News

Theatre Professor Dr. Meiling Cheng Awarded 2008 Guggenheim Fellowship

USC School of Theatre Associate Professor and Director of Critical Studies Dr. Meiling Cheng has been named a 2008 Fellow by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Cheng was the only faculty member at USC to be awarded a Guggenheim this year and was recognized in the category of Fine Arts Research that will allow her to devote full time to completing her book manuscript, Beijing Xingwei: Contemporary Time-based Art in China.

School of Theatre Dean Madeline Puzo praised Dr. Cheng saying, “I am very pleased that Dr. Cheng’s scholarship is being honored by the Guggenheim Foundation.  Dr. Cheng is an exemplary member of our faculty.  She is an excellent scholar, an engaging writer and a wonderful, dedicated teacher.  We are very proud that she is a part of our School.”

Born and raised in Taipei, Taiwan, Dr. Cheng came to the United States in 1986 to study at Yale University, School of Drama, where she earned her MFA (1989) and DFA (1993) degrees in Theatre Arts. She began teaching at USC in 1994 and has taught a variety of courses in theatre history, dramatic literature, contemporary kinesthetic theatre and live art, and visual and cultural studies. Dr. Cheng is a noted performance art critic and poet and has published widely in both English and Chinese. Her first book, In Other Los Angeleses: Multicentric Performance Art ( University of California Press, 2002), received a Junior Faculty Award from Southern California Studies Center and the Zumberge Individual Research Grant from USC. She won another Zumberge Individual Research Grant in 2006 to conduct fieldwork in Beijing for her current book project, Beijing Xingwei, the project for which she received the 2008 Guggenheim Fellowship. Since 2004, Dr. Cheng has published a series of groundbreaking articles in the US, UK and Australia, on performance art (translated as "xingwei yishu") and installation ("zhuangzhi yishu") in China's post-Mao era. She also presented internationally numerous papers on Chinese experimental art, traveling to Singapore, London, Boston, Providence, Chicago, Toronto and New York for her talks. She will be giving two papers on performative photographs and documenting time-based art in Copenhagen this summer.

Since 1925, the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation has annually offered Fellowships to artists, scholars and scientists in all fields. Based on recommendation from panels and juries involving hundreds of distinguished artists and scientists, 190 Fellowships have been granted this year, with awards totaling $8,200,000. Guggenheim Fellows are appointed on the basis of impressive achievement in the past and exceptional promise for future accomplishment.

Professional Performance Opportunities Continue With Center Theatre Group Internships

The School of Theatre’s partnership with Center Theatre Group, one of the nation’s leading resident theatre companies that operates the Tony Award-winning Mark Taper Forum, the Ahmanson Theatre and the Kirk Douglas Theatre, continues to offer students internships with hands on experience and training in a variety of departments, from marketing and publicity to development and casting to production and performance.

Begun in 2005 with the casting of 14 students in the Ahmanson Theatre’s production of Dead End, this professional association has proved to be an invaluable opportunity for our undergraduate students to work with and learn from acclaimed theatre artists and administrators. In the last two years, over 50 students have benefited from this unique relationship

In January of 2008, four theatre students were cast in the world premiere rock musical Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson at the Kirk Douglas Theatre: Zack DeZon, Kristin Findley, Jimmy Fowlie and Patrick Gomez were required to hone their skills as triple threats – having to act, sing and dance – as they played multiples roles in this musical retelling of President Andrew Jackson’s humble beginnings to his rough presidential tenure.

Here’s what the interns had to say about their experience:

“It was a truly enlightening experience…An awesome opportunity for any aspiring actor.”- Zack DeZon

“What's great about this internship is that it helped me learn the ropes of the theatre industry. I have been able to observe professional actors and get great tips preparing for roles, as well as receive amazing advice on how to get started and succeed in this business.  Right now I am living my dream.” – Kristin Findley

“The ability to work on the world premiere of a new play with the top theatre company in L.A. is an unbelievable experience. Working with professionals and completing a one-month run is the kind of education you can’t really get in a classroom. I am so grateful to the School of Theatre for setting this up. Thank you so much!”- Jimmy Fowlie

“Working on ‘BBAJ’ has provided me with the opportunity to do exactly what I want to be doing after graduation. It is the ultimate internship opportunity for a future working actor.”- Patrick Gomez

TONY AWARD WINNER CHRISTOPHER AKERLIND NAMED DIRECTOR OF PRODUCTION

Tony Award-winning designer Christopher Akerlind has been named Director of Production at the USC School of Theatre, it was announced by Dean Madeline Puzo.

Akerlind joined the faculty at USC this fall.

Puzo stated, “We are ecstatic that Chris will be overseeing our extensive design curriculum at the School of Theatre. He will supervise all areas of design for us, including, sets, costumes, lights and sound. His years of experience as a lighting and set designer on Broadway and in theatres nationally and internationally, as well as his expertise working in an academic setting make him the ideal person to run our program.”

Akerlind said, “I’m honored and excited to join the faculty at the USC Theater School and to take on Dean Puzo’s mission to build a design curriculum known for its creativity and intellectual rigor.”

Akerlind has designed over 550 productions at theatre, opera and dance companies across the country and around the world.

Recent work includes the Broadway productions of 110 In the Shade (Tony nomination), Talk Radio, Well, Awake and Sing! (Tony nomination), Rabbit Hole, The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife and The Light in the Piazza (Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle Awards), Rinde Eckert’s Orpheus X at the Edinburgh Festival, the world premiere of Phillip Glass’ Appomattox for San Francisco Opera, Anne Bogart’s productions of Score, Room, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Robert Woodruff’s productions of Oedipus, Olly’s Prison and Britannicus, Martha Clarke’s productions of Belle Epoch, Kaos, and her revival of The Garden of Earthly Delights, Cymbeline at the Royal Shakespeare Company, and a site-specific outdoor production of The Mystery Plays in Orvieto, Italy.

His extensive credits in opera include productions at the Boston Lyric, Dallas, Glimmerglass, Hamburg, Houston, Metropolitan, Minnesota, New York City, Nissei, San Francisco, Santa Fe, and Seattle Operas and over 40 productions for Opera Theater of Saint Louis where he was Resident Lighting Designer for twelve years.

He is the recipient of an Obie Award for Sustained Excellence in Lighting Design, the Michael Merritt Award for Design and Collaboration, and numerous nominations for the Bay Area Critics, Drama Desk, Hewes, Joseph Jefferson, Kevin Kline, Lucile Lortel, NAACP, Outer Critics Circle and Tony Awards.

In 1996, along with set and costume designer Anita Stewart, he was appointed co-Artistic Director of Portland Stage Company in the state of Maine, a post he held for three years. A graduate of Boston University and the Yale School of Drama, he was Head of Lighting Design and Director of the Design & Production Programs at the Calarts School of Theater and has guest taught at New York University, the University of Connecticut, the Broadway Lighting Master Classes and at Yale.

School of Theatre alums Forest Whitaker (1982) and Kyra Sedgwick (1988) pose backstage in the press room with their Golden Globe Awards for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading role for his performance as Ugandan dictator Idi Amin Dada in The Last King of Scotland and for Actress in a Leading Roll - Drama Series for her work as Deputy Police Chief Brenda Johnson on the TNT series The Closer, during the 64th Annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, CA on Monday, January 15, 2007. Whitaker, who recently won the Academy Award for Best Actor, has virtually swept the awards this season, including Best Actor awards from the Screen Actors Guild, the Boston Society of Film Critics, the Chicago Film Critics Circle, the L.A. Film Critics Association, the National Society of Film Critics, the National Board of Review and the New York Film Critics Society.

Photo Credit: © “HFPA” and “64th Golden Globe Awards.”

Katherine B. Loker Donates $1.5 Million To USC School of Theatre

To Establish Acting Fellowship In Honor of Late Husband Donald P. Loker

Philanthropist Katherine B. Loker has donated $1.5 million to the USC School of Theatre to establish the Donald P. Loker Acting Fellowship in honor of her late husband, it was announced by Dean Madeline Puzo. This is the largest gift in the 15-year history of the School of Theatre. Puzo said, “We are so happy and grateful that Mrs. Loker has honored us with this generous gift. It is a testament to the growing excellence of our School, as well as a great vote of confidence in our faculty and students.”

Donald Prescott Loker was born on August 8, 1902 in Natick, Massachusetts. After attending the Huntington School in Boston and Philips Academy, Andover, he joined the Class of 1925 at Harvard.

During a visit to Hollywood, he met the popular author of crime fiction, Charles Francis Coe, and was signed to play Danny in the film version of Coe’s book Me…Gangster. Loker then began a 15-year film and stage career under the name Don Terry.

He made his stage debut as a leading man in What Every Woman Wants at Boston’s Wilbur Theatre and appeared on Broadway in a production of Wuthering Heights. He was featured in many movies for Universal Studios, but he is perhaps best known for his role as Commander Don Winslow in the pre-war series, Don Winslow of the Navy and Don Winslow of the Coast Guard.

Loker’s service as a Navy Lieutenant Commander in the Pacific during WWII, and for which he was awarded a Purple Heart, eventually brought his acting career to an end. He married Katherine Ann Bogdanovich in 1940, the same year she graduated from USC. After the war, Loker joined his father-in-law’s business, the French Sardine Company, as director of public and industrial relations.

After his father-in-law’s death, when the company was reorganized as Star-Kist Foods, Inc., he became vice-president in charge of public and labor relations and traveled extensively in connection with the business. In 1947, he was sent to Tokyo under government sponsorship to advise General Douglas MacArthur on the rehabilitation of the Japanese fishing industry. In 1949, he received the Certificate of Achievement for his part in helping the Allied Powers in the fishing industry.

Loker retired from Star-Kist Foods, Inc. in 1965 and became a private investor and philanthropist, continuing the charitable and governmental service he had begun until his death in 1988.

From March 1955 through March 1959, he was commissioner for the Los Angeles Coliseum Commission and from September 1955 through January 1969, he served with the Harbors and Watercraft Commission for the State of California. In October 1969, President Richard M. Nixon appointed Loker to represent the U.S. on the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission. He also joined the Defense Orientation Conference Association, Inc., of Washington, D.C. in 1978.

Katherine B. Loker and her late husband are among the top individual benefactors in the history of USC. Included among those contributions were donations for the Katherine B. Loker Track and Field Stadium and for the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences' Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute (the world's leading research center in its field) that the couple established in 1977. An honorary trustee at USC, she has received numerous awards from the university, including an honorary doctorate in 1997, the Asa V. Call Award (the USC Alumni Association's highest honor) and the Raubenheimer Award from the College of L.A.S. She holds honorary doctorates from Cal  State Dominquez Hills and Harvard, where she was also awarded the Harvard Medal. She has served various roles with the California Science Center of Los Angeles, the Nixon Presidential Library in Yorba Linda and the Los Angeles Music Center, as well as being an avid supporter of the Donald P. Loker Cancer Treatment Center at the California Hospital Medical Center, Los Angeles.

New MFA Acting Program Begins

The USC School of Theatre’s new Master of Fine Arts in Acting program's first class began with the fall 2006 semester, under the direction of Andrew J. Robinson, noted actor, director and founding member of Los Angeles’ Matrix Theatre.

The three-year MFA in Acting program is part of Dean Madeline Puzo’s goal of building USC into the premier theatre school in the United States, while in no way inhibiting the growth and excellence of the undergraduate program.

Puzo is working to build on the School’s inherent strengths in her quest to raise the school’s standing: its excellent faculty, location in a major cultural capital, access to guest artists of national and international stature, and abundant opportunities for internships and other learning opportunities in surrounding professional theatres, film and TV production and other media companies.

Robinson has become a familiar face around the world through his roles in blockbuster commercial films such as Dirty Harry and Hellraiser. He has also distinguished himself as an actor and director on Broadway and in regional theatre. He served as artistic director and founding member of the acclaimed Matrix Theatre, where actors busy working in TV and film have been successfully enlisted to lend their talents and star power to important theatre works.

For the MFA acting program, Robinson will place a strong emphasis on vocal training, recognizing it as an essential ingredient to the employability of the graduate actor and one that is too-often undersold to actors in training.

"I find when I’m auditioning that American actors are deficient in terms of how they are represented by their voice," says Robinson. "You know, it’s no mistake that British actors come here – much to the chagrin of a lot of us American actors – and take jobs … In big movies you’ve got all these Brits doing American accents and most of them are bad American accents – I mean wonderful, wonderful actors, no question about it.”

Click here for more information about the MFA.

Archive

CTG's Dead End opens avenue for USC Theatre students

Dead End was really a vibrant beginning for 14 USC theater students.  The revival of Sidney Kingsley’s 1935 epic drama, which kicked off the Ahmanson Theatre’s 2005-06 season, also inaugurated a unique partnership between Center Theatre Group (CTG) and USC – a partnership that will routinely put student-actors on the boards of three major Los Angeles venues. Fourteen of the 42 cast members in Dead End were current students at the USC School of Theatre.  They joined 28 seasoned pros, including Jeremy Sisto (“Six Feet Under”) and Joyce Van Patten. Special permission from Actors Equity Association made the student casting possible.  More than 120 students auditioned for the 14 roles, which ultimately went to: Beck Bennett, Scott Burman, Nick Dazé, Ryan Eggold, Wyatt Fenner, Ben Giroux, Shiloh Goodin, Megan Marie Harvey, Clay Larsen, Geoffrey E. Lind Jr., Trevor Peterson, Juliana Long Tyson, Danielle Van Beest, and Ryan Wilkins.  Another USC theatre student, Jennifer Brienen, serves behind the scenes as production assistant.

USC School of Theatre Dean Madeline Puzo planned the partnership for nearly a year with CTG artistic director Michael Ritchie and managing director Charles Dillingham. CTG operates three professional theatres: the Ahmanson Theatre, the Mark Taper Forum, and the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City.   “We were very excited that the students had the opportunity to work with a major national theatre company alongside preeminent theatre artists,” said USC’s Puzo, who was a longtime artistic executive at CTG. “This was a tremendous aid in the mentoring of young artists. Dead End was the first public expression of the beginning of a beautiful partnership.” 

CTG officials say they looked to the USC School of Theatre, which ranks among the top five undergraduate theatre schools in the country, as a natural source for young talent. In addition to performance opportunities, the relationship provides student internships throughout the CTG organization.

Playwright Sidney Kingsley wrote Dead End in 1935, but the issues it addresses – poverty, violence, youth gangs, and gentrification – remain pertinent today. Dead End takes place in Depression-era Manhattan, where the classes collide as an East Side neighborhood is invaded by luxury apartment buildings. A gang of teenagers  — the Dead End Kids — uses the streets as a refuge from their harsh home life. This sanctuary is threatened when the wealthy tenants of an abutting building are forced to use the rear entrance. The invasion of the boys’ territory leads to a dramatic confrontation between the “haves” and the “have-nots.”  Intertwined with the lives of the gang members are the stories of two men from the neighborhood – Baby-Face Martin (Jeremy Sisto), a notorious gangster who returns home to see his mother (Joyce Van Patten) and former girlfriend (Pamela Gray); and Gimpty (Tom Everett Scott), an unemployed man hopelessly in love with the beautiful Kay (Sarah Hudnut), who is being kept by a rich protector.

The set, one of the largest ever created for the Ahmanson, featured a towering 42 foot-high New York City skyline. In a dramatic simulation of the East River, the orchestra pit was filled with more than 11,000 gallons of water.

This production of Dead End – directed by Nicholas Martin – was a revival of the critically acclaimed 2000 presentation by the director’s own Huntington Theatre Company in Boston. The production originated in 1997 at the Williamstown Theatre Festival where CTG’s Ritchie was artistic director.

Tony winner Jason Robert Brown joins School as Burns Guest Artist

Jason Robert Brown joined the USC School of Theatre as the George Burns distinguished guest artist, teaching courses in creating and performing musical theatre. His awards and Broadway success are proof of his expertise. His first musical, Songs for a New World, debuted off-Broadway at the WPA Theatre in 1995. Brown made his Broadway debut with Parade, winning a 1999 Tony Award for his score. Parade — written with Alfred Uhry and directed by Harold Prince — also won both Drama Desk and New York Drama Critics’ Circle Awards for best new musical. Brown is also the composer and lyricist of the musical The Last Five Years, one of Time magazine’s “10 Best of 2001” and winner of Drama Desk Awards for Best Music and Best Lyrics.

Brown says of his decision to teach here, “I wanted to establish a relationship with a school that was serious about theatre, a school that aspired to making its students strong, honest, and dedicated theatre professionals in a practical and concerted way.  I have found from the minute I stepped on to the campus that USC was exactly that kind of place, and I have been delighted and gratified every day of my work here.  I am flattered and honored to have been invited to be part of such an accomplished and exciting program.”

Andrew Robinson named Director of MFA Acting

Andrew Robinson joined the USC School of Theatre as director of the new Master of Fine Arts in Acting program. Robinson brings expertise and talent honed by decades of acting in plays from Broadway to Los Angeles, in films such as Dirty Harry and Hellraiser, and in numerous television episodes, films and mini-series. He also brings the same passion for theatre that led him to serve asartistic director and founding member of the acclaimed Matrix Theatre Company in Los Angeles. Robinson is developing the MFA Acting program in association with Dean Madeline Puzo and Associate Dean Jack Rowe. The School enrolled the inaugural class in Fall 2006.

Collaborative opportunities for Theatre students

USC is home to both a top-ranked School of Theatre and a top School of Cinema-Television, offering young actors and filmmakers many opportunities to collaborate. The only hitch is that students are notalways aware of these opportunities.

Faculty members at both schools are working to rectify this, starting with the course "Acting on Camera: the Collaborative Process" begun by Emeritus Associate Professor Eve Roberts of the School of Theatre and Jennifer Warren from Cinema-Television. Each session gives 12 student actors the opportunity to work with 12 student film directors. The course is so popular that there is invariably a waiting list to get in.

   The course is vital to both disciplines, explains Marilyn McIntyre, who took over Theatre's part of the course after Professor Roberts retired. "Most of the students have little or no experience acting on camera, and the directors have very little experience working with actors," McIntyre says.

   The course's popularity gave McIntyre the idea for special auditions, where Cinema-TV students are invited to watch acting students perform in five-minute slots. The auditions are also videotaped, and the tapes sent over to the Cinema-TV Student Production Office. That way, the auditions remain available for future directors.

   McIntyre and Warren also started a Theatre-Cinema-TV mixer at the start of each semester, inviting students in both schools to get to know each other. An actor experienced in theatre, TV and film, McIntyre understands how much the entertainment industry is a social business that thrives on networking, so why not have them start socializing now, at the dawn of their careers?

"Laramie Project" creator visits USC School of Theatre

Posted Wednesday, June 2, 2004

  Moises Kaufman, director of The Laramie Project and the Pulitzer-Prize-winning play I Am My Own Wife , visited USC March 1-4, lecturing and working with School of Theatre students. The artistic director of the Tectonic Theater Project, Kaufman shared his expertise as a director/playwright and his experiences surrounding the creation of The Laramie Project , Tectonic's most famous work.

   While on campus, Kaufman taught a workshop elaborating on his process of transforming non-theatrical works such as diaries or trial transcripts into theatrical events. He also spoke with students in "From Fact to Dramatic Fiction," a collaborative course taught by Oliver Mayer of the School of Theatre, Howard Rodman of Cinema-Television, and Dean Geoffrey Cowan of the Annenberg School for Communication. His recent adaptation and direction of Laramie into a television film for HBO gave him detailed insight, from which the students benefited.  

   Despite necessary changes (including having big-name actors mandated by HBO), Kaufman says there are strong similarities between the stage and screen productions.

   "One of the things we do in theatre is to ask what it is that theatre and only theatre can do. How does the theatre speak?" he says. "When it came time to make the film, the question seemed even more valuable. What can film do to contribute to this dialogue?"

   Kaufman was enthusiastic about the talent and drive of the USC students he had met. "I've been blessed with a group of students who are both smart and culturally aware. They seem to really have taken advantage of being in Los Angeles and its diversity."   

   Moises Kaufman's time on campus came on the heels of the School's production of The Laramie Project at Bing Theatre from February 27-29. The production featured an ensemble of eight theatre students portraying more than 60 real people in Laramie, Wyoming -- as well as the members of the Tectonic Theater Company. The play presents a formidable acting challenge, and the students were fortunate to have Neel Keller, visiting John Houseman artistic director, guide them through their performances.

School hosts distinguished visiting artists
Posted Wednesday, June 2, 2004

Each year, USC School of Theatre hosts a variety of nationally and internationally acclaimed artists who lead workshops and master classes with our students. Recently, Howard Stein, professor emeritus at Columbia and longtime editor of Best American Short Plays, participated in our MFA playwrights' workshops and discussed the students' plays in depth. Tony-Award-winning composer/lyricist Jason Robert Brown led a Master Class in "Acting the Song." Ming Cho Lee, Tony-Award-winning scenic designer and head of Yale University's School of Drama Design, conducted a special workshop for MFA design students. Oscar and Tony-winning writer Christopher Hampton met with our dramatic writing students. Fiona Shaw, internationally acclaimed actress whose credits range from Medea in London and New York to Harry Potter's Aunt Petunia in the popular film series, led a Master Class in Acting Shakespeare.