Arts, Etc.Theater

Presentation, production and performance… Grads show outside world where they came from

Alumnus Sean Dillon ('87) is the director of "The Nerd," Dailey Theatre's fall production, a comedy about life, reality and decision making. Junior stage manager Chryseis Alexander, Mike Martin ('95), who will play the character Willem, and Dillon discuss how to portray each character with the rest of the cast. "The Nerd" will run Nov. 7-9, and 14-16 at 7:30 p.m. / photo by Melissa A. Collett
Alumnus Sean Dillon (’87) is the director of “The Nerd,” Dailey Theatre’s fall production, a comedy about life, reality and decision making. Junior stage manager Chryseis Alexander, Mike Martin (’95), who will play the character Willem, and Dillon discuss how to portray each character with the rest of the cast. “The Nerd” will run Nov. 7-9, and 14-16 at 7:30 p.m. / photo by Melissa A. Collett

by Laura Czingula
Staff Writer

What are University of La Verne graduates from the Theatre Department doing? Well, apparently they are doing a lot and contributing what they learned at La Verne to the “real world.”

Sean Dillon graduated from ULV in 1987, and received his master’s of fine arts in directing at Purdue University in Indiana. Dillon co-directed “The Lady With the Dog” in Croatia this summer and is currently working on directing “The Nerd” at ULV this fall, opening Homecoming weekend. He has worked with Barry Morrow Productions on the TV movie, “Darrow” and “Christmas on Division Street,” as well as taught theater history and screenwriting for two years at ULV.

Spending time this summer planning and developing an exchange program in Croatia between ULV and the Split Summer Theater Festival, was Scot McElvany.

McElvany graduated from ULV in 1995. He has been working with the BCA in Mostar, Bosnia for the last six months and has directed a camp program using theater, in which teenagers from Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia developed original performances with the purpose of healing the emotional scars of war.

He has been asked to visit England to lead similar workshops, based on the theater techniques of Augusto Boal, internationally celebrated founder of Theater of the Oppressed.

Another Croatia visitor was graduate Eric Mulholland. Mulholland graduated in 1995 and was in, “The Lady With the Dog,” Mulholland worked with professional actors from Zagreb Theater Academy.

His plans for the future are to return next summer to Croatia to participate in the festival under Georgij Paro’s direction. Right now, Mulholland is acting in a Los Angeles production of “Ghosts” by Henrik Ibsen.

Jim Tittle graduated from La Verne just last semester and is already pursuing a directing career on a variety of UCLA and USC film school projects as an assistant director.

Tittle is also working with his local cable company in Whittier, Calif.

Playing the leads in “42nd Street,” “The Music Man” and “A Chorus Line” is 1995 graduate Nathan Hamilton.

Hamilton has been working since he graduated from ULV teaching dance as well as dancing himself, and singing at Riverside Civic Light Opera and Griswold’s Candlelight Pavilion.

Associate Professor of Theatre Arts Jane Dibbell said, “The graduates of ULV Theater Department are serving theater in the best way because they are doing work that is purposeful. They are using theater to nurture life and the spirit which is my definition of theater being powerful.”

Working at theme parks are 1990 graduate Bill Meier and 1993 graduate Alice Gasparian.

Meier is a free-lance costume designer, and is working in the Costume Department at Knott’s Berry Farm, while Gasparian is working at Universal Studios Hollywood as a dresser for the Flintstones and Waterworld shows.

Gasparian has also been performing in theater in Los Angeles with parts in “Twelfth Night” and “Amadeus.”

Since she graduated, she has studied with Charles Conrad Studios.

Two 1991 graduates are Cloyce Morrow and Mark Pietrzak.

Monrow has been in the motion picture “Can’t Buy Me Love” and recently was on a TV special with Fred Savage in “Christmas on Division Street.” For the past 15 years, she has been doing film, TV, and commercial work in Los Angeles.

Pietrzak is currently working at ULV as a technical director in the Theatre Department.

He also does some freelance designs at places such as Chino’s 7th Street Playhouse, Long Beach Community Theatre, Alhambra Community Theatre Group, Long Beach City College, Vanguard Theatre, Inland Pacific Ballet and Inland Valley Repertory. He has worked on both lighting and film work.

Currently auditioning and working in off-off Broadway shows is Dennis Keeley. Keeley graduated in 1992 and has studied acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York.

“They are all being proactive in developing careers that reflect the theaters department,” said Dibbell, “I’m proud of all my students.”

Laura Czingula, Sports Editor
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Melissa A. Collett, Photography Editor
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