The Fellows Gazette Volume 67 Published by the College of Fellows of the American Theatre Spring 2015 Our Special Guest of Honor: Jane Alexander Last fall, Fellow Bonnie Nelson Schwartz, Chair of the GALA committee, invited Jane Alexander to be Guest of Honor at our 50th Anniversary GALA. At the time, Alexander thought she had a conflict with a proposed film project and asked to delay her answer. On December 15, she gave the College a Christmas gift, writing “I am free now to say yes to the lovely invitation.” Jane attended Beaver Country Day School in the 50s, an all-girls facility, just outside of Boston, where she first discovered acting and made her stage debut as an adolescent in a production of Treasure Island. She studied math as well as theater at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York, where she thought computer programming might be a convenient alternative in case her acting dreams fell through. However, a chance to study at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, wherein she became a member of the Edinburgh University Dramatic Society, dissolved any other career interests except theatre. Jane was triumphant in 1967 when chosen to play the mistress of black boxer Jack Jefferson in the landmark production of The Great White Hope at the Arena Stage in Washington DC, opposite James Earl Jones. She and Jones both won Tony and Drama Desk Awards for their performances when the play went to Broadway the following year. Both also earned Academy Award nominations after making the transition to film. The Great White Hope (1970) would mark the first of four nominations for Jane. She was applauded for her supporting roles in All the President’s Men (1976), Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) and her heartfelt leading role in Testament (1983) as a small town wife whose family is threatened by radioactive fallout. On stage, she Photo Courtesy of Joan Marcus received Tony nominations over the years for her performances in 6 Rms Riv Vu (1972), Find Your Way Home (1974), First Monday in October (1978), The Visit (1991), The Sisters Rosenzweig (1993), and Honour (1998). Jane has performed just as notably on TV. She embodied the unglamorous role of Eleanor Roosevelt in the TV movies Eleanor and Franklin (1976) and Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years (1977) and was Emmy- nominated both times for her efforts. Decades later she would portray FDR’s mother in HBO’s Warm Springs (2005) starring Kenneth Branagh and Cynthia Nixon, winning the award for Best Supporting Actress. In 1993, Jane took a sabbatical from acting when President Clinton appointed her as chair of the National Endowment for the Arts. Her 2000 book, Command Performance: an Actress in the Theater of Politics chronicles the challenges she faced when the Republican Congress unsuccessfully tried to shut down the Endowment. She holds honorary doctorates from 11 colleges and universities. In addition, Jane has been active on many boards: the Wildlife Conservation Society, Project Greenhope, the National Stroke Association, and Women’s Action for Nuclear Disarmament. She has also received the Israel Cultural Award and the Helen Caldicott Leadership Award. In 2004, she and her husband, producer/director Fellow Edwin Sherin, joined the faculty at Florida State University. The Fellows Gazette 1 Let’s Celebrate! The College of Fellows of the American Theatre will celebrate its 50th Anniversary with a Gala Celebration on Saturday, April 18, 2015, at the historic Cosmos Club in Washington DC. The evening will begin with cocktails and music at 6:30 PM in the Warne Lounge, followed by dinner at 8:00 PM in the elegant baroque ballroom of the Club. Stage and screen actress and former Chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, Jane Alexander, will be honored for her work in the theatre as an artist and an advocate and will be inducted into the College of Fellows of the American Theatre. Fellow William Ivey Long will host the evening and conduct “A Conversation with Jane Alexander.” Designer William Ivey Long William Ivey Long has won six Tony Awards and has been nominated 14 times. He was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame in 2005 and was elected Chairman of The American Theatre Wing in June 2012. Mr. Long’s Broadway costume design credits include: Cabaret, Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella, Bullets Over Broadway, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Don’t Dress for Dinner, Hugh Jackman: Back on Broadway, Catch Me If You Can, Grey Gardens, The Producers, The Boy from Oz, Hairspray, Contact, The Music Man, Annie Get Your Gun, Swing, Chicago (now in its 19th year on Broadway!), Smokey Joe’s Café, Crazy for You, Guys and Dolls, A Christmas Carol, Six Degrees of Separation, Lend Me a Tenor, and Nine. Other recent credits include Little Dancer at the Kennedy Center, and The Merry Widow at the Metropolitan Opera. He has also designed for such artists as Mick Jagger, Siegfried and Roy, the Pointer Sisters, Joan Rivers, Gisele Bündchen, and for choreographers Paul Taylor, Twyla Tharp, Peter Martins, David Parsons, and Susan Stroman. He serves as Production Designer for North Carolina’s oldest running seasonal outdoor drama, The Lost Colony, which was the 2013 recipient of the Tony Honor for Excellence in the Theatre. 2014 marked Mr. Long’s 44th season with the production. Mr. Long earned an undergraduate degree in history from The College of William and Mary, was a Kress Fellow at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and then earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in stage design from Yale University School of Drama. Upcoming projects include On the Twentieth Century and It Shoulda Been You. www.williamiveylong.com An elegant desert reception following dinner will provide an opportunity to meet Ms. Alexander and continue our fellowship. Evening Attire is recommended. On Friday evening, April 17, Ms. Alexander will present the College of Fellows Scholarship at the American College Festival’s Irene Ryan Evening of Scenes at the John F. Kennedy Center. This will be the first scholarship presented by the Fellows, and all Fellows are encouraged to attend. The Fellows will be special guests of the American College Theatre Festival. A reception follows. The Fellows Gazette 2 The New Fellows of 2015! Janet Allen Michael Hood Ricardo Khan Tom Markus JANET ALLEN Creating world-class professional theatre for central Indiana audiences of all ages has remained a career- long passion for Janet Allen. She began at the Indiana Repertory Theatre in 1980 as the theatre’s first literary manager–dramaturg. After leaving Indianapolis to freelance in New York as a dramaturg for various theaters, Janet returned to the IRT to serve ten years as associate artistic director. She was named the IRT’s fourth artistic director in 1996. As the theatre’s artistic leader, Janet oversees play selection, the production process, the education outreach programs, and long-range artistic planning. In 2013 Janet was named Executive Artistic Director and supervises all aspects of the IRT. MICHAEL HOOD Since 1979, Professor Hood's career has been defined as a university administrator at three levels: as chairman of the Department of Theatre and Dance, University of Alaska, Anchorage (1979-1984, 1989-1995) and as Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences (1995-1998). In 1998, he was named Dean and Full Professor of the College of Fine Arts at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. His publications and national/international presentations reflect his expertise in fight direction as a member of the Society of American Fight Directors and his participation as an experienced administrator in the ICFA and the ATHE Leadership Institute. He is Vice-President of the National Theatre Conference. RICARDO KHAN Ricardo was the Co-founder and Artistic Director of the Crossroads Theatre Company, which received the 1999 Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theater, making it one of the nation's most acclaimed African- American theater companies in history. Recipient of an Honorary Doctorate from Rutgers University, he is a Director/Writer-In-Residence at the Lincoln Center Institute of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and is a visiting professor in the UMKC Theatre professional training program at the University of Missouri- Kansas City. In 1989, he was co-chair of the National Endowment for the Arts' Theater Panel and from 1996- 2000 was the President of Theatre Communications Group. TOM MARKUS Most of us know Tom best as the director of over 125 productions and as Artistic Director of three LORT companies - Theatre by the Sea, Theatre Virginia, and the Theatre at Monmouth and Shakespearean Festival of Maine – and a director at the Pioneer Theater for nine seasons. He has directed at most of the Shakespeare Festivals. Besides his directing work in New York and New England, he has directed overseas in Cairo, Hong Kong, Cyprus, Australia, Paris, and London. He has acted in over fifty roles on Broadway (for Jose Quintero) and in various LORT theatres. He has taught at Yale, Florida State University, the City University of New York, Temple, University of Utah, and UC Santa Barbara, in addition to the American University in Cairo. The Fellows Gazette 3 A Founder Returns! Hotel Reservations For April Meeting in DC The Fellows have much for which to For lodging at the River Inn, you must use the River Inn thank Fellow William Hotel Registration Form as seen on page 7. McGraw. If it had not been for him, we Do not reserve a room by phoning or emailing the probably would not hotel. The form on page 7 will also be emailed to all be meeting in Fellows as an attachment.