September 2008
Alum awarded prestigious Yale World Fellowship
Yale University President Richard C. Levin has announced the 2008 Yale World Fellows and Emerson alumna Marwah Al-Khalifa '96 was among those selected. Al-Khalifa, 33, is the director of the Crown Prince Training Program for Youth in Bahrain. "From her platform in the Court of the Crown Prince, Marwah Al-Khalifa spearheads youth leadership programs that aim to equip young people with education and training for Bahrain's increasingly diverse economy," a statement from Yale noted. "By rigorously upholding criteria based on merit, rather than religious affiliation, she also helps bridge the Sunni-Shi'a divide among Bahrain's youth population."
Al-Khalifa is one of only 18 fellows chosen from a pool of nearly 1,100 applicants. The Fellows are considered "highly accomplished early to mid-career men and women from government, business, the media and civil society organizations representing countries across the globe to be chosen for a four-month leadership program at Yale." The Yale World Fellows Program seeks to build a worldwide network of emerging leaders and to broaden international understanding.
"I am delighted to welcome this extraordinary group of men and women to the Yale community," said Levin. "Yale will benefit greatly from their presence on campus, and we anticipate that the World Fellows will gain new perspectives on their own roles as future leaders."
The other Fellows include "a Pakistani journalist reporting from the frontline of the war on terror, a groundbreaking Chinese public interest lawyer, a Zimbabwean epidemiologist working to develop methods for prevention of HIV infection in women and the founding Secretary General of Nicaragua's Ministry of Defense," according to the program.
During their four months on Yale's campus the Fellows "will engage in a specially designed seminar taught by some of Yale's most eminent faculty; take any of the 3,000 courses offered at the University; participate in weekly dinners with distinguished guest speakers; receive individualized skill-building training; and meet with U.S. and foreign leaders. Past World Fellows have met with then-U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, World Trade Organization Director-General Pascal Lamy, economist Jeffrey Sachs, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and New York Times columnist Tom Friedman, among others."
Lifetime TV executive is Hispanic leader
Poder360° magazine has named its first annual "20 Under 40" list of Hispanic entrepreneurs, executives, leaders and artists under 40 "who are shaping the future of the U.S. and the world" and alumna Ana Lucia Cottone '92 made the list. Cottone is the vice president of Series Development and Current Programming for Lifetime Television. The magazine noted: "As Ana Lucia Cottone awaited an interview for her first TV development position, an executive threw a baseball her way. Cottone caught it—and the job, thanks to what her boss called being 'fully present' amid unfolding situations. From her start at Rysher Entertainment, Cottone has worked with NBC Universal, USA and Sci Fi, UPN, and Telemundo, and was involved with such shows as Monk, Oz, Nash Bridges, The Strip and Lifetime's hit drama series Army Wives. Along the way, Cottone has researched programming trends and attitudes in Spain, and served as a consultant for radio programmer Grupo Prisa Internacional."
Four literary magazines tied to Emerson make top ten list
The Boston Globe recently published a list of the top ten literary magazines in the region. On the list were Emerson-based Ploughshares, Redivider (produced by Emerson graduate students), Quick Fiction (produced by an Emerson alum), and Night Train, (also produced by Emerson alum). The article said Ploughshares is "consistently recognized as among the best venues in the country." Writer Tim Horvath told the Globe, "Ploughshares, is of course, top-notch…. [T]hey take the interesting approach of having guest editors who are prominent writers, so the aesthetic of the magazine never gets stale." The article noted the journal publishes the likes of John Irving, Russell Banks, Sue Miller, Mona Simpson, Tim O'Brien, Robert Pinsky and Jayne Anne Phillips.
Redivider, the Globe notes, "is published by all the trendy young things in the graduate program of Writing, Literature, and Publishing at Emerson College....and offers a strong sampling from emerging writers, in addition to stunning graphics…." They have published Dan Gutstein, Bob Hicok, Dorianne Laux, David Lawrence, T. Cole Rachel, and Pauls Toutonghi, as well as interviews with Sam Hamill, Kelly Link, Antonya Nelson, and Richard Russo, among others
The Globe chose Night Train for its top ten list"[b]ecause it has a great online presence, offering each issue in full in e-format. We also love its 'firebox fiction' feature, which lends itself particularly well to a quick read online, featuring what editor Rusty Barnes [MFA '95] calls 'short, punchy, and fiery' stories of 1,500 words and under." Night Train has published Robert Boswell, Timothy Gager, Jim Daniels, and other "established and emerging writers" producing works that are about "people in extreme situations," who "take a single moment and reveal its intricacies," said Barnes.
ABC cable channel options comic from recent grads
Alumni Kal-El Bogdanove '07 and Dave Child '07 are celebrating the optioning of their comic concept Will Triumph Fights Alone to ABC Family Channel as a one-hour TV show. They could see the show go into production as early as next year.
Stephen Christy '07, manager of development at Devil's Due, is serving as executive producer of the show. Bogdanove and Child came to Christy to help serialize the story and make it a comic series. Eventually, Christy pitched the concept from memory to ABC Family, which gave the go-ahead for the purchase.
The comic, with art by Jon Bogdanove (who created the art for DC's classic Death of Superman), "follows rookie superhero Will Triumph, son of a powerful superhero team known as The Dynamics who were killed in the line of duty by their arch-rival, Dr. Loricas," reported the MTV.com. "Soon thereafter, Will inherits his parents Rings of Power, but in order to activate them, he must get married. What follows is Will's quest to not only right the wrongs of Dr. Loricas, but find the right girl in order to become the hero he's destined to become."
The comic was originally written as a screenplay by Child and Kal-El Bogdanove. "I actually think we've been creating Will Triumph for the last three years," Child told MTV.com. "It started off as a feature screenplay that Kal-El and I wrote [at Emerson]."
Alum writer's book becomes TV movie
Lola Douglas (the pseudonym for alumna Lara Zeises, MFA '01) is the author of True Confessions of a Hollywood Starlet and its sequel More Confessions of a Hollywood Starlet. True Confessions was made into a TV movie starring multi-platinum recording artist Joanna "JoJo" Levesque and Golden Globe winner Valerie Bertinelli. It premiered on Lifetime last month. School Library Journal says, "This tell-all journal-style story is nearly as amusing and compelling as Meg Cabot's "Princess Diaries" and Louise Rennison's "Georgia Nicolson" series. Kirkus Reviews adds, "Despite the topic's darker subject, since the narrative is in chatty diary form, this is light, breezy and lots of fun, especially for girls with Hollywood fantasies." KLIATT, in a starred review, calls the book "an absorbing read. Who has not imagined themselves in the ranks of the wealthy and famous, the mundane life a mask for the glamorous persona fighting to get out? The themes of finding the joys of the simple life, making true friends, accepting responsibility, and overcoming drug addiction are also well realized. "
Zeises is also the author of Bringing Up the Bones, an honor book for the 2001 Delacorte Press Prize Competition; Contents Under Pressure, winner of the 2006 Delaware Blue Hen Teen Book Award and a 2006 IRA Young Adult Choices selection; and Anyone But You.
Alum author got idea for her book while at Emerson
"Until she found herself desperately searching for a subject during a nonfiction book workshop at Emerson College, Laurie Edwards, MFA '06, never considered writing about her experience with chronic disease," begins an article from the GateHouse News Service about the writer. "I was still in that stage in my life where I was doing whatever I could to prove I wasn't sick," the 28-year-old told the paper. After 20 years of hospitalization after hospitalization without a firm answer to her illness, Edwards was finally diagnosed with primary ciliary dyskinesia, a rare, cystic fibrosis-like genetic respiratory disorder that causes frequent infections, thick mucus and decreased oxygenation.
Though she initially wrote travel pieces and nonfiction features at Emerson, Edwards turned to the idea of writing about her health problems during her time in the master's program at Emerson. "I just got such a great reception," she said. "People said, 'Write more."' She is now the author of Life Disrupted: Getting Real About Chronic Illnesses in Your Twenties and Thirties. "Everyone's saying, 'This is exactly my life,"' Edwards said, referring to readers with chronic diseases. Edwards said, "This is supposed to be the point in your life when everything comes together, not when everything falls apart." Her book is divided into three sections: the health care system, going to school or work, and relationships and utilizes both personal experience as well as stories from six patients with a range of illnesses. Edwards also maintains a blog called A Chronic Dose.
Master's alum is 'rising star' in natural products industry
Steve Siegel, MA '03, was recently acknowledged as a "rising star" in the natural products industry in August's Natural Foods Merchandiser 40 Under 40 competition. Siegel, who has his master's degree in integrated marketing communication from Emerson, is vice president of Ecuadorian Rainforest (ER), a supplier of global natural products. He started the company's "Folklore Project" to integrate indigenous history into modern-day marketing. He also created the Ecuadorian Rainforest Knowledgebase, an online database of botanical information that visitors can use before making a purchase decision.
Additionally, in 2005 he represented ER as part of a U.S. trade delegation to the Netherlands, arranged by the U.S. Embassy there. In 2008, Siegel visited a Moroccan orphanage for disabled children and organized a donation to be made on behalf of ER and himself. In 2009, Siegel will participate in a five-week rain forest expedition in the Ecuadorian Amazon. The group will study the ecosystem and take part in a conservation and humanitarian project.
Activist alum sponsors culture fest, helps those in need
Filmmaker, activist, and social entrepreneur Valerie K. Parker '00 is the force behind the "Fashionably Fair Runway Show" at the fifth annual New England Culture Fest, to be held Sept. 6 in Lowell, Mass., reports the Boston Globe. Parker founded Second World, a nonprofit arts and "edutainment" organization, which is sponsoring the festival. She told the Globe the fashion show will feature styles from fair-trade companies or companies that use organic or renewable resources, like bamboo. "The show aims to prove that ethical clothing can be sassy and sexy - this is not your mother's old hippie garb. High style and political sensibility can go hand-in-hand," according to the Globe. "People want stuff on their body that has got good history to it," Parker said. "Clothing is the next frontier for ethical business. It happened with coffee. It happens with certain commodities, like sugar. Now it's happening with fashion." The fashions featured on the runway will also be auctioned during the event or later on Second World's website.
Second World, which Parker says aims to "tell the stories of the world" while trying to help those in need, is a volunteer organization with projects in various parts of the world. The annual Culture Fest is a fund-raising and education vehicle: "You're getting that item, but you're also getting their personal story," she said. "That's what's special about our approach and how we look at fair trade. That's why we do all this media-music-and-art-for-a-better-world approach."
The article also notes how Emerson had a role in shaping Parker's work. "The 30-year-old Parker said she has been interested in creating connections among cultures since attending Emerson College and working as a disc jockey on the college radio station," said the Globe. "Her interests in reggae and filmmaking led her to Jamaica and study at the School for International Training in Kingston. Her travels to Egypt, Peru, and Nepal made her want to share her experiences and insights in ways other than filmmaking." She said, "I guess I had a big vision/ I just need to go and to do this. I feel so connected with people around the world."
New 'Ploughshares' editor named
The Boston Globe recently announced Ploughshares new in-coming editor. "After a national search, the literary journal Ploughshares has hired Ladette Randolph as its new editor. During nine years at University of Nebraska Press, Randolph played a role in publishing the initial volumes of a collection of the letters of Henry James. She was also instrumental in acquiring the memoir of fellow Nebraskan Ted Kooser, 'Local Wonders,' and initiated two series, American Lives, edited by Tobias Wolff, and Flyover Fiction, edited by Ron Hansen." Randolph previously served as managing editor of Prairie Schooner literary journal. She recently won a $10,000 grant from the Rona Jaffe Foundation which enabled her to spend time in the Nebraska Sandhills, the setting for her next novel, coming next year from University of New Mexico Press. Randolph's short story collection entitled This Is Not the Tropics won the Nebraska Book Award in 2006. Ploughshares founder and Emerson Professor DeWitt Henry served the past year as interim editor and director, taking over when former editor Don Lee, MFA '87, left for a teaching position.
Alumna makeup mogul attends Democratic Convention
Well-known makeup magnate Bobbi Brown '79 attended last month's Democratic National Convention, reported the Rocky Mountain News. The article noted that Brown attended Emerson, "where she studied because it was the lone place she could pursue theatrical makeup in a genuinely academic environment." "It was not hairdresser's school," she said. The article goes on to describe how Brown "brought her Emerson degree to Manhattan, where she shopped for work as a makeup artist. Dissatisfied with makeup popular in the 1980s – 'loud, garish and overdone,' as her Web site puts it -- Brown debuted her own line of mixable, brownish lipstick shades in 1991."
Brown told the paper she was "thrilled" about attending the Convention. She told the paper she is a longtime Democrat who had arranged for Sen. Barack Obama fund-raisers over the past year, where she said Gov. Jon S. Corzine asked her to join the state delegation in Denver. Her fifth book, a textbook on makeup, is coming in January.
Alum publishes book of ghost stories
Adam Golaski '97 is celebrating the publication of his book of supernatural ghost stories, entitled Worse than Myself (Raw Dog Screaming Press). A recent feature on Golaski in the Holbrook Sun noted, however, that "the book may not feature the kind of horror one might expect." Golaski told the paper that readers refer to the genre he writes in as "quiet horror," because the stories don't focus on gore. The stories may be "disturbing and horrifying," but "not gross," he said. The book's two sections are "New England and New York" and "Montana," the places Golaski is familiar with and where he set these tales. The article also notes, "Golaski described the characters in his stories as having encounters with something larger than themselves. Their experiences are something outside of the normal realm."
Author Ramsey Campbell says, "Adam Golaski has an enviable talent for the insidiously weird. His images creep into the imagination and stay in the mind like nightmares you didn't know you had. He's a writer of real originality, subtlety, and eloquent suggestiveness." Author Brian Evenson calls the book a "strong collection with enough variation to keep readers riveted from the first story to the last. Worse Than Myself has the impulses of traditional horror but keeps things a little more open, inflecting the forms we're familiar with and making them startlingly fresh again."
Golaski already has a new book accepted for publication as well. His next book is slated to come out next year. Color Plates, which will be published by Rose Metal Press (founded by Emerson alumnae Abigail Beckel [MA '05] and Kathleen Rooney [MFA '05] is a book of short stories, focusing on famous impressionist painters. Golaski describes it as "a tour of sorts given by painter Mary Cassatt," said the paper.
Golaski works as a business copywriter and teaches literature and writing at colleges in Connecticut. He is also the publisher, editor, and owner of the science fiction and horror magazine New Genre. Golaski also co-founded Flim Forum Press, a poetry publisher.
Alum is world-traveled clown, performer
The Sun-Journal Lewiston (Maine) recently featured "world-class clowns" alumna Julie Goell '74 and her partner Avner the Eccentric who performed last month at the Celebration Barn Theater. "Residing in Rome for a decade in the '80s, she performed in music and theater, film and television," said the article. "In the United States, she acted in Ghetto on Broadway, directed several productions in New York and directed Commedia Dell'Arte for Spoleto Festival and Epcott Center in Orlando." She has been a Henson Foundation-supported artist in residence at the University of Connecticut's puppet arts program. In that role she developed and directed a full-scale graduate puppet production, By the Willow, which is now touring. Most recently she was the Irving Suss guest artist at Colby College, teaching musical theater and Commedia and directing Servant of Two Masters and The Fantasticks. Her solo opera, Carmen: The Mopera, has headlined at festivals in Andorra, New York, Rome, Spain and Rio. In addition to her Emerson pedigree, Goell completed the School of Music of the University of Southern Maine. The Celebration Barn director is Amanda Huotari '99.
Faculty's film highlighted by Salon.com critic
John Gianvito's Profit Motive and the Whispering Wind was selected as a "Critics Pick" on Salon.com last month. The review noted the movie: "isn't a documentary or a fiction film or any other normal kind of movie. It's an hour-long tour of grave sites and other historical markers, inspired by Howard Zinn's "People's History of the United States," with no narration and very little on-screen text. It could be called an alternate history of death in America. The grave sites belong to American radicals, revolutionaries, labor leaders and other renegades, from colonial times to the present. Gianvito devotes a little meditative chunk of time to each of them, capturing not just the final resting places of Eugene V. Debs and Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Malcolm X and victims of the Homestead strike and King Philip's War, along with others almost entirely forgotten by history, but also the grass, trees, light and life that carry on around them. The effect is hypnotic, transcendent and highly mysterious. It's as if Gianvito, a longtime film curator at Harvard and now a professor at Emerson College, has distilled an atheist vision of spirituality, or made the most clear and accessible avant-garde film in cinematic history."
Young alum's Boston premiere makes news
The Project, alum Ryan Piotrowicz's ('03) first film, made its Boston premiere last month at the Roxbury Film Festival, the Patriot Ledger reports. The film, which won the audience award at the alternative Slamdance festival in Park City, Utah, earlier this year, has been shown across the country at several independent festivals including Newport, Seattle and Atlanta. It is a "faux documentary" about a group of young filmmakers who set out to make a film about inner-city life in New York City and end up "inextricable from their subjects," according to the Ledger.
Piotrowicz's idea for the film came from his experiences living in New York City. "I really enjoyed hearing people talk, and listening to that and hanging out more I started to understand the socioeconomic structure of housing projects," he said. Then, the article explains, he was mugged while walking through a housing project late at night. "That was my impetus to say I crossed the boundaries— I lost my objectivity and I guess I wanted to explore that," Piotrowicz said.
Alum covers pit announcing for NASCAR
The career of Mike Massaro, '92 MSSp, came full circle last month when he covered the pit road for ESPN2's coverage of the NASCAR Nationwide Series NAPA Auto Parts 200, according to the Hartford Courant. Massaro shared the pit road assignment for the first time with his former boss, Jack Arute Jr., who he had worked for two years after graduating from Emerson doing public relations and track announcing at Stafford Motor Speedway. Arute said he always identified with Massaro and saw potential in him." I'm so proud of where Mike has gone," said Arute. "He's living his dream."
Two alumnae create theater collaborative
Camilla Ross '85 and Emma Palzere-Rae '84 have founded the Emerson Theater Collaborative (ETC.) and have announced the company's first production will be the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by John Patrick Shanley, Doubt. ECT. Will call Southeastern Connecticut home. "The concept of ETC. is to develop and nurture emerging and professional artists by collaborating with alumni and students of Emerson, known for its outstanding theater program, and to serve youth, underrepresented communities, and artists with an emphasis on diversity," according to the Groton Times. "Ross and Palzere-Rae each have more than 20 years of experience in many areas of professional theater," the article continued. Ross is the theatrical adviser and acting coach for the SPAG Players at Three Rivers Community College in Norwich; she also sings with the Connecticut Lyric Opera of New London. Palzere-Rae has performed at the New Gate Theatre in Providence, Rhode Island, and is the founder of Be Well Productions, "which brings critically acclaimed one-woman plays to schools, libraries, senior centers, and other venues," said the article.
The alumnae hope "to present quality, professional theater that entertains, inspires, and gets people talking and thinking," says Ross. "To all of us in the company, it's very important that we reach out to youth in the area who may not be exposed to professional theater," Palzere-Rae added, "as well as being a stepping stone to Emerson College students and others pursuing the theater."
The duo hope that ETC.'s will be able to take modern American classics, for example titles by Eugene O'Neill or Tennessee Williams, and casting or setting them in ways to highlight issues centering on diversity.
Comedic alum gets hour-long show
Bill Burr '93 "has been killing it onstage for the past half decade, tearing up crowds from Comics Come Home to Opie and Anthony's Traveling Virus Comedy Tour," proclaimed the Boston Globe, announcing Burr's first hour-long special, Why Do I Do This? The special aired late last month on Comedy Central and will be released on DVD Sept. 16. What's more, Burr tells the Globe he's developing a pilot for the network.
Burr's success goes back to 1996 when he landed a role in the ABC sitcom Townies after barely four years after he had started comedy. In 2004 he got another big break when he appeared on Chappelle's Show.
He tells the Globe his pilot is "pretty random," including short films and cartoons. "I feel like this [pilot is] the closest to my voice, and I'm really challenging myself to go all out the way I do when I do my stand-up," he says. "When I come up with jokes, I don't really think, 'Oh, what's the crowd going to think of this?' So now that I'm doing this TV [show] I'm trying to stay in that same mindset."
Stand up alumna is winner of 'Last Comic Standing'
America voted and Iliza Shlesinger '05 has been named the Last Comic Standing on the sixth season of the popular NBC reality show. She won a $250,000 grand prize, including an exclusive talent deal with NBC, a new Honda, and a starring appearance in Jubilee! at Bally's Las Vegas. She is the first female winner in the show's Six-Season History. Shlesinger hails from Dallas, where she performed with improvisational comedy troupe ComedySportz before moving to Boston to attend Emerson. She currently lives in Los Angeles.
In 2007, Shlesinger won MySpace's "So You Think You're Funny" contest and has been featured as the G4 Network's MySpace Girl of the Week. Her TV credits include appearances on E! Network's Forbes Celebrity 100, America's Next Top Producer and Byron Allen's Comics Unleashed. She has written for Heavy.com and is currently a host/writer for GoTV. She has performed standup around the world, including in various cities in Asia for the Armed Forces Entertainment, the Las Vegas House of Blues, The Comedy Store, New York Comedy Club, various Improvs and the Friar's Club of Beverly Hills. She also writes and stars in her own online news show on www.theStream.tv called The Weakly News.
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