MARICRUZ MENCHERO (MFA, Acting, ’20) is featured in The Path: How 6 Actors Learned Their Craft in American Theatre Magazine.
Publications
Joe Keery talks about his music and the end of Stranger Things with Variety
JOE KEERY (BFA, Acting, ’14) spoke with Variety about his song “End of Beginning” reaching the Top 25 as well as the final season of Stranger Things. The song was originally written about Joe’s experience leaving Chicago (and The Theatre School) for LA.
Dramaturgy/Criticism student Emily Townley details the “The quest for Eleven” in the Chicago Reader
EMILY TOWNLEY (BFA, Dramaturgy/Criticism, ’24), writes about the journey to uncover the history of Gary Tucker and the Godzilla Rainbow Troupe. What started as a dramaturgy class final led to The Quest for Eleven.
Samantha Maxwell featured in Chicago Parent Magazine for Bubbles Academy
Samantha Maxwell (BFA, Acting, ’07) was recently featured in Chicago Parent Magazine as the co-creator and Director of Chicago’s only completely arts-integrated preschool, Bubbles Academy.
At Bubbles Academy, Social-Emotional Learning Stems From the Arts
Recent Alum Sydney Nelson Featured in Cincinatti Magazine
Cincinatti Magazine highlights the semi-autobiographical solo show, A Diva’s Bedroom, written and performed by alum SYDNEY NELSON (BFA, Theatre Arts, ’20). Read the full article here.
Lost Works: What Could Have Been Project Started by Alum
Lost Works: What could Have Been, is an essay featured in Howlround and initiative by KRISTIN IDASZAK (BFA, Theatre Arts, ’09 & Faculty) that endeavors to pay tribute to the work abruptly stopped by the COVED-19 outbreak. She is calling for submissions for varieties of tributes made to the all the work unproduced or half-produced before the shelter-in-place order. Learn more here. Read the Howlround article here.
American Theatre and the Chicago Tribune Feature Current Theatre School Students and Faculty for Zoom and Remote Learning Discussion
American Theatre features MADIE DOPPELT (BFA, Playwrighting, ’20), LISA PORTES (Faculty) and REBECCA WILLINGHAM (MFA, Directing, ’22) in discussion of how Zoom will revolutionize today’s college theatre programs.
“Portes remains confident that the theatre community will pull through. “The good news is that we’re creative,” she says. “We’re a creative field that is built on people collaborating together to figure out how to make things—and that’s what we’re doing.””
The Chicago Tribune features ADAM CRAWFORD (BFA, Acting, ’20) KYLE CUNNINGHAM (BFA, Lighting Design, ’20), VICTORIA DEIORIO (FACULTY), COYA PAZ (Faculty), JUSTEN ROSS (BFA, Acting, ’21), KEIMON SHOOK (BFA, Acting, ’21),
“It goes back to this question of, either we think our work matters or it doesn’t. And if we think it matters, it matters now as much as it did last week,” Paz said.
“As artists, it’s our job to mirror the world,” Ross said. “And if we’re not tapped in, we can’t mirror it successfully. So I think this is, if anything, good, because it shows everybody that we’ve got more work to do.”
Theatre School Alum Spencer Olson Featured in Glossier’s ‘Into the Gloss’ Newsletter
SPENCER OLSON (BFA, Theatre Arts, ’17) is featured speaking about his drama therapy work with LGBTQ+ youth in New York in Glossier’s online newsletter, Into the Gloss.
Alum Catherine Miller is named Honoree for Windy City Times’ 20th Annual 30 under 30 awards
30 Under 30 Awards Ceremony, Polo Cafe and Catering, 6/26/2019. CATHERINE MILLER (BFA, Dramaturgy/Criticism, ’14) is an honoree.
“Honorees are 30 years or under as of June 30, and have made substantial contributions to the Chicagoland LGBT community in the fields of entertainment, politics, health, activism, academics, sports or other areas. Hundreds of people have been honored by the paper in the more than 10 years since the awards were established.”
“Catherine Miller is a queer non-binary casting director originally from San Diego, California. After Catherine came out, they realized the lack of representation on local stages of non-binary and trans individuals. They began advocating and educating theatre companies about breaking the binary in casting and make audition rooms safe spaces for all. Over the past two years, they’ve been invited to speak on panels and create workshops for Director’s Lab Chicago, The Theatre School at DePaul and Steppenwolf Theatre.
Catherine is a company member at First Floor Theater and most recently has cast for Raven Theatre, Jackalope Theatre, and Red Tape Theatre. They are a nominator for the Kilroy’s List and were featured on New City’s 2019 Players: The Fifty People Who Really Perform for Chicago. Catherine holds a BFA in Dramaturgy/Criticism from The Theatre School at DePaul. They also happen to be in the Fly Honey Show!
Did you know? When Catherine was ten, they won an all expense paid trip to Universal Studios Islands of Adventure by entering a contest at Target.”
Source: Windy City Times
Rise Up!: Broadway and American Society from ‘Angels in America’ to ‘Hamilton’ by Chris Jones
CHRIS JONES (Faculty) has a new book out now! RISE UP! Broadway and American Society from ‘Angels in America’ to ‘Hamilton’ is a “lively and readable book [that] tells the story of Broadway’s renaissance from the darkest days of the AIDS crisis, via the disaster that was Spiderman: Turn off the Dark through the unparalleled financial, artistic and political success of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton.”
Penned by one of America’s best-known daily theatre critics and organized chronologically, it is the story of the embrace of risk and substance. In so doing, Chris Jones makes the point that the theatre thrived by finally figuring out how to embrace the bold statement and insert itself into the national conversation – only to find out in 2016 that a hefty sector of the American public had not been listening to what it had to say. Chris Jones was in the theatres when and where it mattered. He takes readers from the moment when Tony Kushner’s angel crashed (quite literally) through the ceiling of prejudice and religious intolerance to the triumph of Hamilton, with the coda of the Broadway cast addressing a new Republican vice-president from the stage. That complex performance – at once indicative of the theatre’s new clout and its inability to fully change American society for the better – is the final scene of the book.