THEATRE UAB ALUMNI
Latest news about everyone we've heard from
recently ... if you're a Department alum,
or a friend of someone who is, please let
us know what's new by writing to our webmaster.
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| Many of us expected Wes Seals to make "the big time," but we
didn't think he'd do it so fast! He's already
on the road in the 25th Anniversary National
Tour of CATS, playing Plato in the first
act and Macavity in the second... |
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After graduating Magna Cum Laude with Theatre honors, Lydia Milman moved to Chicago, where she is now an artistic
associate with Brown Couch Theatre. Her current projects include directing a
staged reading of a US premiere by a well-known
Mongolian playwright, Naranjargal Khashkhuu
for this year's International Centre for
Women Playwrights' Chicago Her-Rah! Festival -- and working in two different new play
development workshops, with Stockyards Theatre
Project and the Women's Theatre Alliance.
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| Visitors to the immensely popular FEAR FACTOR
LIVE show at Universal in Florida are undoubtedly
reassured by the show's new host Creed Bowlen, who is not scary in the least... |
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A hearty combination of our alums and current
students are involved in the launch of a
new theatre company: THE NEXT STAGE. Their premiere show (sold out for every
performance!) was SCREWTAPE starring Mark Wells, Jonathan Daniel Prensner, Ashley
Culpepper, Amanda Nicole Mattes, Jen Pouyadou,
Jake Blagburn, and directed by Eric Young. They followed this success with a daring
production of a new script, Ryan C. Tittle's
AND THEY HEARD THE THUNDER OF ANGELS, which
again starred alums Ashley Culpepper and
Jake Blagburn --
-- and alumnus Daniel Walker, who is not only Technical Director for the
Library Theatre, managing their busy season of touring shows,
but also a playwright with a Ten-Minute Play
featured in this year's Panoply Arts Festival...
| Rachel Burttram is busy as ever -- recently starring in
a professional production of THE RABBIT HOLE
in January, then moving immediately to a
pro staging of THREE SISTERS. Now she's in
the City Equity Theatre production of THE CRIPPLE OF INISHMAAN... |
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Whitt Brantley has been cast in a leading role in the Dreamscape
film THE INTERIOR, currently in production. The feature film
is intended as the pilot for a TV series,
in which Whitt would star as well ...
Jim Whitson worked for four seasons as a featured performer
on the award-winning radio drama series Bodylove, where he played the morally-ambiguous Kevron...
... and James McCarty, recent graduate, also starred in four seasons
of Bodylove, where he played the adolescent Saul. McCarty's
work on the radio series has brought a lot
of attention to his vocal talents, and now
you're hearing his voice on radio and TV
commercials all over the southeast...
| Tammy Bellisle is staying active in the world of film and
TV, both as an actress -- and in the art department of projects
as diverse as independent films and TV pilots... |
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Glen Kinnaird acted in a run off-off-Broadway in the Robot vs. Dinosaur show A SEXTET OF DYSFUNCTION. He's also
getting his playwriting work read by New
York producers, so it's only a matter of
time before we see his name on the front
of the program as well as inside...
Adam Fox is out in the wild world of Los Angeles
doing a little bit of everything,
including
improv and sketch comedy
with the group HAPPY
NOWHERE ...
| Audra Yokely toured Florida recently with the Eckerd Theater Company after two years performing with the reknowned
Florida Repertory Theatre... |
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Jamie Cottle is working for UAB now, organizing a series
of top-level workshops featuring famous industry
insiders...
... and Blakely Holland Cottle (note the new last name) puts all her talents
and training to work, teaching at The Children's Dance Foundation ... meanwhile she is also assembling a new
touring theatre company of her own...
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| After graduating Magna Cum Laude, Nikki Klecha moved to Los Angeles, where she's now performing
with The Meta Theatre Company... |
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Amanda B. Hayes is thriving Down Under, teaching in the
West Australian Opera's Young Artist Program. She's also teaching a movement workshop
called "Meaning in Motion" for The Black Swan Theatre Company.
We'll continue to follow Amanda's adventures
through her website... |
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| Amanda Hayes with new 'do -- the result of
cutting off most of her hair as part of a
fundraiser for Luekemia Research. |
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Our former stage manager par excellence, Erin Thompson, graduated from UMKC with an MFA in Stage Management and went
right to work managing the shows at the Lyric Opera in Kansas City and for Pensacola Opera as well. Now she's
been promoted to Production
Stage Manager
for the Lyric's production
of THE END OF
THE AFFAIR, will travel
to Prague with an
opera company this summer,
and is lined up
for running the show for
an opera company
in Illinois as well ...
| Birmingham theatre fans still rave about
Andrea Frankle as Maggie in our 1997 production of CAT
ON A HOT TIN ROOF ... today she's a Visiting
Assistant Professor of Acting at LSU, after
four years with The Shakespeare Festival
at Tulane -- all the while staying busy in
the world of film and television, including The Reaping with Hilary Swank ... |
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Monica Hooper is putting her design/tech skills to work
for NASA, as an Exhibits Specialist Technician
at the Marshal Space Flight Center in Huntsville.
That means she's responsible for many of
the priceless artifacts of the history of
America's space program -- including work
on the Saturn V Restoration Project.
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| The film WEST TO EDEN sounds like it might
be about James Dean. And it is. With our
own Rafael Rios as James Dean. Sounds like inspired casting
to us. Meanwhile, he's finsihed work on his
role in the feature film MARKED ... |
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Lauren Nicole Lippeatt has been hard at work in the field of arts
administration, first for the Steppenwolf
Theatre Company in Chicago, and then for
The Theatre School at DePaul University,
where she is now happily esconced in the
Masters in Writing program...
We have never before had
so many Department
graduates accepted into
MFA Acting programs
at once: George Milton and Brittney Rentschler are now at the University of Central Florida -- Michael Doonan is at the University of California - Irvine (after a summer of acting study at Harvard,
no less), and Norman Ferguson is at the University of Georgia in Athens-- where he is set to appear as Hamlet in
HAMLETMACHINE, after which he'll be be working
with 7 STAGES in Atlanta. Gerry Rose is at the University of Louisville, where he's set to play Roy in ANGELS IN
AMERICA...
Michael "Bobo" Rawlins is living his dream of making complex mechanical
things perform miracles -- it's all part
of his job as a rigger for the world-famous
Cirque du Soleil "O" show at Bellagio in Las Vegas ...
| After completing her MFA studies at LSU,
Jennifer Kelley Salvant has stayed busy working with The Shakespeare
Festival at Tulane and Second City's world-famous training center in Chicago -- in addition to revues, improv,
and films... |
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Sonya Leslie-Shepherd, after her long run on the national tour
of THE LION KING, is now building an impressive
list of guest appearances on television series ...
Kimberly Tompkins went off to New York City and immediately
went to work as a stage manager -- and when
that show closed, she was hired for another,
and then another ...
Royce Garrison's obviously doing well in the Atlanta theatre scene...
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| If one of the hosts on QVC has struck you
as familiar, you're not imagining it -- that
really is Dave James. Check out his bio on the QVC web site... |
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