Alumni in the News

Kimberly Belflower's (M.F.A., Playwriting, 2017) show "Lost Girl," which follows Wendy Darling's coming-of-age story after her return from Peter Pan's Neverland, will be performed at the Stiemke Studio in Milwaukee, Wisconsin by the 2017-2018 Professional Training Institute company, an advanced actor training program for students in 9th-12th grade. 

Matrex Kilgore (B.A., Theatre and Dance, 2015) directs 'A' (What the Black Girl Found While Searching for God), written and performed by Taji Senior and heading to Ground Floor Theatre in July. Inspired by George Bernard Shaw's The Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search For God, 'A' is the story of a person, searching inside and outside of herself to find her place in the world. That search is filtered through a lens of black girlhood. 'A' hopes to ask and answer the question: Who has the right to self-creation?

Callan Steinmann (M.A., Art Education, 2013) has been appointed Curator of Education at The Georgia Museum of Art at the University of Georgia. Steinmann has been associate curator of education at the museum since 2013.

Suzanne Ramo (D.M.A., Performance, 2013) joins Texas State University in the fall of 2018 as Assistant Professor of Voice. Previously she was Assistant Professor of Voice and Director of Opera Workshop at West Texas A&M University, where she led the opera workshop to their first national award in the National Opera Association's opera production competition with her production of Menotti’s "The Medium." She also recently performed the role of Violetta in Verdi’s "La Traviata" with Amarillo Opera, available for viewing on pbs.org.

Robert “Beto” Skiles (M.M., Composition, 1977) was inducted into the Austin Jazz Hall of Fame in April. His band, “Beto and the Fairlanes” were inducted into the Austin Music Hall of Fame in February.

Honey Goodenough (B.A., Theatre and Dance, 2000) is the resident teaching artist at The Puppet Showplace Theater in Brookline, Massachusetts. Her work will be showcased at the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta in September.

Victoria Fisher Kaak (B.F.A., Studio Art, 1982) has accepted the position of exhibition graphic designer at The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., effective June 11, 2018. She previously worked for more than 30 years in the Department of Design and Installation at The Baltimore Museum of Art.  

Rebecca Fahning (B.F.A., Theatre Studies, 2014) teaches theatre and theatre tech at Desert Pines High School in the Clark County School District, the fifth largest school district in the nation.

Hai Zheng Olefsky (M.M., Applied Music/Voice/Piano, 1990), assistant professor of music at Southwestern University, was honored by Austin Mayor Steve Adler and the Austin City Council with a special proclamation on Thursday, May 10, 2018 for her 18 years of community work as Artistic Director for the Young Musicians Festival Competition at the Asian American Cultural Center.

Harrison Gordon Butler (M.F.A., Theatre, 2010) directed “The Laramie Project” at the Arena Stage in Hollywood in March. Butler was named “Teacher of the Year” in 2017 as a movement instructor for the Theatre of Arts Conservatory in Los Angeles.