90 and Danna have also created eX’s & Oh’s Produc-tions, which presents various writer/performers (includ-ing themselves) in themed evenings of their own work. William-Kevin Young ’85 stages the pieces and Denise Bourcier ’84 does sound and lights for the shows.

Marianne Sarazen Lonati ’85, MA ’98, is a professor of mu-sical theater at Dean College in Franklin, Mass. She currently directs and choreographs for Actors’ Collaborative and Bay Colony Productions, two the-ater companies residing at the Orpheum Regional Perform-ing Arts Center in Foxboro. Marianne lives with husband John and three daughters Alexandra (11), Michaela (9) and Dani (5).

1986Thomas John Michael Mira-bile celebrated his partnership with William Edward Doyle Jr. with a commitment ceremony in the summer of 2003 at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Mirabile is vice president for

product development at Syra-tech Corp., a manufacturer of silverware and home decor products. Doyle works as a document production special-ist and software trainer at the First Manhattan Consultant Group.

1987Michael Boothroyd played the King of France in a produc-tion of The Lark at the Meisner Theater in New York City. The play tells of the life of Joan of Arc. “It’s a thought-provoking new translation that paints a biting and sardonic picture of politics, morality and religion and how they affect the affairs of men, with not such a dis-tant echo of current events,” says Michael.

Peter Loge will be leaving the Criminal Justice Reform Education Fund and joining M&R Strategic Services, an issue campaign consulting firm in Washington. M&R helps nonprofit organizations and interest groups promote their issues and achieve policy and educational goals. Peter

will take on the role of senior vice president. M&R clients have included the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, Pew Charitable Trusts, World Wildlife Fund, Public Citizen and others.

Anson Tebbetts and Vicky Parra Tebbetts would like to announce the birth of their first son, Alden Cabot Teb-betts, born Sept. 11, 2003. Alden lives in Cabot, Vt., with his parents.

David E. Martin has been hired as a weekly corre-spondent for Reminder Publications. David is also a reporter/producer for Real to Reel, a documentary program. He has produced a two-part profile about former Boston Mayor and Ambassador to the Vatican Ray Flynn. He can be reached at [email protected].

1989William Harrold, MA ’89, graduated from Suffolk Law School in 1992 and had a solo law practice in New London,

Bick Treut ’79 is an adjunct professor of communication theory and mass communications at Raritan Valley Community College in New Jersey. He remains as CEO of Technologies Research Group Inc., a marketing consultancy serving the computer industry with clients that include Intel, HP, IBM and major New York advertising agencies.

1927 Ellie Holtz of Palm Beach, Fla.1929 Mary E. (Sullivan) Convery of Everett, Mass.1932 Phyllis Dorr Keith of Bridgewater, Mass.1942 Jane Smiley Walter of Charlestown, W. Va.1950 John Pike Jr. of Brookfield, N.H.1950 Joan Claire Seidel of Verona, N.J.1951 John A. Corcoran of Barkhamstead, Conn.1956 Anne C. Pinkney of Waldoboro, Maine1959 Raymond E. Barron of Brookline, Mass.1960 Franklin H. Silverman of Greendale, Wis.1968 Ronald M. Zletz of Swampscott, Mass.1970 Edburnne Hare of Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.1971 Brian J. McGarry of Georgetown, Maine1975 Judy Miles of West Greenwich, R.I.1976 Robin Randy Johnson of the Bronx, N.Y.1983 Ross R. Davies of Mickleton, N.J.1984 Janice McIntyre of Hopkinton, Mass.1988 John Vasser of Natchez, Miss.1989 Mary P. Patsos of Bedford, N.H.1989 Greg Christian of Fairfield, N.J.1994 Paul L. Sotis of Acton, Maine Trustee (1969-76): Lawrence Myron Levinson of Newton, Mass.

In Memoriam


N.H., for eight years. Today, he reports he is a “recover-ing attorney,” having closed his practice in 2000. He is now senior development officer at Williams College in Williamstown, Mass. He and wife Cindy bought a home in Vermont, where they live with their three children, four cats, a dog and a rabbit.

Tim McGrath would like to say “hi” to all his Emerson friends and former basketball teammates. He has been liv-ing in Denver, Colo., for the last six years. He currently teaches 5th grade, but recently completed the firefighter academy and is beginning to look for a job in the field. Tim can be contacted at [email protected].

1990Kathleen (Mullins) Finkle married Scott Finkle in Sep-tember 2003. They honey-mooned in Maui. Kathleen works in the Facilities Man-agement and Planning Office at Bridgewater State College. Her department was honored by the Commonwealth of Mas-sachusetts last year with its annual “Performance Recogni-tion” group award.

1991 Cindy (Mooney) Kramer is a new mom. She lives with her daughter, Colvin Bonnie, and husband Chris in Bloomfield, N.J. Upon graduation from Emerson, Cindy moved to New York City and worked for music groups such as the Spin Doctors and Blues Traveler, as well as the music department for WNET/Channel 13. She spent the last five years at War-

Sharman Sacchetti is engaged to be married to Scott Isaacs in June 2004 in Andover, Mass. Sharman is currently the morning anchor for WTEN-TV in Albany. Scott is the 6 p.m. producer for WRGB-TV in Albany. Shar-man would love to hear from her Emerson friends. Write to: [email protected].

James C. Ferguson has written his first novel. A review on Amazon.com compares the book, Context Clues (iUni-verse), to the tales of Monty Python, P.G. Wodehouse and Rowan Atkinson. The book

is set in Elizabethan England and features a hilarious, bun-gling drunk named Basil to solve a royal mystery.

1994Ami Gourwitz Burns is a staff childbirth education provider at Isis Maternity in Brook-line, Mass. She was recently featured in the Boston Globe for her work as a doula, and her articles about natural

ner Music International in the A&R department and recently retired to be a “suburban housewife.”

Chuck Crannell, MA ’91, mar-ried Martha Hayes on Oct. 11, 2003, in their hometown of Melrose, Mass. He proposed to Martha last July at the end of a Mount Washington hike during a sunset at Lakes of the Clouds. They live in North Chelmsford. Chuck works for Juniper Networks in Westford as a systems test engineer.

For almost nine years, Andrea (Sragg) Simantov ’77 has lived in Israel, where she writes a weekly column for The Jerusalem Post called “Viewpoint.” She has six children (one of whom is about to make Andrea a grandmother) and is also a self-employed image consultant. She writes: “It’s a wonderful, meaningful life, totally different than the one I dreamed of during my college years.”

Brenda Brien ’90 married Jason Gill on Sept. 27, 2003, in Pawtucket, R.I. The groom took the bride’s last name and the couple is now known as Mr. and Mrs. Jason Brien. They live in North Kingstown, R.I. The maid of honor was Carolyn Bankowski ’90 and many fellow Emerson grads attended. From left are: Nicole Zubrowski Shaw ’90, Carolyn Bankowski, Brenda Brien ’90, Josie Guarino ’90 and Kim Tunnicliffe ’88.

1992Tim Good, MA ’92, became the father of Fiona Caroline Good, who was born Oct. 29, 2003, weighing 7 lbs., 3 oz.

1993Bill Daly is co-producer of ABC’s 8 Simple Rules. In addi-tion, he has also ‘co-produced’ with his wife, Jane, another daughter, Clara, 1, who follows their other ‘critic’s favorite’ child, Isabel, 3.


Lunch, will come out in 2006. Lee is a senior editor at The Bark magazine, a quarterly about life with dogs.

Jeffrey Perino lives in Madi-son, N.J., with wife Ashley and son Michael. Jeff and Ashley met at Emerson in 1992. Jeff is an associate creative director for Sudler & Hennessey – Sen-trix Global Health Commu-nications, a division of Young and Rubicam (pharmaceutical advertising).

Al Edmond continues to be se-rious about his collage artwork and has recently incorporated digital aspects, which he says, “have opened up new worlds for me.” He has shown his work at AS220 in Providence, R.I., with another show to fol-low as his artwork progresses. Al’s work will also be included in a local exhibition in June. He lives in his hometown of

birth have been nation-ally published. As creator of Birth Talk Productions, she recently produced the video “The Boston Association for Childbirth Education: The First 50 Years” and is currently in post-production for “Moth-ers and Babies,” which was inspired by her work as the childbirth educator for lesbian mothers at Fenway Commu-nity Health Center in Boston. Her husband, Craig Burns ’93, directed both videos.

Lee (Harrington) Forgotson, MFA ’94, just signed a two-book contract with Villard, a literary imprint of Random House. Her memoir, Rex and the City, will be published in 2005 and her novel, Nothing Keeps a Frenchman from his

Attleboro, Mass., with his wife of 1 1/2 years, Sharon, and daughter Sarah. He would love to hear from fellow classmates and friends to catch up, or even work together on artistic projects. You can reach Al at [email protected].

1995Krishna San Nicolas has a wild and crazy job in her current position as production coordi-nator for TV network Animal Planet, working alongside an executive producer to gener-ate the editorial and creative content for series such as The Future is Wild, Animal Precinct, Animal Cops Detroit, Ani-mal Cops Houston, The Most

Extreme, and King of the Jungle. She’s the proud mother of a 6-year-old daughter and would like to say hello to her As-abiyah Sisters and the whole AHANA crew: “I love you! I miss the good ole days! I hope everyone’s doing well!”

Jeffry Gray and his partner Casey Hampton happily moved back to Boston late last year. After three years of coor-dinating Broadway premiere parties and other theater-in-dustry events, Jeffry has ac-cepted an events management position at Rafanelli Events in Boston’s South End.

1997Erika Lamarre played a role in the Travel Channel’s Haunted Hotel episode featuring an inn in Lenox, Mass. In “real life,” she is happily married to husband Richard and will be earning a master’s degree in women’s studies this spring.

1998Nancy (McCusker) Haworth and husband Jared an-nounce the birth of their first child, Dawn Clarissa Haworth, born July 30, 2003. Nancy can be reached at [email protected]

1999The New Jersey Perry Award for Outstanding Ensemble Actor was given to Salvador Navarro this year for his per-formance in the rock musical Hair. He was also nominated for two Toby Awards: Best Actor in a Musical, for his role as Burrs in The Wild Party and Best Supporting Actor in a

The filming of the third season of the Travel Channel’s Haunted Hotels could have doubled as an Emerson alumni reunion, because it included (back row): actor Don McQuillen ’97, segment producer Susan Lombardi-Verticelli ’97, series producer Sarah Wetherbee ’98, actress Erika Lamarre ’97, (front row) director Emre Sahin ’98 and production assistant Christian Ortega ’02. Tom Rogan ’94 (not pictured) is executive producer and an owner of Authentic Entertainment (the Haunted Hotels production company). The group filmed at 13 different hotels in the United States and Europe.


Musical for his role in Smokey Joe’s Café. Salvador is cur-rently working in the subscrip-tions department at the New Jersey State Theatre: Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, N.J. He can be reached at: [email protected].

2000While working as an assis-tant in the 20th Century Fox script library, Kevin Graziadei discovered the script that would become the basis of the independent film Changing Hearts, which tells the story of two women living with cancer, one in the prime of her life, the other in her twilight years. Starring Faye Dunaway, Lauren Holly and Tom Sker-ritt, the film has had a limited theatrical release and has been screened at film festivals.

2001Leah Sparkes has been cast in Paul Newman’s upcoming HBO film Empire Falls. She is currently shooting in Maine with Ed Harris and others. She lives in New York City, and when she’s not acting she does publicity for National Geographic Films and Home & Garden Television.

Jeni4 Jones just finished play-ing the lead role in a romantic comedy titled Breaking and Entering. The film’s release date is February 2004. This past summer she started her

own surprise event planning company called, Go Get It! Recently the New Orleans Saints (NFL football team) invited Jeni4 to New Orleans to pitch their services to the entire football team. Go Get It! designs elaborate surprise events and scavenger hunts. They’re based in Los Angeles and New York.

2002Elana Architzel is currently on the Phoenix Productions’ na-tional tour of Fame. She plays the role of Grace “Lambchops” Lamb. Elana is thrilled to realize her lifelong dream of performing on the stage. She even gets to play the drums. Fame will be coming to the Wang Theatre in Boston, June 11-13, 2004.

Heather Posner is attending the Graduate Program in Cinema at San Francisco State University, and is currently in pre-production on her first-year film.

2003Betsy Morgan was cast in the Actors’ Equity Touring Company of Mamma Mia! She will be in the ensemble and understudying the young fe-male lead. Currently living in Steamboat Springs, Colo. and training for the San Diego and Boston marathons, Betsy’s running goals will have to be put on hold as she began tour-ing late last year.

Where Are YouAnd What are You Doing

Please use the form below to submit news that you would like to share with your fellow Emersonians. Or, if you prefer, e-mail your news to [email protected]; 1-800-255-4259; fax: 1-617-824-7807. New job? Recently engaged or married? New baby? Moving? Recently ran into an old classmate? Received an award? Let us know.

First Name Last Name Class Year

Address City State Zip

Home Phone E-Mail

Your News

Mail to: Class Notes, Emerson College, Office of Alumni Relations, 120 Boylston St., Boston, MA 02116-4624


Profile

Poetically PersonalPoet Denise Duhamel ’84 crafts daring emotional verse

most recently, of Queen for a Day: Selected and New Poems (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2001). A new book on poetic collaboration (with Maureen Seaton and David Trinidad) is due out in 2004. Duhamel’s work appears in four volumes of the prestigious The Best American Poetry, and she is a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, among other grants. She holds an M.F.A. from Sarah Lawrence College.

Duhamel is known for work with charged political undertones and dar-ing themes. She writes about AIDS, racism, gender politics and eating disorders, for example.

In perhaps one of her most memorable books, Kinky, she penned more than 40 “Barbie Poems” that used the iconic doll as their subject matter. The doll was “the perfect meta-phor for women … because she smiles no matter what, and can’t stand on her own two feet without help.” Duhamel writes:

In the 5th century B.C.an Indian philosopherGautama teaches “All is emptiness” and “There is no self.” In the 20th century A.D.Barbie agrees, but wonders how a man with such a belly could pose, smiling, and without a shirt.

The doll was “my way of getting at issues of race and gender politics without having to be angry or serious,” she explains.

One of her early poems, “Four Hours,” remains for Duhamel a touchstone of the kind of poetry she wants to write. The poem is about a little girl who was attacked in the poet’s hometown, the title referring to how many hours the girl endured with her attacker.

Four hours is longer than some double features, longer than some continental plane rides, longer than a whole afternoon in grade school. Nothing is slower than time when you’re nine years old,nothing is more fragile than trust.

With poems that move from quirky humor to biting wit to a high-pitched emotional intensity, Duhamel is known as a poet of passion and personality. Poet Dorianne Laux has called Duhamel’s Selected Poems “a Frank O’Hara meets Lucille Ball meets Sandra Bernhard [kind] of a book.”

Ironically, when she came to Em-erson, “personality” was something she felt compelled to excise. “When I was first trying to write, I tried to get ‘per-sonality’ out of my poems; [instead] I was writing these small, perfect, metri-cal poems,” she explains. Then she met Bill Knott, one of the most widely re-spected poets of his generation and still an Emerson professor. For Duhamel, Knott became the model of a poet who is “unabashedly himself,” who infuses his voice into his work. After reading Knott, Duhamel declared, “I’m not afraid of leaps anymore.” The freeing experience has led her to eschew the linear and to welcome the expansive imagination, the power of free associa-tion, and the poetics of the personality. “If it makes sense to me, it can make sense to my reader,” she believes.

–C.H.

When prize-winning poet Denise Duhamel ’84 was a little girl growing up in Woonsocket, R.I., she already felt an undeniable impulse to write. At age 9, she was penning “novels,” illustrat-ing them, creating cardboard covers, stamping each with a 69 cents price tag, and simply leaving them in local grocery-store magazine racks. Today, that impulse had led her to publish over a dozen books of poetry.

At Emerson in the early ’80s, Duhamel first dipped her toes into the deep waters of contemporary poetry – and immediately dove right in. “I fi-nally fit in for the first time in my life,” she says of her days at Emerson.

Now, Duhamel teaches creative writing and literature at Florida Inter-national University and is the author,


A Cut Above the RestChuck Willis ’79 edits award-winning,cutting-edge commercials

Film editor Charles ‘Chuck’ Willis ’79 sits alone in a dark room with the light from a monitor flickering across his face. He watches a cut of actor Charlie Sheen renting a video. Again. And again. And again.

“People who don’t know this business will come in and watch us, and they can’t believe that we sit there for days and run the same piece of film back and forth, back and forth. They wonder what we’re looking at,” says Willis, who majored in film and televi-sion at Emerson. “But every time you run it, it’s a little bit different. You’re fine-tuning it.”

It seems that this intense scrutiny of every frame makes for award-win-ning commercials and films. For 17 years, Willis has been an owner-editor at Crew Cuts, a top post-production house based in Manhattan. With its dozen or so editors, Crew Cuts, co-founded by Willis in 1986, has won every editorial award possible, includ-ing a Grammy, an Emmy and coveted industry awards like the Clio.

If fact, Crew Cuts was behind two Emmy-nominated commercials last year – a VISA credit card commercial featuring Martin and Charlie Sheen, and a Pepsi Twist commercial featur-ing MTV’s Osbourne family along with Donnie and Marie Osmond. Willis himself edited the VISA commercial.

Willis often takes on work of a comedic bent, such as the VISA ad. “I look to see if I can bring anything to it, either in how I pace it, the shot selec-tion, how I build it, and what music or sound effects I add,” he says.

He also edited an Independent Film Channel spot, widely seen in movie theaters, which featured child actress Hallie Kate Eisenberg as a

temperamental ‘indie’ film director working with the likes of Matt Damon and Janeane Garofalo.

Crew Cuts’ other clients run the gamut, including Nike, AOL, Ragu, UPS and ESPN. Crew Cuts has also edited the popular commercial parodies for Saturday Night Live for nearly 15 years.

Looking back, Willis says he’s most proud of his work on a documen-tary-style commercial for then-presiden-tial candidate Bill Clinton in 1991. As he edited late into the night, working on footage of Clinton and Al Gore traveling in a bus on the campaign trail, Willis says, “I felt like I was shaping and affecting something.”

His key to making award-winning commercials is finding “the story” hid-den in the footage. He “builds the story no matter how long it is” by literally laying it out scene by scene, “until I find an ending.”

He most enjoys “the whole peri-od when I’m most creative, left to my own devices to see what I can come up with, figuring out the puzzle that’s been presented to me: what shots and what sounds are important, what are the important lines I have to hear.”

Willis credits Emerson (“an unbelievably life-altering experience”) with his success. He particularly re-members a class in Swedish filmmak-ers like Ingmar Bergman and a black studies class in which he watched films like Birth of a Nation. “[Emer-son] made me very open and available to everything that was out there. I go at a commercial with a great sense of history and a great library of knowl-edge of how things go together.”

–C.H.

Chuck Willis ’79


News HoundVeteran broadcaster Dennis Blader ’75eyes TV news production from an insider’s point of view

My Turn

When I was a kid, television was magical. Even when there were mis-takes – as live television occasionally has – it didn’t seem to be noticeable or have much effect on the quality of the broadcast, at least not to me. Yet lately, have you paid close attention to your live local newscasts? Mispronuncia-tions, verbal stumbles, incorrect graph-ics or content, typos, outdated traffic and weather reports … you get the idea. It seems to be so much more notice-able. Or maybe the magic has worn off.

When I began working in the television industry back in the late ’70s, I was struck by the speed and accuracy of the newsroom and produc-

tion teams. Each newscast was treated as the “record of the day.” There was someone to write the story, proofread the story, review it for accuracy, produce the newscast, direct the show, assist the director, design and produce the graph-ics, edit video, play the video back, run each technical piece of equipment, op-erate the cameras, cue the talent in the studio – a team of professionals doing their individual jobs to get the newscast on the air.

Today, there are devices that “com-puterize” the control room, robotics that operate the cameras, and workers assigned to multiple duties so that the newscast can be put on the air with as few as two to four people (not includ-ing the talent). Imagine a control room and studio which formerly contained a large team of people reduced to as few as three. Imagine the pressure to get it done, and done right, with fewer backups, and fewer pairs of eyes to catch mistakes. In some cases, to re-duce redundant personnel, “hubs” can provide or control the on-air product for multiple stations from one central location.

Remember the scene in the movie Broadcast News in which the woman grabs the tape from the editor and fran-tically dashes down the corridor to get it to the operator just in time? Today, fuggehdaboutit! A single editor can load the field video into the computers, edit it and then download it into the servers for playback on air.

Many producers and writers I’ve spoken to claim they “don’t have the time” to review the story for typos or grammar. They’re too busy churning out scripts or doing multiple tasks. Sure, there’s a spell check feature in the computer, but that only tells you if a word is misspelled, not misused. Have you noticed how often a news-reader or reporter uses bad grammar, mispronounces locations and names or stumbles while reading the story from the prompter?

In our rush to do things faster and in a more cost-effective manner, have we compromised making that “re-cord of the day”? Does the viewer know if he or she is getting accurate, timely information or old, outdated mate-rial because no one took the time to recheck it or update it? Can the viewer tell the difference through all those bells and whistles on the screen? Most importantly, does the viewer care?

Dennis Blader ’75 teaches mass communication at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut and is a former television director/producer at the ABC affiliate in New Haven, where he worked for more than two decades.

‘In our rush to do things faster and in a more

cost-effective manner, have we compromised making

that “record of the day”? Does the viewer know

if he or she is getting accurate, timely information?’


Why Emerson College?

This is what motivates Ellen Ruben

and Jan Gabrielson, parents of Neil

Gabrielson ’04, to contribute to the

Emerson College Parents’ Fund and to

host Emerson events at their home in

Los Angeles.

“We’ve been involved with the public

schools our sons have attended over the

years so, for us, supporting Emerson

is a natural progression,” says Jan, a

graduate of UCLA and its law school.

“We’ve gone from booster clubs to the

Parents’ Fund, and by contributing at

the President’s Society Level, we feel

we have become part of the Emerson

community.”

“We got involved with Emerson as par-

ents because we have a stake in the Col-

lege,” echoes Ellen, who holds degrees

from the University of Wisconsin and

the University of Southern California

and has worked in student affairs and

college admissions.

“We know that tuition can’t cover the

costs for all the programs and facili-

ties,” she adds, “and we want to do what

For more information about the Parents’ Fund and gift opportunities at

Emerson College, contact Robert Case at (617) 824-8561. Or e-mail him at

[email protected].

Office of Institutional Advancement, Emerson College,

120 Boylston St., Boston, MA 02116-4624.

Because Parents Should Be Involved in the Education of their Children

we can to enhance the quality of the

education that our son and his classmates

receive. Supporting Emerson College is

a tangible way of demonstrating our sup-

port for Neil and the work he is doing. It

sends a positive message.”

Over the past three years, as Neil has

pursued a degree in film, Jan and Ellen

have been impressed with several aspects

of Emerson – the personal attention they

receive whenever they contact officials for

information or assistance, the small class

sizes, and the high level of interaction

between students and their professors.

“Emerson College is like a family, and

we’re glad to be part of it,” says Ellen.

From left, Jan Gabrielson, Troy Gabrielson, Ellen Ruben and Neil Gabrielson ’04.

Emerson College120 Boylston StreetBoston, Massachusetts02116-4624

Nonprofit OrganizationU.S. Postage PaidBurlington, VT 05401Permit Number 4

Winter dusk settles over Boston Common, just steps from the Emerson College campus.

Ph

oto

by

Dav

id R

ose

n

expression winter 2004

Documents

n e f o r

n d f r i e n d s o

e r s o n c o

e g ew i n t e r

expression winter

expressiont h e

electronic levelt h

springfor alumni