Department of Theatre and Film : About Our Alumni

(Keith in the UT production of  Dragon)

Holly,
I am working as a Technician at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida.  I am assigned to EPCOT at IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth.  ROE is EPCOT’s International Award winning nighttime show with lasers, fireworks, fountains and lights.  We also have two unique pieces of equipment called the inferno barge which create large fireballs and the Earth Globe which is a floating 3 story tall, spherical LED Video screen. I was selected to be the assist programmer for the “Back Site”, which meant that I had to help design the site and create the program for the Pyrodigital system, which actually fires the fireworks.  I was also involved heavily in constructing much of extra equipment used in the additional sites.  The normal show has twelve fireworks barges, July 4^th has 32 plus the roof of the American Adventure Pavilion and the “Back Site” which is located behind the American Adventure Pavilion. I also pick up special event gigs occasionally all over Disney World.  Some of the ones at the Wide World of Sports Complex are nationally televised on ESPN networks.  It is a fun place to work with a lot of variety so it is never boring.

Keith Kolasinski
Former UT Theatre Student

Pete Cross (UT Theatre 2004 – 07) is in his second year in the MFA Acting program at the California Institute of the Arts. Working as a private acting/speech/voice coach in the L.A. area, Pete is also teaching Voice and Speech for Stage Managers at Cal Arts. As a result of performing under the direction of Cornel Gabara in UT's 2006 production of Action, which was the closing presentation of the 7th Annual International Festival of Drama in English held in Debrecen, Pete's Hungarian connections allowed him to return to Debrecen in March of 2008, directing, performing, and teaching a theatre workshop. In May of 2009 he will be touring Hungary for a third time with Karen Hartman's Troy Women as well as teaching workshops during the festival, joined by UT theatre alums Nikki Soldner and Mark Leasor. Pete will also be seen at Cal Arts in November of 2008 in the premiere of Carl Hancock Rux's Smoke Lilies and Jade. In addition to teaching and performing Pete is also currently an associate editor for Paul Meier's IDEA website of international dialects of English.

Dyrk,
How are things going in Ohio? I am actually writing you right now from my new part-time job, Mark Haefeli Productions. (I know, you're thinking, Steve should be working! I am, just in the middle of some dubbing so I had some free time to write). MHP is a company in Tribeca that mostly deals with musicians and DVDs, EPKs, & Press Conferences for the music industry. The last 2 major things they did were the Paul McCartney "Live in Red Square" DVD for A&E and the Police Reunion Press Conference. Good stuff. http://www.mhp3.com
I have thoroughly enjoyed my new life in Montclair and just wanted to let you know how I'm doing. And I also wanted to repeatedly thank all of you for giving me the tools to handle the jobs in this industry thus far. I'm daily impressed I'm just as well versed & knowledgeable as the Columbia and NYU students I come across. Recently, I worked for a company doing a cross-country marketing tour for the new Terminator Show, The Sarah Connor Chronicles. I wrote a blog about it on my filmmaker MySpace here: http://www.myspace.com/shootbydaylight Otherwise, just writing as many scripts as possible. Trying to become a member of the Writer's Guild East and trying to get a screenwriting agent. 
Steve Long 
Former UT Film Student

Seth Shaffer (Theatre/Film 2006), shown here as Lancelot in the Spring 2006 UT production of The Dragon, will be touring with Madcap Puppets http://www.madcappuppets.com in the fall of 2007.  “The show I will be touring with is the Long Lost Stories.  2 actors run the whole show.  I play actor 1 who performs 7 different characters in the 45 min show,” says Seth.
Madcap Productions Puppet Theatre is a nonprofit, touring children's theater company which combines giant puppets with actors to create a unique style of puppet theater. Madcap wants to introduce children to a whole new concept of puppetry, one that allows all the elements of theater to be combined in an artistic and educational performance. Now in its twenty-fifth year, the company offers in production both original scripts and fresh adaptations of old tales.

Scott Gleine (Film 2007 - Department Outstanding Student 2006/2007) looked for work in LA for exactly one week before landing a full time job at Clairmont Camera.  He says he'll be doing lots of equipment organizing and testing, and credits his experience in the Equipment Room as a prime reason for his new job.

Joe Lehman (Theatre 1995) is working as an Equity actor, based in Chicago.  Most of his recent appearances have been in regional equity houses such as Greenbrier Valley Theatre in West Virginia or in Illinois theatres such as New American Theatre in Rockford. In 2007 he returned to this area to appear with the Jewish Ensemble Theatre in West Bloomfield in a musical review based on the song parodies of Allan Sherman.

Matt Meindl, former department “Outstanding Student” winner in 2006. His latest work, "Digital Underpants," was featured in The 2008 Ohio Short Film and Video Showcase. This film, an animated collection of teen love letters, is the second work of Matt's to be featured in the showcase.  His final film school “hurrah” entitled "Lollygagger" was screened at The 2007 Ohio Short Film & Video Showcase in Columbus at the Wexner Center.  For more information about the showcase, go to WWW.WEXARTS.ORG. To read more about "Digital Underpants," visit ColumbusAlive.com

His film Mumble Baby won Best Experimental Film at the 5th Annual Microcinema Fest in Chicago in Summer 2005.  Out of 120 submissions for this competition, only 28 were selected for exhibition and two of those were Meindl’s films.  His Go Barefoot screened at Flicker in Chapel Hill, NC and won a Merit Award in the Short Film Competition at the James River Festival of the Moving Image.  The same film was accepted to the Athens International Film + Video Festival. Rewindvideo.com’s Jon Ashby said of Matt’s short films “They have an honest feel to them, created through old school methods. Meindl doesn't attempt to impress the viewer, and trait common in many low budget outings. Instead he embraces his format and his methods."  Matt continues to make us proud here at the Department of Theatre and Film, Congratulations! 

Jacob Christopher Green (Theatre 2002) and Patricia Savieo (Theatre 1992) are two of the three founding members of Hubris Productions (www.hubrisproductions.com) located at the Center on Halsted in Chicago. Jacob serves as Artistic Director, and Patricia as Print Communications Coordinator. In addition to an ambitious production season, the company will be working with at-risk youth through the office of outreach at the Center.    Their mission statement: 
Hubris Productions will engage, challenge and inspire our community to acknowledge the diversity in the world around us. Through our education and outreach programs, new play development and main stage productions, we will create an ongoing dialogue about social inclusiveness.
...and we think you should like what we like.

Bob Uhl (Theatre, 1988) is a Project Manager and Systems Designer for Vincent Lighting Systems in Cleveland, Ohio.

Jessica Lopez (Film 2006)is now working at Panavision in Hollywood. UPDATE: Laid off from her job at Panavision because of the Writer's Guild strike, Jessica Lopez found herself in the same boat as everyone else in the industry - unable to find work. One day “a light bulb went off” and she began to think of her predicament in a new way.

Together with Clay Chaszeyka (Film 2007) Jess began shooting a documentary on the Writer's Guild strike and its impact on folks in the industry.  Thanks in large part to contacts she had developed at Tiffen and Panavision, they were able to land some amazing interviews with producers, directors, and cinematographers.  Jess was particularly thrilled to get the chance to interview Haskell Wexler, whose work she had studied (and greatly admired) in Film II. 

Jess had this to say about their project; “This documentary is in no way trying to take sides. It's a non-biased documentary. I want to record everyone's opinions and issues, from the writers down to the dry cleaning companies. The documentary will be a compilation of thoughts and expressions. I think this can be an honest way to visually represent what is going on instead of relying on the media. This is a historical moment in time. I want the people in the film industry and the general American audience to see it. Everyone in the entertainment industry has the right to protect their work.”

Brian Pearson (Theatre 2006) is now with Carnival Cruise Lines as the onboard lighting tech for the Inspiration. 

Zachery Durnell (2006) took a job with the Florida Studio Theatre in Sarasota, Florida.  He is currently serving as the assistant box office manager.

Lino Stavole (Theatre 1996)  works in Los Angeles with Howard Berger and Tami Lane who won the Academy Award for Achievement in Makeup for their work on The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.  Lino made molds for many of the prosthetic devices used in the film.  He lives in L.A. with his wife, Nicoletta (also a department grad), and their two children.

Brie-anne Murphy (Theatre 2005) played the part of Bombularina in the Westco Production of CATS at the Irvington Town Hall Theatre in New York. 

Rose Bachtel (Theatre 2005) is teaching English classes in Santiago, Chile and also assisted in Alba Emoting training workshops in Cachagua, Chile with Dr. Susana Bloch, the founder of the method.  One was a three-day intensive workshop for actors and the other a one-day introduction for psychologists to the method. She helped with warm-ups and translation for the participants.