Alumni in the News

Jacqueline Lawton (M.F.A., Playwriting, 2003), an Assistant Professor in the Department of Dramatic Art at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has researched, developed, and presented a staged reading of her play Edges of Time, which will premiere at PlayMakers Repertory Company. This one woman show is about the life and times of Marvel Cooke, a pioneering journalist and activist, who was the first African-American woman writer to work for a mainstream newspaper. The play will run from Apr. 29–May 3, 2020. Photo by Jason Hornick. 

Juliana Castro (M.F.A., Design, 2018) was placed in the seventh cohort of Mozilla Open Leaders.

Leah Dyjak (M.F.A., Studio Art, 2015) has accepted a position with Wheaton College Massachusetts as an assistant professor of photography. 

Erik Culver (B.F.A., Studio Art, 2008) has created ArtStartArt, an online business where student artists can sell their art. 

Jonas Criscoe's (B.F.A., Studio Art, 2006) work  featured at the two-person show "When Everything's Been Said," was reviewed by the Austin Chronicle.  

Jim Friedhofer (B.M., Music Education, 1986) has spring 2019 performances scheduled as a member of the Houston Symphony Chorus (Orff, Carmina Burana; Rachmaninoff, The Bells) and as a member of the La Jolla Symphony Chorus (Bernstein, Symphony No. 3, Kaddish). In June 2019, he will participate in the Longhorn Alumni Band at the 75th D-Day anniversary ceremonies in Normandy, France. He also continues practicing as a civil litigation lawyer in Friedhofer PC in San Diego, California. 

Gracelee Lawrence (M.F.A., Studio Art, 2016) is currently an artist-in-residence at Sculpture Space in New York, and will exhibit site-specific outdoor sculpture as part of Times Square Immersive. 

Emily Edwards (B.F.A., Art History, 2015) curated a solo presentation of Margarita Cabrera's work that opened January 2019 at the Dallas Contemporary, where she began as a curatorial assistant in June 2018. The Cabrera presentation was named a Critic's Pick by Artforum. 

Dr. Noah Simblist (Ph.D., Art History, 2015) and artist Lauren Woods will lead a conversation at the Modern Art Museum of Forth Worth, titled "Reading Monuments: An Introduction." The discussion is in conjunction with the national project, Reading Monuments, where Dr. Simblist serves as artistic director. 

Allison Ebling (B.A., Theatre and Dance, 2011), has finished the first national tour of The Bodyguard and School of Rock. She is currently Head Audio on the first national tour of Anastasia.