ABOVE: The Tower by Matthew Maguire, Los Angeles; Pictured left to right: Lisa Tharps, Michelle Silver, Matthew McCray
ABOVE:
George Drance as Jason in Medea Directed by Andrei Serban for La MaMa, E.T.C. European Tour
ABOVE: Phoenix Fabrikby Daniel Alexander Jones in production at Pillsbury House Theatre in Minneapolis; Pictured: Vinie Burrows and Rhonda Ross Kendrick
ABOVE: Thin Walls by Alice Eve Cohen, directed by Elizabeth Margid
ABOVE: Lighting Design by Chad McArver - The Trail of Tears scene from the 52nd summer season of Cherokee, NC’s Historic Outdoor Drama Unto These Hills
ABOVE:
Eva Patton as Jean Harlow inThe Beardby Michael McClure, directed by Lawrence Sacharow at La MaMa, E.T.C. (pictured with Leo Marks as Billy the Kid).
ABOVE:
Dawn Saito performing her solo piece Blood Cherries, directed by Jonathan Rosenberg and Sabrina Peck at Dance Theater Workshop
MATTHEW MAGUIRE
Director of Theatre Program
Head of Playwriting Program Teacher of Playwriting, Acting, and Theatre History
Matthew Maguire is a two-time OBIE award winner: once for acting in 1998 and most recently (2006) for direction of his play Abandon at La Mama E.T.C. He is a co-artistic director of Creation Production Company, which he founded with Susan Mosakowski. The company has produced forty-seven original works for the stage. His plays, which he often directs, include The Seven Deadly Elements, based on the collage novel by Max Ernst, Eye Figure Fiction, Untitled (The Dark Ages Flat Out), The American Mysteries, The Memory Theatre of Giulio Camillo, Propaganda, Fun City, Visions of Don Juan, The Tower, and its solo version, Babel Stories, a science fiction opera, Chaos, with Michael Gordon, The Window Man, a musical with Bruce Barthol and Greg Pliska, Phaedra, Throwin’ Bones, which began as a collaboration with architects Diller + Scofidio titled Skin at the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels. His work also includes the creation with Philip Glass and Molissa Fenley of A Descent into the Maelström for Australia’s Adelaide Festival. His directing projects include Molière and Charpentier’s Le Malade Imaginaire for the Long Beach Opera, Manhattan Theatre Club’s Downtown Uptown Festival, and the Bang on a Can Festival’s Van Gogh Video Opera. He is an active alumnus of New Dramatists, and served as chairman of the Theatre panel of the New York State Council on the Arts. His awards include fellowships from the NEA, the McKnight and Hammerstein Foundations, commissions from the NEA, NYSCA, and Meet the Composer, and an America Award for Playwriting. He received his MFA from the NYU Tisch School of the Arts. He performed his play, Luscious Music, as a solo at the Architecture Museum of Basel. His recent projects include a new musical with composer Daniel Levy called Laughing Pictures, a play commissioned by Tulane University and the D-Day Museum about the Battle of Midway called A Cliff in the Dark, a chamber piece commissioned by The Dogs of Desire called Flowing in Two, composed by Randall Eng, a new translation of Molière’s Imaginary Invalid, and Faustus/Faustus, an adaptation combining Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus and Stein’s Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights, with music by Greg Pliska. His writing has been published by Sun & Moon Press, Backstage Books/Watson Guptill, Manchester University Press, TheatreForum, Performing Arts Journal, and The Drama Review.
KAI BROTHERS
Theatre Department Production Manager Teacher of Theatre Crafts
Kai Brothers is a production supervisor and consultant with ten years experience in New York theatre. Recent production supervision includes Neil Simon’s Barefoot in the Park at the Cort Theatre; Sweeney Todd, directed by John Doyle, at the Eugene O’Neil; Souvenir at the Lyceum Theatre; TONY Award-winning The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at the Circle in the Square; TONY Award-winning Urinetown at the Henry Miller Theatre and at the American Theater of Actors; Terrence McNally’s Frankie and Johnny in the clair de lune at the Belasco; Pulitzer Prize-winning Wit at the Union Square Theatre as well as the Wit national tour; Jonathan Larson’s Tick, Tick…Boom! at the Jane Street Theatre; Jason Robert Brown’s The Last Five Years at the Minetta Lane Theatre; Eve Ensler’s Necessary Targets at the Variety Arts Theatre as well as the Vagina Monologues in Los Angeles; Edward Albee’s The Play About the Baby at the Century Center Theatre, Moises Kaufman’s The Laramie Project at the Union Square Theatre, Kenneth Lonnergan’s Lobby Hero at the John Houseman Theatre, and Anne Meara’s Down the Garden Paths at the Minetta Lane Theatre. Kai has been responsible for a number of special events for corporate and not-for-profit clients. He has consulted on the design of several small theatres in New York City and on larger installations around the country.
FR. GEORGE DRANCE, SJ
Artist in Residence Teacher of Acting and Senior Values Seminar
George Drance has performed and directed in over fifteen countries on five continents, serving such companies as Teatro la Fragua in Honduras, and Theatre YETU in Kenya. He received his MFA in acting from Columbia University. In New York, he has acted with The Metropolitan Opera, The Public Theatre/New York Shakespeare Festival, the Shakespeare Project, and La MaMa E.T.C. With La MaMa, he has toured throughout Europe and Asia, performing in Andrei Serban's epic Fragments of a Greek Trilogy. His performance as Jason in Medea was singled out by the New York Times. Regional acting credits include the American Repertory Theater, and Boston’s New Rep Theatre. He has been a regular performer with ImprovBoston and the U.S. Improv Theatre League, and was one of seven actors representing the United States in the World Cup of Improv in Montreal. Collaborating with award winning composer Elizabeth Swados on Calderon de la Barca’s La Vida es Sueno (autosacramental), he translated this 1677 script with Alfredo Galván, directing its English language premiere at Marquette University, and again at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. He has been a guest artist and lecturer at Columbia University, Cornell University, Marymouth Manhattan College and Boston College, and has served on various panels including the JSEA think-tank for Jesuit High Schools in the 21st Century, and New York City’s Roundtable for Arts-in-Education. He has been on the faculty of the Marist International Center in Nairobi, Kenya, at Red Cloud High School on the Oglala Sioux Reservation. He also directs retreats exploring spirituality and the arts, co-authored the book Ritual Plays with Fr. Bob VerEecke, SJ, and his reflections on prayer are included in the new book Working on the Inside: the Spiritual Life through the Eyes of Actors.
DANIEL ALEXANDER JONES Teacher of Playwriting, Acting, and Theatre History
Daniel Alexander Jones received the prestigious Alpert Award in the Arts in Theatre in 2006 in recognition of his interdisciplinary theatre work. “Moved by silenced histories, informed by acts of survival and transcendence, Jones creates his own language, and, in doing so, finds his own way home,” noted the Alpert Foundation. Jones’s work reflects his passions for expansive aesthetic impulses in theatre, and for the rich interdisciplinary traditions of Black American culture. American Theatre Magazine named Daniel one of fifteen theatre makers whose work will “change American stages for decades to come.” Daniel’s plays and performance pieces include Phoenix Fabrik, Bel Canto, Earthbirths, The Book of Daniel, Hera, Blood: Shock: Boogie and Cab and Lena. Daniel has performed to critical and audience acclaim in New York, Minneapolis, Austin, St. Paul, Seattle and Boston, among other cities, and internationally in London, Dublin, Manchester and Leeds. Jones was Resident Artist with Vicky Boone’s vanguard theatre company, Frontera @ Hyde Park in Austin, TX; and is an Affiliated Artist with Pillsbury House Theatre in Minneapolis. The Rockefeller Foundation M.A.P. Fund, The National Endowment for the Arts and TCG, The Creative Capital Foundation, The Howard Foundation and The Jerome Foundation all supported Daniel’s work. His writing has been published in the journal, CALLALOO, in the anthologies, SPIRITED and VOICES RISING published by RedBone Press and by the LAMBDA Literary Review. A passionate educator, Daniel has been a faculty member with Goddard College’s Master of Fine Arts in Interdisciplinary Arts Program and its Bachelor of Fine Arts in Creative Writing Program; a Lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and from 2004-2008 Daniel was a Lecturer in Playwriting and Directing at the University of Texas at Austin’s Department of Theatre and Dance. Daniel’s online theatre initiative, Round House Arts will launch in 2009. Current projects include Qualities of Light, an interactive performance installation created with acclaimed musician, Helga Davis.
ELIZABETH MARGID
Head of Directing Program Teacher of Directing, Acting, Senior Showcase, and Invitation to Theatre
Elizabeth Margid heads the Directing Program at Fordham, where she has previously directed, among others, Pericles, Better Living and Escape from Happiness by George Walker,The Importance of Being Earnest, Cabaret, As You Like It, Chicago, and The Threepenny Opera. Outside of Fordham, she directed Thin Walls by Alice Eve Cohen (shown at left) for the 2003 Edinburgh Festival, 78th Street Theatre Lab, and Kitchen Theatre in Ithaca, New York. Ms. Margid has also directed work for, among others, The Yale Repertory Theatre, Lincoln Center Directors’ Lab, Berkshire Theatre Festival, Denver Center Theatre, Hangar Theatre, New Georges, Ark Theatre, Cornell University, and Mulhenberg College. She also served as Associate Producer for the Berkshire Theatre Festival and Manhattan Punch Line Theatre for two seasons, and as the Ark Theatre Company’s Director of Play Development for three seasons. In addition to her theatre work, Ms. Margid is partner in a new film company called Making Productions, Inc., which recently completed its first full-length feature, The Making Of .... Ms. Margid holds an MFA in Directing from the Yale School of Drama, where she was awarded the John Badham Directing Fellowship. She is also a two-time recipient of the New York State Council on the Arts’ Artistic Associate Grant, and a member of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab.
CHAD MCARVER
Head of Design and Production Program Teacher of Lighting Design, Scenic Design, Drafting and Model Making, and Visual Design
Chad McArver has designed lighting and scenery for Off-Broadway Theatre in New York City and regional theatres on the east coast. He has also designed lighting for theatre and dance at The Kennedy Center and internationally in Singapore and recently at The LG Arts Center in Seoul, South Korea. On Broadway Mr. McArver has worked with Lighting Designer Howell Binkley as Associate Lighting Designer on several shows including Gore Vidal’s The Best Man, Minnelli on Minnelli directed by Fred Ebb starring Liza Minnelli, Harold Prince’s Parade, and High Society at The St. James Theatre. Also on Broadway Mr. McArver has worked with Scenic Designer Riccardo Hernandez as Associate Scenic Designer on the Pulitzer Prize winning play Top Dog Underdog at the Ambassador Theatre, and Elaine Stritch at Liberty at The Neil Simon Theatre, both directed by George C. Wolfe. Mr. McArver’s Off-Broadway credits include: Gypsy and the Yellow Canary performed and adapted by Irene Worth and directed by George C. Wolfe at the Public Theatre, Spoke Man written and performed by John Hockenberry directed by WynnHandman at the American Place Theatre, and Masked Men directed by Tom O’Horgan at the Westbeth Studio Theatre. Other Regional, Off-Broadway, and Opera credits include: A Christmas Carol, Forever Plaid, La Griselda, Little Shop of Horrors, On Borrowed Time, Stonewall Jackson’s House, Manchild In The Promised Land, and Living In The Wind, directed by Reggie Life (AUDELCO nomination for Lighting Design) Mr. McArver has an MFA in lighting and scenic design from New York University’s Tisch School of The Arts.
EVA PATTON
Theatre Department Manager Teacher of Acting
In addition to teaching acting, Eva Patton is responsible for overseeing all business, publicity, and student recruitment for the Fordham Theatre Program. For Fordham’s mainstage, she has directed Dead Man Walking by Tim Robbins (based on the book by Sister Helen Prejean), Moliére’s The Misanthrope, Vaclav Havel’s Largo Desolato, and Luigi Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of An Author. As an actress, she has appeared in productions regionally and in New York. NY productions include: Emma Darwin in Man Made (Ohio Theatre, written & directed by Susan Mosakowski); The Mercy Swing by Lane Byrnes (Cherry Lane Theatre/NY Fringe Festival); Kraken by Len Jenkins, dir. by Mike Kimmel (Walker Space/Push Prods.); Saving the Greeks... by Jason Pizzarello (Push Prods); ROAD (HERE); Crimes of the Heart (Center Stage); bunkerbaby by Colin McKenna, directed by Mike Kimmel at CSV; and Jean Harlow in The Beard (written by Michael McClure and directed by Lawrence Sacharow); Harry and the Cannibals (written and directed by Susan Mosakowski); and Pastures of Plenty (written and directed by Colin McKenna) all at La MaMa, E.T.C. TV and film credits include Saturday Night Live and the independent films Cluster (dir. Jason Morris) and The Making Of... written and directed by Peter Coston. Ms. Patton was an Edward F. Albee Foundation Fellow and received her MFA in Acting from the Asolo Conservatory.
DAWN AKEMI SAITO
Artist in Residence Teacher of Movement and Acting
Dawn Akemi Saito, actress/performance artist, writer and Butoh dancer/choreographer has collaborated with major innovative performance groups in the U.S., Europe, Asia and South America. She has also presented her own work which has been seen in the United States and Europe. Her multi-disciplinary works include: Blood Cherries, directed by Jonathan Rosenberg and Sabrina Peck, premiered at Dance Theater Workshop; A Face of Our Own, a music/Butoh piece in collaboration with composer Myra Melford presented at the Orpheum Theatre in Graz, Austria; Leaves, Water, Sun, presented at the Berkshire Theater Festival as part of the Millennium Project; Red Eye, presented at the Whitney Museum at Philip Morris; HALO, presented at the Asian American Theater Workshop at Mark Taper and Highways; HA, directed by Maria Mileaf and performed at Dance Theater Workshop and New York Theater Workshop; Pastime, a solo Butoh/retro-futuristic theater piece, directed by Ernest Abuba was performed at LaMaMa, E.T.C.; DreamCatcher developed under the auspices of Joseph Papp's Public Theatre as part of the Asian American Playwright's Lab and subsequently performed at Dance Theater Workshop and Aaron Davis Hall; Let Go of My Face, performed at LaMaMa, E.T.C; SHINJIN, performed at the American Museum of Natural History. Dawn also performed in My House Was Collapsing Toward One Side, conceived and directed by Charles Mee, Jr. with music composed by Myra Melford, a Butoh/theater collaboration performed at Dance Theater Workshop. Dawn also developed and directed a piece entitled Shinran’s Lost Scrolls based on the life of the founder of Shin Buddhism. She has also choreographed Butoh for Robert Woodruff's production of Women of Trachis at New York University, worked for JoAnne Akalaitis in her Juilliard production of Strindberg's Dreamplay, and directed Eva Mantell in her solo work Ozone Advisory at NADA. Dawn has also taught workshops at Columbia University, New York University, University of Massachusetts, Juilliard, Bard College, Lincoln Center Director’s Lab, Institut International De La Marionnette in Charleville, France, International Workshops of Drama Schools in Sinaia, Romania, and Fordham Summer Program In Orvieto, Italy. Dawn has served on the theater faculty at Cal Arts. Other performance background includes: Arden/Ardennes at Theatre du Rond-Point in Paris; Bill T. Jones' Last Supper at Uncle Tom’s Cabin at Brooklyn Academy of Music; Ping Chong's Deshima (LaMaMa, Japan and Singapore tour) and Elephant Memories (Boston and Bogota, Colombia tour); Music-Theater Group's Moby Dick in Venice directed by Roman Paska at the Public Theater's Henson Festival (also toured in Vienna); Maxine Moerman's The Element’s project and Water; and Three Suzannahs at Dia Center for the Arts; Voice and Vision's production of Jocasta at the Connelly Theater; Victoria Mark's Father and Daughter dance at California Plaza; Anna Halprin's Parades and Changes at the Geffin Museum in Los Angeles. Dawn was a member of the Asian-American Playwrights Group at the Joseph Papp Theatre where she staged readings of her plays Hatchi and Bobbi and Karoke Above the Clouds. HA was published in Theater Communications Group’s “Extreme Exposure,” an anthology of solo performance texts from the twentieth century edited byJo Bonney. Some of her theater background includes performing in The Road Home directed by Larry Sacharow at the Taganka Theatre in Moscow; Sonnets for an Old Century by Jose Rivera at Location One; Maid by Erik Ehn and directed by Maria Mileaf at Lincoln Center’s Summer Festival; Hedda Gabler at The Old Globe Theater (San Diego); Photographs at S21, directed by William Carden; The Cure and Chomolungma directed by Stephen Legawiecz; Mirror’s Remembered at New York Stage and Film (Vassar); Suddenly Last Summer and The Poet at Hartford Stage Co., directed by JoAnne Akalaitis; Kitchen God’s Wife at The American Place Theater; Wheat and the Moon at One Dream Theater; National Asian-American Theater Company's American Dream at the Vineyard Theater and Midsummer Night’s Dream, Chiori Miyagawa's Nothing Forever at New York Theater Workshop; Dear Kenneth Blake at Ensemble Studio Theater; Merrimack Repertory Theater's A Cambodian Odyssey; The Survivor; Pan Asian Repertory's And the Soul Shall Dance; Yara Art's Group's Blind Sight and Explosions at LaMaMa, E.T.C.; and Bombazeen at NADA. Film credits include Nancy Savoca's Household Saints, Picture Pride, Mizu Shobai, The Patriot, Scenes From The Wasteland, Death By Unnatural Causes, The 900 Lives Of Jackie Frye, Speed Of Gravity.
KRIS STONE Teacher of Set and Costume Design
Kris Stone’s designs have been seen throughout the U.S., U.K., Australia, and Ireland earning a nomination for The Irish Theatre Award for Best Set Designer, an NEA/TCG Award for Stage Design, a 2006 Bay Area Critics Award for Best Set Design, a Featured Designer at the 2007 Prague Quadrennial, and a nomination for The Drama Desk Award for Maurice Sendak and Tony Kushner’s Opera Brundibar. Kris studied under Ming Cho Lee at The Yale School of Drama and has taught stage design at Vassar, NYU’s Tisch School, and Swarthmore. Theatre designs include: NYC: Vineyard Theatre, Joyce Theatre, Primary Stages; Regional: Berkeley Rep, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Hartford Stage, Old Globe, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Long Wharf Theatre; International: Abbey Theatre (Dublin), Riverside Studios (London), Dublin and Edinburgh Theatre Festivals, and The Royal Theatre in Tasmania.
TIM ZAY
Theatre Technical Director Teacher of Stage Combat
Tim Zay is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati. He has worked as master carpenter for Pace University on the Modular Globe Theatre Project and as scene shop foreman for Brooklyn Scenic on their many projects including Disney's The Lion King and productions for The Roundabout and American Place Theatres. He has worked extensively in the New York Off-Broadway circuit as well as in film and television. Mr. Zay has worked on numerous industrials for Lucent Technologies, IBM and Mattel Toys, as well as window dressings/sets for Ralph Lauren.
