Joe Balsanek (MFA '73) wrote and published (March '97) a public-speaking textbook, A Speaker's Journey, with McGraw-Hill for use in college-level speech. (5/98)

Bob Barnett (MFA '79) was set designer for the Asolo Theatre Company's production of Nicholas Nickleby .

Lorraine Barrett (BFA '75, MFA '76) appeared in last summer's hit Chicago premiere Death Defying Acts with SummerNITE at the Bailiwick Arts Center . She is a part-time faculty member in the School of Theatre Arts at Northern Illinois University and a vocalist for a Chicago-area big band. Before moving to Illinois , she performed on Broadway, in regional theaters, and in Cairo , Egypt . She, her husband, and two children will be relocating to the New York area in summer 1998. E-Mail: lbarrett@niu.edu (5/98)

Joanne Kaplan Bartosik (BFA 73) moved to New Jersey and is busy raising two children. Her husband, Ed, stays busy in Theatre. He is the founder and artistic director of Roy G. Biv Theatre for Children. (6/98)

Kate Burke (MFA '77) married Matthew James "Jim" Benedict, June, 1995. She played Frances Kittle, oldest living survivor of the Titanic disaster, in Scotland Road by Jeffrey Hatch at New Harmony Summer Repertory Theatre. She is completing a three-year term on the Voice and Speech Trainers (VASTA) Board of Directors. She is on the faculty of the University of Virginia Department of Drama and teaches acting and serves as Head of Voice. She received Early Research Leave from the University of Virginia to spend the spring '97 semester in England working with Andrew Wade, Head of Voice at the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Jamie (Gallagher) Caffier (BFA 79) has taught Dramatic Arts, English and Public Speaking for twelve years at Central Dauphine East High School in Harrisburg , PA , where she directs and assists with three to four plays per year. She is happily married, chauffeurs her two sons to their numerous activities and writes fiction and play adaptations when she finds spare time. (6/98)

Candice Cain (BGS '76) spent over four years as costume designer for Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum, their youth P.L.A.Y. tour, and many other special events. She also designed at South Coast Repertory, Costa Mesa , CA , and Intiman Theatre, in Seattle . (5/98)

Gavin Cameron-Webb (MFA '72) continues as artistic director of Studio Arena Theatre in Buffalo where the 95/96 season was the biggest financial success in its history with nearly 14,000 subscribers and marked increases in single ticket sales as well.

Laurence Carr ('72) recently had the New York premiere of his play Trouble Down Below at the Aegean Theatre Company. Then he went to Sweden , where he directed a Strindberg workshop. His play Vaudeville is being published. (5/98)

Rod Ceballos (MFA '77) has recently been appointed associate director for the Empty Space Theater in Seattle . His recent directing has included Accidental Death of an Anarchist. He was also at the Shaw Festival in Canada , where he worked on The Seagull. (5/98)

Dean Corrin (MFA '79) is a member of the Victory Garden Theater Playwrights Ensemble. Chuck Cooper (BFA '76) has been working consistently. Chuck has just wrapped up a couple of movies, Lazarus starring Christopher Walken in which Chuck plays a detective and Hurricane starring Denzel Washington, where he plays an alcoholic and abusive father. Chuck has three children, two sons and a daughter-- all of whom are also in performance. (1/00)

Gary Cooper (BFA '77) is working as a production designer with several industrial production firms. He also works as an architectural lighting designer. (5/98)

John E. Craft (BFA 66, MA 72, PhD 75) is Director of Graduate Studies for the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Telecommunications at Arizona State University , where he has been a professor for 25 years. He also acts as a consultant in corporate video, cable television and broadcast for major corporations. He is a trustee for the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. During the past five years, he has worked as an independent documentary producer with his latest video production, Arizona Crossroads, up-linked to public television stations in June 98. He has won both national and international awards for his programs including a Gold Award (1st place) at Worldfest Houston International Film Festival. (7/98)

John Bruce Deaven (BFA '70) and his family recently met Christopher Walken, actor and former Oscar winner. Walken was working on his latest movie which was being filmed at the Deaven's home in the historic West Adams section of Los Angeles . John sent us a great picture taken with his family and Christopher Walken. (6/98)

David Doering (MFA 77) is a free-lance actor/director/theatre educator working for MacPhail Center for the Arts, Children's Theatre Company and more. Last year he appeared in a production of A New York Holiday at the Chanhassen Dinner Theatre with fellow OU graduate Billy Kimmel (BFA 87).(10/98)

Leslie Feagan (BFA '72) appeared 3 years in Broadway's Guys and Dolls and went on to play Sipos in Mill Mountain Theatre's production of She Loves Me. He also played in Carnival at the North Shore .

Ruth M. Feldman (MFA 79) is in her sixth season at the Shubert Performing Arts Center in New Haven and is their Director of Education and Community Outreach Services. Previously she spent twelve years as a professional production stage manager, mostly in the New England regional theatre community including: Hartford , Stage, Long Wharf Theatre and the Goodspeed Opera House at Chester . (1/99)

Jonathan Freeman (BFA '72) Known to movie audiences everywhere as the voice of Jafar in Disney's Aladdin, is in the Broadway revival of On the Town, directed by George C. Wolfe. (10/98)

Jan Hiatt (BFA 71, MFA 73) is working at the Henry Ford Museum-Greenfield Village in Historical Resources cataloging and documenting 2-D artifacts. (9/98)

Gary Hillyer (BFA '75) portrayed Baptista in the Arden Shakespeare Company's production of The Taming of the Shrew.

Sally Riggs Kessler (BFA 70, MFA 72) is a director/performer at a regional theater in Northern Wisconsin called the Lake Superior Big Top Chautauqua under a huge blue big top tent each summer. The theater hosts nationally known performers and are famous in the Midwest for their own productions. Sally recently finished her third production of Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris . She has also been on the road with a new production, 30th Star. Sally has two almost-grown kids: Riggs, her son and Addy, her daughter. (9/98)

Marya Lowry (MFA '77) During the past two years, Marya has performed in Man and Superman at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge and Racing Demon at the Merrimack Repertory Theater. She has also performed with the Boston Pops. She was a voice and text coach for The Bacchae which was develped at the Ray Hart International Arts Centre in France and performed there and in Denmark . She continues as Head of Voice for the Brandeis University MFA Program.(1/00)

Michael McNeilly (BFA '72) is currently in production stage of 60 Miles of Mime on the Smith River which combines mime, performance art, and staged sequences spread out over 60 miles of the "beautiful but treacherous" Smith River.

Denny Miller (BFA '72) recently AD/stage managed a production of You Can't Take It With You at the Riverfront Theatre in Bradenton , Florida . Denny plans to hit the boards again in May 99 playing "Fodor" in Crazy For You. He has also become involved in a motley group of folk who put together festivals. Next up for them is a "Block Party" on the 4th of July and a huge holiday festival in December which will tie in with a Millennium street-fest at the end of December. Denny's days are spent running the office for Manatee Children's Service, a nonprofit organization which battles child abuse and neglect. (2/99)

Spence Porter (MFA '74) has been busy. One of his plays, The Invisible Chastity of Arnie Bielowski, is being translated into Hebrew for a production in Israel . HIPPOLYTUS opens in June at the Plan B Theater Company in Salt Lake City . A production of his play Sick Minds: an evening of appallingly bad taste, featuring Warped Desires and Milton Eckendorf, Jr., Infant Detective, is being planned for Oxford , England . This play also has a teenage fan club. Life Among the Flowers just had a staged reading at The Players in New York City . A student in Singapore just did an academic project on one of his plays, and the costume design class at Clinch Valley College in Virginia is devoting a semester to his play Chang and the Dragon's Daughter. To top it all off, Spence is being translated into Slovenian. (5/98)

Lisa Potter (BFA 79). Since moving to California 18 years ago, she has waited on numerous tables and worked for two cable companies doing sales, advertising and commercials. She has also been an office manager for a special effects company and a sports magazine. Recently she left her job with a law firm to stay home with her husband and two children. Eventually she plans to return to the theater on a community level. (6/98)

Dennis Predovic (BFA '72) appeared on Broadway as Jake Latta in Night of the Iguana. He also starred in Other People's Money in New York City and Prague . (5/98)

Marsha Korb Predovic (BFA '72) returned to Monomoy Theatre as a guest artist to play Vinnie in Life With Father. Her ten-year-old son, Casey, went along to play her son, Whitney. Janet Rose (MFA 79) has been the Technical Director/Lighting Designer in the Theatre Arts Department at the University of Oregon since 87.

C. Robert Shook (MFA 74) is president of Schuler & Shook, Inc., a theatre consulting/architectural lighting firm with offices in Chicago and Minneapolis . Their recent theatre projects include work for Lyric Opera Chicago, Valparaiso University and Detroit School for Arts. Their recent architectural lighting projects include work for Shedd Aquarium, Sioux City Art Center and State Street . (7/98)

Rebecca Erwin Spencer (BFA '78) is working as assistant to Robin Williams, filming in San Francisco and on location in North Carolina . (5/98)

Tom Stechschulte ('70) has appeared in nine Broadway shows, including Inherit the Wind, Piece of My Heart, Cementville, King Lear, and Shotgun. He has also appeared in To Kill a Mockingbird at the Huntington Theatre, Boston , and at the Cincinnati Playhouse, Cleveland Play House, and St. Louis Rep. He lives in New Jersey with his wife, Nancy, and their four-year-old son, Daniel. (5/98)

Susan Stockton (MFA '74) currently the Director of the Center for the Arts at Middlebury College.(1/00)

Alan Tongret (MFA '71) has been head of Paradise Valley Community College Theatre Program since '92. His most recent play, Poor Richard's Revolt, premiered in Phoenix in April '97. (5/98)

Susan Watson Turner (BFA '79) was featured in the New York Amsterdam News for her work as producing director of the Negro Ensemble Co. in NY. She recently directed North 17th Street at the Clurman Theatre and Ensemble in Black at the Producers Club, both for the NEC.

Wayne Vlcan (BFA 71) has been producing and directing TV and radio celebrity public service announcements and TV programs (NBC) for 15 years. He also composes and does sound designs for video through his company Help! Radio & Video. (7/98)

Jeffry Walker (MFA '76) was awarded a residency fellowship at the MacDowell Colony in Petersborough , NH , in January '97. He is working on Delivery, a solo theater performance work satirizing Waco to Wall Street, Ruby Ridge to Madison Ave. He is also entering his eighth year as director of the Austin Arts Center , Trinity College , Hartford , CT. (5/98)

Russ Walton (MFA '72) Marked his 20 year anniversary with the San Fransisco Opera! He is a senior manager at the company and serves as Director of Human Resources and Labor Relations for the company's 9 labor unions.(1/00)

Larry Weiss (BBA '70) has been named executive director, writer development at Universal Television. He previously worked at the personal management/production company Artists Circle Entertainment with such clients as Sissy Spacek, James Earl Jones, and Joe Regalbuto. Prior to that he was vice president, literary representative and personal manager at the Shukat Company in New York . In that capacity he represented and supervised career development for clients in all areas of the entertainment industry. Some of the film and television projects in which he was involved included The Little Mermaid, Little Shop of Horrors, Kate and Allie, and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas . He began his career as a talent agent and head of phonograph/record division at the William Morris Agency in NY, where he represented Joan Collins, John Travolta, Sarah Vaughn, Freddie Prinze, Rupert Holmes, and The Manhattan Transfer.

Daniel G. Whittecar (BFA '76) has recently completed his seventh season as screening committee chairman for the Film Council of Greater Columbus. The council is affiliated with the Motion Picture Academy, and award winners are eligible for Oscar nominations under the documentary category. (5/98)