Alumni in the News

Lois O’Leary (M.F.A., Drama and Theatre for Youth, 1985) is the theater director for Proctor Public Schools in Proctor, Minnesota.

Noah Simblist (Ph.D., Art History, 2015) was appointed chair of the Department of Painting + Printmaking at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Ruth A. Keitz (M.F.A., Art Education, 1970) will showcase "Silent Interiors That Speak" at the Fort Worth Community Art Center. The exhibition opens Nov. 3, with a reception from 6 to 8 p.m., and runs through Nov. 21. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Jonas Criscoe (B.F.A., Studio Art, 2006) has work in Expo 2017, a juried exhibition at Dallas's 500x Gallery.

Andrew Aaron Valdez (B.F.A. in Theatre Studies, 2017) has joined the Cleveland Public Theater as the New Play Associate. Valdez is a director, playwright, educator, actor and arts administrator from Donna, Texas. His work is centered on highlighting underrepresented communities and immersive theater set in unconventional spaces.

Marcia Green Santore (B.F.A., Studio Art, 1982) has two solo exhibitions this fall. "Pattern in Motion" at the UConn-Stamford Art Gallery is Oct. 28-Nov. 30, and "Inexteriors" at the O'Brien Art Gallery at Roane State Community College, Harriman, is Oct. 16-Dec. 1. In April 2017, Santore curated an exhibition of small abstract work at Twiggs Gallery in New Hampshire.

The Heartland Theatre Collective, founded by alumnae Marian Kansas (B.A., Theatre and Dance, 2016) and Nicole Oglesby (B.A., Theatre and Dance, 2016), was nominated for a B. Iden Payne Award. Allison Wojtowecz (B.A., Theatre and Dance, 2017) was nominated for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Drama for her performance as June in the Heartland Theatre Collective's first production, Dust, which premiered October 2016.

Robert Di Donato (B.A., Theatre and Dance, 2016) was recently cast in a series of shorts called "Oddcupations" promoting the glasses company Warby Parker.

Cheng-Wei Teng (M.F.A., Lighting Design, 2012) received the Gold Medal for Professional Lighting at the 2017 World Stage Design in Taiwan for his work Serenade. A freelance designer based in Taipei, Taiwan, Teng’s work includes One Hundred Years of Solitude by Shakespeare Wild Sisters Group, Queen Xiao-zhuang and Dorgon by GaoGuang Opera Company and Mulan the Musical by Tainanier Ensemble.

Benjamin Whitcomb (M.M. 1994, Ph.D. 1999), professor of Cello and Music Theory at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, recently published his seventh book, A Compendium of Chords for the Cello, through AuthorHouse.