October 2017 College News

THEATRE Acting, Musical Theatre, Per formance and Production, Teacher Certif ication in Theatre, Technical Production, & Theatre FACULTY ACCOLADES On Stage Blog listed Texas State University as one of their Top 10 BFA Musical Theatre Programs in the country for 2017-18. Cassie Abate directed and choreographed the sold-out production of A Chorus Line . [ 1 ] Greg Bolin served as musical director while Cheri Prough DeVol designed sets. Graduate student Ethan Jones designed lights and graduate student Stacey Johnson designed costumes. An Austin American-Statesman interview can be found here. The production received rave reviews from Austin 360 and CTX Live. Linda Nenno Breining was the stage manager for Austin Shakespeare Company’s staged reading of The Crucible at the Rollins Theatre in Austin. Shannon Richey has been hired as the new Director of Production for Zilker Theater Productions. Kaitlin Hopkins received the 2017 SMart presented to individuals in the community who have made a significant contribution to the creation, support and advocacy of all art forms in San Marcos. Michelle Ney was the scenic and costume designer on the B. Iden Payne Award-nominated production of Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill . STUDENT ACCOLADES All-in-One professional auditions were recently held on campus. They went to over 25 university musical theatre programs, saw over 2,300 actors and selected 400 of the top college students from across the country to come to New York in January to audition for top theaters and casting directors. Texas State Musical Theatre students were honored to receive 38 of the 400 callback slots. The sold-out production of A Chorus Line Joseph Bowman’s short film Contact High Alumni, Dorell Anthony (left) and Terissa Kelton (right) at the 2016 Daytime Emmy’s with the cast of Pride: The Series 16 | October | College News 1 2 3 Cambria Denim was invited into the National Young Playwrights in Residence Program. Over the next year, she will write a play under the mentorship of playwright Charlotte Miller that will have a production at the Echo Theatre in Los Angeles. Andrew Heinrich attended the Midwest Dramatists Center National conference where they did a reading of his play Coffee for Camo . Rachel Webb performed at the First Annual Riverfront Jazz Festival in Dallas. Jorrel Javier is an official TEDx speaker at Texas State. ALUMNI ACCOLADES Roberta Ahrens began her first year at Columbia University School of the Arts in New York City. Dorell Anthony created, produced and starred in the award-winning Pride: The Series on Amazon Prime. He has also been featured in Blue Bloods on CBS and recurring in General Hospital on ABC since 2015. Joseph Bowman’s short film Contact High was selected to screen at the 2017 Austin Film Festival. [ 2 ] His cast/crew was made up of several Texas State Theatre Department alumni including Learda Shkurti , Drake Howard , Andrew Nogay , Will Harrell , Elizabeth Van Syckle , Brent Forrester-Weir , and Gabriel Shulman . Braden Bradley is currently starring in and associate producer of Pride: The Series on Amazon Prime. He is a board member for the nonprofit organization The Trevor Project, an outreach program for LGBT youth. He also works for Nancy J. Friedman Public Relations, a well renowned public relations firm that has won prestigious awards for projects the he himself has led. Check out his YouTube series Saturday Morning Live! Elizabeth Brady performed in the Ensemble in the National Tour of Rogers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella . Julia Estrada appeared as Mistress in Evita at the North Shore Music Theatre. Chas Harvey and Emily Reas are currently appearing in Captain Greedy’s Carnival at Tim Robbins’ theatre company The Actors Gang. Ashley Hildreth , Chase Naylor , Andrew Cersnosek (BFA, 2016) secured New York talent agents at last May’s Senior Showcase. Whitney Hoy is an actress/producer seen in national commercials and TV films Flowers in the Attic on Lifetime and The Final on Netflix. She is also a producer of the Amazon Prime series Pride: The Series , for which she received an Indie Series Award nomination for Best Guest Actress. Dakota James (aka Dakota Smith) had his short story The Pretty People published by Fiction on the Web. Terissa Kelton is the Vice President of Development and Production at Rehab Entertainment. She is executive producing Flight of the Navigator with The Jim Henson Company and Lionsgate Studios. Other film projects include developing Short Circuit 3 as well as Fault Lines , the acclaimed off-Broadway stage play by Stephen Belber. Kelton recently produced and acted in Pride: The Series , currently on Amazon Prime. [3] Cory McMinn , Alex J. Ross and Ryan Sultemeier served on the crew for the short film Sleepover . J. Robert Moore has been hired as the new Artistic Director at Zilker Theater Productions. Mandy Murphy’s play From A to Double D had its second production in New York City. Nic Ortiz performed in the Off-Off Broadway play, All about Power and is now shooting the pilot for the TV series Rock Island in New York. Mary Rath was one of eleven finalists in the 2017 Creative World Awards International Screenwriting Contest for her screenplay Vaudevillain . Adam Rios is currently starring in and associate producer of Pride: The Series on Amazon Prime and a production member of Eastern TV, a production company based in New York City, currently filming Love & Hip Hop . Joe Torres and Chris Brewer made the second round of the Austin Film Festival’s AMC Hour Pilot competition with their script Identity . Tyler Wallach is owner of Tyler Wallach Studio, creator of art and designs that can be seen on the Emmy-winning show, RuPaul’s Drag Race , as well as a live art feature at Barneys during Fashion Week in New York City. College of Fine Arts and Communication | 17