CALLBOARD – SEPTEMBER 2022
VCUarts Theatre Shows this semester! Our devised collaboration with The Conciliation Project “Whitesplaining” runs through this weekend at The Basement, closing Saturday the 24th. Then we will be back in Hodges with “The Importance of Being Earnest” October 6th – 9th, and “Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde” is December 1st-4th. Email Sarah Moore mooresw4@vcu.edu for comp tickets! vcutheatre.showclix.com
JOSHUA BOONE (BFA ’10 ) is starring in Tyler Perry’s most ambitious project so far A Jazzman’s Blues. The movie will launch on Netflix tomorrow – September 23rd, 2022. Big congrats to Josh! Watch the trailer here.
JASON BUTLER HARNER (BFA ’92) is in Season 5 of The Handmaid’s Tale! He first appears in Episode 3 as Commander MacKenzie. New episodes weekly on Hulu.
SOPHIA CHOI (BFA ’15) is working on the the premiere of KPOP on Broadway. Costume Design by Clint Ramos and Sophia Choi. Previews start in October, and the show is set to open November 20th. Congrats!
Congratulations to all the Theatre VCU Members of the Black Theatre Review — OMIYEMI (ARTISIA) GREEN (MFA ’03) and COREY ROBERTS (MFA ’06) are editors and KB SAINE (MFA ’02) is a contributor. Also Congratulations to all the participants in the Black Theatre Network Conference that took place in Detroit earlier this summer. Read The Black Theatre Review here.
HEATHER BAILEY’s (BFA ’03) company Host of Sparrows Aerial Dance and Circus Arts is having their Grand Opening Weekend for their new location at 97 Manchester Road, RVA 23224 this weekend September 24th – 25th. Performances and free classes are part of the fun – check out this facebook post for more info.
D. TRACY SMITH’s (MFA ’95) work was recently featured in the Art Direction Magazine Perspective for his work on Gaslit for Starz network featuring Julia Roberts as Martha Mitchell. Tracy was responsible for the wonderful work done on the reproduction of the Mitchell’s suite in the Watergate Hotel during that time. Jerry Williams interviewed Tracy about his time on Gaslit and lots more about the movie design business on his podcast. Click here to listen.
Tia James (BFA ’04) is starring in Blues for An Alabama Sky at Playmakers Repertory Company in Chapel Hill, NC. Previews started on September 8 and the show continues through September 25, 2022
DAN RUTH (BFA ’90) will be presenting his critically acclaimed solo performance Life Behind Bars at The Rustic Theatre in Idyllwild, California on October 14-15, 2022
MARLEY GIGGEY (BFA ’10) has accepted the position of Assistant Professor of Theatre and Production Manager for the Oklahoma State University Department of Theatre and Dance in Stillwater, OK.
PATCH CLARK (BFA ’75 / MFA ’79) has retired from East Carolina University where she was Head of Theatre for Youth and the Coordinator of Theatre Education. Patch was at East Carolina for 28 years—big congrats!
ANGIE ATKINSON (BFA ’06) is pleased to announce that she has signed a long term contract with Norwegian Cruise Lines to be the featured singer on the Norwegian Epic with the ships’ party band Four on the Floor. She will be in the Mediterranean and Caribbean February to July 2023. Currently she is filling in as a swing for another cast of Kinky Boots for the cruise line. (Read her past profile here).
KATHY TURCO-LYON (BFA) starred in Coriolanus and All’s Well That Ends Well at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival in Boulder, Colorado over the summer 2022
DAMIAN KING (BFA ’10) and MALORIE MACKEY KING (BFA ’10) were featured in Jerry Williams SIFTER podcast talking about their new movie The Wedding Pact 2: The Baby Pact, her Playboy book and more. Click here to listen. You can read their VCU Alumni profile from February 2022 here.
SHINJI Oh (BFA ’22) spent the summer playing Philostrate in the Folger Theatre’s production of Midsummer Night’s Dream in the Building Museum in DC.
JEROLD SOLOMON’s (BFA ’01) play Gabriel is having its world Premiere at the Firehouse Theatre in Richmond. The show opened Sept 8th and performances run through October 2, 2022. As of our publish date, we heard many shows have sold out! Gabriel tells the story musically of the biggest slave rebellion in Virginia history. Gabriel was an illiterate blacksmith enslaved on Thomas Prosser’s tobacco plantation in Henrico, Va. Recent graduate ALVAN BOLLING II (BFA ’21) is in the cast with Jerold, and DASIA GREGG (BFA ’20) is scenic designer.
BOBBY BOGNAR’S song, At Least For a While, is featured in the video by Danny and Jesse Lynn in the L.A. Music Video Awards. The Video has been nominated in three categories. Let’s see what happens next.
MARK RASDORF (BFA ’86) is having his first Stained Glass exhibit in Greensville, NC. His work is featured in Color and Light which will open September 2, 2022 at the Emerge Gallery and Art Center.
KENNON RAINES’ (BFA ’78) poem “Cosmopolitan Jungle” has been published in Beat Not Beat, an anthology edited by Rich Ferguson, published by Moon Tide Press.
Congrats to all the VCU alumni on the run of The Inheritance at Richmond Triangle Players. Great reviews! The department had many current undergrad & grad students involved too.
RAJA BENZ (MFA ’21) – Intimacy Choreographer
FRANKIE FOSTER (MFA ’93) – Scenic Design
JACOB LEBLANC (MFA ’22) – Actor
TIM MOEHRING (BFA ’99) – Properties Design
BOOMIE PEDERSEN (MFA ’17) – Actor
Compiled by Liz Hopper (professor emeritus) and Jerry Williams (BFA ’71) for the September 2022 Theatre Alumni newsletter