Newsletter Archive

March 2009 has been quite an active and impressive month for TRFT students, faculty, staff and alumni.

SPARTAN FILM STUDIOS is proud to announce the 2009 summer film SUPER HERO PARTY CLOWN (think SPIDERMAN meets NAPOLEAN DYNAMITE) written and to be directed Jeremy Inman. The script was a finalist at the 2008 CSU Media Arts Festival and Jeremy won best drama at the 2008 Campus Move Fest. More news on this soon.

Here's a photo of Oscar winning screenwriter Diablo Cody (JUNO) with three SJSU students from left to right: Kellie Rice (winner of BEA and CSU Media Arts Festival screenwriting competitions, Kathie Troung (director of LET GO a Cinequest 2009 selection and advanced screenwriting student Debyani Roychoudhury.

This last weekend a group of 8 students from Nick Martinez’s MVP class worked with Flying Moose Pictures on a multi-camera shoot of a live theatrical performance at the Berkley Rep. Jonathan Luskin send the following email to the crew. “Hi Crew Thank you for an excellent shoot on Friday. We are very impressed with your level of expertise and your professionalism. It reflects very well on you and the whole SJSU film program. We hope to work with you again soon. Thanks Jonathan, Mark Flying Moose Pictures 3435 Cesar Chavez, Suite 316 San Francisco, CA 94110” See more about Flying Moose at www.moosepix.com

Professor Betty Poindexter who’s is off this semester on the Faculty Early Retirement Program attended our theatrical production of SECRETS IN THE WINGS (directed by Kathleen Normington) and sent the following rave review: “To the makers of The Secret in the Wings, BRAVO, BRAVO, BRAVO BRAVO, BRAVO, BRAVO, BRAVO, BRAVO, BRAVO!!! Such a stunning piece of ensemble work you have created. The images still swirl in my head! You all should be very proud of this production, It is one our best in my estimation. We all await those magic theatrical moments when it all comes together - direction, acting, design, tech. Congratulations team, this one of those productions that leaves images and impressions that will last in the memories of your audience. Thank you all for a wonderul evening of magic in our theatre. Please share this with Steve Shumway, Jim Culley, John York, cast and crew as I don't have all email addresses handy. Thank you. Much love, Betty

World Premiere: FEATURE-LENGTH CARTOON “BYE-BYE BIN LADEN” HAS WORLD PREMIERE IN MIAMI MARCH 28, 2009. The feature-length animated musical “Bye-Bye Bin Laden,” a satire about war, TV and religious excess at home and abroad, will have its world premiere in Miami Beach on Saturday, March 28, 2009, as an Official Selection of the South Beach International Animation Festival. It is the only world premiere feature at the festival. Written and Directed by Professor Scott Sublett and animated by students from the School of Art and Design, Bin Laden was an interdisciplinary project between the department of TV-Radio-Film-Theatre and The School of Music and Dance and the School of Art and Design.

Omar Benson Miller is a regular on the Jerry Bruckheimer produced THE ELEVENTH HOUR every Thursday at 10 pm on CBS. Also catch him on the recently released DVDs MIRACLE AT ST. ANA and THE EXPRESS. He’s also doing a cameo in Eugene Kim’s LIQUOR STORE CATUS produced by The Film Production Society. (The official student run TRFT film club)

Here’s an email from guest faculty Jim Orr regarding his work with SJSU alumni: "Hey Barnaby, Thanks for the next opportunity to work and teach on the music video. I look forward to it. I have been super slammed and I am in the final 2 weeks of finishing up the Deadliest Warrior series. Lots of super cool shooting and fun stuff that will make a splash for the network. You should be happy to note I have worked a slew of SJSU alums in some key positions on the show. James Marsh, John Schmidt and Todd Banhazl have all worked on the show and I am proud to say all performed very well. I feel the show will be a hit and hopefully we can shoot the next season with even more alums."

Here’s another email from recent grad and future star Caitlin Dissinger who attended our recent production of SECRET IN THE WINGS (see the photo archive to see Jim Culley’s amazing set): "Hey Barnaby! It was great seeing you last night, and it would be so great if you could put a little blurb up about this movie I'm in playing in SF!!! Here's the info!!"

Chainsmoke, produced by Giant Leap Films, will be playing at the Four Star Movie Theater in San Francisco, starting today, March 13th, through next thursday, March 19th at 2:30pm and 6:35pm daily!! The theater is located at Clement and 23rd Avenue, and there will be Q & A's after every 6:35pm showing with the filmmakers, cast, ect.

We were also represented quite well at the Cinequest Film Festival this year. Scott Sublett’s feature GENERIC THRILLER featuring Shirley Jones played to packed houses and rave reviews. It will be released by Cinequest this summer and will be available at Blockbuster and Netflix.

Kathy Troung’s LET GO and Mason William’s OUR NEIGHBORHOOD were featured in the student short competition.

And alumni Mark Tran’s ALL ABOUT DAD, produced right in Hugh Gillis Hall by Spartan Film Studios won the CINEQUEST audience award for best narrative feature! See the letter below. Mark has been hired to direct CALIFORNIA SAIGON a feature produced by Cali Films this summer in Los Angeles. Mark will also will be honored at City Hall. See the email from Council member Ash Kalra: "Mark, Congratulations! I am so happy for you and the whole team that worked on the film. To keep the buzz going, on my end, I want to present to you a Commendation from the City of San Jose recognizing a local artist accomplishing a great achievement in our hometown film festival. I am cc’ing a staff member of mine, Shirin Darbani, who will follow up with you on the details. It will be presented at a City Council meeting during an afternoon session 1:30 p.m. on a Tuesday in the next 3 to 4 weeks. If you can time the screening of the film with the commendation, we might be able to help get some media coverage. Also, it would be great if we could invite the owners of the District 2 home that was used for the filming of the outside of the home. Congrats again and make sure to say hi to Dad for me. Ash Kalra Councilmember City of San Jose-District 2 200 East Santa Clara Street San Jose, California 95113."

Please send me your emails

San Jose State Theatre Arts grad RICK SINGLETON is not only one of the most prominent theatre directors in the Bay Area – he’s also probably the busiest director in San Jose! His recent production of THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK (photo, left) was his eighteenth for San Jose Stage Company, where he currently serves as the Producing Director.

A founding member of The San Jose Stage Company, Rick helmed their recent smash-hit BEEHIVE, the record-breaking URINETOWN, THE MUSICAL, as well as ANGRY HOUSEWIVES, THE SUGAR BEAN SISTERS, UG: A STONE-AGE MUSICAL COMEDY, BUDDY: THE BUDDY HOLLY STORY, FUDDY MEERS, CHAPS! A CHRISTMAS COWBOY CABARET, GUNMETAL BLUES, ALWAYS...PATSY CLINE, VERONICA'S ROOM, TORCH SONG TRILOGY and others. Rick served as Assistant Director for San Jose Stage Company's production of the world premiere original musical CUMBERLAND BLUES, both in San Jose and in San Francisco. He served as Executive Director of San Jose Stage Company for four years and was a member of the Company's Artistic Council for five years. As an actor, he has performed with San Jose Repertory Theatre in BORN YESTERDAY, THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST and THE PHILADELPHIA STORY.

PERFORMANCES sat down with Rick to find out what he’s up next for this madly busy Theatre Arts alumnus.

Rick: ALTAR BOYZ, a musical about a Catholic Pop Group, that spoofs the whole Boy Band genre, has fun with all the clichés, and delivers a sweet and positive message in the end. It’s 90 minutes of high energy dance, tight pop vocals, and has a witty libretto that parodies the Christian rock genre, and at the same time features amazing musical talents. It opens July 30.

Rick: After that I’ll be directing THE TURN OF THE SCREW, Jeffrey Hatcher's adaptation of the story by Henry James, and then Doug Wright’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play I AM MY OWN WIFE. THE TURN OF THE SCREW is an adaptation specifically written to challenge and showcase two actors. A lone governess in a remote location becomes aware that her two charges have been exposed to some very adult activities, and then is convinced the children are possessed by the hostile ghost of the perpetrators. The “turn of the screw,” however, is this: is she in fact their savior, or is she the one possessed by paranoia and doubt? The Governess, who narrates the tale, is played by one actress, and all other characters (male and female) are played by another single actor. I AM MY OWN WIFE is a one man show that tells the very real and true story of a German transvestite in East Berlin who not only survived Hitler's regime, but somehow managed to flourish under the Russian occupation behind the iron curtain. The story is based on taped interviews with Charlotte Von Mahlsdorf, and a very conflicting history is exposed. Some believe she was a hero of queer history, while others have accused her of cooperating with the Stasi, and being in fact a Judas. The play explores all the dimensions of her survival and what moral terrain she had to negotiate for that survival. It is a very compelling play.

Performances: They both sound incredible, and it’s no wonder that people say the Stage Company is doing some of the most exciting, daring theatre in town. What's your current title at The San Jose Stage Company and what are your duties?

Rick: I returned full time to San Jose Stage in 2000, as the Producing Director. I act as the bridge between the executive, production and artistic parts of the company. That means that I’m very familiar with all the strategic, budgeting and long term planning that’s going on, but am mainly focused on the day-to-day producing of theatre. Contract negotiations, casting, staffing of designers and supervising stage managers, directing, all fall under that.

Performances: So you basically spend every day collaborating with fantastically talented and dedicated people. That sounds like fun! How did you first come to work at the stage company?

Rick: I went to school with BOBBY PELLERIN and RANDALL KING, who were producing a very notable production of Mamet's AMERICAN BUFFALO upstairs at the Eulipia Restaurant. I had also worked as an actor post graduation, and was hired to perform in BORN YESTERDAY at San Jose Rep, which Bobby was directing and Randall King was acting in as well. Later I ran into Bobby at the movies one night, and he mentioned that the groundwork was laid to launch San Jose Stage Company, and would I be interested in helping to get it set up? I said absolutely, and joined Bobby, Randall and Cathleen King to really develop the company from the idea. It was envisioned as a more intimate and edgier alternative to the other theatres around at that time.

Performances: And that’s what it is! So you basically started on the ground floor, volunteering with a promising “start-up.” And now it’s been built into one of the most important theaters in one of the largest cities in the United States! How much say do you have in picking the season and in choosing what shows you'll direct?

Rick: Every year I make a trip to see theatre – New York, Ashland, or London, and I’m constantly looking at what’s being produced out there. I then come back to my colleagues and suggest scripts, whether for me to direct or just for consideration for the season. After 25 years I have a pretty good handle on what’s going to work in this space, and what fits Randall's vision of what we should be presenting. Randall also has a focus on new scripts, and we have produced many world and regional premiers of new works.

Rick: The first season, we had an organizational shift and for a time I was the Executive Director, and we operated under an Artistic Council of which Randall and I were core members. About our fifth season, I started seeking the support of my colleagues for a directing assignment. I had continued acting on occasion, however only once in a San Jose Stage production, and was increasingly drawn to the task of leading a collaborative process the way a director does. My first show was COME BACK TO THE 5 AND DIME JIMMY DEAN, JIMMY DEAN. I was blessed with a phenomenal cast, and the reviews supported my push to direct more, and from that time forward I’ve been fortunate to be assigned a show or two per season. For a while I also would work as the Equity Stage Manager on one production per season, and have absolutely benefited from watching other skilled directors work.

Performances: What can you tell us about the future of the company? There was talk for a while of a big redevelopment project on the footprint of where the theater is, with a high rise containing a new theater for you on the first floor. Is that still a possibility?

Rick: First let me say I love directing for the intimacy of our current facility. We were very much involved in the configuration and layout of the current facility. Most of our audience really appreciates the way we present our shows. We have quite simply outgrown the height, width and depth of the current facility. We desperately need rehearsal space, studio space for the expansion of our training program, The Actors Lab, and augmented offices facilities to support the artistic programming and demands of running a fulltime professional theatre company

Performances: Those goals should be supported by the community! I hope people reading this interview take the step of supporting the theatre by subscribing to the season. It’s especially fun to subscribe to opening night because you give those great receptions afterwards, where one audiences can eat, drink and meet the actors. It’s always a great party! There's a real family feeling at San Jose Stage Company, and it seems that way in part because so many San Jose State people are involved. Who else is from SJSU is involved with the theatre?

Rick: The initial culture at San Jose Stage was collegial, reflecting our joint training and acquired taste for the kind of theatre we wanted to do. That naturally transfers into a family feeling when you’ve been together that long. We’ve also had many colleagues who were from other institutions who have contributed to our success and advancements along the way. That being said, some of the current and past faculty and students who have performed, designed and helped to make San Jose Stage Company what it is include: [Theatre Arts staff member] JOHN YORK, former TD, Production Manager, and scenic designer; [Theatre Arts staff member] SEAN RUSSELL who has designed both lights and sound for us; [Professor Emeritus] RANDY EARLE, who consulted and guided us on a number of capital purchases early on; [Professor Emeritus] BOB JENKINS, a former San Jose Stage Company director; [Professor] BUDDY BUTLER, director; LEE KOPP, actor; JEFFRA COOK, actress; [lecturer and MA graduate] LAURA LONG, an actress with the Company; [late Theatre Arts costume shop manager] ELIZA CHUGG, costume designer; [Professor] MATT SPANGLER, director; [Professor] AMY GLAZER, director; ADRIENNE MULLER and MELISSA NAVARRO, actresses; JAMES FLAHERTY, actor; and plenty of others I’ll remember the minute the interview is over. Of course, Randall King, our Artistic Director, is an alumnus, and his daughter is currently a Radio-TV-Film major at SJSU. I have to say, we continue to search for young and energetic people who are willing to invest the time to continue the Stage Company's trajectory into this new and changing Millennium. As theatre technology changes and social issues shift, so does our reflection of the world we portray onstage. We believe the future lies with the students we start working with today, and any future facility, or structure the company takes on, needs the input, and fresh approach, this group has to offer.

Performances: We spoke earlier about subscribing to the theatre – can you explain for our readers the importance of subscribing to the season, as opposed to buying tickets a la carte?

Rick: For an institution to survive it needs a reliable cash flow, facilitated by the steady and guaranteed income for each show. The attraction for the audience is first and foremost that the art is sustained. Secondly, by entrusting five evenings to a team of artists who are invested in nothing but finding the most intriguing, engaging and enlightening season of theatre that can be found, they may see something that they would have otherwise missed. What’s critical for the future of theatre is engaging the next generation, who are attracted to the worlds of digital media, and are crucial in the process of evolving theatre through the synthesis of storytelling and technology.

Performances: Speaking of that new generation, how hard is it for people to make a living doing theatre in the Bay Area?

Performances: What advice would you have for theatre majors graduating into the current environment?

Rick: Get involved. Don’t be afraid to volunteer. Through the exposure you get you can make yourself an integral part of the team. Obviously, there are many more needs for production personnel, but there are also performing opportunities. Make yourself an asset in more than one way. If you want to have a life that includes living in the Bay Area, you need to be able to contribute to the theatre in more ways than one. In a company our size roles are often defined by the skill set you bring to the table. If you get involved in a flexible capacity, you can most definitely begin to identify areas that need some focus, and develop in those areas. In addition to acting and production there are needs for marketing, website content management, educational program assistance, contract management, grant proposal writing, rehearsal assistance, audition assistance, the list goes on and on. The challenge for the organization is in how to find those individuals and how to engage them in ways that will be successful to the company and for the individual.

Performances: Thank you, Rick. As always, your views on theatre are well thought out and refreshingly free of bunk.

Find out more about the San Jose Stage Company at www.sanjose-stage.com/, or call the box office at (408) 283-7142.

PERFORMANCES often runs into alumna Erika Yanin Perez-Hernandez at San Jose Stage Company opening nights, and took the opportunity to ask her what she’s been up to. As it turns out, plenty! Erika said, “In the last few years I’ve been traveling around the world. I visited Spain, and Thailand, where I attended a three-week "darkness retreat" – I was in pitch black and it was truly an amazing experience. Then I went to Istanbul. Later I visited Brazil, and finally Argentina where I immersed myself in the tango world. I’ve been doing much more voice-over work now. I recently recorded the Spanish version of the Barbie phone. I also got my first big voice-over contract to be a company's voice prompt (in Spanish as well). I have also done some theater: [the Tabard Theater Company’s production of] More Than Petticoats as Toby Riddle, where I got an amazing review ; A Visitor's Guide to Arivaca: ; and right now, I am back in “Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story” in Carmel after being part of the original cast of the West Coast Premiere in 2003. The Holly show will run to August 8. It’s such fun! I sure hope you can attend.”

Remember RTVF alumnus OMAR BENSON MILLER? He’s got a huge role in Spike Lee’s next movie (he’s all over the preview, frame left), and recently shot a spot for the Intel Inspire campaign, talking about how PROF. BUDDY BUTLER inspired him to become an actor. If you haven’t seen it, visit http://inspiredbyeducation.com/share.html and click on "What Inspires Omar?" Others are encouraged to send in stories (via YouTube) about how they were inspired by education.

PERFORMANCES asked alum MATT BARBER what he’s been up to, and he reported, “Well, the writer's strike has officially come to an end at the Barber household. After six long months, ‘Chuck’ returned to production! I'm the leadoff editor and you should see my first episode on air in September sometime. I'm also currently co-directing a short that I co-wrote with a friend of mine. We have a great cast (Nicole Parker of “Mad TV” and Tony Hale of “Arrested Development”). Check out our trailer online at: www.WeatheredTheFilm.com.” And Matt thoughtfully added, “Oh, by the way, any student who's interested in editing should check out this internship: http://www.ace-filmeditors.org/newace/abt_Intern.html. The only stipulations are, it's a post-graduation internship and it requires you to move to LA as they help you find a job after you're done. Spread the word.”

The 3rd Annual San Jose Blues Week, founded and directed by TRFT Grad student RAMON JOHNSON, took place May 5th-11th at venues including JJ’s Blues Club, The Poor House Bistro, and San Jose State University. Ramon also hosted a fundraiser for Christopher Rodriguez, a ten-year old Oakland youth who was tragically shot and paralyzed by a stray bullet while practicing the piano. San Jose Blues Week also welcomed the return of two of TRFT’s favorite sons, TODD BANHAZL and GREG BRADLEY, who were in town to film the Fountain Blues Fest for the Associated Students of SJSU.

RTVF Alum GREGG MARTINI in production in the Central Valley (as writer-director) on an indie feature entitled CROWS LANDING… Theatre Arts alum MICHAEL RAY WISELY starring as Cogsworth the Clock in Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” at American Musical Theatre in San Jose last May… Theatre Arts alum MATT McTIGHE seen April 29 on CBS’s NCIS (he even played a scene with Mark Harmon) – and check out Matt’s website (www.mattmctighe.com) for rave reviews of his work in “The Time of Your Life” in the LOS ANGELES TIMES, VARIETY, THE WEEK and BACKSTAGE.... TRFT alumnus ANAYO AMUZIE accepted at Loyola Marymount of Los Angeles’s Masters in Television and Film Production program… JOHN ROMANO, by day an Aerial Photojournalist and Broadcast News Editor at NBC 11 news, by night (in June, at any rate) playing urbane Jack Worthing in the Bus Barn Theater’s production of “The Importance of Being Ernest”…

That’s it for Summer 2008. PERFORMANCES advises you to stay cool and leaves you with the words of Dyan Cannon in Herbert Ross’s “The Last of Sheila”: “Honey, could you get me a Tab? My mouth is so dry they could shoot ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ in it.”

Actor DAN BUTLER is best known for his role as macho sports broadcaster Bob "Bulldog" Briscoe on the hit sitcom "Frasier." Also notable is his work as a character actor in such films as "Manhunter," "Silence of the Lambs" and "Enemy of the State."

But less well known is that Butler received part of his training as an actor in Hugh Gillis Hall, spending a year as an SJSU theatre major in the mid '70s.

”Performances” caught up with Butler at this year's Cinequest, after a screening of his howlingly funny, madly clever political comedy "Karl Rove, I Love You!" a mockumentary about a gay actor (coincidentally named "Dan Butler") who creates a one-man show critical of Rove, but then slowly comes to have, well, "other kinds of feelings" for the controversial Bush advisor.

Q: Your new film is hilarious and very different from anything else I’ve ever seen. Am I wrong in describing it as a “mockumentary?”

A: We describe it as hovering somewhere between documentary and mockumentary since almost everyone and everything in it is real except the premise.

Q: You have a long history of involvement in indie filmmaking, going back to the groundbreaking AIDS drama "Longtime Companion." And now here you are, once again doing a rather political independent film – because "Karl Rove, I Love You" is very funny, but it's also very political.

A: My writing partner for "Karl Rove, I Love You", Julia Miranda (both in real life and the film), mentioned once that we’re really successful when the scenes are funny, sad, and creepy all at the same time. I agree. I'm proud of the film because I feel it's very unique; I can't think of another film I can compare it to. It is political I suppose, but in the end, Karl Rove and the politics of the 2004 election form the backdrop for what really is a tragedy. My composer, Greg DeBelles, helped me focus on that aspect of the film when he was putting together the score. He was coming up for a theme song for "Dan" in the film and reminded me that it's his/my journey that we're interested in. That's what compels us, not the politics or the humor. It's great that those aspects are also there, but they're not the spine of the story.

A: It's my goal to have it on screen in theatres and/or television before the election. We're in the midst of sending it out, spreading the word, creating a buzz; we're going regular routes and also listening to our gut, intuitive inspirations. For instance, I just sent a copy of the film to Mr. Rove himself.

Q: I’ve heard that "Karl Rove" started as a one-man theatre piece. And your one-man show about gay life, "The Only Thing Worse You Could Have Told Me…" got rave reviews off-Broadway in 1995. You really like writing one-man-shows.

A: Actually, there was no theatre piece of "Karl Rove, I Love You" outside of the film, but you are proving my co-director's claim that people are going to start saying that they saw the piece in LA when it was going. That said, there is something about one-person shows that compels me. I'd never tried it before "The Only Thing Worse..." but there was a compelling need to process some things about being gay, all the contradictory voices that were swarming around inside me at that time pertaining to that topic, and it was fun using my facility with different characters to give those various contradictory voices life. I've seen some wonderful one-person shows and some not so wonderful ones, and it always distills down to if you've got a good story to tell, it will hold. Tell the stories. And I think I'm a good storyteller. And I love hearing good stories.

Q: In 1989 you starred in the New York production of "The Lisbon Traviata," which was written by Terrence McNally, who by the way will be visiting our campus next year. What do you think it is about McNally's playwriting that's made him so successful for so long?

A: I love how prolific Terrence is and that he seems to keep writing, keep writing, keep writing, just opening the channel to what moves him. I loved being a part of "Lisbon Traviata"; I'd love to do it again, playing a different part, return to it from a different perspective. Hearkening back to being interested in why a certain part has come into my life at a certain time, the play deals with the break-up of a relationship and at the time I was rehearsing and performing the play I was in the midst of a seven-year relationship breaking up and I'd be at rehearsal and have all these weird deja vu's, very "Wait a minute, I said this exact line in real life earlier this morning."

Q: You've moved to Vermont with your life partner, acting teacher Richard Waterhouse. Won't that make it difficult to continue your busy TV and film career? Also, I'm told they have lots of snow there.

A: They say they've had more snow than they've had in 20 years up here. It's incredible experiencing the seasons again. Both Richard and I were in an adventurous spirit and wanted change, and the move seemed to fit that itch. I'd wanted to move back east, having lived and worked in New York City during the '80s. Regarding TV and film, I think it will all work out. I'm discovering the back-and-forth between Vermont and New York City for auditions and work, many times putting myself on film up here and sending it via the web down to the powers that be. An added bit of fun and excitement is that Richard and I are teaching weekend workshops and seminars on "Acting for Film" at various universities around the country.

A: I was at San Jose State University (if I'm remembering correctly) from the fall of 1975 through the end of the school year in 1976. I had been at a regional campus of Indiana and Purdue in Fort Wayne, Indiana (my home town), and had been nominated for and won a National Irene Ryan Acting Scholarship in a production of "Marathon '33" that we'd mounted. I knew it was a sign for me to get out of the Midwest, but I was still skittish about going to big city schools. After some research, I came upon San Jose State and after visiting and being shown around by acting head of the theatre department Dick Parks, I decided to make the plunge.

A: Yes. It happened to be Robert Jenkins' first year at San Jose State and I was in two kids’ shows with him – one, a fairly standard show about a young Abe Lincoln through which we wove a filmed sequence, and two, a fantasy wizard show that we toured to elementary schools. I also performed "Scrubb" in "Beaux Stratagem" and a part in a remounting of an original piece that was competing in the American College Theatre Festival that year.

A: Robert Jenkins, Grant McKernie, Dick Parks. Randy Earle, I knew. There was an instructor in the film department whose name escapes me; he was a Zen archer as a hobby. He taught a very good course in film history. There was a great fencing instructor who taught stage combat, too, that I liked. The other names escape me.

A: At that time it seemed to be stuck hovering between the old and the new. I remember the hallways still had pictures of productions done in the 1940's on the walls and that old tradition seemed to freeze things. Hal Todd was just leaving and there was fresh blood coming into the department with Bob Jenkins and others, and you could feel the thaw beginning to happen. It was an inspiring time for me, though. It made me realize that I really did want to focus my life completely on being an actor and that that future for me did not reside in university theatre productions.

A: I remember taking a sensational physiology and anatomy course. (I had to have science credit and thought this was the closest thing to complement my theatre arts major). The lab was run by the guy from Berkley who would toss bones in the air and you'd have to catch them and immediately say what bone it was and on what side of the body it was located. Very cool and lively. I was astounded one day when I came in and saw a body bag in the front of the room. I had no idea that we were going to work on real bodies; I was sure that that was reserved for medical students on down the line. But no, there they were. The instructor explained that they were all from the homicide department at the police station and that the faces would be covered up to help keep us detached and scientific. Most of the times we didn't actually work on the bodies ourselves. Instead, the different body parts and sections would be laid out in pans for us to identify on tests. It was still a startling moment. A new opening.

Q: Presumably Fort Wayne didn’t have a wide selection of theatre. Was there interesting theatre in the Bay Area at the time?

A: An added plus being at San Jose having come from Indiana was the opening of horizons. It was grand to go up to San Francisco on the weekends and see theatre, experience the city. Also equally fun was going over the pass through Los Gatos. There was a terrific theatre there too; I saw a sensational production of Pirandello's "Henry IV" with Dakin Matthews there. And over to Santa Cruz. For a flatland Hoosier, California was a great awakening.

A: While at San Jose I auditioned for and was accepted into the acting conservatory at American Conservatory Theatre up in San Francisco. Bill Ball was still the artistic director at that time. And both the company and conservatory, as well as San Francisco itself, were vibrant and alive with creativity and possibility. I was in the professional training program for two years and then followed stints at a lot of the major repertory companies across the country before moving to New York City in the 80's, where I performed On and Off Broadway and started my film work. I moved to LA touring "Lisbon Traviata" in 1990 and lived and worked there for 16 years.

SAN JOSE STAGE COMPANY ON A ROLL WITH “BLADE TO THE HEAT”;
“ALTAR BOYZ” NEXT ON THE SCHEDULE

Theatre Arts alum RANDY KING’s San Jose Stage Company got knockout reviews for “Blade to the Heat,” a boxing drama co-produced with Thick Description. Set in the late ‘50s, “Blade to the Heat” has been described by several longtime Stage Company subscribers as “the best thing the Company has ever done.”

A special treat was the casting of Theatre Arts alumna MELISSA NAVARRO (pictured, left). The Metro described Melissa as “stunning and svelte in her tiered black skirt,” adding, “Navarro's Sarita is at once comely and kind.”

The show closes April 27 and they’re following it with the South Bay premiere production of the hilarious musical “Altar Boyz,” which won the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Musical. According to the Stage Company website, “'Altar Boyz’ tells the holy inspiring story of five small-town boys - Matthew, Mark, Luke and Juan and joined by their Jewish member Abraham - trying to save the world one screaming fan at a time. Their pious pop act includes hits like Girl You Make Me Wanna Wait and Jesus Called Me on My Cell Phone. With angelic voices, sinfully spectacular dancing and a touching story, Altar Boyz is destined to rock the masses of all denominations!” The show opens May 28. For tickets and information visit the Stage Company website at www.sanjose-stage.com/, or call (408) 283-7142.

December ‘07 master’s grad JOHN ROMANO is busy acting and directing. He performed in Pear Slices 08, which opened April 4 at the Pear Avenue Theatre. The show featured eight short plays by local playwrights. John played five different characters, including surrealist painter Salvador Dali, vagabond sculptor Theo Petrakis, and zany Dr. Martin Mathews who believes in near death experiences as therapy for criminals. Next, he directed "A Covering" by local playwright Leah Halper, in the New Playwright Staged Readings at City Lights Theatre – that was April 8. And starting May 26th John will appear as Jack Worthing in The Importance of Being Earnest produced at the Bus Barn Stage Company in Los Altos. (www.busbarn.org). When not on stage John flies through the Bay Area Skies in “Chopper 11" as an aerial photojournalist for NBC 11 News and on the weekends he is a Broadcast News Editor working on the 5,6, and 11 News. He’s also a Hodgkin’s Lymphoma Survivor in his sixth year of recovery and says, “I am so not looking back!”

Former acting lecturer GWEN TEMPLETON(pictured left, last on right) is finishing her MFA Acting studies at Southern Methodist University. SMU hosts showcases for their graduates, and if you’re in LA and a pal of Gwen’s you might want to check out her now even more brilliant thesping. The event is May 5, 2008 at 7:00 P.M., preceded by a reception at 6:30, at the Matrix Theatre, 7657 Melrose Avenue, in Los Angeles. To RSVP email smu2008showcase@gmail.com. And visit the SMU showcase website for additional details, including Gwen’s individual headshot and resume: www.smu2008showcase.com.

WES HOFFMAN (BA in Theatre Arts Fall 2007) has been doing stand-up comedy for four years now and will be in the Rooster T. Feathers Comedy Competition Semi-Finals on Wednesday, May 7, 2008, at 8 P.M. The audience votes for the comedians who advance. More be found at Wes’s website, http://www.wesjoke.com.

Faculty members ETHEL PITTS-WALKER, BETTY POINDEXTER, DAVID KAHN and SCOTT SUBLETT, along with costume shop manager DEBBIE WEBER, recently enjoyed a group outing to see alumna ADRIENNE MULLER in the TheaterWorks production of Tony Kushner’s “Caroline or Change.” All agreed Adrienne was superb.

NICHOLAS COLLA is working as an assistant editor for a small production company in LA, where he moved after resigning his job at Apple.

DAWN DALTON ('00 M.A. and '98 B.A. Radio/Television), along with her husband Jeff, last May welcomed her first child to the world – daughter Gianna Marsha Dalton. In August, they moved to Chicago and bought their first home (a goal they felt unattainable in the Bay Area). Dawn continues to work as a freelance video/event producer, with two major clients in California and one in Illinois that keep her quite busy. Dawn reports, “Life is good!”

That’s it for May! Until next time, PERFORMANCES leaves you with the lines spoken by Bibi Andersson in Ingmar Bergman’s “Persona”: “Leave me alone. I’m cold and rotten and indifferent. It’s all lies and imitation.”

Scripts written in SJSU film classes won the top three places in the Broadcast Education Association’s annual feature screenwriting competition. The BEA is the country’s largest association of accredited university TV-radio-film programs, and the category won was feature-length film scripts, not shorts.

SHAQUANNA MITCHELL won first place for her script, “Beauty Secrets,” a romantic comedy about an African American girl whose pursuit of an old flame is complicated by an uncooperative wig. Shaquanna, who wrote her screenplay in our RTVF 175 screenwriting class (as did both of the other winners), is an MFA candidate in the English Department’s Creative Writing Program.

MASON WILLIAMS,(pictured left) an undergraduate RTVF major, won second place for “Love and Taft,” a comedy about a young man who receives romantic guidance from a space monster who lives in the house next door.

ZACHARY SUTHERLAND, also an undergrad in RTVF, was awarded third place for his script, “The Back Yard,” a coming-of-age comedy-drama about a pack of twentyish slackers who spend a night looking for “something new to do” and get more than they bargained for.

Teaching the classes in which the winning scripts were written and rewritten were faculty members SCOTT SUBLETT, BARNABY DALLAS and DAVID KAHN.

Also at the Broadcast Education Association, PROF. BABAK SARRAFAN will receive two major awards for his music video, “The Long Road,” starring the band Nuthouze. The video was judged Best of Show in the faculty production competition, beating all other faculty productions in all categories, as well as winning the competitive “mixed” category. The video was for a rap song was about social injustice and economic disparity. The creative team initially wanted to shoot in an actual soup kitchen but there were insurmountable rights problems, and so Babak formed the idea of making the video a “period piece” and setting it in the 1930s. The band Nuthouze comprises a collection of Hollywood actors and local rappers, among them Christopher “Kid” Reed (of Kid ‘n’ Play), James Duval (“Independence Day”), and Mark D, a local artist who organized the band. The video’s set was designed by JOHN YORK, who matched it to the video’s exterior locations in the San Jose Historic Park for authenticity. Costume shop manager DEBBIE WEBBER supervised the superb, period costumes, and RTVF students enthusiastically filled crew positions or performed as extras. The video was a finalist for Best Music Video of the Year at Musicnation.com, and aired on the BET Network.

THE LIEUTENANT OF INISHMORE OPENS APRIL 25 IN HAL TODD “BLACK BOX” THEATER

The department’s production of THE LIEUTENANT OF INISHMORE opens April 25 and runs through May 3. The play is by Irishman Martin McDonagh, author of the recent Colin Farrell comedy “In Bruges.” 37-year-old McDonagh’s best known play, “The Beauty Queen of Leenane,” won a Tony nomination for Best Play in 1998. “Inishmore,” meanwhile, was nominated for the Best Play Tony in 2006. The story concerns a member of the IRA whose best friend, a cat, has been killed. McDonagh’s dark and bloody – yet wildly comic – style has prompted comparisons with Mamet, Pinter and Synge. Student and senior tickets to “Inishmore” are $10; general admission is $15. For more information, or to buy tickets, visit (left, Inishmore Director Matt Spangler)

Grad student MARCO TORRES has received the College Outstanding Thesis Award for his Master’s Thesis, “Sanctifying Queerdom: Religious Identity in New Queer Cinema.”

According to Grad Program Coordinator DR. DAVID KAHN, “Marco's excellent thesis, supervised by DR. ALISON MCKEE, offers a critical reading of the intersection of religious and queer identities in films from the second wave of the New Queer Cinema movement (2000-2007). The films studied are ‘Sordid Lives’ (2000), ‘Hedwig and the Angry Inch’ (2001), ‘Latter Days’ (2003), and ‘Bad Education’ (2004). Using a theological criticism model as presented by Religious Film scholar Joel W. Martin, the thesis analyzes and discusses the use of plot, character, and mise-en-scène in these films to construct identities that are simultaneously queer and religious, and examines how the directors of the films address the conflict between the two identities and what, if any, resolution to the conflict is provided by the films. More information on this and other graduate thesis work can be found at
www.tvradiofilmtheatre.org/MA/Pages/theses.html

Grad student MEHRZAD KARIMABADI has had a proposal accepted to an international conference, “Visual Representations of Iran” June 13-16 at St. Andrews University in Scotland (link: http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/anthropologyiran/conference.html). The leading scholars of Iranian visual culture studies will be there, a small but very prestigious group of researchers and artists. “This is an important international conference in an emerging area of scholarship and an important opportunity for Mehrzad,” said grad coordinator DAVID KAHN. “Performances” fears Scotland because one can get kilt there. (rim shot!)

ALUMNA ADRIENNE MULLER APPEARING IN TONY KUSHNER’S “CAROLINE OR CHANGE”

Talented Theatre Arts alumna ADRIENNE MULLER has been cast in Tony Kushner’s CAROLINE OR CHANGE at TheatreWorks in Mountain View. The show, under the direction of Robert Kelley, goes into previews on April 2, then officially opens Saturday, April 5. It runs through April 27. The acclaimed musical, which is set in the 1960s and addresses issues of class and race, is about the African-American maid of a southern Jewish couple, and the maid’s complex and highly charged relationship with the couple’s young son. For tickets visit www.theatreworks.org.

In other news concerning people named Caroline, alumna CAROLINE LE is pursuing a master’s degree in Media Art at Emerson College. Her short dramatic comedy, “Too Much Plaid,” will premiere at the Queer Women of Color Film Festival between June 13-15 at Brava Theater in San Francisco this year. Also, she was nominated for best director for the short drama “The Things Stolen,” at Sundeis Film Festival hosted by Brandeis University. Recently, Caroline has been revising her script “La Petite Salon,” which she intends to produce for her Master's Project. Caroline says, “’La Petite Salon’ is a fifteen-minute, dramatic fiction narrative, shot on video. Quynh, a young Vietnamese American woman, works at her mother's hair salon where she feels displaced within the Vietnamese culture and community. She encounters everyday conversations about men, domestic politics, and community gossip from the interactions her mother has with their predominately Vietnamese women patrons.” “Performances” sees Queen Latifah as the mother.

Our EXCHANGE WITH THE SHANGHAI THEATRE ACADEMY SCHOOL OF TELEVISION ARTS becomes local during the first two weeks of April. Twelve Chinese students and three faculty will be in our department, the students here primarily to work on the music video production and meet our students… Chair MIKE ADAMS, PROF. BABAK SARRAFAN and tech director JIM LeFEVER will be gone the week of April 14 – 18th for the annual BROADCAST EDUCATION ASSOCIATION (BEA) Conference, sponsored by and coinciding with the giant National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) confab. Babak and Mike will be presenting on production and history, respectively… Then, late in April the National Association of Schools of Theatre (NAST), and RTVF program evaluators will be in Hugh Gillis Hall to look at us for ACCREDITATION (BA/MA Theatre Arts), and program study (BA RTVF). More meetings, more dinners, but more importantly, it’s a chance for every faculty and staff member to have serious discussions about program issues.

Seen on the scene, out and about, in March… Alum LUIS “ZOOT SUIT” VALDEZ and son KINAN VALDEZ, participating in our successful production of “Mummified Deer,” and our “Day of Luis Valdez,” including a moving closing night speech about how it has always been a dream of his to see one of his plays on the University Theatre stage… Alum PAUL ENCINAS, showing his student-written-and-directed feature GLORY BOY DAYS to packed houses at Cinequest and at the San Francisco Asian American Film Festival… MARK TRAN sneak previewing ALL ABOUT DAD at Cinequest Fest to a packed and appreciative house… Professors MIKE ADAMS and ALISON McKEE addressing the Popular Culture Association conference in San Francisco… PROF. RANDY EARLE presenting at the USITT conference… and faulty member BABAK SARRAFAN preparing to shoot his new music video with a crew made up of our own students mixed in with visiting students and faculty from the Shanghai Theatre Academy School of Television Arts. The band is called Paloma and the Rubies.

That’s it for April. Until May, PERFORMANCES leaves you with the words of Carl Schurz, spoken in 1899: “Our country, right or wrong. When right to be kept right; when wrong, to be put right.”

Alumni who saw our department’s moving stage adaptation of Khalid Housseini’s bestselling novel “The Kite Runner” know that the new play, which was written especially for the San Jose State production, is a superb interpretation of the novel’s essence, highly dramatic and dizzyingly theatrical.

Apparently, San Jose’s theatrical community noticed as well. The city’s most prominent theater, the San Jose Rep, has scheduled the original SJSU script for a lavish professional production in March of next year.

The script was written by Communications Studies Prof. MATT SPANGLER, who also directed the SJSU production. Dr. Spangler’s play will be billed as a “World Premiere” at the Rep because it is indeed the play’s first professional production; it had an all-student cast when it was mounted at San Jose State. The SJSU production will receive “developmental production” credit in all future programs, and no one associated with the Rep production thinks that the Rep will by any means be the last prominent regional theater to produce Spangler’s skillfully-wrought script.

The San Jose State production was originally produced by Professors SCOTT SUBLETT and BARNABY DALLAS. Prof. Sublett was a member of the Campus Reading Committee when “The Kite Runner” was selected as the campus book and suggested to Spangler that Theatre Arts would be interested in seeing him adapt the novel. Spangler had studied at Northwestern University, where the translation of prose fiction to the stage is a specialty. Spangler, already a fan of the book, enthusiastically elected to tackle the project and painstakingly carved a brisk play out of an epic novel. The departmental production committee approved a full production on the University Stage, and Director of Production Barnaby Dallas took responsibility for coordinating the difficult undertaking of producing an entirely new play, giving Spangler what he needed to guide the student cast to a production that was attended and applauded by Khalid Housseini himself. At a closing night reception for Housseini, who was on campus to give a talk under the auspices of the Center for Literary Arts, the acclaimed novelist generously spent hours talking with student actors.

“The ‘Kite Runner’ success shows that our department is in the forefront of campus-wide cooperation,” said Dept. CHAIR MIKE ADAMS. “The ‘Kite Runner’ production couldn’t have been such a huge success without the cooperation of the Communications Studies Department, the Campus Reading Committee, the English Department’s Center for Literary Arts, and the School of Music and Dance, which provided original music for the SJSU production. It’s also important to note that the play, which depicts the struggles of Afghan-Americans, is typical of the diversity of voices heard on the University Theatre stage.”

“Matt Spangler is an incredibly talented writer,” said Prof. Sublett, who is also TRFT’s Head of Writing. “He’s a perfectionist who sweats every single detail and rigorously cuts from his material anything that would derail the dramatic momentum. ‘The Kite Runner’ is a big novel and the play’s cast isn’t small, so for the Rep to take it on shows great faith in the Matt’s dramatic writing.”

Said Prof. Dallas, “Matt is always welcome to direct on our stage, not only because of his great talent, but also because of his obvious kindness and concern for student actors. He’s an incredible teacher and leader. The technical staff loves working with Matt because he’s so clear and precise about what he needs, and creative about working within the budget restraints that we all have to live with on campus.”

Dr. Spangler is currently directing our department’s upcoming production of THE LIEUTENANT OF INISHMORE by Martin McDonagh, who wrote the recent hit Colin Farrell comedy “In Bruges.” Click here for “Inishmore” info.

THIS BUD’S FOR BUDDY: PERFORMANCE PROF DIRECTS “FIRE-BREATHING” SUPERBOWL AD

Nowadays people look forward to the new commercials broadcast alongside the Super Bowl almost as much as they do to the game itself. This year, many media observers said one of the very the best ads of the afternoon was the Budweiser beer spot in which a man breathes fire and incinerates his girlfriend’s cat.

Said Dept. Chair Mike Adams, “Buddy has directed several of these Bud Ads in past years, and this puts him in the big time.”

The commercial came as a surprise to Prof. Butler’s students and colleagues, who knew nothing about it. When asked why he hadn’t mentioned it, Buddy said, “I don’t like to trumpet my accomplishments.” Hmmm. “Performances” likes to tell everyone everything – and aren’t you glad?

“MUMMIFIED DEER” EVENTS HONOR THE WORK OF ESTEEMED ALUMNUS PLAYWRIGHT LUIS VALDEZ

Don’t miss the next production in the University Theatre: the Northern California premier production of LUIS VALDEZ’S “MUMMIFIED DEER.” Valdez, America’s best known Latino playwright, graduated from SJSU and learned playwriting in our department.

The show performs February 29 and March 1, 6, 7, 8 at 7 PM, with a matinee on March 5 at noon, and is being directed by Kinan Valdez, son of the playwright. For ticket information click here.

Meanwhile, grad student RAMON JOHNSON is organizing “A Day of Valdez,” all day Wednesday March 5. With acting workshops and more, “A Day of Valdez” will explore of the life, times, and creative process of one of San Jose State’s most esteemed alumni. “A Day of Valdez” is free apart from the Wednesday March 5th matinee of “Mummified Deer.” Luis Valdez will be in house for workshops, Q&A, and other activities for students and interested members of the public. Our “Day of Valdez” begins at 7:30 A.M. and concludes with a 5:00 P.M. screening of the film “Zoot Suit,” a story of 1930/40s Los Angeles and the Pachucos, young Mexican-American men. This event is a must for those who are enthusiasts of Chicano Theater.

We mentioned it last month but it’s worth repeating – we’re all over the Cinequest Film Festival, so turn out and support our students and alumni! Here’s a rundown of our unprecedented presence at this important fest:

GLORY BOY DAYS. PAUL ENCINAS’s student-written-and-directed feature film, just back from the Slamdance Festival in Park City, where it was an official selection in the narrative feature category, is a coming of age ensemble comedy-drama noted especially for its spectacularly gorgeous visual style. It screens March 7 at 7:00 P.M. and March 8 at 10:00 P.M., both at the San Jose Repertory Theater.

ALL ABOUT DAD. MARK TRAN’s student written-and-directed feature, will receive a “sneak preview” at Cinequest. The comedy concerns a Vietnamese American family with a father who has strong ideas about how his children should run their lives. It screens March 5 at 7:00 P.M. at the San Jose Rep.

DREAMS ON A STRING. This charming short, written and directed by student JONATHAN WHITE, is about a magical balloon that floats through the world making dreams come true.

MASS TRANSIT. Also in the student shorts competition, CHRIS FAULKNER’s offbeat romance about a boy who sees a girl on a commuter train. The film was produced by ANDREW HELLESEN through the students’ own Film Production Society.

Both MASS TRANSIT and DREAMS ON A STRING will screen in the Student Shorts Competition, Feb. 28 at 7:30 P.M. and March 2 at 10:30 A.M., at the Camera 12.

DAY OF THE WRITER. As usual, writing faculty members SCOTT SUBLETT and BARNABY DALLAS will be featured speakers in the day-long training for aspiring screenwriters. Day of the Writer is March 9 this year, with Sublett speaking at 9:30 A.M. and Dallas at 11:00 A.M., both at the San Jose Rep.

PROF. ETHEL WALKER (pictured, center, left) received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the College of Arts and Sciences from the University of Missouri at a banquet ceremony March 15 in Columbia, Missouri. The award recognizes outstanding achievement in the career field of the honorees. Dr. Walker, who is SJSU’s reigning Professor of the Year, is pictured left accepting the award, from Dean of the College Michael O'Brien and Chancellor Brady Deaton.

If you haven’t visited the Awkward Pictures website you need to do so soon. Awkward Pictures is made up of award-winning writer/directors PAYMAN BENZ and SEAN BECKER, both RTVF grads from our department. Together they produce comedic short films and sketches. Their work has been screened at over 30 film festivals, featured on prominent websites such as YouTube and Myspace, and has won several awards, including an Emmy in 2004. In July 2007, Awkward Pictures won the 1st YouTube Sketchies Contest, sponsored by Sierra Mist, where they faced off against over 5,000 other entrants. 'Fanny Pack' and 'Creepy', two comedic music videos directed by Payman Benz, are featured on AdamSandler.com, and are the first videos not produced by Happy Madison to be featured on the website. You hear a lot about viral this and internet comedy that, but Payman and Sean really are doing it.

According to “The Hollywood Reporter,” alumna CAITLIN DISSINGER has been cast in “ChainSmoke”, an indie thriller being produced by Giant Leap Films. The picture started principal photography at Lake Tahoe on February 6 under the direction of first-time director Phil Grasso. The cast features Dissinger, Zachary Gossett and Dov Hassan.

PROF. AMY GLAZER’s (pictured left with Daphne Zuniga) new play at the SF Playhouse got a rave in the San Jose Mercury-News – even though star Daphne Zuniga fell ill on opening night! Critic Karen D’Souza wrote, “Miraculously, despite this bad luck, director Amy Glazer pulled off a deliciously dark West Coast premiere of Theresa Rebeck's absolutely smashing little black dress of a comedy, ‘The Scene.’” For ticket information go to www.sfplayhouse.org.

Theatre Arts alumnus JEFF BROWN is “Jim” in Arthur Miller’s “All My Sons” on the Second Stage at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Mountain View. Jeff told PERFROMANCES that he’d love to see other alumni in the audience: “After the show we can hang out, grab a drink at one of the bars on Castro, and – for those I haven't seen in a long time – catch up!” Hurry. The show only runs through March 9, at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 500 Castro Street Mountain View CA 94041. Tickets are $20 for generals and $15 for students or seniors. Purchase ahead by calling (650) 903-6000, or order online at www.mvcpa.com.

The Big Easy Group in San Jose State University's RTVF 185 Digital Media/Podcast Production and Performance class won $500 from the Dial Corporation in a digital video shootout sponsored by the Dial Corporation and Zooka Creative in cooperation with San Jose State University. With professionalism and a keen eye for detail, the Big Easy Group, led by leader GEORGE FLANIGAN, ANTHONY OLMOS, BK BAR and DAVID MA LEE pulled out all the stops to create a professional-quality digital video to promote a new Dial product called RGX. Stiff competition among PROFESSOR DAN FORTUNE'S RTVF 185 and RTVF 141 students prevailed, and Big Easy Group worked hard to produce commercial quality content and was rewarded with this prize. The production team on the commercial also involved the students MATT FALKENTHAL, CHRIS FAULKNER, NICOLE GREEN, AUDREY BAILEY, DEVIN ELSTON, JONATHAN MANGRUM, BRIAN DUMBROWSKI, DANIEL CHESNUT, RANDY MARCHMAN, JAMES JEFFREY, and NICK RODRIQUEZ. To view the winning commercial click

Recent grad JASON SALAZAR is working on a mockumentary about people trying to make an action-adventure film and how everything just goes horribly wrong. There’s a teaser trailer at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOIwJLzbrLY. Alumna LAUREN PLAXCO, also a star of GLORY BOY DAYS, is in it. Jason will also be attending a “fan fest” in Washington, Rad Con 5, where seven of his films will be screened and he’ll be on a filmmaker panel. His wife Sharon, meanwhile, is about to start shooting her second feature at Branham High. It's called "The Out Crowd" and Jason wrote it specifically for her. It follows the exploits of a group of nerds who take a stand against bullies.

Alum PAUL SAWYER recently closed a production of “Moby Dick, The Musical!” which he directed with All About Theatre in Santa Cruz, where he’s currently serving as an Artist in Residence. He teaches classes in acting, improv, audition technique, and works on most of their Main Stage shows. He’s currently ramping up for “Smokey Joe's Café,” which he’ll be directing in late spring, and “Peter Pan,” for which he’ll conduct the orchestra. “The company is fantastic, and the kids are phenomenally talented!” Paul says, adding, “This spring is going to be very busy with the wedding coming up, a possible cross-country move, [and] putting time into my first book (aimed at teens breaking into the world of theatre).”

Alumna ROBYN HANNAH recently scored a triumph in the Santa Clara Players production of “Steel Magnolias,” where she played Shelby (the “Julia Roberts” part) with what the Milpitas Post called “cheeky passion.” The “must see” production,” which it is unfortunately has closed so you can’t see it anymore, was directed by alumna ANGIE HIGGINS.

Attention LA alumni: well-regarded actress and well-loved person ALI HOFFMAN, now graduated, has moved to LA and is looking for PA work (“or whatever”). Send your ideas or just offer to take her out for coffee. PROF. ETHEL WALKER describes Ali as "one of the students at the university I'm really proud of," and says Ali's "a very hard-working responsible, person...with talent...and a wonderful personality...and very pretty." Not that looks matter in acting. Email “Performances” if you have any leads for Ali or want to get in touch with her.

Thanks are due to faculty members BABAK SARRAFAN and BARNABY DALLAS, who recently compiled the required RTVF Program Review and the NAST (National Association of Schools of Theatre) Accreditation Review. These massive documents look backward at our accomplishments and forward into our future as we negotiate the rough seas of changing student tastes and shrinking state budgets.

You may recall that a few summers back, in 2005 to be precise, during the shooting of our feature film “Drifting Elegant,” Hugh Gillis Hall 114 (variously known as “The Alumni Room” and “The Conference Room’) caught fire when a misplaced can of Sterno met some inflammable curtains. (Rumors that “PERFORMANCES” doused the curtains with accelerant because they were so ugly are utterly unfounded.) As a result of the fire, the TRFT archives were moved upstairs.

We have an uneven collection of things and no one person really knows what it is. Faculty Emeritus KEN DORST, who spent several years working on it, was unable to catalogue it all. This is where you, dear reader, come in: Grad student LEE BROOKS is working under PROF. DAVID KAHN to make some sense of it and needs help. TRFT Librarian PAUL KAUPPILLA is having some of really historic materials evaluated for possible placement in their permanent collection, probably the best thing we can do for them, but if you’re interested in helping with the rest, contact “PERFORMANCES” via the link above, and your email will be forwarded to Prof. Kahn.

BRAD KRANICH (pronounced "chronic") now in LA, living on "Stoner Street." As Jack Paar used to say, “I kid you not”… ANGIE HIGGINS, JEFF PAULSON, and CHRISTIAN PIZZIRANI in Joseph Kesselring’s classic comedy “Arsenic and Old Lace” at the Northside Theatre. Tickets are $15 and the show runs through March 9. Visit http://www.northsidetheatre.com/website/season.html ... Department graduate student LAWRENCE STANSBERRY starting his own media design firm, LS3 Digital Media. Stansberry is working to complete his M.A. in our Department. His website is www.LS3digitalmedia.com... According to our Dept. Chair and Webmaster Mike Adams, “Performances,” the TRFT Newsletter, has racked up 1.5 million page requests in the past year. Tell your fellow alumni to check us out!

That’s it for March. Until April, PERFORMANCES leaves you with the words of screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky, spoken by Ernest Borgnine in MARTY: “You don’t get to be good-hearted by accident. If you’ve been kicked around long enough, you get to be a – a real professor of pain.”

LECTURER MARC PINATE ON THE CUTTING EDGE OF LATINO SPOKEN WORD PERFORMANCE

Theatre Arts instructor MARC PINATE isn’t boxed in by traditional ideas of what constitutes “proper” content for the “legitimate stage.” Instead, Pinate, who has been a part-time instructor in the Department of TV, Radio, Film and Theatre for five years, is dedicated to finding new means of theatrical expression, especially for speakers of Spanish.

Pinate, a “spoken word” performer of national repute, in 1999 founded the “Lunada” open mike series, a monthly evening of storytelling, poetry-reading and spoken word. It began humbly enough in a small, San Jose Mexican restaurant, but has subsequently grown into a San Francisco cultural institution, housed in the Mission District’s historic art space Galeria de la Raza.

When he was appointed program manager at Galeria de la Raza in 2004, Marc revived the Lunada as a monthly “open mic” where spoken word artists could perform in Spanish, English or Spanglish, sometimes accompanied by live music. The hip, lively event has attracted the participation of noted Bay Area Latino poets such as Francisco Alarcon, Guillermo Gomez Pena Aya de Leon and Leticia Hernandez. The event is monthly – and free if you bring a homemade dish! (Otherwise admission is $5.)

“Performances” sat down with Marc to find out more about Lunada, the Galeria de la Raza, and Pinate’s own glittering career as spoken word artist.

Performances: What can people expect if they go to a Lunada? And what does the word “Lunada” mean?

Pinate: In Mexico's smaller towns and pueblos, people sometimes gather outside on the night of the full moon, usually in the town plaza, and share songs, poetry and stories. There is usually food - hot chocolate and pastries called "pan dulce." These gatherings are called Lunadas, from the root word, Luna, which means moon in Spanish. This tradition is an indigenous one that goes back thousands and thousands of years. Of course, there are people all over the world who have gathered on the night of the full moon, usually for some kind of spiritual or esoteric purpose. That's pretty much what I feel an open mic is, or can be at its best. At the Lunadas I host at Galeria de la Raza, I try to create that sense of community ritual - the sharing of food, stories and spirit. We gather so that through our songs and poems we can remember that we are not alone. It is, like all "talk circles," medicine for the soul.

Pinate: Well, I can't say that it was just luck or timing, because I don't believe that anything happens by accident. But in 2004, I finally made the decision to move up to the SF-Oakland scene, and this position just kind of opened up right at that time. I had spent the previous six years building a performance and literary program at MACLA (Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana) here in San Jose, and I think that experience was a big part of why I was hired.

Pinate: The gallery displays six to eight art exhibitions a year along with artist talks and workshops. We also do film screenings, music concerts, and literary events, and from time to time we present theatre as well. This year we focused much of our programming around the issue of immigration. Galeria de la Raza is one of the oldest Chicano art organizations in the country. It is the birthplace of the group Culture Clash, Guillermo Gomez Pena is a regular presence there, along with founders of "Chicano Art" such as Ester Hernandez, Yolanda Lopez and Jose Montoya. We also feature lots of spoken word artists - Latino and non-Latino - and performance collectives like headRush, Las Manas, Brown Buffalo Project, Teatro Luna and Madmedia.

Performances: As an artist, you’re primarily known for spoken word performance, both live and on CD. A lot of people don’t know what the terms “spoken word” and “poetry slam” mean. Can you enlighten them?

Pinate: You know, there has been a lot of talk about what these terms mean... about what is the difference between "regular poetry" and "spoken word." In the end, its ALL POETRY and its ALL THEATRE, I mean, life in general, right? ...but before I get too metaphysical about it, I'll start with the easiest term which is SLAM! A poetry slam is simply a competition between spoken word poets or "performance poets" where five members of the "audience" (often unsuspecting bar patrons) are the judges. If anyone ever did forensics in school, a.k.a. speech tournaments, well this is exactly what slam is, except everybody's drunk. I'm kidding (sort of)! One of the best things about slam poetry is that all the work is original and written by the performers themselves. As for spoken word... well, to me, it’s pure performance. It's the big juicy monologue at the end of the play, only, you don't need to watch the whole play anymore to get the pay-off. It is a microwave society and I have to say that spoken word is what Shakespeare has evolved into, for certainly the rhythm and cadence of many spoken word poets is the iambic pentameter of the urban 21st century. Whatever you want to call it, at its root, it is the Oral Tradition. It is bards and troubadours, griots and the Beat Poets, the Last Poets, Doug E. Fresh, and Saul Williams. Performances: Is there a big difference between poetry designed primarily to be spoken and poetry designed primarily to be read? Do spoken word artists work to a different set of criteria? What’s the relationship between spoken word and theatre – where do they intersect? And where does slamming fit in? Answer those questions in any order you like. Pinate: I think there’s a huge difference between poetry for the page and poetry for the stage. For the former, the written poetry is the final product, for the latter it is just one of several steps towards the final product, which is a performance. Written spoken word poetry is like sheet music, it’s just notations to remind you what notes to play on your instrument, which is your voice and body, but the "notes" are not the music, right? I mean you can transcribe a riff by Jimi Hendrix, but what's on paper, sure as hell ain't Jimi! Spoken word is meant to be performed and experienced viscerally, not just intellectually, which is why I believe that all spoken word is just one of theatre's many forms, you know, the old theater adage, "show, don't tell." At the same time, I think there are spoken word poets who come from a theatrical background and there are those who come from a hip hop background and you will find that the former sometimes feels like a monologue and the latter sometimes seems like a rap. However I think most spoken word poets fall somewhere in the middle. Perhaps the most outstanding feature, however, is spoken word's anti-establishment quality. One cannot overlook the progressive, counter narrative nature of spoken word. It is what hip hop was when it first started, a means by which those without a mainstream platform can attack the master narratives and hegemonic myths of the New World Order. This is why you can't hear spoken word on the radio, unless it’s KPFA. I believe this is what makes spoken word so necessary and popular in these times, because it is an art form that seeks to change our collective consciousness, by altering the very fabric of reality: the stories we tell each other.

Performances: Are spoken word and slam well understood in the academic world? And are they usually studied in the English departments or theatre departments?

Pinate: I think at times, in some instances, there can be a tension between academics, people who have their MFA in creative writing or a PhD in Literature, and spoken word artists. It is an issue of legitimacy. Someone who forks out 50 grand for an MFA and has studied, in depth, all established literary forms and formulas and has read and analyzed all the "greats" of the Western literary cannon will never believe that someone who grew up "spittin' rhymes” and listening to E-40 and Tupac can be on the same level as them. But I think the comparison is wrong. Spoken word poets think MFA grads are too stuffy and BORING. MFA folks think spoken word poets are all show and no substance. In the end, it’s silly to generalize because there are amazing artists on both sides and there are really bad poets on both sides – although more on the academic side! I think you have to play to your audience and who’s to say what is "legitimate?" I don't know whether or not spoken word is studied in English departments. I'm sure there are a few maverick - innovative? - professors that do cover it. Sometimes, when I Google myself I'll see my work in some professor's online syllabus. However, since so much of spoken word is unpublished, I suspect it’s not taught as much. However, I sincerely hope I am wrong about that. In the end, it’s a pointless dichotomy. There’s an audience for everything. Poets, MCs, authors just need to do their thing for the people that want to see/read/hear it. You're either relevant or you're not.

Performances: Tell me about winning the title “National Poetry Slam Champion.”

Pinate: It is one of my proudest moments. 1999 was a special year for the Bay Area and spoken word. I think it's when spoken word hit its critical mass and really exploded after that. There were over 200 teams from about 45 states who met in Chicago, which is where slam poetry started (at the Green Mill bar by a guy named Mark Smith). Of the four teams that made it to the finals, three of them were Bay Area teams - Oakland, San Francisco and San Jose. The fourth team was from NYC. The competition was covered by 60 Minutes and the New York Times. It was a big deal, you know, and it did a lot for my standing as a poet and performer. I was also proud to represent San Jose and win it for the city where I basically got my start as an artist.

Performances: You pitch your work toward working class Latinos. Does that affect your choice of subject matter, and set it apart from more so-called “traditional” poets?

Pinate: Hmmm.... I think when I was younger that might have been the case. You know, like, when I was in my 20s I was all about "down with da Man" and whatnot. However, I think (or hope) as I've gotten older my work has become more universal. I think that's the tendency for many artists of color. The first thing you want to do when you finally "find your voice" is yell and rant about how you've been jacked over for the last 500 years. It feels good to finally be able to say it so publicly. It's necessary and empowering. But it’s hard to be mad all the time, you know, and honestly, that rap gets old real quick. These days I find myself more interested in love rather than pain; unity above separatism. We are all one organism on this planet and I need to speak to more than just people who share my skin tone. I'm not sure what a "traditional poet" is. If it means one of the dead white guys I was forced to read in high school then yeah, my poetry is probably different from that. Is Rumi a traditional poet? Pablo Neruda, e.e. cummings, Lorca? I think I share something with these guys. I think there is a tradition of provocation in poetry and art in general, and in that sense I am certainly a part of a tradition. But you know, I have my Spanish poems and my spanglish poems and my New Age poems and my hip hop poems and my love poems and my rant poems and my epic poems... cause the goal is to be able to hold your own with ANY audience, right?

Performances: You also had a Chicano rock band, Grito Serpentino. Tell me about it.

Pinate: That was a lot of fun. We were together about ten years. During that time we played hundreds of shows around the Bay Area, California and the whole country. I guess what set us apart and accounted for much of our success was our format which was an eclectic mix of musical styles combined with spoken word. Truly, there can be nothing more thrilling, exhilarating and downright fun than being the front man of a band! Touring was the best, especially when we were in the southwest and the Midwest. We received a lot of love from those audiences. Playing the Lincoln Center's Summer Arts Festival in New York was one of the high points as well. We recorded two CDs, which are still played on college and indie radio stations around the country to this day. After I moved up to San Francisco it became harder to commute to San Jose for band practice and I also started doing more acting with theater companies in San Francisco. Other band members had families and business careers they were getting into so we called it quits. I do miss that kind of performing, but I am excited about the work I'm doing in SF and the East Bay on my own.

Performances: You got an impressive grant recently. Who gave it to you and for what, and are you afraid that you’ll get all “respectable” and be co-opted by The Establishment?

Pinate: Heh... That's funny, “co-opted by The Establishment." No, I can't say that's a big worry. The grant I received was a $10,000 creation grant from the National Performance Network. It was my first "professional" commission and I have to say it went a long way towards making me feel like a legitimate working artist. I must recognize my artistic partners Paul Flores and Amalia Ortiz. In 2004, we formed the collective, Chicano Messengers of Spoken Word. Paul was the key person in putting the project together. I was honored to be invited to participate. Both Paul and Amalia had been featured on HBO's Def Poetry; Amalia had been on an impressive four times. My claim to fame was winning the National Poetry Slam. Anyway, we wanted to write a play that used spoken word as a major component. We were awarded the grant with Youth Speaks in San Francisco, MECA in Houston and Su Teatro in Denver signing on as sponsoring venues. The play we created was called "Fear of a Brown Planet" and included an original score by Bay Area jazz phenom, Marcus Shelby. Marcus is an amazing musician and the coolest dressed cat I know, and it was a real honor to have him travel and perform with us when we toured the show. I had written and produced several plays before, when I was the artistic director of Los Del Pueblo Actors' Lab (the resident theater company I founded at MACLA), but this was the first time I had a REAL production budget to work with. Also having the venerable Tony Garcia (founder and artistic director of Su Teatro in Denver) as the director was a great experience. The play was set in the near future and centered around three people being held in prison without charges after the Patriot Act had completely taken away everyone's civil liberties. Our opening at Theatre Artaud was OK, but after some rewrites our shows in Denver and Houston really ROCKED!

Pinate: No, I didn't. I moved here in 1990 from Chandler, Arizona. I came out to attend Santa Clara University as an undergraduate. During that time I got to know San Jose and ended up staying here for 14 years. I started working with [San Jose Latino Theatre Company] Teatro Vision about a year after I graduated. Elisa Alvarado, Teatro Vision's founder and artistic director, gave me my start in theater and was an early mentor of mine. Even through I wasn't born in San Jose, it’s where I got my start as an artist and I strongly feel that I was afforded opportunities that I would have never been able to do in a big city like San Francisco. I have a lot of love for San Jose and I'm very happy that I have been able to keep my connection to it as an instructor as San Jose State, which is a job that I absolutely love.

Performances: You’re teaching a so-called MUSE class in the fall – can you tell our readers what a MUSE class is, and why you agreed to teach it even though it’s more work than a regular class?

Pinate: Well, to my understanding, MUSE classes are designed to help incoming freshmen stay in college and succeed in an environment that may be very different from what they’re used to. I believe they’re geared towards students who come form marginalized communities, students that may be the first in there families to go to college. MUSE classes are GE classes that are "enriched" with extra lessons on study skills and certain required field trips that help students learn how to get the most out of their college experience. I think this is a wonderful program. Having been one of those "at risk" students myself, when I was an undergrad, I can fully appreciate the extra challenges that these students face. Coming from an activist background, I am strongly committed to keeping working class students and students of color in school. As a Chicano - which I see as an ideological designation rather than an ethnic one - I have a responsibility to make sure I do all I can to work towards a more egalitarian society. I am very much looking forward to teaching this class in the fall semester. As it is, I feel that a beginning acting class helps students become more confident when speaking in front of people and that is a life skill that is a tremendous asset whether you are an actor or not. I think beginning acting is a perfect course to offer as a MUSE class.

Pinate: I am very excited to be working with my favorite playwright in the world, Octovio Solis, at my favorite theatre company in the Bay Area, Intersection for the Arts' resident theater company Campo Santo, this March. Octavio will be premiering a new play, ‘June in a Box,’ and I have a big juicy role in it! Also in the cast are veteran actors VIVIS and Luis Saguar, whom I am totally honored to be sharing the stage with. I was in two Campo Santo productions last year (most recently I worked with Danny Scheie) and I just can't say enough about this company. I am also continuing my artist residency at La Pena Cultural Center this year. I have been conducting street theatre and hybrid performance workshops there for the last two semesters, working with a group of very talented actors and performers from the East Bay. This semester we are moving from a workshop format to a performance ensemble and I have been commissioned to oversee the creation a new hybrid performance piece that will premiere there in June and hopefully tour afterwards.

Galeria de la Raza is located at 2857 24th St. in San Francisco. Visit www.GaleriadelaRaza.org.

This year’s Cinequest Film Festival, as is usual of late, features important participation by Dept. of TV, Radio, Film and Theatre students and faculty. Two features, two shorts and two speakers will be at Cinequest.

GLORY BOY DAYS. PAUL ENCINAS’s student-written-and-directed feature film, just back from the Slamdance Festival in Park City, where it was an official selection in the narrative feature category, is a coming of age ensemble comedy-drama noted especially for its spectacularly gorgeous visual style. It screens March 7 at 7:00 P.M. and March 8 at 10:00 P.M., both at the San Jose Repertory Theater.

ALL ABOUT DAD. MARK TRAN’s student written-and-directed feature, will receive a “sneak preview” at Cinequest. The comedy concerns a Vietnamese American family with a father who has strong ideas about how his children should run their lives. It screens March 5 at 7:00 P.M. at the San Jose Rep.

DREAMS ON A STRING. This charming short, written and directed by student JONATHAN WHITE, is about a magical balloon that floats through the world making dreams come true.

MASS TRANSIT. Also in the student shorts competition, MATT FAULKER’s offbeat romance about a boy who sees a girl on a commuter train. The film was produced by ANDREW HELLESEN through the students’ own Film Production Society.

Both MASS TRANSIT and DREAMS ON A STRING will screen in the Student Shorts Competition, Feb. 28 at 7:30 P.M. and March 2 at 10:30 A.M., at the Camera 12.

DAY OF THE WRITER. As usual, writing faculty members SCOTT SUBLETT and BARNABY DALLAS will be featured speakers in the day-long training for aspiring screenwriters. Day of the Writer is March 9 this year, with Sublett speaking at 9:30 A.M. and Dallas at 11:00 A.M., both at the San Jose Rep.

A large contingent from the Dept. of TV, Radio, Film and Theatre went to Slamdance to provide moral support for the student filmmakers who traveled through rain, sleet and snow – OK, no sleet – to savor the excitement and glamour surrounding the festival’s selection of student-written-and-directed feature GLORY BOY DAYS for two screenings.

Faculty members NED KOPP, BABAK SARRAFAN, BARNABY DALLAS and SCOTT SUBLETT showed up, the last of whom submitted to “Performances” (which is to say, submitted to himself), the following “Slamdance Diary,” a very casual, very first person account of his day-by-day reactions to his time at the festival, and reflections on the process that got the film there:

Park City at Festival time is a blast. I knew that Slamdance and Sundance took place at the same time in the same town, and that Slamdance was the “authentic” indie festival, focusing on first-time directors with budgets under a million. But until I got here I had no idea that Slamdance and Sundance were basically a block away from each other and that everyone intermingled in the bars, the restaurants, and on the street. And what a street is Main Street, Park City, Utah – an endless row of high-end boutiques and eateries such as you’d find in Los Gatos, plopped in the midst of the most magnificent, snow skiing mountains in America.

At midday is the first screening of the GLORY BOY DAYS – to a packed house. I’m struck again by the sweetness and lyricism of the script. TODD BANHAZL’S cinematography is astounding – every time they cut to a new shot it’s a new, arresting, surprising, seductive image. Todd and Paul collaborated brilliantly. Paul isn’t just a talented writer – he’s a total filmmaker.

So many students, and recent grads, who were on the crew and loved the experience, have come up for the fest! GREG BRADLEY, JAMES JEFFREY, JOHN LaROSA, JUAN SERNA, ANDREW HELLESEN, NICK MARTIN, BANHAZL, ENCINAS, and cast members JARED MENDIOLA, TONY AGRESTI, LAUREN PLAXCO, OMAR MUNOZ, and KAMERON COLLINS. They jammed themselves into cars like clowns in a circus Volkswagen and drove all night. When they got here about 14 of them slept in a condo they rented. Their loyalty to Paul is amazing, and Paul needed their loyalty to successfully complete the film. He earned their help because he was always generous in helping other film students with their projects. The students knew Paul, had faith in Paul, and so they gave 100 per cent through the many, long, grueling days on the set. If Paul had been a jerk his movie would never have gotten made. Being a jerk can work in Hollywood, but it doesn't work in the low-budget indie world, where it really helps to be a nice guy because you need lots and lots of favors. Paul is an example of a nice guy finishing first. We have a lot of incredible film students but Paul was unique even among that crowd. He's crazy about beauty -- photography, clothes, break dancing, whatever -- and that love of beauty comes through in his exquisitely composed shots. He's also modest, humble and somewhat shy, but with a quietly determined and confident core that he carefully protects.

At events and on the street I run into students from a variety of universities, but they’re here observing the festival, usually for credit in Winter Session classes. I feel so proud that our SJSU students aren’t just watching the festival – they’re IN the festival, with a feature. True, there are other college students here with films in the festival, but they’re all shorts. GLORY BOY DAYS is certainly the only feature made with a student crew to be in Slamdance or Sundance. Hundreds and hundreds of university film departments make shorts. Almost none make feature-length films.

A big reason we can successfully make features and other schools can't is that our screenwriting classes are generating feature scripts worth shooting. I’m proudly kvelling to everyone who’ll listen that the GLORY BOY DAYS script was written in my screenwriting class. People seem interested in our program, and I tell them that all our film majors are required to take a screenwriting class where they outline a feature-length script and then write 60 pages – a bit more than half. Then they finish it the following semester if they want to. Paul fit right into our philosophy, which is anti-research and anti-genre in that we insist on screenwriting that's drawn from one's own life, not bad imitations of Hollywood hits. Students succeed best when they write what they know, and Paul knew the hipster, hip hop, B-boy (break dancing) culture he depicted in the film. I recall that I gave Paul an A+ and immediately started talking up 'Glory Boy Days' as a feature script our department realistically could produce. It had high literary quality and an absence of expensive car chases, so it was something we could adequately support. Our Director of Production Barnaby Dallas was very excited by the script and got behind Paul, forming a production class in which the film would be shot over winter session 2007, and making sure the students had as much support as we could give them. And here we are a year later, at Slamdance. It’s incredible. It’s particularly incredible because, even with the support the department could afford, the kids had to raise money, scrounge, and make do. It’s a testament to the incredible resourcefulness of indie filmmakers. And also to our students’ production management skills, taught to them by Ned Kopp, and their technical abilities, taught by Babak Sarrafan.

For me, it’s a snow day. Completely snowed in. It’s a real blizzard. I’m staying with a pal from graduate school, down in Orem, an hour away. I’m drinking coffee when I see her neighbor shoveling her walk, so I have to get dressed quickly and run out to help so I don’t look like a bad guest. I don’t think I’ve shoveled snow since living in Chicago as kid. But the Chicago snow was heavy. This is powder and it’s light as a feather. Still, there’s so much of it. The roads up the mountains, at least for today, are impassable.

The snow’s been plowed and I’m back in Park City. Apparently, despite the blizzard, the festival proceeded on schedule yesterday and the students were busy all day.

The kids are so incredible. The snow is deep and the air is cold, but I notice that most of the students are wearing sneaker – in some cases CANVASS sneakers! They don’t seem to care at all. They just don’t seem to care because they’re having such a great time, seeing films, meeting other filmmakers, going to parties. Tony Agresti seems to have the smoothest facility for talking his way into the hot parties. He’s pretty fearless when it comes to schmoozing, and even tried to bum a cigarette from SIDEWAYS star PAUL GIAMATTI.

The kids are seeing big shot celebrities all over: the ubiquitous PARIS HILTON, the classy SIR BEN KINGSLEY, the brilliant RANDY QUAID (wearing a huge fur coat that matches his beard perfectly and makes him look like a large, fur bearing animal), COLIN FARRELL (good looking in person, too) and “Lethal Weapon’s” DANNY GLOVER. I only saw CRISPIN GLOVER, who played the father in BACK TO THE FUTURE, but he is, after all, a superb actor, and I’m kind of thrilled when I see him.

Amid all this glamour is the reality of impoverished indie filmmakers trying to make their way in an incredibly expensive environment. Eating is particularly a problem, especially on the big weekend days when the restaurants are jammed. It takes forty minutes to get in anyplace for lunch and when you finally get a menu the prices are astronomical. Moreover, a lot of restaurants are out of play because they’ve been booked for private parties. The students are happy but hungry, so I start carrying bags of trail mix and nuts in my parka pockets to hand out to students. After a couple of days they’re sick of nuts and won’t take them anymore. “I say ‘nuts’ to nuts,” says one.

Being here with all these great kids makes one realize that writer-director Paul Encinas is special, but he's not the only special student we have. We get more high-quality scripts and shorts than one might imagine, and if we had the resources we could make three worthwhile student features a year. Other student scripts are wonderful in other ways – for example, a Vietnamese American student, MARK TRAN (also here at the festival), wrote and shot ALL ABOUT DAD, a sweet and quite hilarious comedy about a Vietnamese American family. He's almost done editing it and we think the reception will be just as spectacular as the one gotten by 'Glory Boy Days.' Greg Bradley, producer on GLORY BOY DAYS, wrote and directed COLLEGE RADIO SUCKS, which he’s almost done editing. Talent and creativity aren't rare gifts – all human beings are creative and all have a unique view of life. It's our job to teach them the techniques – form dramatic writing to cinematography to production management – that enable them to make art out of that creativity. Paul is certainly special in that he's more sensitive to beauty than most people, and has a particularly tender view of humanity. But those are qualities that make his art unique, not qualities necessarily common to all interesting artists. As a writer, Paul delicately balanced his basically anti-narrative sensibility with just enough narrative thrust to keep things hopping. The equation is very hard to pull off, but the results can be wonderfully light and delicate when successful. I'm not sure Paul was fully conscious of how risky it was – he just worked hard, stayed sincere, and made it all come out OK. Filmmaking is enormously collaborative, and Paul tells me how grateful he is to the students who made up his team, for example his incredible cinematographer Todd Banhazl, and his tireless producer Greg Bradley.

The second screening, on Wednesday night, goes fabulously. There’s a lot of excitement and everybody stays for the question and answer period with the filmmakers. A British filmmaker, during the Q & A, compares the style of the film to that of the innovative auteur Sidney J. Furie. It’s my last night here in Utah – have to get back for school – and I’m sad when I drive to the airport because the festival will run two more days and I’m going to miss it.

Recently married alumnus MATT McTIGHE writes: “Our wedding on New Years Eve was, to date, the HAPPIEST day of my life, celebrated with all of my family and friends from all walks of my life - childhood through DVC, through SJSU, through Chicago, through Ashland, through LA...so many of you were there. It was overwhelmingly beautiful. It's been a long road to happiness, and I wanted to thank everyone who helped me along the way to finding Jessica and living a life that is pure and genuine.”

Matt is now back in LA rehearsing the stage classic “The Time of Your Life” at the Pacific Resident Theater in Venice, CA, playing Tom and “having a blast.” He adds, “Pray the strike ends! And if you care to see ‘Time of Your Life,’ it's playing through February with a possible extension.”

According to PROF. ETHEL WALKER, recent alumna PATRICE LAKEY gave birth to a baby boy November 24, 2007. His name is Dallas Cameron Lakey Jeffers and he’s doing fine. Patrice sends her best to everyone and is getting "itchy feet to get on stage".

Gossip Girl star LEIGHTON MEESTER (pictured left with KSJS DJ Chef Ramon) was in San Jose to promote her Indie film Flourish, featuring JENNIFER MORRISON (House, M.D.), JESSE SPENCER (House M.D.), and directed by Kevin Palys. Meester was a guest on CHEF RAMON’S Blues Café on 90.5 FM KSJS Friday morning January 18th. Meester portrays Blair Waldorf on “Gossip Girl,” based on the popular book series; “Gossip Girl” is CW’s big buzz show and Chef Ramon chatted with Leighton on a variety of topics including the writer’s strike, her acting career, and her aspirations as a singer. “Flourish” was a 2006 Cinequest entry and was being presented as an exclusive Camera 3 limited engagement in downtown San Jose. Cinequest Executive Director HALFDAN HUSSEY, a lecturer in our department, announced that the Camera 3 would reopen in April presenting weekly runs of Cinequest festival favorites and special premier events.

STUDENT WRITTEN-AND-DIRECTED "CLASS PROJECT" FEATURE FILM MAKES PRESTIGIOUS SLAMDANCE FEST

In one of the most exciting developments in the over-100-year history of the Department of TV, Radio, Film and Theatre, PAUL ENCINAS's student-written-and-directed feature film "Glory Boy Days" has been accepted into the Slamdance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. (Left, Paul Encinas)

"For a student written-and-directed feature film to be accepted into a major American festival is unprecedented in the history of the department," said CHAIR MIKE ADAMS. "It's possible that other film programs have accomplished this, but I know of no instances.

"The Slamdance Festival is one of the most important film festivals in the US," Adams continued. "It was created in 1995 in response to the increased commercialization of the Sundance Festival, and it specializes in genuinely independent films by new directors. Unlike a lot of the films called 'indie' nowadays, the films shown at Slamdance are true independents."

An article announcing the festival's line-up in "The Hollywood Reporter" prominently mentioned "Glory Boy Days" and said Slamdance was "long established as a renegade alternative to Sundance." Among Slamdance's "alumni" are such filmmakers as Steven Soderbergh, Christopher Nolan, Marc Forster and Jared Hess, and among the indie films to have been launched at Slamdance are "The King of Kong" and "Mad Hot Ballroom." More than 50 films have achieved theatrical distribution after appearing in the Slamdance festival.

Getting into Slamdance isn't easy: about 1,500 films applied to Slamdance this year. Only ten - among them "Glory Boy Days" - were accepted into the prestigious Narrative Feature Competition category.

Writer-director Encinas applied to Slamdance knowing that the fest favored genuinely independent, up-from-the-streets films that are sincere and made on a limited budget.

For the festival program, Programmer Denis Henry Hennelly described "Glory Boy Days" as, "one of those heartfelt films that plays like music... it's got an assured soulful rhythm that the viewer can lean back into, uncovering its pleasures as it unfolds. With a sensitive eye for the intimate, authentic moments of relationships, parties, and Hip Hop culture, the filmmakers have crafted a cinematic album that meanders gracefully from chill-out grooves to party beats to introspective ballads."

Encinas's funny, yet tender and lyrical, script, which takes place over the course of a single day, is about a twentyish hipster with a collapsing home situation who falls for a beautiful coed. Meanwhile, two other members of the ensemble cast try to work out a failing romantic relationship, while two others ineptly try to trade their services as thugs-for-hire for free drugs.

Many of the actors in the film were current students or very recent grads, including JARED MENDIOLA, LAUREN PLAXCO, BRAD KRANICH, TONY AGRESTI, STUART MAHONEY, KAMERON COLLINS, OMAR MUNOZ and CHARISE LORIAUX.

The film's crew was peopled almost entirely by students in the Dept. of TV, Radio, Film and Theatre, and recent departmental grads. The cinematographer was RTVF major TODD BANHAZL, who subsequently was accepted into the prestigious American Film Institute graduate program in cinematography. Other students included on the crew were NICK MARTIN (gaffer), MARCO BERCASIO (key grip), MATT FALKENTHAL (sound), MATT FALKNER (grip), DAVID LEVENTHAL (sound mixing), ANDREW HELLESEN (script supervisor), MASON WILLIAMS (grip) MARK TRAN (assistant editor), JUAN SERNA (assistant director), JOHN LaROSA (sound designer), GREG BRADLEY (producer), DAN HAWKEY (camera assistant), JEREMY CASTILLO (camera assistant), JOEY SANDIN (casting) and many others.

The film was essentially a "class project" from two separate classes: PROF. SCOTT SUBLETT's RTVF 175 screenwriting class, where the script was written, and PROF. BARNABY DALLAS's RTVF 185 film production class, in which it was shot.

"This is a great example of the department's integration," said the department's Head of Production Dallas. "Writing, directing, production, sound recording, lighting and a host of various other filmmaking skills came together, worked together, in this single, large project. But also, the theatre side of the department was involved, for example with acting and costume. And we built two sets on campus, in the basement of the University Theatre and using the Green Room as a record store."

"Our department specializes in cutting edge, 'indie' style scripts - works that represent a fresh, honest response to life as it's lived today, not the canned, boring sentimentality and sensationalism of Hollywood," said the department's head of writing Sublett. "The ethnic diversity of the Silicon Valley is represented in our casts and crews, and that gives our students' work a vitality and novelty that other schools can't match."

Cinematographer Banhazl (photo, left) adds, "There was a wonderful collaboration with the School of Art and Design at SJSU - a group of their top students passionately worked as our art department and were invaluable to the success of the visual storytelling of the film, led by the art director, JANUEL MERCADO, a current student, and production designer ERIK OTTO, a recent grad."

Slamdance will be held Jan.17-25. "Glory Boy Days" will screen Sat. Jan. 19 and Wed. Jan. 23. To reserve tickets click here

We all fondly remember Theatre Arts major RANDALL MARQUEZ (who played Aristotle Onassis in "Die, Die, Diana"). Randall, who recently got married, is living and acting in New York City. He writes, "How's everything back at SJSU? I just wanted to update you with some stuff I'm doing in NY. I just finished an Off-Broadway run of Al Carmine's "Christmas Rappings" at Theater at Judson. That was a lot of fun. I got to meet and work with lots of Broadway vets. The production was directed by Russell Treyz. I'm in the current cast of "Line" by Israel Horovitz at 13th Street Rep in the West Village. I play Fleming and it's a great role. This production has been running for 33 years straight in NYC! I had the rare opportunity to have my performance seen and critiqued by Israel Horovitz himself. That was an experience I will never forget. In January, I get the opportunity to perform in a production of Young Jean Lee's "Church" at The Public Theater. There a lot of history at that theater so I'm definitely looking forward to seeing what else I can dig up there. I love New York! I don't think I could ever leave this town! Give my best to BUDDY [BUTLER], AMY [GLAZER], BETTY [POINDEXTER] and PROF. [ETHEL] WALKER. Tell Mrs. Walker that I somehow got through all the junk life throws at you and made it to NYC. The last time I spoke to her I think I told her I was done acting. Go figure. I could not quit this lifestyle even if I had to."

MOLLIE COLLISON (MA '79), writes: "I was sad to read of Hal Todd's death on Nov. 4. Hal was a funny, adventurous and kind man who will be remembered always by those who knew him. If anyone wants to write and swap Hal stories, please e-mail me at SPlum83@aol.com. Our hearts go out to Jo and wish her tender memories and comfort."

What ever happened to Theatre Arts grad RENEE CUNHA, the enchanting actress who played Princess Diana in the Department's production of "Die, Die, Diana"? Among the people who've been asking have been film and stage directors who wanted to consider her for parts - but alas, no one seemed to have Renee's contact information. "Performances" is happy to report that an exhaustive search finally turned up Miss Cunha still right here in the Bay Area, climbing the corporate ladder. She writes, "I'm working at Google now - been here almost three years and doing well. I haven't done any acting in years. I did some singing in a band with some friends, just for fun, and I'm trying to get back into music again, but manage always to find some excuse to put off what I love doing most. My excuse this year was that I was planning a wedding - my wedding! October 6 was the big day." Congratulations to Renee. The world of theatre is poorer without her.

The 2008 Global Lens Calendar has been printed: one of CHAIR MIKE ADAMS's photos, which won the Best of Faculty/Staff Photography Award last year, is now the picture for March 2008. These calendars are available from the IES, International and Extended Studies Office - free!

Recent grads GENE CARVALHO and JEFF VINALL, both down in LA pursuing acting careers, have started a nonprofit charitable organization called "Strengthen a Generation," dedicated to fighting childhood obesity. And Jeff just got a principle part in a Super Bowl ad.

Alumnus LANCE SWANSON is currently working on a single subject English Credential from the state of California through SJSU. He'll be authorized to teach high school or middle school English once he becomes subject proficient in June. He's currently enrolled in a BYU independent study, taking American Literature, British Literature and an upper division class in teaching English grammar and usage. In addition to spending some time working in the entertainment industry in Los Angeles, Lance spent two years working in the marketing department for a renewable energy company. He currently works as the manager for a property company in San Jose, and is a consultant at KTEH, the PBS station in San Jose. "I work about 20-to-30 days a year for the TV station, working camera, audio, gripping on field shoots, and building sets, among other things," Lance reports. His wife, alumna NADINE SWANSON, is currently a full time producer/editor at KTEH.

In May and November, Chair MIKE ADAMS counts the major and minors. A historical view can be found at www.trft.org, but in general, while our overall course enrollments are climbing steadily upward, our number of majors remains the same. As of this minute: BA RTVF 302; BA Theatre 81; MA Theatre 37; RTVF Minor 49; TA Minor 47, total 516, slightly less than one year ago.

As an undergraduate RAMON JOHNSON (photo, left) initiated an interdisciplinary activity with Communication Studies that added a broadcast element to their traditional communications curriculum. Most recently, in honor of San Jose State's 150th anniversary Comm 10 Narrative students performed presentations that discussed historical gender differences, the explosion of technology, SJSU historical figures, and SJSU's changing mission through the years. The project began with one Communication Studies section with 27 students and, three years later, has now expanded to eight sections with 147 students.

ADAM FETTES (RTVF '99) agenting real estate with J. Rockcliff Realtors in the Dublin-Livermore-Pleasanton area (buy a new house from him at www.adamfettes.com)... GREGG MARTINI putting together an indie film in Los Angeles… recent grad ALI HOFFMAN, down in LA, looking for acting and other jobs… ED MOSHER (class of '52) receiving the Rotary Club's annual Don Goldeen Award "for contributing in a significant and extraordinary way to the betterment of San Jose," at their annual gala Christmas luncheon.

That's it for January. Until then, PERFORMANCES leaves you with the words of Tennessee Williams in his play "The Eccentricities of a Nightingale": "Generations of some creatures can be fitted into an hour. The sort of creatures I see through my microscope. But you're not one of those creatures, Miss Alma, and you have that mysterious something as thin as smoke that makes the difference between a human and all other beings."

The last and by far the most exciting event of San Jose State's 150th Anniversary celebration is "SJSU: THE PLAY!" Read details and See Cast Photos

This is literally a once-in-a-lifetime event (OK, maybe twice in a lifetime if you live to be really, really old), and the opening night literally a few days away, so GET YOUR TICKETS IMMEDIATELY OR YOU'LL MISS IT.

"SJSU: The Play!" will be performed on the University Theatre stage in Hugh Gillis Hall on Thursday, Dec. 6 and Friday Dec. 7 at 7:00 P.M. The Saturday, Dec. 8, performance will be one hour earlier at 6:00 P.M.

The author describes "SJSU, The Play!" as "a lyrical performance piece that explores the history and traditions of San Jose State University through music, motion, dramatic scenes, and imagination. Travel back to the university's origin as a normal school, then forward through wars, activism and change, to a future that will be shaped by today's students."

Written by MFA Creative Writing Student T. EDGAR WELCH, the play is being directed by Communication Studies Prof. MATTHEW SPANGLER, who wrote and directed last season's stunning stage adaptation of "The Kite Runner." TRFT faculty members BARNABY DALLAS and SCOTT SUBLETT are producing. To buy your tickets online, CLICK HERE. And HURRY!

Professor Emeritus HAL TODD died on Sunday November 4, according to his wife Jo. Dr. Todd was a professor here from 1964-1993, and department chair from 1965-1983. He received his BS in 1945 from the University of Colorado; his MA in 1950 from Stanford; and his Ph.D. in 1954 from Denver University. The Hal Todd Theatre was dedicated to him in 1998.

Theatre Arts Grad TOM TRAFTON was recently dubbed a "creative genius" by The San Jose Mercury-News for his work as the "Event Designer and Builder" behind Christmas in the Park, the beloved holiday celebration held annually in Plaza de Cesar Chavez Park, which of course is downtown between the Tech Museum and the Fairmont Hotel. Christmas in the Park is open daily 9:00 A.M. to midnight through January 1. PERFORMANCES hasn't gone since being traumatized by a giant nutcracker in 2004.

Irish/Nigerian playwright and theatre director BISI ADIGUN visited San José State and met with students in the Theatre and Communication Studies Departments for three days during the first week of November. Mr. Adigun is originally from the Yoruba-land of southwest Nigeria, and has become one of Ireland's and Europe's most celebrated performance artists. He is the author and director of numerous plays, which have received enthusiastic reviews in major newspapers, such as The Irish Times, The London Guardian, and Le Monde Diplomatique. As the founding artistic director of Arambe Productions, Ireland's only African theatre company, Mr. Adigun has used the medium of live performance to bring attention to the issues of race, global migration, and intercultural identity within an Irish context, and perhaps most importantly, his work has given voice to Ireland's African communities. His most recent play is a modernization of John Synge's classic The Playboy of the Western World, which he co-wrote with the well-known Irish author, Roddy Doyle, who is perhaps best-known in the U.S. as having written the novel The Commitments, later made into a feature film. Adigun and Doyle's Playboy of the Western World is set in a pub in contemporary Dublin and features a Nigerian asylum-seeker as its protagonist. It is currently running in Dublin's famed Abbey Theatre to rave reviews. The Irish Times called it "laugh-out loud funny"; The Sunday Independent called the adaptation "wickedly updated"; and the Irish broadcast network, RTE, described the performance "a hilarious tour-de-force." While on campus, Mr. Adigun met with three classes in Theatre Arts, two in Communication Studies, held a performance workshop for over thirty participants, and delivered a public lecture, in which he described his work in intercultural theatre. His visit was organized by DR. MATTHEW SPANGLER, Assistant Professor of Performance Studies (who often guest-directs in our department), and was co-sponsored by the Departments of Television, Radio, Film, and Theatre, Communication Studies, Global Studies, the MOSAIC Cross-Cultural Center, and the Nigerian Student Association.

Lecturer KATHLEEN NORMINGTON's version of Shakespeare's "Midsummer Night's Dream," seen on the University stage in mid-November, prompted positive comments all over campus, including a professor from another department (with a Ph.D. in theatre), who dubbed it "the best college production of Shakespeare I've ever seen." Always a good colleague, Kathleen was quick to say, "I want to give special thanks to the extra efforts of JIM CULLEY and JOHN YORK for their work on the set and special effects for 'Midsummer.' Also thanks to AMY GLAZER for giving of her time and director's eye for the production. All three are outstanding colleagues and human beings!"

We're searching for new tenure track faculty. There are two searches underway, one for a department chair (as Mike Adams is retiring) and the other for a tenure-track assistant professor position we are calling "Cinematography/Lighting Designer." For the latter position an MFA, industry experience, and experience in camera and lighting for film and theatre is needed. PROF. JIM CULLEY is in charge of that search. The department chair qualifications are: PhD/MFA in either film, radio, video or theatre; someone with administrative experience; someone who can be tenured at the full professor level. PROF. KIMB MASSEY is in charge of that search. If you know people who qualify, send them to our Web: www.TVRadioFilmTheatre.com for a link to the announcements and do so soon - the deadline looms.

RTVF major and spring grad WALTER TALENS won Third Place at the CSU Media Arts Festival with his music video "Flow." Walter competed against students from the entire CSU system of 22 campuses. Also in the running were SAILA KARIAT and RICK ROMERO, both among the five finalists in the feature screenplay competition. Our students also won the region's best of show comedy for "Love Struck," at the CMF, Campus Movie Fest, beating the so-called important schools - Santa Clara, Stanford and Berekely.

ALUM MATT McTIGHE GUEST STARS ON "CSI MIAMI"

Recent grad MATT McTIGHE was all over the airwaves again in November. First, he had a small part on "Without a Trace" on Nov. 8, as the Sheriff at the very beginning of the episode. "Don't blink or you might miss it - and feel free to make fun of my hat," wrote Matt. Less risible by far is his first guest starring role on a series, in the episode of "CSI: MIAMI" broadcast on CBS Monday, Nov. 19. In his biggest part yet, with his name at the tippy top of the credits, he played "Pete Morton," a lowball drug dealer who tries to carjack one of the series' regulars and run her over. You hear Matt's voice in the opening and the rest of the episode reveals what "really" happened. Matt played a couple of scenes with series star David Caruso. Keep track of Matt at www.mattmctighe.com

DALE FLINT ASSOCIATE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF MAIN STREET THEATRE WORKS IN SACRAMENTO, ALSO TENDS SHEEP AND CHICKENS

Graduate alumna DALE FLINT is now teaching English, Journalism, and Drama at Jackson Junior High School in the Sierra Nevada Foothills east of Sacramento. She is also Associate Artistic Director of the Main Street Theatre Works, a local theatre company. She and her husband live on a 43-acre ranch with 40 sheep, seven cows, five chickens, two cats and four dogs, and they are "very happy." Dale is also in the process of renovating her school theatre.

MIKE ADAMS's documentary, "Broadcasting's Forgotten Father: The Charles Herrold Story," aired on San Jose PBS affiliate KTEH twice in November: on Monday the 19th at 11:00 P.M., then repeated Thursday Nov. 22 at 3:00 A.M. Mike is the country's leading expert on Herrold, an important broadcasting pioneer.

HISTORICAL PHOTOS OF DEPARTMENT RADIO GROUP UNEARTHEDAt the left, the Radio Guild, as pictured in a 1952 brochure: "The main objective of the Radio Guild is to provide students with practical experience in radio broadcasting. Two times a week over station KEEN the Radio Guild broadcasts programs which are student acted and directed."

Undergrad CYNTHIA GIL's short film "Parallels" was accepted into the International Latino Film Festival. According to its website, "The International Latino Film Festival - San Francisco Bay Area (ILFF) was created to give voice to Latino cultural expression through the powerful medium of film…The Festival showcases the best in new international Latino cinema, applauds emerging talent and pays tribute to celebrated Latino actors, directors and producers…In 2002 the Festival premiered 'Frida,' including special presentations by actor/producer Salma Hayek at the SF MOMA.." Cynthia is regarded by students and faculty as one of the best directors in the department.

VICTORIA NGUYEN moved to Orlando in August to do an internship with Walt Disney World in their Disney Event Group. Her role is as coordinator for all hourly and salaried cast members for the Disney Event Group and the Disney Institute. She also helps out with the Multimedia/Video Team, working with After Effects and Final Cut Pro. "It has been a great experience," Victoria says. "I've been able to attend many events and have seen the backstage of many places that most people would never see in their lifetime. After December, I'm extending my internship here with their casting department and I hope to get a full-time job as Photography Coordinator in the Disney Event Group." Every year the Disney people come to recruit interns on campus and students have been happy with the experience.

Also in Orlando, but imminently returning to the Silicon Valley, is Master's degree grad JACK IGOE. Jack says, "We've bought a place in Sunnyvale and are in the process of moving in. Joyce is still in Pennsylvania, quite literally 'minding the store' until we can sell it, then will be joining me out west. This is the third time I've been out of the computer industry and come back, so maybe I'll get the message this time. However, I'm really looking forward to reconnecting with the TRFT community. See you all soon."

DEPARTMENT RADIO STATION KSJS CELEBRATES JOURNALISM'S BROADCAST JOURNALISM PROGRAM WITH SAM DONALDSON

The Journalism department recently celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of their Radio and Television Journalism (RTVJ) program with keynote speaker Sam Donaldson. Broadcasters from around the country came to pay their respects to the founder of the Broadcast Journalism program, GORDON GREB. TRFT Graduate Assistant RAMON JOHNSON (pictured left with Sam) represented TRFT at the RTVJ gala sitting with RTVJ alum VALERIE COLEMAN formerly of CNN. Joining KSJS was part of the RTVJ curriculum "back in the day," and several local broadcast alumni, including LYNN RAMIREZ from KPIX 5, ROBERT HANDA from KTVU 2, and DAMIEN TRUJILLO and DANIEL GARZA from NBC 11 shared warm memories of their experiences at 90.5 FM KSJS.

RTVF undergrads GEORGE FLANIGAN and CHRIS FAULKER were accepted into the Silicon 2007 Independent Film Festival. Their short "4th Street Poker" was produced and shot by the duo in the spring semester with the help of RTVF students, faculty and staff. It's about Texas Hold'em, and depicts "four extreme characters who are willing to risk all." The film stars SJSU student (and San Jose Saber Kitten) KIMERLY PENA, and SJSU student AUDREY BAILEY. The October 5th début in the film festival was part of a three-day convention hosted by Siliconventions.com and Horrorbook.com.

IN THE DECEMBER 2007 SPOTLIGHT:

MAESTRO RALPH K. SAHM, DIRECTOR OF THE SJSU FENCING MASTER'S PROGRAM

It's a little-known fact, even within the department of TV, Radio, Film and Theatre, that we house the SJSU Fencing Masters Program. Its main aim is to instruct and certify fencing teachers, and it's the sole program of its kind in the entire United States. As a part of TRFT it is also an important resource for training film and theatre students in the essentials of stage combat. Being a great fan of swordplay on and off stage, PERFORMANCES decided to sit down for a Q & A with Military Master at Arms RALPH K. SAHM, director of the program.

Sahm grew up in North Edwards, California, and attended Bakersfield Junior College before coming to San José State University, where in 1972 he was awarded his B.S. in Physics/Mathematics. He came to fencing accidentally - an injury in his judo class necessitated picking another sport. Sahm joined a fencing class and soon met and was taken under the wing of SJSU art history professor Dr. William M. Gaugler, who would go on to found the SJSU Fencing Master's program.

Gaugler, now a Professor Emeritus of Classical Archaeology, is a fascinating figure, having studied under Aldo Nadi, Italian Professional Champion, attained a fencing master's diploma from the Accademia Nazionale di Scherma in Naples, and written three fencing texts.

Ralph Sahm proved to be Dr. Gaugler's aptest pupil and in 1986 earned his Military Master at Arms certification with his thesis, "Relationships: French & Italian Schools of Fencing."

When Dr. Gaugler decided to retire from the program in 2004, Sahm was the obvious choice to take over the already successful Fencing Master's Program, which has, over the past 26 years, produced 83 graduates: 43 Instructor at Arms, 31 Provost at Arms, and 9 Master at Arms. Moreover, in 2004 the program produced the "first two formally-trained women fencing masters in the United States," Jennifer Walton and Janine Monteleone Sahm.

Maestro Sahm kindly consented to talk about the fencing program with PERFORMANCES.

Question: What kind of people fence? PERFORMANCES imagines them to wear lacy, puffy sleeves. And codpieces. And of course they read a lot of romantic poetry. So, is there a particular kind of students who takes up fencing?

Answer: Perhaps surprisingly, many of our fencers are engineers. The Program is intensive and attracts those who are hard-working, detail-oriented, have a love of tradition and history, and who wish to become the best they can be. And, yes, there is a bit of the puffy sleeve, romantic poetry reader in most of them.

Answer: No, for a few hundred dollars a new fencer could buy the basic set up to start. This would include a mask, jacket, glove, wrist strap, and weapon. However, we provide all the necessary equipment used in class for those who wish to make sure fencing is a fit for them before they spend any money.

Answer: Since the Fencing Masters Program seems to be one of the best kept secrets on the SJSU campus, it is always a challenge to raise interest in the class. When people do find out about us they are usually very excited to learn more and to come visit the class.

Answer: In my younger years, I enjoyed the mental chess game combined with the physical skill required for the bout. Now I enjoy teaching teachers and watching as they incorporate my mannerisms in their teaching.

Question: Do you think fencing is a good fit with a department that does theatre and film?

Answer: Originally the Fencing Masters Program was under the auspice of the Army ROTC, and when they left the campus Theatre Arts was kind of enough to take us in. Fencing is definitely a good fit for this department. Knowing how to execute, on stage or in film, believable and safe swordplay is essential. The Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts includes fencing in their curriculum. One of the Program's graduates, who now is a professor at Sonoma State University, teaches a course in Stage Swordplay. This short seminar was so popular with theatre art students that it has turned into a full semester course.

Answer: Class is currently held at Washington Square Hall, Room 106 - the first-floor dance studio. We meet on Saturdays throughout the academic year from noon to 5:00 pm.

Question: I understand that you teach the fencing classes practically without compensation. That's very generous. The rest of our faculty insists on being paid a princely sum that often amounts to virtually a living wage.

Answer: I have been receiving a small amount of compensation from Continuing Education for the last two years. The other faculty members, Maestra Janine Sahm, Assistant Director, Maestra Jennifer Walton, and Maestro Paul Scherman, are volunteers.

Answer: I have been fortunate to have steady employment and don't need a real salary from the program.

Question: Do you still see the founder of the program, Dr. Gaugler? What's he up to?

Answer: Maestra Janine Sahm is in frequent contact with Dr. Gaugler. He retired from the Program to care for his ill wife. He is doing well and is currently working on a new book.

Answer: It teaches one to be self reliant. The bout is a one on one competition and you are the only one you have to rely on. The bout gives one the true sense of victory or loss. It prepares one for the "real world" in teaching one how to cope with failure and how to develop one's skill to the highest standard in order to prevail.

That's it for December. Until 2008, PERFORMANCES leaves you with the words of Sergei Eisenstein: "A collar button under a lens and thrown on a screen may become a radiant planet.

Faculty members MIKE ADAMS, BABAK SARRAFAN and NICK MARTINEZ just returned from a two week stay in Shanghai - China's largest and most modern city. Says Prof. Adams, "Part Las Vegas, part Disneyland, and part Mexico, Shanghai is home to 20 or so million people. We were hosted by the Shanghai Theatre Academy and its School of Television Arts, a very exclusive school, small in size, but highly rated in China. It was an exciting place, with two campuses, three big theatres, actors, plays, and television and film happening all over the place. The faculty there seems very happy, and the students bright and motivated. The dean of the television arts school is a well-known screenwriter, having just had aired a major series on Chinese television. She has ideas about a script for a joint film project between our schools. The plan for this year is to bring a small group of students and faculty to participate in the spring music video. Their stay will be two weeks, and during that time the Chinese students will attend classes and demonstrations for the project, stay in the campus housing, and tour the area. In the fall or spring we will send a similar group to Shanghai to participate in a production of their choosing. There are many details to be worked out but we are committed to making it happen, with the result being a greater understanding of the internationality of media and theatre, both practice and education. We are also working with the technical and performance deans there, with Babak (scheduled to teach a directing class in Shanghai next year), and Jim Culley to work and teach in their design area. I taught a two-week class in photography, really visual communications, to first year (freshman) students. This extremely bright class of 25 had excellent English skills, making the need for a translator less important. The outcome of the class was an exhibit of student work at the academy. You can see the output of the class on the Web I positioned the class for students who, like ours, all who want to be film directors. I tried to teach the visual language of the image, still or moving, stressing similarities, technical and aesthetic, between still and film photography. Also, Babak and Nick spoke to classes about our film program." (Pictured left, Nick and Babak with professor Miaojing Liao of the Academy)

CHRIS COOPER, now acting under the name COOPER DANIELS (so he isn't confused with the other wonderful actor named Chris Cooper), is having a phenomenal year. First, he played "Keith" in the world premiere of Julian Sheppard's "Los Angeles," in a production was directed by Adam Rapp at the Flea Theater in NYC. Then he flew to France to play "Young George Lucas" in director Luc Besson's ARTHUR AND THE WAR OF THE TWO WORLDS ("Arthur et la guerre des deux mondes"), starring Freddy Highmore and Mia Farrow. Currently, he's in rehearsal for a world premiere of Adam Rapp's "Bingo with the Indians," which Rapp himself is directing, again at the Flea Theater. Previews start October 25 and the play opens November 9 (visit www.theflea.org for more information). Cooper says, "The last play I did at SJSU was Adam Rapp's 'Blackbird.' I did it with SANDY ZIVIANI and it was directed by GWEN TEMPLETON. We used a scene from it to do Sandy's audition for the Actors Studio Drama School. They invited me to come and that is how I ended up in NYC. It's pretty cool how things have worked out." So why did he pick "Cooper Daniels" for a stage name? "Daniels is my grandmother's maiden name. I found out after many years of pursuing acting that she was an actress as well. It stunned me that I didn't know that. When I had to change my name I decided to pay homage." (left, Cooper Daniels with Eric Dubreil)

The California State University Media Arts Festival is a system-wide competition of all 22 CSU campuses. This year, of only five finalists in the Feature-length Screenplay category, two were written in our department: One was "Minor Gods," a romantic drama about an American physician in India, by undergrad SAILA KARIAT. The other was undergrad RICHARD ROMERO's "Beautiful Meat," a comedy about a young butcher learning about life, love, and the disappearance of mom-&-pop grocery stores from the American landscape.

San Jose State was also represented in the Music Video category by WALTER TALENS, who directed and produced the music video "Flow." Walter will not be able to attend the announcement of winners on Nov. 3 at CSU Channel Islands because he's on a shoot in London, but Saila and Richard will try to make it.

Students in NED KOPP's RTVF 172 Film Production class were thrilled last month by a visit from the legendary screenwriter DAVID WEBB PEOPLES, and his wife JANET PEOPLES. Peoples is, of course, famous for writing "UNFORGIVEN," widely held to be the best American film western of the past 30 years, and a key work is the filmography of actor-director Clint Eastwood. Mr. People's script for "Unforgiven" received Oscar and Golden Globe nominations, and then won the L.A. Film Critics (1991) and National Society of Film Critics (1992) awards for Best Screenplay. Peoples also co-wrote the seminal sci-fi masterpiece "BLADE RUNNER" and, with his wife Janet, "TWELVE MONKEYS."

Ned Kopp's film production class features three or four guest speakers every semester, always prominent figures in the film industry. Since the class is a small, students get to schmooze with industry insiders in an intimate setting, but they sometimes don't know in advance whom they'll meet. "It's usually a surprise who's available to come to talk to the class," Ned says, "but all guests are interesting, and have professional information and good stories."

This semester, in addition to the Peoples, Ned has welcomed cameraman JOE WARD. Later in the semester he expects a visit from production designer GEOFFREY KIRKLAND ("Children of Men," "Angela's Ashes").

In past years Ned's section of RTVF 172 has welcomed producer DEBBIE BRUBAKER ("The Darwin Awards," "Swing," "Dopamine"); JOHN SLOSSER, former head of the DGA training program and a noted Production Manager/Assistant Director; lighting technician JEFF GILLIAM ("The Matrix Reloaded," "Rent"); visual effects artist and supervisor MARJOLAINE TREMBLAY ("Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl," "Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace," and owner of the visual effects company elementFX); and sound mixer DAN GLEICH ("The Sixth Sense," "The Talented Mr. Ripley").

"Most of the students react favorably to the appearance of 'real film people' in the class," Ned adds.

MATT HARVEY moved to Los Angeles with his wife in February and interned with Steve Zaillian's new production company, Film Rites, which is partnered with Sony, and where did everything from script coverage to discussions of project development. "Which always beats coffee runs," Matt says. "I even got to chat on projects from time to time with Steve himself, who is a warm and genuine fellow." Matt is now interning at Phoenix Pictures ("Zodiac," "Miss Potter," "All the Kings Men") as a story analyst/reader. "It's a paid gig which allows me time to work on my own scripts, so I have no complaints. I'm polishing up two scripts, a comedy and a supernatural thriller, and hope to be sharing them with folks come November. Of course, the WGA may be on strike by then, so the odds of writing work may be a bit tighter for a while. I'm no strike breaker!"

MICHAELA STARR, running into JOEL SANTOS in the cafeteria of the studio where they both work: "He's now the line producer on 'The Best Damn Sports Show Ever!'" Michaela reports… Stand-up comic JUSTIN WORSHAM, recording a CD of his material at Rooster T. Feather's Comedy Club in Sunnyvale, CA... and faculty members BARNABY DALLAS and SCOTT SUBLETT attending a luncheon at the university library in honor of DreamWorks CEO JEFFREY KATZENBERG, who visited the campus to donate $300,000.00 for animation.

The Scottish-born actress Deborah Kerr died last month at 86. She had Parkinson's. A lot of fuss should be made about her death because she was a great.

Her specialty was sturdy conviction and a sort of practical nobility. In her best roles she seemed like someone who had good intentions but also could do something about them. Kerr exuded an acceptance of life - not resignation, acceptance - that was bracingly mentally healthy, and it suited her for roles of suffering. She could long-suffer without being a bore about it.

Kerr was a big star, box office for much of the 1950s and even into the 1960s, but at the same time a real actress. You knew you were watching Deborah Kerr, the movie star, and never forgot that for a second, yet never for a moment did you not also believe she was completely and utterly the character. She was one with her roles yet simultaneously a personality, a paradoxical trick she shared with Bette Davis and Ingrid Bergman. Also paradoxical was that she was sexy without ever seeming wanton - her loveliness gave off both coolness and heat. One wonders why Hitchcock never used her, but perhaps it was because the one thing one can't imagine her playing is a victim.

It's interesting (and testament to her crisp yet delicate mastery of dialogue) how many of her greatest performances were based on stage hits. What's more impressive, and what marks her as a great film actress, is the honor role of pantheon directors who used her: Huston, McCarey, Preminger, Donen, Minnelli, Powell… with guys like that on her side, all that the rest of us can do is join in the applause.

What follows is a very personal Top Ten Deborah Kerr Pictures. Some of the performances are contained in films over which one has reservations, but all are grand fun.

1) "Night of the Iguana."
Directed by John Huston from the play by Tennessee Williams. Kerr is Hannah Jelkes, the virginal spinster who's much savvier about life than she at first seems. Stranded at a shabby beach hotel in Mexico, she nurses a lecherous, drunken, defrocked priest (Richard Burton at his best) through the kind of crack-up Williams well understood. He's reached the end of his rope and there's no one better than Kerr to have around when that happens. The film is absolute narrative pleasure; Ava Gardner's in it too, in one of her most exciting performances. 1964.

2) "An Affair to Remember."
Leo McCarey directed and co-wrote this 1957 remake of his earlier hit "Love Affair," about a shipboard romance between Kerr and Cary Grant. (This was not the only time they were paired - they were in "Dream Wife" and "The Grass is Greener" too, and Kerr was always wonderful opposite men who had some streak of weakness in them.) The film is notable in that it starts as a deliciously witty romantic comedy with justifiably famous banter (handled by Kerr and Grant masterfully), but then the story's tone shifts with nary a stumble into so-called "women's weepie." A structurally remarkable film with superb directing, writing and acting.

3) "Tea and Sympathy."
After getting a Tony in Robert Anderson's hit play on Broadway, Kerr starred in Vincente Minnelli's film version. Thematically, the picture is terribly dated - she plays a schoolmaster's wife who tries to bolster the confidence of a prep school student who has been mistaken for gay. In 1953, sympathy for people who aren't gay but are accused of it was as far as Hollywood movies could go. Still, it was progressive for its time, and Kerr's resolute performance gives the movie a spine it wouldn't have had without her.

4) "Separate Tables."
Kerr runs a small residential hotel where one of her guests, Burt Lancaster, drinks hard and gives up on life. Their discreet affair is interrupted when aging-but-still-devastating man killing vamp Rita Hayworth walks back into Lancaster's life. He looks at Hayworth the way an alcoholic looks at a drink at the end of a bad day, and you never stop rooting for Kerr. 1958, from the Terence Rattigan play. David Niven, Gladys Cooper, Cathleen Nesbitt and Wendy Hiller support.

5) "Bonjour Tristesse."
Kerr rarely played the heavy and here she does it with a nuanced grace that keeps her sympathetic, yet still menacing, as Jean Seberg's wicked stepmother. Seberg and her playboy daddy (David Niven) booze it up amid the glamour of the Riviera until Kerr decides they need some structure in their lives. It's Otto Preminger's 1958 attempt at a deluxe, Hollywood answer to European art cinema. Very interesting writing and great camerawork, the film is a fascinating artifact of its time.

6) "The King and I."
OK, these big Hollywood musical adaptations can have a certain heaviness about them, but if you've never seen "The King and I" you have to if just for Kerr, and for the numbers ("Getting to Know You," Shall We Dance") and for Yul Brynner's Oscar-winning performance. 1956.

7) "Black Narcissus."
This 1947 Michael Powell film was, arguably, the one that made Kerr a star. She plays a nun at a troubled, neurotic convent in the high Himalayas. Something mysterious in the thin air drives the nuns crazy - they don't fit in with the native population and despite their noble intentions they're dimly aware they're colonialists. As the Mother Superior, Kerr coolly balances her performance so that you know there's a flesh-and-blood woman behind the stern, starched facade. Note Powell's ravishing use of Technicolor. With Jean Simmons, Flora Robson and Sabu.

8) "From Here to Eternity."
Kerr, Lancaster, beach. At times, "Eternity" is typical of director Fred Zinneman's dark side: overblown, overrated blather. But this 1953 hit has cool actors as far as the eye can see, including Donna Reed, Frank Sinatra, Montgomery Clift, and of course Kerr achieving a sort of star majesty. She's more mythological here than anywhere else.

9) "Young Bess."
This marvelously posh 1953 melodrama has Jean Simmons as a young Elizabeth I and Stuart Granger as Thomas Seymour, on whom Bess has a girlish crush. Kerr plays a supporting role as Granger's noble, understanding, utterly perfect wife, and miraculously manages it without seeming at all sappy. She glows, and it's not just the lighting. Charles Laughton is spectacular Henry VIII, while Cecil Kellaway and Leo G. Carroll round out the delightful cast. Veteran George Sidney ("The Harvey Girls," "Anchors Aweigh") directs with more gusto than taste, which is just what's called for in a guilty pleasure such as this.

10) "The Grass Is Greener."
Directed by Stanley Donen, this 1961 adaptation of a stage play stars Kerr and Cary Grant as broke British aristocrats reduced to letting people tour their stately mansion. Robert Mitchum is the American millionaire tourist who forms the third corner of the triangle. The script is awfully stagy and self-consciously arch, but some of the lines are as quite as clever as they think they are and the acting is compulsively watchable - despite the fact that all three stars are slightly miscast. Jean Simmons plays the sophisticated vamp who chases Grant, and all in all the film's an amusing, mature romp for its stars.

JESUS A. REYES (Theatre Arts class of '97) is not only the artistic director of East L.A. Rep, a thriving five year old theatre company, but is also a recipient of this year's Theatre Communications Group (TCG) New Generations Future Leaders award. As a result, Diane Rodriguez, associate producer and director of new play production at LA's Center Theatre Group, will mentor him in connection with LA Center's New Play Production Program. A TCG announcement stated that Jesus will work "to cultivate relationships with smaller ensembles and theatre companies, oversee the management of artist residencies and will co-produce performances of Suzan Lori-Parks' 365 Days/365 Plays." Last year Jesus co-wrote and directed "Quinceanera - The Musical." The show debuted at the El Gallo Plaza Theater on Cesar Chavez Avenue in East L.A. Previously he wrote and directed the successful play "Drive my coche." For more information on East L.A. Rep go to www.eastlarep.com, or visit http://www.myspace.com/eastLArep.

PROF. MIKE ADAMS (pictured left), chair of the Department of Television, Radio, Film and Theatre, delivered the keynote speech for the Antique Wireless Association Annual Conference in New York. The association is the top international venue for wireless and historical radio scholarship. His talk, "Rediscovering Inventor Lee de Forest," focused on the man who invented and patented the three-element vacuum tube, a device that made electronics possible. To visit Mike's website and find out more about his research into early radio, CLICK HERE.

Current RTVF major CYNTHIA GIL's new short film "Parallels" is a finalist in the student shorts category at the Latino Film Festival 2007. It was screened this summer at the Blue Monkey Lounge in San Jose near Hugh Gillis Hall. Cynthia and her film are now in the running for the Festival's grand prize. "Parallels" was both directed and written by Cynthia, with undergrad MARCO BERCASIO as her Director of Photography. The film starred two of the department's best actors: JOEY SANDIN and JOSE PORTILLO. An earlier short directed by Cynthia was selected to be screened at this year's Cinequest Film Festival.

Theatre Arts grad RANDY KING is starring as Anne Frank's father in The San Jose Stage Company's new production of "The Diary of Anne Frank," which contains additional material based on previously censored passages in the diary. The incredibly moving show runs through Oct. 14. For more information visit the Stage Company's website at www.sanjose-stage.com.

Departmental radio station 90.5 FM KSJS was voted "Best College Radio Station" in the Silicon Valley Metro Newspaper's "Best of Silicon Valley 2007" awards. Readers cited KSJS's superior programming (since 1963) and specialty programming such as "Celluloid Dreams", KSJS's long-lived, much praised movie program, Monday evenings at 5:00.

Master's grad KATHIE KRATOCHVIL recently took qualifying exams for the doctoral program she's doing at UCSC. She passed and advanced to candidacy. Kathie says, "The QE was a four hour oral exam with five committee members, and was the most grueling exam I think I have ever been through. However, once again, when I left the exam I was so grateful to [David Kahn] and the graduate teaching team at SJSU. Throughout the process of writing the proposal and preparing for the QE I was singing your praises. While my colleagues who had not done a master's thesis struggled with their lit reviews, methodology and theory - I felt prepared and confident, mostly based on the fact that I had learned so much in doing a similar process at SJSU." Kathie continues as a theatre instructor in our department, and as the Regional Director of The Bay Area California Arts Project.

PERFROMANCES asked MATT BARBER what he was up to since "The OC," where he was an editor, went off the air. He writes, "Sorry I've taken so long to get back. I've logged 130 hours the past two weeks. Cuh-razy! I've taken a full-time editing gig on the new NBC series "CHUCK." It's an action comedy that is one-part "The Office" and one-part "Alias." It debuted in September and airs on Monday nights before 'Heroes.' (I refer to it as the Two-Hour Power Hour.) My first show will be the third one on air, sometime in October. Hope you're well."

Recent grad MARIO VENDETTI just got his SAG card for shooting a scene in the feature film "Bottle Shock." The film stars Danny DeVito, Alan Rickman and Bill Pullman. It was shot in Sonoma, and Mario has moved to LA to pursue his acting career.

The Summer of Love 40th Anniversary Festival was held Sunday, September 2nd in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco and KSJS's Chef Ramon was on hand getting exclusive interviews for his "Blues Café" program on 90.5 FM KSJS (visit www.ksjs.org for the current programming schedule). Among the artists Chef Ramon interviewed were several original cast members from various "tribes" of the musical "Hair" who were having a reunion and performance of several of the musical numbers from the show. He also talked to legendary keyboardist fromThe Doors Ray Manzarek, 60's icon Wavy Gravy, Woodstock promoter Artie Kornfield, Lester Chambers of the Chambers Brothers, Paul Kantner from the Jefferson Airplane, and more! (Pictured from left to right Todd and Kate Gallarahn, David Hunt, Ramon Johnson, and Red Sheppard in front of Red's "tribal tent of love".)

DEREK HOUSEMAN, class of 2005, writes, "I wanted to fill everyone in on what I have been up to these last two years. In short, I have worked on an Israeli movie in NYC, took some Second City writing and improv intensive courses, set sail on a cruise in the Mediterranean, and started work on a documentary about the internet and social discourse. It has been an exciting two years, and I still have a trip to Israel planned in two weeks! On top of everything, I am finally making the move, (Yes, the one everyone told me to make after I graduated), to LA at the end of the October to search out a writing job. I hope to see many of my fellow alumni out there and want to wish everyone well."

MATT MCTIGHE on "Friday Night Lights," on Friday Oct 5th, 9PM, NBC . . . The brilliant ANDY SIMS with a new short posted on YouTube: ... JEFF VINALL vacationing in Brazil, first on a cattle ranch then to Rio, where, he says, "what happens in Rio stays in Rio"… JEREMY CASTILLO, locked in the editing room working on MARK TRAN's student-written-and-directed feature ALL ABOUT DAD… ED MOSHER opening the new DU house - the renovation of which he spearheaded in the wake of a serious fire, and which is now the most luxurious frat house on campus… CECILY RYAN in LA for a few weeks now and auditioning for films while she winds up post-production on "Skin Deep," the short film that she wrote and directed starring LANI WONG and RACHEL WYATT ... and PROF. BETTY POINDEXTER tapped to costume "The Mousetrap" at Center Rep in Walnut Creek.

That's it for October…until November, PERFORMANCES leaves you with the words of Dorothy Parker: "I am not a vengeful woman…possibly for the perfectly working reason that if you just sit back and wait, the bastards will get theirs without your doing anything about it, and it will be fancier than anything you could have dreamed up.

SPOTLIGHT ON: REBEKAH WALENDZAK, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF CHICAGO'S BARE BONED THEATRE

1997 Theatre Arts grad REBEKAH WALENDZAK has not exactly been lolling on a divan in the ten years since graduation.

She moved to Chicago in 2001, where she was accepted into (and graduated from) the world-famous Second City improv and writing conservatories.

While at Second City Rebekah teamed with colleague Wayne Graham to write and star in the two person one-act play "HUSBAND & LIFE," which ran in several Chicago venues to critical acclaim. She was also a founding member of Jazz Hands Across America, a musical theatre improv troupe that performed full-length musicals based on a single audience suggestion!

Her latest accomplishment is the founding, with two friends, of a new Chicago theatre company, BARE BONED THEATRE. Rebekah is Artistic Director.

The company's mission is to "present dynamic work as seen through [their] own eyes rather than through preconceived notions of type.

"Through non-traditional casting and the development of physical and dynamic staging, Bare Boned Theatre strives to revive the classics, re-interpret contemporary drama and develop new works, utilizing and exploring new techniques along the way."

Their inaugural production, one of the "new works" promised in the mission statement, is "THE VILLE", a "live soap opera" set in the Andersonville neighborhood of Chicago's North Side. "The Ville" opened to wonderful critical acclaim and perfectly captured the spirit of its setting. Often called the "Swedish gayborhood," Andersonville has a delightfully diverse mix of residents, from old-school Swedes, for whom Andersonville was originally named, to a large lesbian population. They're intermingled with straight families and hipster artists, and all snuggled closely together amid Midwestern charm and eclectic boutiques. Andersonville, Walendzak believes, is a perfect cross-section of modern American society.

Performed in the bar above Hamburger Mary's Restaurant, a space called Mary's Attic, Bare Boned Theatre, under the artistic direction of Walendzak, transforms its quaint setting into an exciting theatrical experience, using modular sets, intricate sound design and innovative televised graphic art to stylize the project. The writing staff of eight creates new episodes every month, writing for a young and energetic acting ensemble of fourteen, filled with a wide variety of physical and ethnic types, breaking down barriers and stereotypes with each casting choice. As one episode opens, the next begins rehearsal, while a future episode is simultaneously being written.

It's an ambitious undertaking but Bare Boned is pulling it off. Brian Kirst of "The Chicago Free Press" wrote, "While some first-time theater companies might have suffered under the weight of such ambitions, thankfully Bare Boned Theater has the knack - and more importantly, the talent - to carry this entertaining vision out. One can surely look forward to more entertaining exploits from the characters in the comical, emotionally exploratory 'The Ville.'"

As well serving as Artistic Director of Bare Boned Theatre, Walendzak is director of "The Ville," and is even a featured writer on the project. Understandably, it takes up most of her time and generates a lot of stress, but, says Rebekah, "the opportunity to collaborate with such talented artists, ranging from novelists and poets and theatre writers, to experienced actors and new graduates from acting schools across the nation, and working each day to make the process a positive experience for all involved, is truly a great gift."

Rebekah's many accomplishments seem even more impressive when one considers that she was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma in 2003. Happily, after receiving a stem cell transplant in 2005, Rebekah has been cancer-free for two years. Meanwhile, she generously credits her mentors at SJSU for preparing her for a life in the theatre.

"My education from San Jose State taught me how to conduct myself as an actor," she says, "but even more, through the guidance of PROF. BETTY POINDEXTER, our beloved ELIZA CHUGG, PROF. JIM CULLEY, STEVE PLACKEY - the hard-as-nails scene shop foreman with a heart-of-gold from my days at SJSU - and the tough love of PROF. ETHEL PITTS-WALKER, I learned to live my life as a theatrician, to enjoy the collaborative nature of this art form, and to respect the importance of each artist's contribution. And SJSU is where I found my lifelong friends, who continue to work and succeed in the arts. But, moreover, they live their lives and strive to be better everyday. Not just as actors or directors, but as people. My time away from SJSU has taught me that I left college with a great foundation: a broad, strong foundation."

Her advice to today's students? "Living life, with all of its ups and downs, trials, failures and successes, is what makes living interesting, making the phrase 'art imitates life' so poignant. Live your life. The biggest gift you can give to your 'craft' is your own experience, your own self! Because there is no one else in this world like you."

Go to www.myspace.com/barebonedtheatre to learn more about Bare Boned Theatre and "The Ville."

Recent RTVF grad CATHY LEYBA is the Set Decoration Coordinator on a new movie called HANCOCK, starring WILL SMITH, CHARLIZE THERON and JASON BATEMAN.

Cathy, who lives in LA full time, got her first PA as an internship referred by PROF. DAVID KAHN. The movie was entitled HIGH CRIMES. "His friend was an AD and I did my two week internship with them," says Cathy, "and then they hired me as a production PA. The MATRIX sequels came into town right after that and the Production Coordinator gave them my number. Since then I've just gotten jobs from word of mouth. Basically how you get every job in film. It's rare to get onto a movie without a recommendation from someone."

"I was lucky the Production Manager on the Matrix remembered me and gave my name out as a coordinator for the movie RENT," Cathy says. "I was hired as the Set Decoration Coordinator and have been doing that for the last three years."

Cathy says, "The Set Decoration Coordinator is in charge of the department budget, product placement, and clearance. I assist the decorator, buyer and lead man, and contribute to set dressing - for example with detailed items like photos, certificates and so any - things that you see on the set. Every day is different."

Cathy says that there are a variety of roads to jobs such as her: "Some Decorators study interior design, art, interior decorating. Some work their way up from set dressers." She adds that yes, it can occasionally be glamorous. "I do get the meet the 'stars,' some great, some strange, and almost always shorter than you'd think but always more attractive in person."

Many of us recall Cathy as an essential part of campus radio station KSJS, and she credits her experience there as contributing to her current success. "I was Promotions Director so I had to work and meet so many different kinds of people. The hands-on experience was great. I still have close friends from there."

Her advice to new grads breaking into the biz: "The film industry is a small community. When you have the opportunity to work, work hard and be reliable. Don't waste your time doing something you hate; find what you love. The hours are too long to hate what you do."

Speaking of Chicago, alumna DAWN DALTON will be winging her way to it any day now. Dawn writes, "Hello everyone in California! I want to announce that Jeff and I are moving to Chicago! Weeks after Gianna's birth, Jeff applied for his 'dream job' at United Airline's corporate location and got it. It's an excellent career move, and we're very excited about all the possibilities that lie ahead! We're leaving California simply because we can't afford to buy a home, nor are we that impressed with the school systems. This was an extremely hard decision as we have lived here 17.5 years, so we are leaving a lot of friends and memories. But Chicago represents is a way of life that resembles more with how we want to raise a family. So we are closing this chapter in our lives and opening another -- although extremely hard, it's the right decision. Jeff reported to work in Chicago on August 1st, and Gianna and I will be following. I'm going to take this opportunity to drive my vehicle across the United States stopping along the way. My mom will be helping me make this drive, sitting in the back with Gianna. P.S. New pictures have been added to Gianna's web site. FYI that some of the photo galleries are more than one page, so you'll need to press 'Next Page' to see them all: http://www.babypeeks.net/user/dawndalton."

MAURICE HINES seen palling around LA with OMAR BENSEN MILLER (pictured left) . . . BRETT SCHLAMAN credited as Assistant Editor on "UNDERDOG"…MARK TRAN to Vietnam for some relaxation after completing principle photography on his feature "ALL ABOUT DAD …JOHN SCHMIDT serving as gaffer on VICKI DEMEY'S feature film directing debut, and then off to LA…CECILY RYAN, also off to LA to find acting work"…TODD BANHAZL also off to LA, for graduate work in cinematography at AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTE …PROF. DAVID KAHN doing dramaturgical work at Berkeley Rep while on sabbatical - helping develop new plays by CARRIE FISHER and ITAMAR MOSES…CHRIS CONSORTE working on his Master's Thesis and intending to finish by December…JUSTIN GREEN working at YouTube…PROF. BETTY POINDEXTER, back on campus for fall semester…PROFESSORS ETHEL WALKER and ALISON McKEE welcoming incoming frosh for a new, two-day orientation program designed to improve retention and graduation rates…and PROF. AMY GLAZER tapped to direct two new productions in the coming year, including "THE CROWD YOU'RE WITH," a world premiere by Pulitzer-nominated playwright REBECCA GILMAN at THE MAGIC THEATER.

That's it for September - come back in October. Until then, PERFORMANCES leaves you with the words of Tom Stoppard: "I write fiction because it's a way of making statements I can disown, and I write plays because dialogue is the most respectable way of contradicting myself." Oddly, Stoppard says nothing about the reasons for writing newsletters.

Get out your calendars and your marking pen because the Dept. of TV, Radio, Film and Theatre 2007-2008 Production Season was recently announced and looks to be another year of great theatre and filmmaking. This fall (Oct. 5 - 13) in the University Theatre lecturer LAURA LONG will direct Tony Kushner's American "Angels in America, The Millennium Approaches," Part 1 of Kushner's classic two-part play. (Coincidentally, City Lights Theatre on 2nd Street will be mounting Part 2 of "Angels" around the same time, so audiences will be able to see both parts if they choose.) Lecturer KATHLEEN NORMINGTON directs autumn's second show, William Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream," running Nov. 9 - 17. The annual Student Film Festival will run in the UT one night only, Nov. 30.

Also this fall, in honor of the University's sesquicentennial, the department will present "Pageant, A 150 Year Anniversary Play," by student and lecturer TIMOTHY WELCH. Performances will be Dec. 6, 7, and 8, with DR. MATT SPANGLER, a great friend of the department who teaches in Communication Studies, directing.

Early next year - January 24-26 to be exact - student Josh Jack Carl directs a student-initiated-and-run production entitled "An Evening of Shel Silverstein," which Josh describes as "Shel Silverstein for grown-ups."

World renowned playwright LUIS VALDEZ, who learned playwriting in our department and went on to be become the most famous Chicano playwright in history, has given permission for his early play "The Mummified Deer" to be mounted in the University theatre, under the direction of the playwright's son KINAN VALDEZ. The production will also be the subject of a documentary by PROF. BUDDY BUTLER.

PROF. BABAK SARRAFAN, who music videos regularly win awards, will this year be shooting a video in Shanghai with our sister campus there. A documentary about the cooperation between the two schools will follow.

Spring semester wraps up with a production of the exciting Irish play "The Lieutenant of Inishmore," written by Martin McDonough and directed by DR. MATTHEW SPANGLER.

Recent grad PAUL SAWYER is currently directing "Juvie" with Dragon Theatre in Palo Alto. Writes Paul, "It is an incredible show, a real 'sprint' of a piece which just hits you with its language and it pacing." TRFT's own CANDICE PRICE and NICOLE SQUIRES are also in the show. We run July 27-August 19, with a special benefit performance on Wednesday August 8. For more information visit http://www.dragonproductions.net/showinfo_juvie.htm. Paul adds, "I also have been directing for Peninsula Youth Theatre's Theatre In The Park. I just finished Snew White (yes, 'SnEw') and I am now working on 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.' Also I will be vocal directing 'High School Musical' for Pied Piper Players later this summer. I also have set things up with the University Of Wisconsin - Milwaukee's Peck School of The Arts to do my Teaching in The Arts credentialing and licensing with them. Very excited to return to my home town. Add to this that Nicole and I are in the heat of planning our wedding (June 7, 2008), and I am a busy boy!"

SANDY ZIVIANI IN OFF BROADWAY PLAY

SANDY ZIVIANI was in another show, this one Off Broadway, part of a One Act festival. The play is "Bullfighting" by Lucy Wang. Sandy plays an insurance worker and would be writer who wakes up in the middle of the night to find Hemingway in her kitchen drinking scotch. The show ran July 20-29 at Theatre 54 (54th and Broadway). Says Sandy, "I hope if any of you are in NYC you will come to visit!

JASON AND CHRISTIAN IN 24 HOUR FILM FEST

Alums JASON SALAZAR and CHRISTIAN PIZZIRANI recently took part in the San Francisco 48 hour film project and drew "detective/cop" as a genre. Their film, "JACKSON REYNOLDS P.I.," won audience favorite for our night of it showed. The YouTube link to the short is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mG2lyE_4UEs. They're also going to take part in the San Jose 48 hour film project. Christian recently updated the website for their company, Beyond Forever Studios: www.beyondforeverstudios.com.

SETH KANE AT "AMERICA'S NEXT PRODUCER

Alumnus SETH KANE is currently logging tapes for "America's Next Producer," which premiered July 18 at 8:00 P.M. on the TV Guide Channel. Scott,

Theatre Arts Alum CLAY ADKINS, just back from Cannes, recently signed to do a series of guest appearances on BRAVO"S new show 'Tim Gunn's Style." It's a spin-off of Bravo's Project Runway. Clay is on "E" right now as a funny commentary person (talking Head) on the show "50 Cutest Child Stars All Grown Up!" And he recently shot the pilot for "Queen" for LIFETIME TV produced by Scout Productions, the creators of "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy." Says Clay, "I had the only male role along with two great women, and the show should be huge, and waiting for the green light. The show is about the American pageant world… My co-host Kym Douglas wrote the number one book this year on Amazon.com, 'The Black Book of Hollywood Beauty Secrets.' Every major Hollywood film and TV star is in this book, from Julia Roberts to Meryl Streep. I am so happy to say they have asked me to be one of the featured guest stars in the NEXT book soon to be coming out called 'The Black Book of Hollywood Diet Secrets.'"

Guest editor Alys Milner is a 1982 graduate of what was then known as the Theatre Arts department at San Jose State. She was a costume shop fixture in the days of Eliza Chugg, Betty Poindexter and Debbie Weber.

Alys (Photo left: Alys Milner, Dress Rehearsal for My Genius, My Child, Costume Shop, 1981) worked as a costumer for a number of Bay Area theatre companies including San Jose Rep, Cal Shakespeare and Santa Rosa Summer Repertory Theatre. For the past decade Alys has served in various capacities on the Board of Directors of Design Response (www.designresponse.org). One of her most outstanding contributions to Design Response was her leadership in helping grow the organization’s fundraising capacity, raising over $500,000 in new funding in three years.

Married with two young boys, Alys recently launched a professional organizing business, Organized at Heart.

Alys sent the following appeal to friends and colleagues in early June including David Kahn, Ph.D. and Graduate Coordinator requesting support for her fund-raising drive on behalf of Second Harvest Food Bank. In addition to his financial support, David forwarded Alys’ email to several colleagues, generating donations from Betty Poindexter, Bob Jenkins and Alison McKee.

Hungry?

My parents spent most of their savings to immigrate to the United States from Canada. It was important to them that their three daughters attend college, and California was known for its affordable higher education. Shortly after arriving in the States, my father was diagnosed with cancer. He died nine months later at the age of 52, leaving my mother to raise three girls, all under the age of 14.

Bankrupt from medical expenses and with no family to turn to, my Mom took a low paying job in San Francisco, commuting by train. Making ends meet was impossible. After paying rent, utilities and train fare, little was left for food. As her pay day approached, the food in the cupboards dwindled. One of my strongest memories was on one such day when we had nothing but flour and water biscuits for dinner, sharing what remained of the bottom of a jar of jam.

I am proud of my mother. She worked hard, raised three college educated daughters and instilled in all of us a strong work ethic and the compassion to help those in need. She was the working poor. She made too much to qualify for government aid but couldn’t make ends meet with three daughters to feed.

As a young adult, I also experienced hunger. Trying to make it alone while attending college, I worked three part time jobs to support myself and to pay for rent, tuition and books. I looked forward to my Thursday afternoons because the women in the theater arts office where I worked part time would save me the crackers from their orders of soup. It quite literally filled the empty void of hunger for the rest of the afternoon.

My family’s situation and my experience in college are not unique or unusual. Hunger is a silent and yet tenacious epidemic. (Photo left: Alys and family today)

The work of Second Harvest Food Bank is important to me because I know what it is like to feel hunger. I watched my mother struggle to feed us. There are mothers in our own community today, struggling to do the same.

I am so fortunate that I no longer have to worry about hunger. My family is well cared for and I am now able to reach out to others. I support Second Harvest Food Bank as a member of their Monthly Harvest club. People in our community are hungry all year round so it is important to me that we donate all year long as well.

A donation of just $10 will provide 20 meals to people in our community. And by donating now, you’ll help feed children during the summer months when they do not receive free school meals.

VIRTUAL FOOD DRIVE INSTRUCTIONS for online donating

Go to www.shareyourlunch.net and click on DONATE NOW.
Decide the amount of money you would like to donate and click CHOOSE QUANTITY.
Once you have entered your desired quantity, click ADD TO CART.
Click VIEW CART to verify your donated amount.
Once you have verified the donation amount, click PROCEED TO CHECK OUT.
This will take you to a page that asks participants to register. Please click REGISTER on the orange bar.
On the registration page, please choose Civic/Community Group as the TYPE OF ORGANIZATION and Milner, Alys as the FOOD DRIVE COMPANY from the dropdown list.
Click PROCEED TO CHECKOUT and enter your BILLING INFORMATION.
Click SUBMIT PAYMENT and you are done!
An email receipt will be sent.

Our spring 2007 Music Video was shot March 16 through 20 in the University Theatre. Starring this year was rap legend CHRISTOPHER "KID" REID.

"Kid" shot to fame with the three, hit "HOUSE PARTY" comedies, playing opposite his partner PLAY. The first "House Party" film is now considered a classic of black cinema, and made "Kid 'N Play" a national phenomenon. It also made Kid's bizarre hairstyle (since abandoned) a famous show biz trademark.

The Kid 'N Play act landed various record deals and led Kid to compose music for "Real Time with Bill Maher." He also has acted on TV in shows such as "Sister, Sister," "Smart Guy," and "The Temptations," and now tours the country with his stand-up comedy act.

This year, with a new album and a high profile talk show deal with Warner Brothers TV, the talented show business survivor is re-inventing himself yet again. His new track "STAY" is to be released this summer and is described as "a hip-hop love song."

"I love working with Kid!" said PROF. BABAK SARRAFAN, the director of the "Stay" video. "He's funny, he's great with students, he's professional on the set, and he's very down to earth. This year we had a very good group of students and I hope to finish editing the music video in the next month or two."

Shot on 35 mm film, the project is now in post-production. The STAY Music video will premiere on BET after completion.

Said Kid, "I've done cameos in two of Babak's music videos at San Jose State and was very impressed by everyone's effort. So, it was a natural decision to work with the talent at SJSU after reading the treatment."

The music video class this year indeed worked with top outside and in-house professionals in every department, among them AMANDA SHAW (costume designer), DEBBIE KRAHENBUHL (costume shop), SHARON RIDGE (make up design), SEAN RUSSELL (gaffer), VICKI DeMEY (production manager), NED KOPP (1st AD), JOHN YORK (production designer), and HIRO NARITA (director of photography.)

The campus has just become a much better place to study musical theatre as a result of the new Goldberg Collection of Musical Theater materials at the Martin Luther King Library (located right next door to Hugh Gillis Hall).

The collection centers on the work of the great composer-lyricist team of GEORGE and IRA GERSHWIN.

The collection formerly belonged to Mark Goldberg, who was Executive Director of the Ira and Lenore Gershwin Trust.

Goldberg, who died of a heart attack two years ago at the age of 49, was a UCLA grad who went to Prospect High. However, his parents, Mary and Gene Goldberg, were both SJSU grads and had in fact been married in the University Chapel. They decided that their son's collection of Broadway musical theater memorabilia - a broad collection, not just Gershwin items - should go the joint university-city library.

According to a recent article in the San Jose Mercury-News, "The donation included 663 hardbound books, 377 plays and scripts, 47 coffee table books and 778 CDs. Mark had a copy of almost anything ever written about the Gershwins."

Recent Theatre Arts grad MATT McTIGHE is getting busier than ever guesting on network TV. His second episode of "FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS" aired recently, and on Friday, May 11th he was seen on "NUMB3RS," in a short scene at the beginning of the episode, as a SWAT who has some lines to gang bangers who try to highjack a semi. Matt's still-under-construction website will send out information in regard to his TV/film/theatre appearances. Feel free to visit it at: web.mac.com/mattmctighe. Says Matt, "Please note it will be a DIFFERENT email address sending the updates (mattmctighe@mac.com) so please add it to your email list so it does not go into 'spam.'" His personal email address remains the same, and old friends who want that address should contact PERFORMANCES.

Recent grad MATT BARBER hasn't wasted any time finding work since his show "THE OC" was canceled. A short subject that he edited, "The Oates Valor," was screened at Cannes this year, and also screened at Sundance. For more information on the film visit http://www.epistrophefilms.com/index.html. Matt also just finished assisting on a TV pilot called "CHUCK," produced by Josh Schwartz and directed by McG. For more on that project visit http://www.tv.com/story/8342.html?q=nbc. Finally, Matt is currently assisting on a Michael Bay production called "The Horseman" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0892767/.

Speaking of Cannes…CLAY ADKINS, class of '87, seen walking the red carpet at Cannes for his new movie WE OWN THE NIGHT, starring Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Wahlberg, Robert Duvall and Eva Mendez. Check out Clay's new website, clayadkins.com.

SETH KANE (BA in Theatre Arts, 2004) recently started a new job at Magical Elves, producers of such reality shows as "TOP CHEF," "PROJECT RUNWAY" and "LAST COMIC STANDING." Says Seth, "I am a logger, watching the raw uncut footage and breaking it into shorter clips with detailed notes." He's working on a new show, 'America's Next Producer,' which will air on The TV Guide Channel.

The Department of TV, Radio, Film and Theatre held its 2007 Convocation on Friday, March 25, and faculty members agreed that the 2007 graduating class was once of the most spectacular group of graduates in recent memory. Clips of student films were screened, and graduating actors performed scenes from two recent theatre productions: "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and "Big Love." Among the grads receiving awards for commendable work during their senior years were NICK PARKS, OMAR MUNOZ, JENNIFER CORKER, MARK TRAN, TODD BANHAZL and CECILY RYAN.

Recent RTVF grad DAWN DALTON and husband Jeff, now living in Fremont, announced the birth of a beautiful new baby daughter, Gianna Marsha Dalton, born Tuesday, May 22 at 2:33 P.M. The little girl weighed 7 lbs., 15 oz., and measured 19 inches long. For pictures go to http://www.babypeeks.net/user/dawndalton.

Meanwhile, lecturer DAN FORTUNE reports the birth of a "healthy, happy, bouncing baby boy" on May 23 at 7:19 P.M. Says Dan, "He is big boy, 9 lbs. 8.5 oz. and 19.25 inches long. His name is Matthew Royce Fortune. Mom and baby are doing well."

ROBERT J. ENRIQUEZ AND ALFORDE M. JOAQUIN WIN AWARDS FOR WORK AT "HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS FOCUS"

Recent grad ROBERT J. ENRIQUEZ has received his first NATAS Emmy for his video work at "High School Sports Focus." Rob left "Sports Focus" last March and is now working as a video journalist/producer for the City of San Jose.

Meanwhile, recent grad ALFORDE M. JOAQUIN received two more NATAS Emmys (out of six nominations!) for his work at "High School Sports Focus." Alf also received two Telly Awards (for Sports Videography and Feature segment), and an Award of Excellence from the San Francisco Bay Area Press Photographers' Association (SFBAPPA) for his 2006 McClymonds Football documentary. This is Alf's sixth year with Sports Focus and his sixth Emmy award. He also received an Edward R. Murrow Award last year and two AP Mark Twain Awards for videography, editing and feature segments.

PERFORMANCES ventured up to Sunnyvale a couple of weeks ago and saw recent grad JUSTIN WORSHAM do his second gig at Rooster T. Feathers. The up-and-coming stand-up comedian (and department alum) is getting better and better and better, and this performance showed a new ease and confidence in his already-smooth style. For more on Justin visit http://www.JustinWorsham.com.

Theatre Arts alumna SANDY ZIVIANI has moved to Weehawken, New Jersey, where she's taken a lovely apartment with a spectacular view of Manhattan and the Hudson River. She's in "THE SCARLET LETTER" with New Glove Theater, directed by Stuart Vaughan. For more see http://www.playbill.com/events/event_detail/12316.html.

That's it for June. Until July, PERFORMANCES leaves you with the words of playwright Jean Kerr: "I don't want to see the uncut version of anything."

Described as the Vietnamese "Little Miss Sunshine," "All About Dad" is a tender-yet-edgy comedy about a Vietnamese American family with a loving but old-fashioned dad whose rigid expectations conflict with his children's dreams.

Harmony goes awry for the Ho family when Dad discovers that his children have been lying about their lives. Son Ty is a college student who refuses to be the "model minority" Dad wants him to be, while daughter Linh has kept her fiancé's Buddhism a secret, fearing rejection because Dad's quite Catholic.

"All About Dad" is the classic conflict between an "Old World" father and "New World" kids - a theme that goes back to the very beginnings of talking pictures in "The Jazz Singer." But "All About Dad" is completely new in that it's the first (and probably the funniest) feature film to address in depth the charming, unique yet universal lives of an ignored community - Vietnamese Americans. As such, it is creating great buzz and support among Bay Area Vietnamese Americans.

The film will be directed by student MARK TRAN, with a student crew. Tran wrote the script in PROF. SCOTT SUBLETT's screenwriting class. "It's the ideal indie piece of writing," said Prof. Sublett. "It's young and hip in attitude, but it deals with family life in a way that appeals to every age group. The comic voice is unique and unlike anyone making films in this country today. If I had to describe it I'd say it's delightfully droll in the manner of English 'Ealing' comedies of the early '50s, things like 'The Man in the White Suit' and 'Kind Hearts and Coronets,' but with the tenderness and humanism of the great Japanese cinematic master Ozu."

NED KOPP, a long-time Hollywood veteran and current lecturer in the Dept. of TV, Radio, Film and Theatre (whose credits include THE RIGHT STUFF and THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS), is producing the film and bringing aboard a team of pros (a sound mixer, for example, and key grip) for each key position to mentor our advanced students. HIRO NARITA, the cinematographer of HONEY, I SHRUNK THE KIDS and ROCKETEER, will mentor the camera crew, making this production, all told, the most exciting educational experience yet for our film production students.

The first class meets Wednesday June 6th in the University Theater. Students can receive credit for two classes RTVF 185 and RTVF 198. The class runs through early August with students expected to work a minimum of 100 hours per class.

Dr. Ethel Walker, who teaches theatre arts and directs on the University Stage, has been selected as this year's "SJSU Outstanding Professor." This is the most important faculty award that our system grants, and it proves what we have been saying for many years - that Ethel is our best! Says President Don Kassing in his letter to Ethel: "As I am sure you are aware, the candidates nominated to the Outstanding Professor Award Committee are representative of our best faculty. Your record, however, is exemplary, even among those professors considered the best." Her extraordinary career encompasses two books, the past presidency of the California Educational Association, and a place on the San Francisco Arts Council. As a result of being named Outstanding Professor (the first ever from our department to receive that honor), Dr. Walker was invited to address the university's honors convocation.

Dr. Walker received her actual award (and a check for $1,000.00) at the "Eighth Annual Faculty Service Recognition and Awards Luncheon." Also honored at the luncheon were Professors BUDDY BUTLER (for 15 years of service to the University), AMY GLAZER (also for 15 years of service), DAVID KAHN (20 years), and RANDY EARLE (35 years). Chair MIKE ADAMS emceed the lunch.

NOTED CHINESE DESIGNER CREATES SET FOR "BIG LOVE," NOW ON UNIVERSITY THEATRE STAGE

Now gracing the University Theatre stage is a rousing, raucous and highly athletic production of "BIG LOVE," a "farce with brains" by noted contemporary playwright Charles Mee, and directed by lecturer KATHLEEN NORMINGTON. An exciting plus to the production is the stunning set design by Guest Faculty Member PROF. HU ZUO of the prestigious Shanghai Theatre Academy.

Prof. Zuo is the Director of the Theatre Design Research Institute of the Shanghai Theatre Academy, and currently a Visiting Scholar in the TV, Radio, Film and Theatre Department of SJSU. Department technical director PROF. JIM CULLEY is Zuo's primary host, making sure the visitor is well taken care of. He's staying in the splendid new Campus Village complex on the campus's southeast corner.

Since 2000, Hu has designed more than 60 theatrical productions, including many professional productions for the National and Regional State Theatres of China. He was the stage designer for the Chinese YuJu opera "Broken Dream of Lan Yi", Chinese LiYuan opera "A Widow's Lament", Epic Historical Drama "Bronze Holiness", Epic Historical Drama "The Land of Abundance", Chinese Classical Opera "The Rain of the Chiangnan". In 2001, he designed the set for the closing ceremony of the Fifth International Shanghai Film Festival.

Hu is the recipient of numerous national and international awards including the 2nd China Stage Art Exhibition and the Outstanding Stage Design Award. His works were selected for the 1999 Shanghai International Arts and Design Expo, the 2003 International Scenographic Arts Exhibition, the 2006 Shanghai International Invitational Scenographic Exhibition and the 2007 USITT.

For more on the SJSU production of BIG LOVE, including a link to buy tickets ($10 for students, $15 general admission), pictures of the production, and fascinating links telling you all about the play, click here

Professor Hu Zuo isn't the only Chinese faculty member to be a guest of the Dept. of TV, Radio, Film and Theatre this semester. Two faculty members from the School of Television Arts of the Shanghai Theatre Academy visited the department of Television, Radio, Film and Theatre in April 2007. PROF. HONGLIN WU is a well-respected professor of TV Hosting, something very popular in Chinese RTVF education. PROF. MIAOJING LIAO teaches mass communication classes. While here professor Wu did a series of workshops on TV hosting and presented a copy of his newly-published book to the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library. Professor Miao lectured in PROF. KIMB MASSEY's RTVF 77 class about the hit Chinese TV reality show "Super Girl" that is based on American Idol. Both professors toured San Francisco and the Bay Area, including the usual tourist spots, the Coast of California, the Redwood forest and KGO-TV-7. And while Mr. Wu indicated that he only wanted to eat American food, he liked PF Chang's the best. We are planning student and faculty exchanges between our two schools, a music video and documentary project, and a broadcast research project in China. Ask Chair Mike Adams for details.

NEW MUSICAL, WRITTEN BY FACULTY, STARRING STUDENTS, WORKSHOPPED AT CITY LIGHTS THEATER

DR. DAVID KAHN directed a workshop production of "IMPERIALISM: THE MUSICAL" with an all-student cast at the City Lights Theater in downtown San Jose.

The all-new, never-before-seen musical comedy is about a drag queen, a Latina movie star and an American reporter who band together against a CIA puppet dictator in 1959 Latin America. The show was written (book and lyrics) by PROF. SCOTT SUBLETT, and the steamy Afro-Caribbean score was composed by legendary Jazz trumpeter WAYNE WALLACE, who heads the Latin Jazz Ensemble in the SJSU School of Music and Dance.

The entire student cast are too many to list, but deserving special mention are the four leads, in order of appearance: CHRIS CARTER as Bob Vale, VERA SLOAN as Veronica Valdez, JOSH MARX as The Fabulous Fenwick, and CHRIS GAORIN as President Barbaro. All are undergraduates in our department and regulars on the University Theatre stage.

The production represents a new model of cooperation between the department and local theaters: student actors populating a workshop production held at the professional theater. City Lights is noted for its genuine commitment to staging the work of new, local writers, and has twice before hosted staged readings of new, full-length plays by students from our playwriting classes.

For pictures of the "Imperialism" workshop production, click here Scroll down that page to find a link to a recent feature article from the San Francisco Chronicle on composer Wayne Wallace.

A highlight in the career of any film or video production faculty member in the U.S. is to be recognized by the Broadcast Education Association's media festival. The international festival is held each year at the NAB in Las Vegas in April. This year PROF. BABAK SARRAFAN once again won Award of Excellence in the Mixed category. It's his fifth win in the category.

In addition, this year he has also won the Technical Merit Award of Excellence. The video GET ME OFF, by the artist NATALISE, was this year's entry. GET ME OFF was aired on the WB and MTV-chi. This is the second video for this artist by Sarrafan. His last Natalise music video, FOREVER NOW, won the BEA's grand prize: the Charles and Lucille King Foundation Award in 2005 and the Award of Excellence.

This makes Sarrafan one of the top three most awarded faculty in the BEA media festival history. Sarrafan also was part of a panel in this year's BEA conference and gave a presentation on the topic of Creativity and Tenure.

Also acclaimed at the Broadcast Education Association festivities was undergrad MARK TRAN, whose short film BINARY CITY, a stylish thriller about Asian gangsters, placed third in the BEA Festival of Media Arts Student Video Production Awards in the Narrative category. Helping writer-director Tran make the film were student actors MARIO VAN DETTI, STUART MAHONEY and GRAHAM McKIBBEN. Director of Photography was TODD BANHAZL. Mark is directing his feature script ALL ABOUT DAD under the auspices of the Dept. of TV, Radio, Film and Theatre this summer. To learn more about BINARY CITY, click here

Chair Mike Adams presented in April at the annual Broadcast Education Association (BEA) Conference in Las Vegas. The BEA is sponsored by and coincides with the annual convention of the NAB, the National Association of Broadcasters. Adams presented a brief history of broadcast audio technology, and compared China Radio International's "Easy FM" with the 1950s NBC weekend radio service, "Monitor." Adams has been invited to give the keynote speech this fall in New York at the annual conference of the Antique Wireless Association, the AWA.

TODD BANHAZL, who recently graduated with a degree in RTVF, has been accepted to the American Film Institute's cinematography program - the nation's most prestigious and exclusive training ground for cinematographers. Applicants this year ranged from 22 to 39 years old, with Todd as this year's youngest applicant. He enjoyed an extraordinary career as an undergraduate in the Dept. of TV, Radio, Film and Theatre, serving as the Director of Photography on two student written-and-directed features, COLLEGE RADIO SUCKS and GLORY BOY DAYS. He was also First Assistant cameraman for the faculty written-and-directed feature GENERIC THRILLER, and completed a feature-length screenplay about drug addiction (I LOVE THE VALLEY). People involved in moviemaking often liken it to battle, so it's notable that a crew member on one of the films Todd shot said, at the wrap party, "I'd follow Todd to hell and back." PERFORMANCES would rather he follow Todd to AFI.

RTVF alumni JASON SALAZAR, MIKE FLORES and SEAN BECKER will be holding the premiere of THREE OF A KIND, their new short film, at the Milpitas Public Library (where the film was shot) on Cinco de Mayo. Salazar, Flores and Becker will attend and answer questions after the showing. Light refreshments will accompany this free event. For additional details, please call the Milpitas Library at (408) 262-1171 ext. 3616, or go to the Milpitas Library website You can also check out the film on Youtube

That's it for May. Until June, PERFORMANCES leaves you with the words of Noel Coward: "Work is much more fun than fun."

THIS MONTH IN THE “PERFORMANCES” SPOTLIGHT:
ANIMATION DIRECTOR AND RTVF LECTURER DAVE PERRY

Animator DAVE PERRY is a superb example of the professionals-but-also-educators who are being brought on board to supervise the students involved in the feature films being produced by the Department of TV, Radio, Film and Theatre.

In this case the film in question is WE BOMBED IN BAGHDAD, an animated musical about how the US ended up at war in Iraq.

Perry is supervising and guiding the student animators in the guise of “animation director” on the project – the person who supervises the cartooning.

Perry studied Fine Art at SJSU in the late 80's, then worked as a character animator in the 2-D computer game industry. He worked briefly at Colossal Pictures as an animator for a broadcast commercial product and began teaching animation and drawing at DeAnza College in 2000. A year later he also started teaching animation and drawing at Cogswell Polytechnic. Perry served on the 2006 International Jury for Festival Animatu in Portugal. He is the creator of a freeware penciltest program called MonkeyJam used by students, schools and companies, and has also worked as a web design consultant for companies including HP and Agilent.

Q: Tell us a little about WE BOMBED IN BAGHDAD, the full-length animated film you’re working on at SJSU, and your part in it.

A: Um, yes. Well, he thought we could make a movie based on the heart-warming tale of a cockroach boy and his dead tutor who take a trip down Memory Lane to figure out what caused the end of the world – all wrapped up in a musical comedy. At least that's what it is if you ignore its messages about the effects of religious extremism, misappropriation of power, intolerance and what happens if your president can't pronounce 'nuclear'. And then you invited me along to help advise the production and direct the animators, so I'm helping define production schedules, guide visual development, establish production practices and I'll be working with the animators.

A: There’s a lot to animating a feature. You have to design the characters, draw the backgrounds, the props the characters hold. You have to do layouts and storyboards – storyboards being sketches of all the various shots in the film. And one has to develop an overall style – a look – and make sure that all the various elements work together to add up to that look. For example, if you have simple, elegant character designs, the backgrounds and props can’t be fussy and full of unnecessary detail.

Q: Do you know of any other universities that are producing feature-length animation with students?

A: I don't know of any that are even contemplating it. I'm a bit surprised that we are in a position to actually do it. It's difficult to come up with a strong enough story and the student talent to pull it off. I think we actually have both here.

Q: Tell us a little about the process of putting together an animated feature, and where WE BOMBED IN BAGHDAD is at this point.

A: We started with a solid script. It was already in place when I came on board. The first step from there was story and visual development. Story on an animated production is directing and editing rolled into one. The script is realized visually shot by shot – the storyboard I mentioned earlier – and then timed to the audio. That becomes the blueprint for the entire film – the story boards combined with the already-recorded sound. We call that an “animatic.” Visual development establishes the look of the film, defining the stylistic language for the characters and locations. From there the scenes move to shot-planning and layout which work out the particular requirements of each shot and establish a clear plan of execution. Once all of the necessary assets such as characters, backgrounds and props are in place, the actual animation begins. Then it's off to post for final timing and audio. Right now we're finishing up story and visual development and getting ready for scene-planning and layout.

Q: How does actually assembling a feature-length animated film provide a unique educational opportunity?

A: A feature project really is a huge undertaking. The only way for it to succeed is through a lot of teamwork and collaboration on a very large scale. It demands that the students give their best but also requires that effort be focused within the context of the film. No egos, everyone working toward a common goal. Additionally the students have the opportunity to pitch-in in a number of different areas, gaining experience and insight with disciplines which might not be their main strengths. In the end, by working on a full-length animated film all together as a team, the students get an overview of the filmmaking process and al its various parts that is impossible to impart in a book or a classroom.

A: Talented and focused. And not just the animation and film students, the music department has been creating some amazing stuff for this project.

Q: When did you first get interested in animation and how did that lead to a career in animation?

A: It was “Speed Racer” and anything by Disney. I was hooked as a kid. I was here as a student before the animation program got started so it took me a while to find my way but the love of the art form was always there.

A: Yep, Miyazaki's “Porco Rosso.” Not many people can pull off a drama about a porcine aviator in proto-fascist Italy. Plus it has airplanes animated by hand. I'm a sucker for airplanes.

On April 6, 2007, at 7:20 p.m., Maximilian Martini Todd was born. It was much to the delight of his father, RTVF lecturer DREW TODD, who teaches a variety of film studies classes. Says Todd, “Max is a big boy, 9 pounds and 21 1/4 inches, gorgeous, and our absolute joy.”

DRIFTING ELEGANT, directed by PROF. AMY GLAZER, edited by alum MATT BARBER, and starring alum COBY BELL, plays three film festivals this month. The Ashland Independent Film Festival booking has already garnered a positive review in the “Ashland Daily Tidings,” which said in part, “DRIFITNG ELEGANT is … an interesting tapestry of dialogue … also testimony to how quickly failed communication can metastasize and begin to poison all aspects of relationships. The antidote is often brutal honesty, which can be eminently difficult and fraught with risk.” “Drifting Elegant” also screens at the Atlanta Film Festival on April 21 and 24, and (for those who missed it at Mill Valley Festival and want to see a local screening) at the Santa Cruz Film Festival on April 24. There will be a pre-party at producer Barnaby Dallas' parents house in Santa Cruz. Email Barnaby if you're interested in attending. For more information on the festivals check the web

Recent alum MATT McTIGHE – you may recall that PERFORMANCES alerted you to his recent appearance on GREY’S ANATOMY – is at it again, having appeared in his first episode of FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS (entitled “Mud Bowl”) on Wednesday, March 28. Matt, whom we all know to be a big pussycat in real life, played an attempted rapist. His second episode of LIGHTS, two weeks later (entitled “State”) has yet to air, so you can still catch it – check your local listings. Also, for those of you in LA, Matt is still in his run of PROOF at Pacific Resident Theater in Venice, playing Hal. Matt says, “If you come, let me know so we can meet up afterwards for a drink!”

We asked current master’s student SHAUNA YELNICK, who is busily beavering away to complete her thesis this semester, what she was up to, and she replied: “During Fall 2006 I was hired by a private middle school on the Peninsula to teach introduction to theater arts to 6th, 7th, and 8th graders, many of whom had never acted before, let alone seen a play. It was a lot of fun, and I was reminded why that age group is a blast! One student even asked my advice on auditioning, which was very flattering. I coached her on the audition process and her monologue for a play for which she subsequently received a callback, which was wonderful! My contract ended in December 2006, as that school offers a different "enrichment" class each quarter. In February, I was hired by San Carlos Children's Theater, located on the Peninsula where I live, to teach an after school theater class for their 8-week outreach program. SCCT is a non-profit organization providing children of the community an opportunity to participate in acting classes and stage productions. I teach a class called "Young Performers," where students learn the basics of acting, such as vocalization, exploring the creative use of the body/body awareness, creative storytelling, group dynamics, and of course, improvisation. I just found out that my contract will be renewed, so when this current class ends in late March I will teach another class at a different school for the 8-week spring session. Additionally, I was also recently hired (I guess I have good luck!) by the San Mateo Community College District for their College for Kids summer program. Students entering grades 5-9 sign up for three different "fun" classes (no grades or tests!), held on two Peninsula community college campuses in June and July. I will be teaching creative writing, public speaking/speech, and beginning theater for the first three-week session, and then two film appreciation classes for the second session in July. Good thing I took excellent notes in ALISON McKEE’s film seminar and saved all the class articles! These part-time contract jobs have not only been super fun and great learning experiences, but have also undoubtedly prepared me to teach theater full-time in the fall, should another opportunity arise!”

ANDREW KERR is in a new show. “Serving Sixties" is a musical comedy about the Deluca International Pizza and Song, and how it came to be. Check out the Off Broadstreet Theater web site. Says Andrew, “It runs for ten weeks. Come see the show and we'll party like were at the 470's again!”

90.5 FM KSJS, the Associated Students of San Jose State University and Goodwill of Silicon Valley are proud to announce the second annual “Chef Ramon’s San Jose Blues Week”, Monday May 7th through Sunday May 13th. This event recognizes the 27 years of the “Metro Fountain Blues Festival” created by the Associated Students of San Jose State and the musicians, club owners and fans that make up the San Jose blues scene. This year’s event honors San Jose Blues guitar legend Rene Solis for his contribution and inspiration to the arts. KSJS has partnered with the Goodwill of Silicon Valley to assist them in their efforts to collect shoes, which they sell to raise money to support their adult job training and at-risk youth programs. In addition, we hope to help Goodwill educate our community that this is not your grandparents Goodwill, of Goodwill's mission in the 21st century, and how we all can help. “Chef Ramon’s San Jose Blues Week” (“SJBW”) features events at JJ’s Blues Club, Poor House Bistro, Smoke Tiki Lounge & Barbeque, and San Jose State University. You can contact “San Jose Blues Week” creator and organizer Ramon Johnson at (408) 924-4531 or via email at ramonjohnson@yahoo.com. For more information on the Fountain Blues Festival, go to the Web.

In honor of Oscar season, PERFORMANCES shines this month’s Spotlight on the Dept. of TV, Radio, Film and Theatre’s new, Oscar-winning faculty member JAY BOEKELHEIDE.

Mr. Boekelheide won his 1984 Academy Award in Sound Effects Editing for the hit film adaptation of Tom Wolfe’s best selling novel about the space program, “THE RIGHT STUFF.”

The impressive list of films on which Mr. Boekelheide has worked, either as a sound or picture editor, includes XIU XIU THE SENT-DOWN GIRL, SPECIES, THE GETAWAY, RED ROCK WEST, CADILLAC MAN, RIVER’S EDGE, SERPENT AND THE RAINBOW, VALLEY OF THE HEART’S DELIGHT, MAKING THE ELIXIR OF LOVE, SING FASTER: THE STAGEHAND’S RING CYCLE, AMADEUS and APOCALYPSE NOW.

As an undergraduate at Dartmouth Mr. Boekelheide was more interested in books, painting and still photography than in film. Graduating at the height of the Vietnam War, he went to Chad with the Peace Corps. There he started watching old movies and soon, with two friends, wrote and shot an instructional film teaching Chadians how to construct sanitary wells. The USAID film library to this day distributes it.

Now in love with cinema, Mr. Boekelheide nevertheless started work in a doctoral program in literature.

“Within a few months I was teaching film classes instead of Great Books,” he said. “When I had finished my orals I applied for and received the first of a series of traveling fellowships, and immediately moved to Paris where I studied, and taught, and did what film work I could get. When northern European winters got under my skin, the Vietnam war limped to a halt and I grew tired of abject poverty, I returned to the United States and went to work at American Zoetrope in the era of THE GODFATHER II, THE CONVERSATION, and then APOCALYPSE NOW.”

Today he lives in Berkeley with his wife, Beth Goldman, an intellectual property attorney in San Francisco. They have three children: Julia 23, Ivan 20, and Philip 17. PERFORMANCES was very excited when Mr. Boekelheide let PERFROMANCES touch his Oscar.

Questioner: Tell us all about your Academy Award. Is it heavy? Where do you keep it? Have you ever been tempted to sell it on eBay? But seriously, how did it feel to win it?

Boekelheide: The Oscar is quite heavy – nine or ten pounds. I have a niche, originally designed for a protective saint's image, over the fireplace in the living room. The Oscar is generally to be found there. I won it in a daze, which soon turned into a panic attack. My mother and one of my brothers, both doctors, saw me on TV and thought I was having a heart attack. Maybe I was. I had barely sat down in the amphitheater when my name was called and, since I had missed the instructional pre-Oscar ceremony lecture, I fumbled my way through the whole thing – receipt, speech and post-stage debriefing. I don't know how to use eBay well enough to get a decent price.

Q: Most people don't know what sound editors and picture editors do. In layman's terms, can you explain the function of each position?

Boekelheide: I won for "special sound effects editing" which was actually a recognition of my having been the supervising sound editor on "The Right Stuff." I had been a sound effects editor and had been in charge of the creation of the sound effects on the film – lots of jet planes and rocket sounds and re-entry buffeting, high desert lonely winds and so forth. I actually had been a picture editor on the film as well, but to a lesser extent, and also a mixer, though even less. I mention this because I asked the producers to put me up as a picture editor, which they refused. I didn't ask about mixing (the award called "sound"). Both the picture editors and the mixers also won. If I'd managed to get myself nominated in all three categories I could have won three. My award was a recognition of the emotional impact of the sound aspect of the completed film. I basically worked to make effective simulacra of real events – experimental plane flights, rocket blasts, high desert bar sounds, etc. – that the film had created on stages or in visual effects (think model airplanes). Picture editing took those same visual effects and scenes shot on stages and edited them into convincing experiences for the audience. Mixing made the dialogue and music audible above the roar of the rockets (and contributed to my current hearing loss).

Q: Do you have a particular personal style or philosophy of editing, or do you think every project calls for something different?

Boekelheide: When I work on a film, whether in picture or sound, I try to understand the film as completely as I can. I try to understand both what the film has to say and how it chooses to say it. And then I warp whatever my task is – telling a story with picture, or making all the dogs bark instead of moo, in a direction which will enhance the underlying emotional structure built into the project from the script onward, so that the substrate of emotion which connects the audience to the film is as tight and powerful as I can make it. I try not to have any style that goes beyond a delight in trying out new things and having fun; I try to do what the film needs (and can afford). Simply identifying that and actually doing it is plenty enough for me.

Q: You’ve done epic films and you’ve done small, personal stories on an intimate scale. Would you talk about the differences between working on a small movie and a larger one?

Boekelheide: In sound, the difference between the epic and the small, personal movie is literally scale. When the film is about a couple of people in a room much of the time it will turn on the intimate relationship between the people and the audience: breaths, little movements, etc., and the sounds of the room – birds and traffic outside, creaks and queaks, and so on. And the music will be really important. Picture editing will turn on performances, chosen and enhanced (with dialogue re-recording). Epics will depend on larger scale things: horse hooves, the clang of steel and the firing of cannon, trains, planes and rocket ships, with time out for contrasting intimate scenes (see above). The delineated space will preoccupy the mixers, but music here, too, will be key.

Boekelheide: I'm very fond of a doc where I did half the picture and all of the sound: “Sing Faster" (by Jon Else). Also, a little feature by David Peoples, better known as a screenwriter (“Unforgiven" and “Blade Runner") – “Blood of Heroes." And a first film by Joan Chen, "Xiu Xiu, The Sent Down Girl,” as well as "The Godfather, Part 2," "Apocalypse Now," “Amadeus," and "Valley of the Heart's Delight" – about to be released.

Boekelheide: Much of the process of filmmaking is collaborative, both amongst the crews – production and post, and ultimately between the work and the audience; I find that working with students offers a much more direct and intimate encounter than the other kinds of collaboration I've mentioned. So, yes, I enjoy the teaching process a lot.

Q: Do you think SJSU's policy of teaching film production by making feature films with students working alongside professionals is good pedagogy?

Boekelheide: I think there's a place for theory and analysis and history and imaginative engagement in the study of film, but if the student wants to work in the business, or wants to discover if they want to work in the business, there is nothing that can replace the hands-on work of actually doing it. And “it" is defined by the evolving practice of "professionals," hence the need to get your hands dirty with the pros.

Boekelheide: I'm teaching non-linear, digital post-production – editing picture and sound – not so much which button to push as why you want to do what you're doing. There will be an opportunity to do some work in Avid and Final Cut (at least). I'm also teaching 16mm production; a brief immersion in the creation of short films on film. Finally I'm teaching a course in the sociology of mass media which is a survey of the field, resulting in a research paper, but is also an opportunity to investigate the way in which our society, our cultures and our identities are rooted in the way we've accessorized our lives with environments of artificially constructed interactions that socialize us, embed us with narrative structures, and amuse us far more than they should.

Q: You have an interesting background. Your parents were intellectuals, and Edward Teller (“Father of the Atomic Bomb”) and B.F. Skinner (“Father of Behaviorism”) were family friends. Tell us about that.

Boekelheide: My parents are and were very much of the 20th century: my mother was a GP in a farm town, an OBGYN, a psychiatrist and a psychoanalyst and my father was a composer, a musician, a mathematician and a physicist. And their mentors were at the foundation of a lot of the turmoil of the century: B.F. Skinner (my mother) and Edward Teller and various traditionalist-oriented composers of the 30's through the 60's (my father). This had relatively little to do with my actual life, once I got out of a Skinner box and was able to quit piano lessons.

Q: What advice do you have for students who want to break into sound or picture editing?

Boekelheide: If someone wants to be an editor there's very little advice I can offer. Almost every bit of my career, and that of everyone I know, was the result of being in the right place at the right time. So be there then.

This year’s Cinequest Film Festival is once again replete with movies created by talented Spartans.

Perhaps the splashiest debut is the feature-length documentary “MAKING IT RIGHT,” directed by PROF. BOB GLINER (a Sociology professor who frequently teaches documentary filmmaking in our department and who specializes in socially conscious documentaries).The film was produced by TRFT faculty members BARNABY DALLAS and DAVID KAHN. “Making It Right” is an account of a TRFT production of a “reality show” in which real students, rather than starting a business a la “The Apprentice,” team up to solve the problems of the downtrodden. For the San Jose Metro’s rave review of the film go to http://www.metroactive.com/cinequest/making-it-right.html. The film screens Wednesday, March 7.

Student CYNTHIA GIL’s spooky short “Sold As Is,” also at Cinequest this year, stars undergrad actress JOEY SANDIN (pictured) as a girl buying a haunted car from a mysterious seller (undergraduate JOSE PORTILLO).

Undergrad MARK TRAN’s stylish, atmospheric gangster short “BINARY CITY” (cinematography by recent grad TODD BANHAZL) also made the cut. PAYMEN BENZ, whose short film entitled “Tuesday” will be screened, represents alumni.

Meanwhile, numerous students are interning at the festival under the tutelage of festival co-founder HALFDAN HUSSEY as part of the “Inside Cinequest” class he is teaching this semester; students in the class are busy behind the camera documenting the festival.

PROF. SCOTT SUBLETT will again this year be a featured speaker at the DAY OF THE WRITER forum.

However, if you’re en enrolled student in our department, Halfdan Hussey has generously provided the department with numerous free student tickets for all the forums, including Day of the Writer and Day of Distribution. Students who’d like free tickets should see NED KOPP, BARNABY DALLAS or BABAK SARRAFAN.

Recent alumnus JUSTIN WORSHAM, currently married, living in LA, and getting professional stand-up comedy gigs, appeared in Sunnyvale at Rooster T. Feathers, where he emceed the show. Theatre Arts Alumnus of the Century ED MOSHER, who sees everything everywhere, caught Justin’s act and pronounced him “the best comedian of the evening. Worsham was enormously likeable on stage, with a robust physicality and energy, and an irresistible puppy dog eagerness to please the audience.” Also showing up to support Justin were alumni EVELYN HUYNH, CHRISTIAN PIZZIRANI and ANGIE HIGGINS (Angie now a brunette with an adorable flip that’s tres chic). To find out where Justin’s performing next check his website: http://www.JustinWorsham.com.

Speaking of EVELYN HUYNH and CHRISTIAN PIZZIRANI – they were married on Dec. 16. You may recall an earlier item in PERFORMANCES about Christian proposing to Evelyn on stage before a live audience (it’s in the newsletter archive). Writes Christian, “It was so much fun. And we had a very special officiant…our great friend KEVIN MILLER. You can bet that the ceremony and reception were a blast and enjoyed by all. We honeymooned in Hawaii and took three weeks off of work at Yahoo! We are both still working there, and loving it. I'm still making short films, and more recently, working with JASON SALAZAR (who was also my best man) to make some awesome movies.”

Theatre Arts faculty member BEVERLY MATHIS-SWANSON recently gained Hollywood representation for a screenplay she wrote based a play that was her thesis when she was an MFA student at SJSU. The script, entitled “CAROUSEL WALTZ,” is about a child psychologist who learns she has breast cancer while in the midst of planning her wedding.

Recent alum RANDALL MARQUEZ (you may remember him in “Lysistrata,” and as Aristotle Onassis in “Die, Die, Diana”), recently wrote, “After college I spent some time figuring out how to manage money since I did not expect to make a lot acting. I did a lot of shows in the Bay Area and saved money for The Move! I finally moved to New York City and have been here for almost two years. I've done eight Off-Off-Broadway projects, one low-budget indie, several student films and a local commercial for Berkeley College. I keep myself busy and will be here for the long haul I hope. Old friends and any SJSU alumni who would like some tips before moving out here can email me at rrm6767@yahoo.com. I would love to hear from you!” Check out Randall’s online resume at http://resumes.actorsaccess.com/email/fb84556d-5741-4e77-b224-a25631486971.html

WAYNE WALLACE, while primarily School of Music and Dance faculty, is spending a lot time in Hugh Gillis Hall this semester as the composer of “IMPERIALISM: THE MUSICAL,” a new play directed by PROF. DAVID KAHN that will be given a workshop production with a student cast at City Lights Theater on Second Street downtown. Wallace was recently the subject of a glowing profile that dominated the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle’s Arts section. Check it out

PROF. BUDDY BUTLER won a 2006 "Telly Award" as best director of a docu-drama series for his work as consultant/director of "CHOCTOW PROJECT," the story of San Jose resident and Alabama native Carl Ray, and the lynching and brutal murder of his father at the hands of a hooded mob in Choctaw, Alabama.

Alumnus RAMON JOHNSON is to be recipient of SJSU's Associated Student Board of Directors S.T. Saffold Award for $2,000.00. Ramon is currently enrolled in the department's MA program, works as a Graduate Assistant for Professor Kimb Katz-Massey, is an office Student Assistant, and heads an interdisciplinary activity with Communication Studies.

Are you an LA alum who wants to network with other LA departmental alumni? Email SHARON JENNINGS, who is kindly administering the LA Spartan Pride Yahoo group: "Get updated on the latest and greatest SJSU-in-Hollywood Spartan Pride news, events, job announcements and much, much more by signing up for our new Yahoo Group You must have or create a Yahoo ID to sign up but it's well worth it. Yahoo Groups provides one of the best FREE services available." By signing up you can:
- See pictures from Spartan Pride Soirees
- Post job leads, casting calls and internship listings
- Start discussion on the frequency and types of our gatherings
- Submit ideas for our new types of activities whether fundraising, going to events, creating a mentorship program, etc.
- Creating committees for welcoming new alumni, setting up speakers for events, organizing special discounts and much more...

February is a fine month to see the work of recent TRFT alums on network TV. Actor MATT McTIGHE's (photo left) episode of "GREY'S ANATOMY" airs THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 1st at 9:00 P.M. PST on ABC. He has three scenes as "Vincent", boyfriend to "Marina Wagner" who is admitted for a horribly adverse reaction to a cancer treatment. Meanwhile, the last of the five episodes that RTVF alumnus MATT BARBER edited for "THE OC" will air Feb. 15 on FOX at 9:00 P.M. PST.

And don't touch that dial, but rather, stay tuned for an interesting message from our sponsor. Everybody who knows alumnus actor JEFF VINALL is aware that his hero is WILLIAM SHATNER, so it's a magical coincidence that Jeff recently spent a night at the L.A. Center Studios shooting a Priceline.com commercial with the great Captain Kirk himself. Jeff says, "I can move back to San Francisco now as I have worked with my all-time favorite actor. Although I had no lines in the commercial, I did have some interaction with Bill (those of us who know him call him Bill). I make several crosses through the scene and I am wearing a beige suit with a green tie. My crosses were all motivated and I felt that I brought tremendous on-screen charisma and intensity to my work. The most fun was at the craft services table where we sat around listening to old stories about 'STAR TREK,' spoken word albums and 'TJ HOOKER'.' That Adrian Zmed. I feel excited and motivated to really get things going so that the next time Bill and I work together I will say or do something funny." Jeff has also been doing stand-up comedy in LA and "loves it."

Closer to home, THEATREWORKS' production of "Ambition Facing West" showcases the acting talent of Theatre Arts grad DAN HIATT, described in the Mercury News review of the play as one of the "two best actors in the Bay Area." Also in the cast is equally brilliant Theatre Arts grad MICHAEL SANTO, whom you'll recall was so amazing a couple of months back in PROF. AMY GLAZER's West Coast Premiere, at the Magic Theatre, of the SAM SHEPARD political satire "God of Hell." Santo played a mysterious George Bush-like figure with strange ideas about Homeland Security. Also in the cast of "Ambitions Facing West" is LYNNE SOFFER, who occasionally lectures in Theatre Arts at SJSU.

Recent grad SETH KANE is in LA and attending UCLA's Professional Program for Screenwriting, where he is currently working on the second screenplay in his writing career, "The BC/AD Switch," a romantic dramedy set in the world of theatre, about a guy unlucky in love. He is also finishing up a three month internship as an office/development assistant at Outlaw Productions ("Training Day," "The Santa Clause," "Breach") on The Sony Pictures Lot, and is interviewing with other production companies for a full time development job.

Undergrads REMY LAPINA and PIERRE JOHNSON (pictured left in Hamlet) are working as interns at the WALT DISNEY WORLD in Florida. An art major from SJSU, JUSTIN HAMANA, is also there. Our majors are having a great time. Remy is working in the Entertainment Division where she is a Costume Assistant for Magic Kingdom. Right now she does craftwork for upcoming shows including PIRATES AND PRINCESSES, LUCAS, and POLYNESIAN RESORT. Pierre is working as a Guest Talent Coordinator and is responsible for taking care of the youth groups who come to Disney World to perform. Both are very busy and learning a great deal about the inner workings of Disney World.

MA Grad CAROL FISCHER is directing a one-act by playwright Sheila Fugard - wife Athol Fugard. Although she is a published novelist and poetess, this is Mrs. Fugard's first play. The group sponsoring the event is called Dramatic Women, and they are committed to staging new plays written by women. There will be four one-acts in the program that produces Feb. 16, 17, 22, 23 and 24. Carol adds, "Besides all that, I am studying hard, and needing to get my team together. I am taking a class called Philosophy of Quantum through the philosophy dept. this quarter; and I had a proposal accepted to write and deliver a paper on "Dramatic Time" at a conference sponsored by the ISST: International Society for the Study of Time (a humanities based academic group) that will be at Asilomar this coming summer."

Alum JOSH PAIGE writes, "I try keep up to date with the department goings on through the diaspora down here. I'm currently working at an independent
literary management/production company, assistant/coverage/etc. Actually coverage is one of my main jobs at the moment so I don't think I'll miss a beat reading some more. My bosses are Michael Gruskoff and Zack Norman, and the company is co-financed by Michael Douglas and his company Furthur Films. We represent the estates of authors like Damon Runyon, Shirley Jackson and Cornell Woolrich and develop their properties into films, as well as produce outside material."

Alumni actress SANDY ZIVIANI is working with the New Globe Theater Company and was in their Off Broadway production of "The Servant of Two Masters" as Clarise. For "Backstage's" review of the play (they loved Sandy) go to this site

2004 RTVF alum JOEY LIN (the radio crowd will remember him by his DJ name "Joefu") has been working part-time for the past two-and-a-half years at a Portuguese radio station in San Jose, KSQQ 96.1 FM, as an assistant DJ helping set up the control board and answering phones. "And yes, I'm still a scratch DJ A.K.A. Joefu!" He also is currently also working on an assembly line at Sunland International making external DVD/CD-rom drives." Joey adds, "Tell JIM CULLEY and JOHN YORK I said, 'whattup?!'"

We contacted all-but-thesis MA student LUCINDA DOBINSON and asked what she's up to, and the always cheerful and charming Lucinda replied, "I just closed 'A Christmas Carol' at Northside Theatre Company, where I played Christmas Present and sang in the choir. This past summer, I got to play Kate in 'The Taming of the Shrew' with Shady Shakespeare. It was a Wild West theme and broke all attendance records. We had over four-hundred people show up one Saturday. They were sitting all over the place: in the dirt, up the hill, and even on the bridge that leads to the amphitheater. We did 'Shrew' in rep with 'Romeo and Juliet,' which was done in a classical Italian style. Other SJSU alums were involved in all aspects of these productions. Other actors included AMBERA DELASH, MELISSA TOM and CHRIS GAOIRAN. Costumes for 'The Taming of the Shrew' were beautifully designed by REMELYN LA PENIA and RITA FOSTER. "Shrew" was directed by ANGIE HIGGINS and SHARON SALAZAR (formerly CUNHA), 'Romeo and Juliet' was directed by LARRY BARROTT (also artistic director of Shady); DINNA MYERS is not only the production manager, but is also one of the founding members of the company. I am trying to focus on writing my thesis at the moment. I am about halfway done with a first draft for my thesis committee. It is about the televised poker genre and how it has come into such immense popularity over the past few years. I am weaving genre theory into an historical analysis. It's quite interesting!"

SJPL Librarian Lorena Mata invited LUIS VALDEZ to speak at King Library on January 31st 2007. The noted playwright is a graduate of our department.

Alumnus JASON SALAZAR's wife SHARON (she was still SHARON CUNHA when she was in the department) is expecting their first child on February 6. They're told it's a girl and intend to name her Sydney Paige Salazar. Class of 2025, get ready! Jason is still making movies and doing plays, and a short he did just for fun ended up featured on the front page of Yahoo and got tremendous play. Called "Popular," is uses the song of the same name from the musical "Wicked." To see the film. Meanwhile, Sharon has shot a remake of Jason's feature script "Strange Favor" (a parody of "Strangers on a Train") the new version done at her high school with actual high schoolers in the roles. Jason is in the process of editing that footage.

"Performances" asked BRAD EVANS (BA in RTVF, Class of 1998) what he'd been up to since leaving SJSU, and he replied, "After graduation I continued working at KNTV Newschannel 11. They were still an ABC affiliate at the time. I was a weekend director as well as a weekday camera and Chiron operator. I left in February of 2000 to help start-up a broadband television show called FinanceVision at Yahoo in Sunnyvale. We had a six man production crew that rotated between cameras/floor directing, audio, directing, and assistant directing. We covered the stock markets live with correspondents in New York at both the Stock Exchange and NASDAQ. This was a six hour broadcast day. We were all live on the air the morning of September 11th and needless to say it was a trying time for all of us after that to maintain a show. Stocks were tumbling and there really was no reason for a show that covered stocks anymore at Yahoo. In June of 2002 Yahoo decided to axe the show. I married my beautiful wife in October of 2001 (she was an advertising major at SJSU) and we had always thought of someday leaving the Bay Area. When the layoff happened in 2002 we decided that this was our time. We moved up to Reno, Nevada, looking for a new start. I got a job at the local NBC affiliate (KRNV News4) and within a year we were able to actually afford a house. That was something we hadn't dreamed of in the Bay Area. I stumbled onto a position that was available with Washoe County (which covers Reno and Sparks). The position was titled Video Production Coordinator for the Washoe County District Attorney's Office. I applied for it and after two months of testing and interviewing I was awarded the position. It was a life changer because it was my first job after college that wasn't involving some sort of television production. As video production coordinator, I am in charge of purchasing, maintaining, and running all of the A/V equipment for the DA's office. I also put together opening and closing arguments that contain audio and video for our attorney's when they go to trial. I still do quite a bit of video and audio editing using Premiere Pro and Audition. With 100 attorneys I am never short of work! I have seen some things that I never thought I would see. It has been a very rewarding experience as I feel that I am working for the "good guys". My wife, Denise, and I just had our first child four months ago (a little girl named Layla). She obviously keeps us very busy outside of work but I still have time to coach Little League every year and stay involved with baseball in one form or another. That's it for now! You can post my email address "

"Performances" recently heard from VICKY LEE, who was an RTVF major at SJSU from 1996 through 1999, though she ultimately got her BA at Georgia State. Vicky says, "I remember fondly my classes at SJSU with Professors Scott Sublett and Amy Glazer." In 1999 she moved to Atlanta to finish up her degree in Georgia State University's Film & Video program. Coincidentally, another SJSU alumnus was at GSU, MICHAEL TANDECKI. There were internships available at Turner Classic Movies through one of the guest professors and soon Vicky and Michael found themselves in the Web Services department at TCM, a floor above Cartoon Network. Says Vicky, "TCM was an incredible experience, a treasure vault of old classic films and photo archives!" Vicky and Michael updated the TCM website and wrote website content for special broadcast events, such as "The Wizard of Oz" with Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon streaming on another audio channel. They were also assistants on the into/outro tapings with Robert Osbourne, the beloved host of TCM. Next on-the-job experience for the two was at EyeWonder, a streaming web video start-up in Atlanta. In 2000, Vicky and Michael were hired for an independent straight to video feature, shot up in Somerset, Pennsylvania, by the Amish communities; "High Point" was a budget horror suspense film by the screenwriter of "White Trash". Michael Tandecki took the helm as DP and Vicky as Production Supervisor/Assistant DP. Vicky graduated from GSU in 2001 with a BA in Film & Video and moved back to the Bay Area. The last few years, she has been an events/training coordinator for various medical device companies in the South Bay. In her evenings, she has moonlighted as a stage manager at City Lights Theatre on several productions. Currently between projects, she would love to find something intriguing to work on.

IN THE JANUARY 2007 SPOTLIGHT: TELEVISION, RADIO, FILM, & THEATRE CHAIR MIKE ADAMS

TRFT department Chair Mike Adams has been at San Jose State University since 1988. Adams has long been the faculty advisor to the department radio station, KSJS-FM, and in a past life worked in commercial radio as a disc jockey. He has written four books, many articles, made films, and given presentations to professional organizations. For the past seven years he has led the department of television, radio, film and theatre.

Chair Adams has just returned from China where he taught a class on the History of Broadcasting. Performances wanted to ask Mike all about his travels there, his perspective on being a department chair, his thoughts about changes in the university, his opinions on broadcasting, and his plans for the future.

MIKE : It happened accidentally. I learned that two of my colleagues, professor Jim Culley and graduate student Jennie Yeung, were invited by the prestigious Shanghai Theatre Academy to visit in March of last year. I guess I just kinda asked, "Can I go too?" I wanted to learn more about China. And since my research area is history of radio, I thought I could contact some China broadcasters and visit radio and television stations while my colleagues looked at theatres, and while there I could learn about the Chinese system of broadcasting, maybe write a few articles about it.

As I began to learn more and prepare for that first trip, I found out that the Shanghai Theatre Academy has as one of its departments, the School of Television Arts. This was even better, an institution much like TRFT, a combination of theatre and broadcasting, strong on production and performance. I looked at their course offerings, and I planned to talk with their faculty when I was in Shanghai. It turned out to be a good plan.

So that first trip was an exploratory one, we got to visit all the major tourist areas, shop, and learn about Shanghai, a city of 18 million. After a week in Shanghai we took the all night train to Beijing, saw the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, and I got to visit the major radio broadcaster. So that first trip was one in which we visited schools, theatres, and broadcasters, but also the usual historical and cultural attractions. We introduced ourselves to China.

MIKE : China is the next superpower. China is the future. If the Twentieth Century was "The American Century," the 21 st Century will be China's. If there is any country we and our students should understand, it's China. Being an educator in a so-called "Pacific Rim" university, I also thought, "Wouldn't it be valuable to my students and faculty to set up some sort of exchange between the Shanghai school and TRFT. All this will broaden faculty and student perspective, it will add to reputation of our department. We can share radio-TV-film expertise between institutions, learn about curriculums and career paths in China and Asia, promote cross cultural understanding, promote world peace, promote an understanding and awareness among students and faculty of the electronic mass media as international, not local, end provincial attitudes we have of other cultures, remove stereotypes of other political systems, add new life and purpose to teaching in our home institutions. Primarily, I believe that for their success in their chosen field our students must understand, practice, and think international in mass media. Want more?

PERFORMANCES : I know that you taught a class in China. Tell our readers about it.

MIKE : I just returned from teaching a ten day class in the history and development of radio and television, mostly from a Western perspective. I preface it by saying that it was the greatest teaching experience I have ever had. I recommend it. I spent 30 plus hours in the classroom with a very bright group of 35 students. I have seen great similarities between them and my SJSU students. We discussed their futures, we talked frankly about the poverty in their land and the way they see the evolving role of their State, all of this in the context of communication using both the mature media of radio, TV, film and the emerging media of the Internet. Would it surprise you to learn that half of my class (3 rd year, junior) had MySpace Accounts?

MIKE : Only about ten or twenty words. It is very difficult for an old guy like me to learn such a rich and complex language, Mandarin. In talking to the Dean of the Shanghai Theatre Academy School of Television Arts, I said I wanted to learn Chinese. He quipped, "Waste of time." But the Chinese student has to learn English in the lower grades and by the time they get to college there is a test they take, so I was able to interact normally with most of my students. They appreciated the English practice.

MIKE : In preparing for my class I studied a little bit about the history of China, realizing that the development of broadcasting had to be tied in with the social, political and economic development of the country. With an outline of the history of China in the 20 th century in my head, I began to search for a history of radio to match developments in the country. I got interested in doing a research project in China, searching out the history of radio broadcasting there, and perhaps writing a book about it. I wrote a one page proposal, had it translated into Chinese, and managed to get support from the Shanghai school and interested a young faculty member in collaborating with me. For such a project this connection is important because of the language and to get access to archives.

MIKE : I am working to make that happen. This is such a large and complicated university and to start a student exchange involves many details but I am starting now. Faculty exchanges are a bit easier. My boss, Dean Karl Toepfer of the College of Humanities and Arts, has a great idea for a joint feature film project, one that would take place in both countries, use actors and technical students from both schools, and be filmed in both countries. It is an ambitious project, but worthwhile enough to pursue and try to get outside funding to make it happen. The reasons for all of this I have explained earlier.

PERFORMANCES : Changing the topic back to San Jose State, you have been here almost 20 years. What are some of the major differences between then and now? What has changed?

MIKE : As we faculty get older our students remain the same age. (I'm expected as a professor to think great thoughts like that.) Seriously, last semester I asked my 80 students in intro to broadcasting about their media consumption habits, starting with the question, "How many read a daily newspaper?" Only one or two responded. Asked about radio and television news, only a few more. So if the vast majority of our students are now connected to the Internet, take it for granted actually, we who teach them need to catch up with their media habits. And when I talk to my students about copyright and downloading of intellectual property, many honestly don't believe it is wrong, just because it is against the law. I try to engage them on this topic, as I also did in China, telling them that as future content creators, they will not want to give it away anymore than the record and film companies do today. This works a little, but the law probably has to evolve from the "take all you want for free" school of thought of most students, to the "we'll put you in jail" mentality of the industry.

The other change has been in the expectations of teaching. Rather than just a one-way lecture, we have to now assess student learning in a scientifically-provable way, and we have to do it in a 1940s classroom environment, think WSQ 109. And in our infinite wisdom, we have encouraged all students to get a laptop computer and we provide free wireless, so if you teach one of those large classes, you have to be really good and relevant since the students in your audience are surfing the Web, text messaging, almost anything but giving you their undivided attention.

PERFORMANCES : What about the job of a department chair? Are there rewards? I know that the monetary compensation is quite small.

MIKE : One thing about government, everyone knows what everyone else makes because it has to be public record, the taxpayers you know. So you know I don't do it for the money. I may be a cliché, but I am very appreciative of San Jose State and the department for allowing me to write, teach, and learn, and I like this university. So I wanted to give back, to add my ideas to the mix in a way that would have some credibility. I had already written books, I had been promoted to full professor, so being the chair is often the next step for senior faculty.

And being a film school graduate, I was interested in seeing the department excel in that area, one that coincidentally is the main interest of our majors. As much as I was able, I channeled some money in that direction, hired the best people to do it, then stood back and watched it happen. I don't take credit for its success, but I have influenced it in small ways. So being the chair means you can tinker behind the scenes and watch the results.

The role of department chair in an exciting department like radio, television, film and theatre is, in my opinion, the best job in the university. You get to be around very creative and smart people, faculty and students, you get an audience for what you do: films, plays, radio broadcasts. I look at my role as that of an Executive Producer, trying to match money and opportunity with faculty, staff and students. We are successful, so I enjoy coming to work. I have a good group.

PERFORMANCES : You are still the faculty advisor to KSJS. We always hear how traditional radio is being replaced by Internet radio, Podcasting, Satellite radio and new technologies yet to be invented. Is radio doomed to obsolescence?

MIKE : No. I have an yellowing article I share with my students, an editorial from a 1948 Radio World magazine. Seeing the future through 1948 eyes, the editor predicted that "FM would overtake AM within a few years, by 1950." That prediction didn't happen until the middle 1970s. And the oldest radio delivery system, AM, dating back to that tiny 1909 San Jose station of Charles Herrold, is very much alive. The highest rated stations in the Bay Area are still old, creaky, low fidelity AM stations: KGO, KCBS, KNBR.

But more important, the new radio delivery systems still use traditional radio content but delivered using new technologies. Think about it; every time a new form of "radio" or "television" is introduced, the experts say two things: First that it will quickly replace the older technology. But second, and this always happens, the pundits predict that the new form will suddenly democratize the media, allowing every man, woman, and child to have a show. Theoretically that is true, but in reality it never happens. But look at Podscasting: sure, everyone you know has a show, but after a few shows your friends get tired of all the work, they don't get paid for it, and worst of all, no one is listening. So he most popular Podcasts end up being radio rebroadcasts of NPR and CNN, and the TV shows Lost and Desperate Housewives. Even YouTube will less and less be bad home videos and evolve into platforms for indie films and other well made media, probably the best of it advertising-supported.

It's the audience. I tell my students (and I'm sure you do too) that the skills needed to get an idea, write a script, produce, direct, film, record, are universal. The most listened to and most watched Internet and Podcast film and radio are the best quality programming, all of it made by skilled, educated, thoughtful professionals, the outcome we have always expected from our graduates.

PERFORMANCES : I know you have an interest in photography, and I heard that you won a few photo contests. Is this your next career?

MIKE : Photography has been an on and off hobby since I was 10 years old and got my first brownie camera. But in the past ten years I have made it a habit to always carry a camera, to observe and photograph the world I see, and since I am the TRFT Webmaster, and I photograph all the department events, I get plenty of practice. I make it a point to create a new photo portfolio on my personal Web site very two months, so that self-imposed deadline makes it happen.

When I came back from the first trip to China I had over 3000 images, mostly digital, a few film, and I finally believed that I had reached a level of quality needed to publish. I selected about 50 of the best, showed them to Brian Taylor, a SJSU professor of photography and a real artist with a camera. He helped me further select and narrow down what I had, and he gave me the confidence to do more that just put them on my Web. My thought, misplaced, was that maybe I could do a book and that people would actually pay to see my China collection. I also thought that maybe I could write some illustrated articles on China using my photos, so I contacted several magazines. No response. I thought, at least the San Jose Mercury News might be interested in doing a feature in their travel section. They didn't answer me either. I did put a few of my photos on my Web after all.

But not to be defeated, I entered two small photo contests and won. I won the First Place, Faculty and Staff, in the SJSU International and Extended Education Global Lens contest, and they have my winning photo prominently displayed. I also entered the China Radio International "scenes of China" contest and won a prize in that one too. So I do want to spend more time taking pictures. My photo work was noticed by my Chinese colleagues and I have been invited back to teach in the fall, this time still photography.

That's it for this month! Until February, PERFORMANCES leaves you with the words of Charlie Chan: "Patience, and mulberry leaf makes silk shawl."

Alumna LUANE BECK and KIM CLARK are thrilled that their feature-length documentary "GOD AND GAYS: BRIDGING THE GAP" shipped on DVD the first week of November. They write, "We're also feeling very moved by the people we're meeting at our screenings around the country. Thousands of lives are being touched by the movie, and we both feel so fortunate to witness big smiles on 21-year-olds when they realize they aren't crazy and there is a place for them." The documentary tells the story of gays and lesbians who also consider themselves Christians.

2004 RTVF grad KIM TINA TRAN is a law student at Whittier Law School in Costa Mesa, and is interested in entertainment and intellectual property law.

RTVF alumnus MATT BARBER was promoted from Assistant Editor to Editor of "THE OC," a hit TV about rich, young hotties in Orange County. His first episode, the sixth of the season, will premiere Dec. 14; look for Matt's single credit at the end of the show. This is definitely one that "Performances" will want to TIVO - "The OC" is getting a lot of internet buzz these days.

Kevin Thomas, thought by many readers to be the most knowledgeable of the several critics writing for the Los Angeles Times, gave the recent KURTWOOD SMITH vehicle "HARD SCRAMBLED" a strongly positive review. Smith, one of our best know alums, is, of course, best known for having played "Red" on the TV hit "THAT 70s SHOW." Thomas wrote, "'Hard Scrambled' marks an encouraging feature debut for writer-director David Scott Hay…it is anchored by a powerful performance by the veteran Kurtwood Smith in the film's well-written central role…Smith's Benno is an ex-prizefighter and ex-con who some time ago made a new life for himself as the chief cook at a diner."

RTVF alumna BOBBE LYNNE (AKA Bobbie Lynne Ward) teaches voice in Scotts Valley and has continued her singing career under her stage name, Bobbe Llynne. Says her father, RTVF alumnus BOB HOSFELDT, "She still does concerts…but raising her two children now occupies much of her time. She wanted a family more than a career." As a teen Bobbie was invited to be a regular on "The Lawrence Welk Show" but had to refuse due to other obligations. During her long career she worked with such legends as Bob Hope, Robert Goulet, Danny Thomas, Lee Greenwood, Glen Campbell, Henny Youngman, The Beachboys, and Vince Gill. Bobbe's friends recall that her flexible voice and remarkable range encompassed pop, country, show tunes and light opera.

Alumnus MAURICE "MO" HINES (RTVF 2004) is in LA and starting to get noticed as an actor. He appeared as "Lou the Bouncer" in the pilot for a new series entitled JACK (directed by Deke Anderson and currently being shopped to the nets), then started work as "Thug" in the SAG feature film project BANKING ON LOVE, directed by Peter Paul Basler. You can check the film out at bankingonlove.com.

Recent grad NATE COSTA writes, "I have pretty much decided that I'm gonna go down to the olde LA and see what kind of havoc I can wreak down there with fellow alums such as Ben Herilith...Heralth...Herlth; Matt 'The Drunken' McTighe; Sean'y B' Becker; PayMan Benz (or 'Abdougkahs;asljf;;ji,' when he was a student), Sammy "ThreeAudioVideo" Gollestani, etc., etc., etc." For the record, "Performances" would like to note that Matt is not a drunk and Payman's last name is not and has never been Abdougkahs;asljf;;ji. When he gets to LA Nate will be attending meetings of Spartan Pride, the Dept. of TV, Radio, Film and Theatre alumni networking group, where he will get the severe beating he deserves from Ben, Matt, Sean, Payman and Sam.

Alumnus RAMON JOHNSON was been selected to receive the $1,250.00 Alumni Scholarship from the College of Humanities and the Arts.

Recent alumna SANDY ZIVIANI writes, "How are you all over there - busy? Chris and I just graduated from what is now called the New School for Drama (rather than the Actors Studio, after the split that happened last year). I'm going to stay in New York for awhile, see what I can get going for myself. In fact, I'm trying starting a theater company to produce a show called "The Coming World" by a newer playwright, Chris Shinn. Hopefully that will happen in late August. Sorry that I haven't kept in touch very well over these past years; they kept us pretty busy. But now that I am a bum on the streets...hmm, I mean 'professional actor,' I will have lots and lots of free time on my hands. I read about "Bye-bye bin Laden and its San Francisco debut, so I have been checking up on you guys now and then."

IN THE DECEMBER 2006 SPOTLIGHT:
STUDENTS HONORED IN ANNUAL CRAIN SCREENWRITING COMPETITION

The winners of the 2006 Crain Dramatic Writing Awards for Screenwriting have been announced. The finalists were selected by departmental writing faculty, and then the winners were chosen by a panel of prominent alumni composed of MICHAELA STARR, MATT BARBER and ASHER SPITTLER. The winning scripts, with brief descriptions, are as follows:

First Place - INTO THE BLUE by Elizabeth Hunter Spreen. A searching drama about a married art gallery owner who must make a terrible decision when she discovers that the child she is carrying may be born heartbreakingly damaged.

Second Place - EVEN ADAM by Martin J. Burke. God, Adam and Eve a reworked in a witty, modern comedy.

Third Place - WIN, PLACE OR SHOW by Avril LaPointe Calderwood. During the disco era in San Diego, a naive young woman runs the dance studio of her dreams while her charming boyfriend gambles their future away at the race track.

"Popcorn and Fondue" by Jennifer Corker - Two suburban kids have a series of eccentric experiences when they lose their talking lamb puppet at the local Corn Festival in this deliciously whimsical comedy.

"Minor Gods" by Saila Kariat - A passionate Indian American doctor working in India is torn between duty to her impoverished patients and love for a handsome backpacker in this romance set against the beauty, and poverty, of rural India.

"Rolling Over" by Andrew Kostyanovsky - "Straight and narrow Alec, who gets into drugs after a bad break up, and must get out of his new habit to win over the new girl of his dreams."

”Changing Post” by Davinder Mahal. Living in California, a college student of British Indian heritage follows father's dreams instead of his own - until he meets an American girl who persuades him to follow his own path and to confront his father.

”Edwin” by Harrison Phan. A raucous and raunchy yet oddly sophisticated comedy about growing up in California.

"How Mommy and Daddy Met" by Rick Quaresma - A romantic comedy about a guy dating a girl whose father hates him and whose ex-boyfriend won't leave him alone.

"Beautiful Meat" by Richard Romero - A young man learns about life, love and all kinds of women when he becomes an apprentice butcher at an Italian supermarket threatened by the construction of a giant discount retailer across the street.

"Whatever Makes You Happy" by Mark Tran. A tender yet tart, dryly funny ensemble comedy about a loving but stern Vietnamese American patriarch and his tentatively rebellious children.

"Shattered Innocence" by Jason Trenh - A true story of a forbidden relationship between a 12 year old and a 19 year old that leads to a grisly murder and sets the two teens on the run.

Also announced was the winner of the 2006 Crain Dramatic Writing Award for Playwriting. The winner script, chosen by consensus of the writing faculty, was:

"The True Story of Candice in Time" by Tim Welch. A mysterious halfway house is the setting for this dreamlike exploration of time's elasticity, in which Candice, a young and vulnerable mental patient, may or may not have been abused and murdered.

Condolences to PROF. AMY GLAZER, whose mother passed away suddenly early this month. Mr. and Mrs. Glazer flew all the way from Miami to see the premiere of the Mill Valley Film Festival premiere of the film their daughter directed, DRIFTING ELEGANT.

IN THE NOVEMBER 2006 SPOTLIGHT:
2002 GRAD SAM GOLLESTANI, MUSIC COORDINATOR ON CBS's "ROCKSTAR: SUPERNOVA"

SAM GOLLESTANI (photo left, in center) graduated from San Jose State with his RTVF degree in 2002, moved straight to LA and hit the ground running. He started in the casting department of Mark Burnett's hit reality show "Survivor," and between seasons of "Survivor" (and other Burnett shows such as "The Contender," "The Casino," and "Eco Challenge") Sam kept busy working for Spike TV's late, lamented "The Joe Schmo Show." Leaving Burnett's company for Spike, he ended up as the First Assistant Director for the network's hit reality program, "10 Things Every Guy Should Experience," which Sam helped cast.

Then, in 2004, he joined CBS's "Rockstar: INXS," where he was a key member of the casting department, traveling the world during pre-production to casting calls in Chicago, Nashville, Austin, and internationally in Dubai, U.A.E., Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Sydney Australia. Due greatly to Sam's efforts as a "Talent Producer" in finding gifted unknown musicians, "Rockstar's" first year was a success. Now the show has morphed into "Rockstar: Supernova," and Sam is a Music Coordinator, with a variety of duties including publicity, music clearances, helping prepare for each week of music, and coordinating the schedules, equipment, and preparation for the show's House Band

PERFORMANCES: You must know a lot of rock 'n' rollers. Do you party like a rock star - Dude?

SAM: It's funny you ask that, because I always call myself "The World's Youngest Old Man." I tend to keep my weekdays pretty tame, and stick to partying on the weekends. Generally, my days consist of waking up at 5 A.M. to hit the gym, then showering and going straight to the set. Get home from work around 11 P.M., go to bed, then rinse, cycle, and repeat. I am what you would call a "weekend warrior." I am a firm believer in the saying, "work hard, and play harder."

PERFORMANCES: What does a Music Coordinator do? Do you have to know a lot about music to do it? What does a Music Coordinator not do?

SAM: (photo left, pictured with Brooke Burke) I get asked that question a lot, and being the Music Coordinator for such a music driven show, my days can be pretty long and stressful. I enjoy it, though. I wasn't hugely knowledgeable about music prior to the job. But since I've been doing it for so long, I've learned more about music than I would've ever imagined I'd know.

PERFORMANCES: Though you have the title "music coordinator," it sounds like to handle a great variety of duties. Is that typical on reality shows? For one's duties to be sort of amorphous?

SAM: Yes, absolutely. You sort of get sucked into many different realms and departments. When you prove yourself, that you know what you're doing and you get it done, then more and more production people ask you to help. As stressful as it can be, being so slammed at times, it's sort of flattering to know you have a good reputation with your peers and within your production.

SAM: Well, we tape our performance episodes on Sundays and Wednesdays at our studio on the CBS lot in Hollywood. Those are our most hectic days. Especially our Wednesday taping. I usually get to my office around 4:30 A.M. to prepare for the show. We begin filming it at 9:00 A.M., and then we have to edit and deliver it three hours after we wrap, in order to make our 8:00 P.M. East Coast feed that night. Pretty tight turnaround. Otherwise, on our non-performance tape days, I'm at my office at the Rockstar Mansion. This is where our cast lives, and we film their day to day activities, rehearsals, and interaction with each other. It's amazing to see how many stories you can capture from just letting the camera roll into people's everyday lives.

PERFORMANCES: How did you land that first job out of school - casting "Survivor?"

SAM: My dear friend and fellow SJSU alum, Michaela Starr, got me a one-day gig as a receptionist in the Mark Burnett Production office. I answered phones for eight hours, and went home that night having met dozens of people from the Mark Burnett staff. Shortly thereafter, I got a call to work a four-week gig as a casting P.A. One gig led to another, and three and a half years later, here I am having worked my way up within the ranks of the same production company. It's important for people to realize when moving to LA to work in the industry, each gig you get, you make more and more contacts that you must utilize and keep a good rapport with. In turn, you will always stay in people's thoughts (and Rolodexes), with regard to being hired for new productions.

PERFORMANCES: What's most important in making it in TV production - talent, personality, work habits - or connections?

SAM: "D," all of the above. Although, obviously the connections really do help.

PERFORMANCES: Of the "ten things every guy should experience," were there any you had already experienced when you started on the show?

SAM: None at all, that's why I always refer to that gig as one of my favorites. I got to attend the Super Bowl, as well as travel the country attending the most amazing events. I always tell people that traveling on the company dime is priceless.

PERFORMANCES: I seem to remember for a while you were Olympics Project Manager for NBC, where you helped launch the ad campaign for the 2006 Winter Games in Torino.

SAM: I learned a lot about the detailed strategies that networks prepare in order to draw a certain demographic. It was quite the experience.

PERFORMANCES: Have you kept in touch with other departmental alumni in LA? Are you involved in "Spartan Pride LA," the alumni networking group?

SAM: I am involved. However, I haven't shown up to every event thus far. The fabulous Michaela [Starr] is doing an awesome job keeping the networking events organized. I am all for it. Being able to utilize your alma mater's resources and contacts is something to take advantage of. We have a great group of alumni down here. They're genuinely good people.

SAM: (left with Sylvester Stallone) I live in the valley. A city called Van Nuys. I had Hollywood withdrawals when I first moved to the valley. I lived in the heart of Hollywood for the first two years I lived down here, with my close friend and fellow alumni BEN HERLTH. Moving to the valley was definitely a change of pace. It's like moving from Manhattan to Jersey. It is nice sometimes, when you don't have to deal with all the traffic and congestion due to movie premieres, tourism, and award shows. The valley is actually a lot like San Jose.

PERFORMANCES: "Performances" has no doubt you will be, and when you are we expect you to donate a building. And were there particular skills you picked up at SJSU or classes that you took that you look back and consider useful to you now?

SAM: I'd have to say the course I took with AMY GLAZER, RTVF 170A and B, "Directing Actors for the Camera." It just showed me how much I enjoyed film-making, and the entire film-making process.

PERFORMANCES: What advice do you have for this year's graduating class of RTVF majors?

SAM: (left with Serpico?) You only live once, so you have to take chances. You must be ambitious if you want a realistic chance of making it in this industry. I moved to LA with nothing lined up with regards to a job. However, I never lost my positive attitude. I also get very disappointed when I hear that people move down here, give it maybe a year, and then move back home when they haven't found a steady gig. You have to stick it out and understand there will be periods of unemployment. That's not the time to give up. On the contrary, you must use these periods to develop more of a drive to find the next great gig! I had periods of six to eight weeks with no work. However, once I established my core of contacts, the gigs have been very steady ever since.

PERFORMANCES: So, you can tell us - have you met a lot of stars in your brief career? Are you dating supermodels now?

SAM: I'm lucky in that I have met some amazing artists. Steven Spielberg, Sylvester Stallone, Alec Baldwin, Mel Gibson, and Al Pacino, to name a few. By far the coolest celeb I have been fortunate enough to meet was Brad Pitt. He gives off such a great, positive vibe. I not once felt like I was talking to this international superstar and icon. He made me feel like I was talking to a peer. As for the supermodels, no sir, I haven't been dating much. During production I generally work six and half to seven days a week. Up to 100 hours a week. Sometimes, it's physically impossible to be in a relationship in this business. But hey, all the perks make it worthwhile.

Everyone in the Dept. of TV, Radio, Film and Theatre is over the moon about the recent rave review from "Variety" for "Drifting Elegant," the film that was produced by SJSU's South Bay Film Studios in conjunction with the Dept. of TV, Radio, Film and Theatre. It premiered to sold-out houses at the Mill Valley Film Festival. There it was seen by respected "Variety" critic Dennis Harvey, who wrote, "First-time feature helmer Amy Glazer…delivers an engrossing drama in 'Drifting Elegant.' …sharp perfs and direction…fest buzz could be worked into arthouse release in the hands of an enterprising distrib…Production values are resourceful on a budget." Congratulations to alum COBY BELL, faculty members AMY GLAZER, BARNABY DALLAS and NICK MARTINEZ, Chair MIKE ADAMS, alum MATT BARBER, and all the other Dept. of TV, Radio, Film and Theatre people mentioned in "Variety," a publication often called "The Show Biz Bible."

Undergrad playwright JENNIFER CORKER, a Radio-TV-Film major, has been accepted into the exclusive Monday Night PlayGround writers pool. Few college students find their way into the writers pool, so it is especially an honor for Jennifer. Now in its twelfth year, PlayGround is committed to bringing new theatrical work to the Bay Area. Each month, they assign a topic, and the writers submit a 10-page play. PlayGround then selects six plays to be produced as a staged reading at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre, a leading Bay Area theatre. A group of PlayGround members (including seasoned directors and dramaturges) selected the lucky 36 writers in the pool from 90-plus applicants, and to be accepted into the pool is to be deemed by PlayGround an "emerging Bay Area playwright." Indeed, many of the applicants were professional, established writers; only 14 of the accepted writers are first-time (non-returning) PlayGround members. As a member of PlayGround, Jennifer will have the valuable opportunity to meet and work with dozens of professional Bay Area writers, directors, and actors, all the while honing her writing skills. The play that won Jennifer entry into the Monday Night PlayGround was Journey to Hyperbulon, a short play written for SJSU's One Act Express last January. A busy contributor to the department, Jennifer acted as script supervisor on the films "Generic Thriller" and "College Radio Sucks" this past summer. Her screenplay "Popcorn and Fondue" was a Crain Award finalist.

Recent RTVF alumnus KEVIN MILLER wrote "THE MIGRATORY PATTERNS OF BOYS" while an undergraduate student in the TA 129 Playwriting class. Last month the play was given a staged reading as part of the City Lights Theater New Play Readers Series. The production, flawlessly directed by Theatre Arts master's candidate LARRY BARROTT, was well-attended. "The Migratory Patterns of Boys," a full length stage comedy, concerns a 13 year old boy who has to decide which divorced parent to live with. The reading was very warmly received by the audience and got all its laughs. Response at the talkback afterwards was enormously positive. Alumnus ED MOSHER, a well-known supporter of San Jose Theatre, afterward declared the show to be "better than half the plays I've seen in San Jose in the past year," and yet another mark of the ascendancy of City Lights. Congratulations to Kevin, who is also known as the voice of video game character Sly Cooper. Lecturer LAURA LONG's young daughter Emily was also involved in the production. She was charming indeed as the 13-year-old hero's love interest.

Left, the cast and crew of "The Inside Scoop with Biff Le Buick" at the California Theatre for Campus Movie Fest's Bay Area Finale, Oct. 20th. From (L-R): Jennifer Corker, John de Oliveira, James Marsh, Rick Quaresma, Vincent Cid. Friday October 13, the day before Homecoming, was Campus MovieFest at SJSU. 116 teams of two to five students each had one week to shoot, edit, and score an entire film for the contest. At the event, the top 16 films were chosen to be screened, out of which two awards were given: best comedy and best film. Best comedy went to "Inman vs. the 'Mont," a short film written and directed by RTVF major JEREMY INMAN. The award was presented by nationally known comedienne MARGARET CHO before a crown of 3,000 onlookers. Also among the three nominees for Best Comedy was "THE INSIDER SCOOP WITH BIFF le BUICK," written and directed by JENNIFER CORKER and made with the help of RTVF students RICK QUARESMA, JOHN de OLIVERA, JAMES MARSH and VINCENT CID. "The Inside Scoop" also won the SJSU Audience Choice Award and the Golden Tripod Award for Funniest Moment.

PROF. DAVID KAHN recently wrote, "Last night I saw 'HAMLET: BLOOD IN THE BRAIN' with writing and performance by our [recent Theatre Arts alumnus] RICKY MARSHALL in the select company of some extraordinary professional actors and fellow writers. The piece still needs some polishing (and it is in development in this production), but it is already an exciting, original, smart, HIGHLY theatrical work that I believe is going to get a lot of attention. It was directed by Jonathan Moscone, AD of Cal Shakes, and his work is brilliant! He takes about $1000 of production resources in a storefront performance space and turns it into a thrill-ride of stage effect. Much of the script by Naomi Iizuka is inspired in its reflection of "Hamlet" and its superimposition of the crack infested streets of 1989 Oakland, when thousands of people turned out for the funeral of a major drug kingpin. The language is authentic yet elevated to meet the Shakespearean aspirations, the integration of sound and musical beats and singing among the six performers creates a score that's as exciting as the visuals, and the ensemble acting is as good as any I've seen this year. I may be delusional, but I had something of the same feeling about this (very first public) performance as I had about ANGELS IN AMERICA when I first saw it at the Eureka twenty years ago."

Theatre Arts alumnus actor ANTHONY AGRESTI recently wrote, "I'm on the island of O'ahu and woke up to an earthquake this morning. Everything's fine. Boy, is this island a different place without power. But the beaches still work, so that's cool."

IN THE OCTOBER 2006 SPOTLIGHT:
DRIFTING ELEGANT DEBUTS AT MILL VALLEY FILM FESTIVAL

PROF. AMY GLAZER's feature film DRIFTING ELEGANT screens Saturday, October 7 (at 8 p.m.), and Wednesday October 11 (9 p.m.) at the prestigious Mill Valley Film Festival. The film was shot in summer 2005, largely on the stage of the University Theatre in Hugh Gillis Hall, which was transformed into a movie sound stage for the occasion. The crew was composed mostly of our own students, working under the supervision of such professionals as cinematographer JIM ORR. Students got class credit for working on the production. The film was one of a series of feature films produced by the department with the aim of giving RTVF majors hands-on moviemaking experience, and the chance to graduate with a feature film on their resumes.

Recent department alum COBY BELL (Theatre Arts, '99), who starred on the hit series THIRD WATCH, returned to San Jose to play a large role in DRIFTING ELEGANT. Other cast members include Donnie Keshawarz (seen on "24" and "The Sopranos"), Josh Stamberg (from "Courting Alex" and star of "Over There") and Jennifer Mudge ("Law and Order: Criminal Intent" and "Law and Order"). Meanwhile, the script was by Stephen Belber, the hot Hollywood screenwriter whose play "Tape" was filmed with Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman. Stephen Belber and Coby Bell will attend the Mill Valley premiere on Saturday the 7th, along with recent grad MATT BARBER, who edited the film. Barber is currently an editor on TV's THE OC.

The film is about a journalist whose sham life and troubled marriage are turned upside down when he does a story on a young Arab American man who may or may not have been guilty of rape. Journalistic ethics, sexual desire and race relations are among the themes explored in the stylish, sophisticated drama.

The chance to do projects such as DRIFTING ELEGANT in the Department of TV, Radio, Film and Theatre is a result of the creation by the University Provost's office of South Bay Film Studios in 2004. TRFT's Head of Production, BARNABY DALLAS and campus radio station manager NICK MARTINEZ were designated as co-production heads of South Bay Films.

"South Bay Film Studios exists to foster feature film productions that give students the opportunity to participate in really high level independent moviemaking," said Dallas. "We aim for national distribution that will put the name of SJSU, and of the Dept. of TV, Radio, Film and Theatre, in the public eye. In addition, to bring in professionals so students can develop the relationships with them while still in school. And we hope to bring in ever more prestigious professionals with each project, so the projects can be better and the student experience can be better. Because of DRIFTING ELEGANT we were able to attract incredible Hollywood veterans to work on the feature we shot this summer, GENERIC THRILLER, where we had as cinematographer HIRO NARITA, who shot NEVER CRY WOLF and HONEY, I SHRUNK THE KIDS, and editor JAY BOEKELHEIDE, an Academy Award winner."

NED KOPP, who worked on films such as THE GODFATHER, AMERICAN GRAFFITI and THE RIGHT STUFF, served on DRIFITNG ELEGANT as Executive Producer and AD. Also executive producing was MITCH GLAZER, the noted Hollywood screenwriter who associate produced LOST IN TRANLATION.

The busy Prof. Glazer is also a prominent theatre director, and is currently at the Magic Theatre in San Francisco directing the Bay Area premiere of legendary playwright SAM SHEPARD's newest work, THE GOD OF HELL, which runs Sep 23 through Oct 2, and has been described as "Electric, quick-witted and subversively funny…agit-prop theatre at its best."

"Amy is unbelievably talented, not just for her ability to guide the performances of actors, but she created some amazing cinematic sequences with editor Matt Barber," said Dallas. "They not only open up the film visually but create a more complex psychological landscape for the hero. Dave Nelson, who runs Outpost Studios and has been nominated for four Oscars, did the additional sound mix for DRIFTING ELEGANT, and he turned to me after watching one sequence and said, 'Wow, this director is good.' Obviously our filmmaking students on the set can learn a lot about directing from someone like that. What an asset for the university and the department."

Department of TV, Radio, Film and Theatre chair MIKE ADAMS said, "Barnaby Dallas and Nick Martinez broke their backs making this film happen, doing all the producing things nobody sees, like managing post-production and negotiating deals, not to mention interfacing with the wider University. They've really built something with South Bay Film Studios. Now, here we are in the Mill Valley Film Festival, a very big festival, in the same category, the U.S. Cinema section, alongside films starring Billy Bob Thorton, Russell Crowe, Gwyneth Paltrow and Kate Winslett."

Recent grad RICKY MARSHALL (left) is performing in HAMLET: BLOOD IN THE BRAIN, a rewrite of "Hamlet" set in Oakland in the '80s and directed by Jonathan Moscone. Author Naomi Iizuka's new play has been developed over a three year period as a partnership among CalShakes, Intersection, Campo Santo and Oakland community groups. It runs Thursdays through Sundays from Oct. 26 to Nov. 20. Tickets are $9 to $20, and Thursdays are pay-what-you-can.

Alum JOHN ROMANO has accepted the role of Carl in Paula Vogal's "The Baltimore Waltz," to be produced at the Pear Avenue Theatre. The show opens in mid November, for more information contact The Pear Avenue Theatre in Mountain View.

LAWRENCE GEORGE, class of 2005, writes, "Has it been a year and a half since my last class in Hugh Gillis Hall? I'm in my second year here at the New School for Drama in NYC. It has been a strange and wonderful trip so far. My acting teacher for this year, the infamous Arthur Storch, has the brutal honesty of Amy Glazer and the ability to shoot laser beams out of his eyes. Along with acting I'm taking stage combat, dialects, voice. I work in a restaurant too, so I'm pretty busy. Last week I was cast in a school production of Tennessee Williams' "Ten Blocks on the Camino Real," which will be directed by a professional guest director named Anders Cato. This month I also managed to act in a production called "In Bed," a collection of eight one acts, outside of school. It did very well. Anyhow, give a big hello to all of the TRFT dept. I miss you guys!"

CARRISSA WILSON, class of '04, writes, "Hey Everyone! For all of you who've been wondering why I've been working long hours, not responding to emails and phone calls, talking to myself, and dodging questions about the 'secret project' I've been working on, I'm happy to announce that today we launched the result of months of hard work. I'm hoping you'll check it out, let me know what you think - and spread the word! It's called the Yahoo! Current Network. It's a collection of online video channels that are part professionally-produced, part viewer-created, and in our humble opinion offer some the best daily work-place distractions anywhere on the internet. Its home is video.yahoo.com/currenttv. So thank you TRFT Dept. for giving me the education and most of all the valuable experiences that keep me moving forward in an industry I love so much! (I do miss school though.) Ethan is almost 20 months old, he's growing like a weed, and is seriously too smart for his own good. It's truly amazing how quickly a toddler's vocabulary expands when they start daycare!"

Playwright and Tower Award recipient KELLY McALLISTER has been in the news lately, reviewed in VARIETY and interviewed by the Denver press in connection with the opening his play SOME UNFORTUNATE HOUR, of which one reviewer wrote, "Building on his previous successes (including "Last Call ," which won the 2002 FringeNYC Excellence in Playwriting), the scribe's dialogue rings true while head case Tom, seductive charmer Charity, and quick-witted barkeep Janus at first dance around and then fully engage their unbottled emotions."

That's it for October! Until November, "Performances" leaves you with the words of Allen Chapman in 1922's "The Radio Boys First Wireless": "Luckily, we all had time to duck out before the bomb landed, but there wasn't anything left of our fine station but a big hole in the ground and bits of apparatus scattered around the landscape."

Only once in a great while does the University create what is called a "permanent position" on the faculty, which is to say, a new faculty member who is eligible for tenure and whom the University hopes will stay for the rest of his or her life. It has been five years since our department has been given a new tenure-track hire. Such positions are highly coveted and gained only after extensive national searches that are highly competitive. Newly minted ASSISTANT PROFESSOR ALISON McKEE is the result of such a search and the department is proud to welcome her.

Alison McKee earned a B.A. and M.A in English from the University of California, Santa Barbara where she studied film and literature in the English and Film Studies departments. She went on to get a Ph.D. in film and media studies at UCLA, one of the most prestigious film departments in the nation, where she focused on film history, narrative, and gender issues in classical American cinema. A productive and respected scholar, Dr. McKee has presented and published numerous papers at national and international film and television conferences and been invited to speak in the U.S. and abroad on a range of topics related to film, gender, ethnicity, and politics. McKee is co-editor of a collected edition of articles by established and newer film and media scholars, "Reclaiming the Archive: Feminism and Film History" (forthcoming, Wayne State University Press). She is currently working on a book on narrative films about sensationalized historical events involving murder of and/or by women. The book examines several notorious cases across different historical periods and national contexts, with an eye toward exploring the connections among gender, fiction, history, and cultural politics. Alison is married and lives with her husband (and two cats) in San Jose.

PERFORMANCES: You are especially interested in so-called "women's pictures" of the '30s and '40s? They were sometimes, rather patronizingly, called "weepies." Can you give us some examples of the genre and tell us why it attracted you?

McKEE: I feel happy just thinking about these films which is a tad odd because, as you point out, they're known as "tear-jerkers" or "three-hanky pictures." Women go through all kinds of trials and tribulations in these movies: they give up the child they love more than anything else in the world (Barbara Stanwyck in "Stella Dallas" [Vidor, 1937]); they die a tragic (but always beautiful and glamorous) death (Bette Davis in "Dark Victory" [Goulding, 1939]; they love self centered men from afar for decades who never even know they're alive (Joan Fontaine in "Letter from an Unknown Woman" [Ophuls, 1948]). I started watching these movies when I was an adolescent, and I think they appealed to my own sense of heightened emotions and turmoil when I was a pre-teen.

PERFORMANCES: "Letter from an Unknown Woman" is so beautiful. And "Stella Dallas" and "Dark Victory" are great. What do those films say about women?

McKEE: It depends on whom you ask! The generation of feminist film scholars just before me generally found these romanticized representations of women to be very oppressive. Many felt that although they were made primarily for a female audience, they objectified women and depicted them as one-dimensional fantasies. In other words, many women felt that these movies actually had less to do with real women and more to do with a male-dominated culture's fantasies about women. And of course there was next to no racial or economic diversity in these films because they were made in an era of segregation - the women depicted are all white, mostly middle-class, and any people of color are almost always stereotyped and marginalized. But these films are more than the sum of the limitations of their own historical moment. They offer really compelling stories about women who survive despite terrible odds against them. They endure enormous pain and suffering and are still able to find meaning in their lives and live those lives with dignity. And they do all that in some of the most sophisticated and beautifully shot and edited films of the era.

PERFORMANCES: So you derive narrative pleasure from these films. They're entertainment as well as cultural documents to you. Do you have personal favorites?

McKEE: I admit it - I absolutely love these films! They fascinate me intellectually and professionally, but the truth of the matter is, I love them personally as well. I grew up watching these movies in a back bedroom in my family's house, sitting only a foot away from a 10-inch black-and-white TV screen. Remember, this was before the days of VCRs and DVD players, let alone Tivo, so if a movie I loved aired three times on broadcast television in a 24-hour period, I'd watch it all three times - even if I had to get up at 3 a.m. to watch it that third time. And that's when I was only about 12 years old. I only got more obsessed as I got older. Such films are difficult to teach these days because, let's face it, they're the films of my mother's generation - which means my students' grandmother's generation. Younger audiences are often really uncomfortable with what they rightly see as outdated gender stereotypes, and sometimes it's difficult for them to see beyond those to the other dimensions of the films at first. And I understand that.

PERFORMANCES: Some people say that were actually more strong women's roles in the films of 1930s and 40s than there are today. Do you feel that way?

McKEE: No. We just remember the highlights of the last 80 years of filmmaking and forget that there was an awful lot of junk cranked out during that period, too!

PERFORMANCES: Are there modern movies that you think are interesting in their depiction of women?

McKEE: I look forward to the movies that have female actors in them that I admire because they usually have interesting representations of women in them. Here I'm thinking of Meryl Streep, Susan Sarandon, Laura Linney, Hilary Swank, Julianne Moore, Patricia Clarkson … there are really wonderful female actors out there today.

McKEE: Absolutely. The work of Laura Mulvey, who helped usher in the first wave of feminist film theory in the mid-1970s comes immediately to mind, as does that entire generation of feminist scholars. And then the older, classic film scholars who developed theory about film and culture generally: André Bazin, Roland Barthes, Christian Metz. Reading older film theorists is sometimes like reading a really beautiful piece of literature or philosophy. It can change the way you think not only about film but life.

PERFORMANCES: You're very interested in technology and spent a number of years working in the high tech world. How might that experience inform your work at San Jose State?

McKEE: I'm beginning to incorporate a greater number of options for class projects devoted to criticism and research, particularly in courses for RTVF majors, and I'm blending these options into my own research and presentations as well. It's essential to have good analytical writing and speaking skills to take with you into the film industry or anywhere else, but students have shown me that they can use digital and interactive technologies to make wonderful analytic pieces that are also truly creative, artistic works. I'm really excited about that, because it helps blur that line between "scholarship" and "creativeprojects" that I've always felt was artificial. Ideally, research and scholarship are creative; ideally, creative projects are intellectually stimulating and politically and socially aware as well as entertaining.

Alumna SARAH GORDON (pictured left) writes, "Exciting news! The horror movie that I starred in and associate-produced about three years ago is finally ready and is going to premier in San Jose!" The film, called BIT PARTS, was shot on Super 16 and is super scary. The showings will be at the Camera 12 at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 6. Many alumni and faculty recall Sarah's remarkably touching performance as Rose of Sharon in Frank Galati's adaptation of Steinbeck's THE GRAPES OF WRATH at the University Theatre. Sarah moved to LA in 1997, did a bit in MIGHTY JOE YOUNG, earned her SAG and AFTRA cards, and finally starred in the indie feature MY FAVORITE VALENTINE. It was while working in the improvisational comedy troupe CLICK THIS! that the idea for BIT PARTS arose, and Sarah agreed not only to act in it but also to be an associate producer, a function that apparently entailed, among other things, some amount of chicken wrangling. Sarah is also active in SPARTAN PRIDE, the SJSU Dept. of TV, Radio, Film and Theatre Los Angeles alumni networking group. She plans to stop by Hugh Gillis Hall on the day of her premier, have lunch with PROF. DAVID KAHN, and say "hello" to various old pals. Sarah's day job is as Marketing Manager for 1-800-DENTIST, where among other duties, she wrote their enormously successful advertising campaign. As she says, "those writing classes at SJSU really paid off."

Master's grad KELLY HSIEH has been accepted as a PhD student in Theatre Arts at National Taipei University of Arts, the best arts school in Taiwan. She had to pass written exams in Chinese Theatre and Western Theatre as well as an oral test. Kelly writes, "The standards for qualification were based on the following: 20 per cent Chinese theatre, 20 per cent Western theatre, 30 per cent oral test and 30 per cent the application package (i.e. the two scholars' recommendations, my GPA in the master's program and college, experience in theatre, my thesis, and my PhD study plan)."

Undergrad WALTER TALENS won an Honorable Mention in the Future Filmmakers for International Aid contest held by the Center for International Disaster Information, for his public service announcement "Anna and the World." Walter wrote the script while Ralph Garcia was the Editor and Sound Engineer, and the piece was produced by "Sfour Productions." Go to http://psa.cidi.org/ for more information.

Alumnus ALFORDE M. JOAQUIN has been working the past several years as a videographer at Action 36 Cable 6. He writes, "After finishing up a semester of internship with High School Sports Focus, I've been here ever since. Now I am a photojournalist with HSSF and also the internship coordinator. We are going to be starting up our 15th season this coming September and we have some internship spots open. FYI: More than half of our staffs were former HSSF interns. And most of them are from SJSU. We just hired three of our interns last year, all from SJSU, to replace the three who are moving on to work for bigger network stations." Contact Alforde at the station for more information.

RTVF grad JUDE EVERSON (pictured left), who won the Crain Award in 1999 for his fabulous script MOM GOES CRAZY, is living in Costa Rica. He writes, "What am I doing here? I'm glad you asked. I'm writing a zombie western and videotaping bullfights. Every town has a festival where basically people get drunk, jump in the ring, and get gored in the head by angry bulls. So keep an eye out for 'Costa Rican Bulls Gone Wild.' The image of Costa Rica is that it's very well-educated, very refined, with close-knit families, little poverty, hardly any illiteracy, no crime, the Switzerland of Central America. All that is a myth. Maybe it was true 10 years ago, but it's not now. The country that prides itself as Latin America's most stable democracy and the inventor of ecotourism is becoming the hemisphere's best-known playground for pedophiles. There are also a lot of break-ins and robberies. There are even more stories of break-ins and robberies-some folks are consumed with it. The gringo newspapers are calling for vigilantism-- lashing criminals up to 4x4s and dragging them out of town. The latest story is that they (usually Nicaraguan laborers on crack) release gas into your house at night, and while you're passed out they clean you out. We have bars on all our doors and windows and if any arms poke through we've given our twelve-year-old son permission to lop it off with his machete. Of course, if someone really wanted to get in they could break a window, reach in with a wrench and unbolt the bars, or tie a rope to the door and yank it off with a car. My wife came home from the gym the other day with a head-full of fearful rumors and started dripping super glue on all the bar bolts. She couldn't sleep. I thought she was being silly, but it turns out one of the super rich-looking houses across the street got hit that night. The editor of The Beach Times woke up to find four men armed with handguns standing in his bedroom. They apparently hit several houses that night. All this and an abundance of cheap cocaine make for a very jittery population of gringos. We pulled over in Tamarindo to use an ATM with the back windrolled down halfway. We heard a noise and some crackhead had his arm in the window looking for something worth taking while we were in the car. Just this morning someone climbed onto our deck and stole my shoes. Someone offered to sell us a .38 Special last night at the bar for $600 and I'm seriously thinking about it."

MARI ARANOFF DUNCAN, Office Administrator for the Department of Television-Radio-Film-Theatre, will be performing with her musical duo, Good Trouble, in downtown San Jose over Labor Day weekend at the Tapestry Arts Festival on Saturday, Sept. 2, from noon to 2:45 p.m. at the Riverpark/Whole Foods stage (near Park Avenue and Woz Way, also called Stage #4). Afterwards, you can check out the artwork and other live music. By the way, if you want to visit Good Trouble online, it has joined the Dalai Lama and many others on MySpace at http://www.myspace.com/goodtroublemusic.

Alumnus playwright KELLY McALLISTER has two productions pending. New York area Spartans might well want to check them out. "Some Unfortunate Hour" is being produced at the Avenue Theatre by the Other Theatre Company (www.theothertheatreco.com), with previews starting September 21. Also, "Fenway: Last of the Bohemians," is being produced by The Boomerang Theatre Company and Impetuous Theatre Group at Chashama in NYC in November. For more information go to http://www.boomerangtheatre.org/

Alumna REBEKAH WALENDZAK was in Los Angeles, directing "A Midsummer Night's Dream" for East LA Repertory Theatre's Free Shakespeare in East LA Parks series. Check it out at the following link: www.eastlarep.com/

Alum ANDREW KERR is still at the Off Broadstreet Theater (www.offbroadstreet.com/), where they recently opened "Baja Princess" to a sold out, standing-ovation audience The show is a musical comedy about a troupe of entertainers from Galt, California who get hired onto a discount cruise ship off Baja California. Andrew plays a claustrophobic actor. The show runs Friday and Saturday nights for several more weeks.

Last month alum MATT McTIGHE proposed to his inamorata Jessica Johnson. She is the master trainer at a fancy pilates/dance studio in Los Angeles. Meanwhile, in addition to doing a small role in Gary Marshall's new film "Georgia Rule," Matt has had two producer callbacks in the past month, for "Grey's Anatomy" and "Friday Night Lights," and was seen in a staged reading of the new play "Fog of War" at the Fremont Theater in Pasadena.

Our condolences to alumnus NATHAN "NATE" COSTA who lost his mother Mary Mahany Costa on August 17. Mary went to St. Mary's Elementary School in San Jose, and spent her secondary school years at Notre Dame High. Afterward, she entered the Order of Notre Dame De Namur and remained a Sister for eleven years. During that time, she taught at Notre Dame Elementary School in Salinas and was assistant registrar at the College of Notre Dame in Belmont. Although she was dispensed from her vows in order to marry Manuel Costa in 1976, she has stayed close throughout the years to her many friends and mentors in the Notre Dame community. Her children Nathan, Claire, and Ben were her pride and joy.

That's it for this month! Until October, PERFORMANCES leaves you with the words of Bertrand Russell: "The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper." Perhaps they'll be sharper next month. Performances plans to do a lot of crossword puzzles - they're good mental exercise.

IN THE AUGUST 2006 SPOTLIGHT:
HOLLYWOOD VETERAN NED KOPP TO TEACH PRODUCING CLASS AT STATE

In the world of cinema, the guys who keep the wheels spinning have titles like "Assistant Director," "Unit Production Manager" and "Production Supervisor." Moviegoers generally have no idea what these hard-working heroes actually do, but inside the business they're respected - and indeed often loved - for their cool expertise at keeping frantic film shoots from deteriorating into the expensive chaos that always lurks just under the surface of an orderly set.

One of the best of these pros, the legendary NED KOPP, has "adopted" SJSU's Department of TV, Radio, Film and Theatre, much to the gratitude of the students who have had the opportunity to learn from his vast experience.

Ned began at SJSU last summer, stepping in as assistant director on the departmental feature film DRIFTING ELEGANT, and then served this summer's film, GENERIC THRILLER, as Assistant Director and Executive Producer.

However, the bulk of his career has been spent working on a succession of films that includes some of the biggest hits and greatest artistic triumphs of the American cinema in the second half of the 20th century, such as AMERICAN GRAFFITI, THX 1138, THE GODFATHER, THE BLACK STALLION, SHOOT THE MOON, BIRDY, JACK, THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS, THE RIGHT STUFF, two James Bond movies, and 1,500 to 2,000 television commercials.

This fall, Ned will be teaching a producing class and it's filling up fast, so PERFORMANCES sat down with him to find out a little about his career up to now and his plans for his class.

Performances: Most people don't know what assistant directors, production managers and production supervisors do. In layman's terms, can you explain the function of each position?

Ned Kopp: "Production manager" equals planning management. They plan and budget the film and maintain control of both though the project, which is to say they hire the crew, rent equipment, formulate locations agreements, and handle logistics. Basically, the 3 T's of production - teas, toilets and transport - are the production manager's worries, because you have to get the actors and crew to the location, and feed them while they're there, and make sure they have access to bathrooms! A "production supervisor" is just a non-guild (Directors Guild of America) production manager. "Assistant director" equals Crisis Management - run the set and keep up with the constant changes.

P: Only we're cuter. Do you have any favorites among the films you've worked on?

N: Yes. The two James Bond films challenged and rewarded me the most. They had bigger budgets, tougher logistics, and enormous rewards.

P: You've usually worked on much bigger movies than "Drifting Elegant" and "Generic Thriller." What do you get out of doing low-budget digital features at a university?

N: The challenges and rewards are very similar doing whatever it is that I do. The project, the people, and the system are very similar. Granted, a larger project has people who in theory know what to do, but on a percentage level the risk is just the same. It's the budget that's different and with a budget comes higher consequences, but not to the individual. The individual risk is the same. A PA that has to get a cup of coffee for the director still is just as worried about, real cream or powdered, real sugar or Sweet 'n' Low, no matter what the budget. The dolly grip is just as worried about stopping on the mark in either case. The director should be just as worried about "Do I have enough coverage and did I get the best performance" no matter what the budget. The difference is the budget risk.

N: The problems and pleasures are both the same; the hunger to not only to know what to do, but why to do it that way. The truth is most students don't ask enough questions, and after all we are all students.

P: Do you think SJSU's policy of teaching film production by making feature films with students working alongside professionals is a good way to go?

N: It certainly is one of many ways to go. I think it's very important to offer practice as well as theory. It seems to me that there is an assortment of theory classes, but a limited amount of practice classes. I believe "working alongside professionals" fills that practice void.

N: Don't quit. If you really want to be part of the business, keep trying to work. Keep trying to meet people. Keep asking questions. The students that don't work in the biz will be the students that quit, that give up, that develop other obligations and no longer can pursue their "biz dream."

P: Tell us about your producing class. What's it called? What are you going to teach the students?

N: It's called "Planning the Low Budget Film." I'm not sure if I'll teach them anything, but if they come to class and pay attention they should be able to go out and breakdown and schedule any film. We will also discuss a small amount of budgeting. But the main thrust is to learn how to design a schedule technique that would be usable on any film project.

P: People don't realize what an important, difficult art scheduling a film shoot really is. And they don't realize how important an assistant director is to getting the film done. By the way, an actress working on "Generic Thriller" commented, "I love watching Ned on the set. He walks around like a ghost, but at the same time he walks around like he owns the joint." Is there something to be learned about assistant directing from that statement?

N: In most cases the assistant director is an extension of the director's vision. A good assistant keeps the crew informed as to what's coming up next, what changes might be happening, adapts and revises the schedule as necessary, and in my case tries to make the whole experience still be fun and when finished have a quality project. I certainly thank the actress for the comment. It's an assistant director's job to help the cast feel comfortable. It's important to help keep the crew informed. It's most important to help the director make their movie the best it can be. And I think her comment means in some ways I'm coming close.

Hot on the heels of the department's June feature film production GENERIC THRILLER comes a second feature, this one written, directed and crewed entirely by undergraduates! RTVF major GREG BRADLEY is helming his own screenplay, COLLEGE RADIO SUCKS, about a pair of student "shock jocks" trying to land a professional gig while dealing with romantic problems. The quirky indie comedy has been described as "CLERKS at a college radio station." Greg is, of course, a popular DJ on departmental radio station KSJS, and is using the station's broadcast booth as one of his locations - along with various Hugh Gillis Hall classrooms, hallways and offices. Most of the students in the crew also worked on GENERIC THRILLER, so they know they're in for another month of 13 hour days - and they seem to be loving it. PERFORMANCES visited the production when it shot all night at Tony Soprano's pizzeria in downtown San Jose (hooray for Tony Soprano's, because they're supporting the film in a variety of ways), and the mood on the set was very busy yet calmly professional. Among the many superb students occupying positions of great responsibility are TODD BANHAZL (director of photography), JOHN SCHMIDT (gaffer), DAVID LEVENTHAL (sound supervisor), ERIN HANEY (costume designer), JENNIFER CORKER (script supervision), KAYLEN KARNAN (script supervision), and ZACK SUTHERLAND (script supervision). TRFT undergrads RICK QUARESMA and CECILY ANN RYAN have been cast in featured roles.

Theatre Arts grad CODIE (FITCH) COSTELLO is in Alaska. After graduating in '96 she worked for San Jose Rep for three years, and then moved to New York to get her MFA in Directing at the Actors Studio Drama School. She graduated from ASDS in 2002 and directed quite a few off and off-off Broadway plays, most of which were new works. She worked for The Pearl Theatre Company for five years in various roles, culminating as Director of Marketing. In September of 2005, she moved to Anchorage, Alaska with her husband. She now works at the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts as Director of Development, and simultaneously continues to work with local theatre companies. In fact, Codie has directed two shows since moving to Alaska, both of which were shown at The Last Frontier Playwrights Conference in Valdez, Alaska. Says Codie, "I love it here. It's a rich arts community and an inspiring place to live." Old pals who'd like to drop Codie a line can reach her at this address: Codie Costello Director of Development Alaska Center for the Performing Arts 621 W. 6th Avenue Anchorage, AK 99501.

PROFESSOR AMY GLAZER will fly to Edinburgh, Scotland, this month to direct at that city's internationally famous Fringe Festival. The play, entitled FINDER'S FEE, has been described as "a fast-paced drama set in the high stakes world of New York real estate." In Edinburgh it will be produced by Assembly Theatre, whose recent festival productions include ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST with Christian Slater (which show subsequently moved to London's West End), and the European premiere of THE EXONERATED. The author of FINDER'S FEE, WESLEY MOORE, also wrote DEPARTURE and SWIM VISIT, both of which were produced at the Donmar Warehouse Theatre in London. SWIM VISIT was subsequently produced at Primary Stages (New York). Moore's play A RECKONING premiered in London with Jonathan Pryce at the Soho Theatre, and subsequently was produced at the Magic Theatre in San Francisco. A RECKONING is scheduled for its Broadway premiere this coming season. FINDER'S FEE was previously produced in LA at the Zephyr Theatre and at New York's Rattlestick Theatre, where Neil Genzlinger of The New York Times wrote, "Finder's Fee' makes for an entertaining 90 minutes, with three very watchable lead performances and a guessing-game plot... A real adrenalin rush." Last summer, Prof. Glazer directed the feature film DRIFTING ELEGANT here at the university. Post-production on that project is now finished. The editing is complete, the music has been composed, the sound has been sweetened and the credits have been added, so it's ready to hit the festival circuit.

SANDY ZIVIANI writes, "Sorry that I haven't written [but] I do read the newsletter. The last three years have been so busy...in a very good way. I have been working almost full time at BB King's Jazz Club on 42nd Street...as a waiter. It is a good job and it allows me to audition during the day. It also lets me have some flexibility for performing. I will be appearing in the role of Penelope in Mary Zimmerman's THE ODYSSEY, THE PLAY in July in Princeton N.J. In addition to that Arthur Storch (who is incredible) has cast me as Sarah in his production of WOMEN AND WALLACE. It will play in New York City in August. Some of us from the New School/Actors' Studio are getting together to put on a production of Christopher Shinn's play, THE COMING WORLD. We hope to have that ready for September in New York City. I will be appearing as Dora. As you may know at the end of our second year at the Actor's Studio Drama School there was a big shake up. New School University did not renew the contract with the Studio....so the Studio moved to Pace University. It was a very stressful time. We received degrees that state that we are graduates of the New School for Drama but what we did retain were some great teachers and our Finalist Status with The Actors Studio. This means that we all have two years in which we can observe and work on scenes at the Actors Studio. We have two chances at auditioning (with a member of the Studio) to receive Lifetime Membership. That is something I am really focusing on. So even though school is finally out (forever!!!!) I am still busy....living in Brooklyn in a 6 story walk-up (yes I am on the sixth floor) with the stereotypical sink that doesn't work and super who is a character....very New York. I miss you all. Please say hello for me to everyone and I will try to be better about giving you some news!!!!"

Undergrad RTVF major DARREN BULMER's summer internship is going exceedingly well. He writes, "I started off working as an office PA [production assistant], I worked my butt off for them, and because of this they let me work a day on the set. After working for a day on the set the producers and directors promoted me to be a set PA for the remainder of the film. The movie is called MAMA'S BOY and it stars Jon Heder (NAPOLEON DYNAMITE), Diane Keaton, Jeff Daniels and Anna Farris."

TRFT alumni JEFFREY BROWN performed in RESTORATION COMEDY at the California Shakespeare Theatre in Orinda. The show opened July 8th and ran through the 29th. Says Jeff, "I was one of the members of the ensemble. I know that I told some of you that I would be showing my bare [bodkin] in this show. That is untrue. Sorry. Nudity and g-string duty went to two other members of the ensemble. However, I did have a funny singing bit. Even better news is the show was very funny. There were some really great comedic performances; very entertaining stuff." The San Francisco Chronicle reviewed the show very favorably despite Jeff's lack of nudity.

MA grad JACK IGOE is now working on Long Island as Director of Product Marketing for FalconStor Software. "Yup," says Jack, "I couldn't stay away. We'll be selling the store so Joyce can come join me, but keeping the cottage on the lake."

Condolences to PROF. ETHEL PITTS WALKER who lost her brother this summer after an illness. Happier news is that Prof. Walker and her husband have recently relocated from San Francisco to San Jose in order to be closer to the university.

PERFORMANCES is sad to report the passing of PHIL MANCINI, an event that has deeply saddened the many faculty, undergraduates and graduate students who worked and studied with him, and experienced his tremendous energy, enthusiasm and love of life. Phil played many roles in our department, among them graduate student, film producer and playwright. He was the Line Producer on Prof. Amy Glazer's feature DRIFTING ELEGANT, Co-producer of the all-student feature FOX IN THE SNOW, and Line Producer on GENERIC THRILLER, the faculty-student feature that completed principle photography this summer. GENERIC THRILLER will contain a title card dedicating it to Phil's memory. Many of us admired Phil's charming and intelligent full-length stage play SHIFT, an ensemble comedy about the owner and employees of a restaurant as they prepare for the dinner rush. The San Jose Stage Company gave SHIFT a beautiful staged reading that showed what a moving and funny play it truly was.

That's it for August. Until September, PERFORMANCES leaves you with the words of George Bernard Shaw: "The secret of being miserable is to have the leisure to bother about whether you are happy or not." That's why PERFORMANCES always looks forward to the school year. So busy!.

TV creative executive MEL SWOPE has won two Golden Globes, received four Emmy Award nominations, two NAACP Image Award nominations, and nomination for a Humanitas prize. A proud alumnus of San Jose State's Dept. of TV Radio, Film and Theatre (though he graduated when it was called THeatre and Television), he also studied at the fabled Actor's Studio as a member of their 'Directors' Unit.' Mel came back to SJSU when he was chosen as the first Gilliland Chair of Telecommunications in 1982-83. Mel sees himself as "storyteller," whether those stories are told on stage or screen, and currently is directing musicals. His entry in the online "bible" of movie biz credits, IMDb.com, is insanely long. He has produced innumerable made-for-TV movies and some very famous TV shows. Out of so many, there are several that stand out as favorites, including "The Partridge Family," "Police Story" "Fame," all of which he produced for network TV. He's also very proud of two specials he produced for PBS: "Beyond War Spacebridge" and "Five Continent Spacebridge." PERFORMANCES recently sat down with Mel for a fascinating talk about his long and brilliant career.

"The Partridge Family" and "Fame" were huge hits audiences, and "Police Story" was considered by critics to be a TV landmark. What did you like about those shows?

"The Partridge Family" stories dealt with real life challenges that all of us could identify with. "Fame" showed young people striving to achieve excellence, some succeeded some failed. "Police Story" was based on real life human stories of officers out on the line. You couldn't help be identify with their struggles both professional and personal. "Beyond War Spacebridge" and the "Five Continent Spacebridge" had historical significance in that they both set a model for global television programs like Ted Koppel's "Nightline." The "Five Continent Spacebridge" linked five continents for the first time in television history. It was a technical marvel but more importantly it brought together heads of state and talents from many countries working together in the search for world peace.

I was the luckiest kid in the world. My first job was in 1956, almost 50 years ago working for ABC at the Republican National conventions network telecasts in San Francisco. I had done a lot of technical theatre in high school and the son of the Chief Engineer at ABC was on my crew. His dad set up an interview at ABC and the rest is history. My job was operating the lighting board in the commercial studio. Dwight Eisenhower was running for President and Nat King Cole was a guest singer on the convention floor in beautiful black and white TV (no color yet). Years later in 1965 I moved to Los Angeles working for Universal Studios as a Second Assistant Director on "Shell's Wonderful World of Golf" - in color. I spotted former President Eisenhower in a golf cart. He was recovering from a heart attack. I called, "Mr. Eisenhower (I should have said, Mr. President) would you mind if we photograph you?" He said, "That would be fine, would you like me to get out of the cart and stand over here?" Concerned about his health I said. "No sir, you are fine right where you are." So I guess you could say I directed a former President of the United States. Many of us in television have the privilege of meeting famous people. Besides actors we meet Mayors, Governors, Presidents, Premiers and other high level members of government. All over the world. In 1988 I was invited by the US Information Agency to be a delegate for the US-USSR Bilateral Information Talks in Moscow. I was a delegate to the Film Unit headed by then Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Motion Picture Association of America. Seven of us negotiated a treaty on co-productions and piracy. It's important to point out that these privileges come because we a part of the film industry and we have a title not because we as individuals are so special.

What aspect of your education at San Jose State proved most valuable in your TV career?

Receiving a broad education including literature, history, business and the arts was invaluable. Learning the technical aspects was important but without a broad background and an understanding of the world and other cultures I would have been extremely limited in my thinking.

Follow your bliss; ask yourself, "What am I most passionate about?" Doing it for fame or fortune is a narrow view. You may achieve that but only if you are passionate about what you do. Be realistic about the market place. I was once asked by the UN Ambassador to Yugoslavia if I would do a television film about a 15thCentury Yugoslav war hero. I needed his help on a global TV project, but I had to tell him the truth. His war hero was important in his country, but around the world nobody knew or cared about him. The story wasn't that riveting, it wasn't a great Idea. The Ambassador was surprised I told him the truth, and then agreed to help me on my project.

On Broadway the producer is the person who raises the money for the play or musical. In 'Old Hollywood" a producer credit was given to financiers, actors, friends and those Producers who actually 'Produced' the film. The Producers Guild of America, of which I am a member in cooperation with the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences now defines and limits those credits to the people who actually 'Produce' the film. In television, there are all sorts of 'Producers': writer-producers, actor-producers, agent-producers and on and on. In the early days of television, we had an Executive Producer and a Producer.

A good producer selects material based on a good Idea, and then finds first rate actors and a top crew. He or she is faithful to the intentions of the writer and produces a film on budget. What is a "good idea?" Ask yourself what is unique about your story. Why would anyone want to watch it? Of course I could ask that question about "American Idol." Who knows, there's probably an SJS grad working on the show. We work in "show business." Every producer or director wants to do the "show" but no one wants to do the "business." It is a business which requires that we deliver our projects on budget. If you are to survive as a producer or director you must do both well. You must be creative and fiscally responsible. Yes, that means sometimes we have to compromise.

What a lot of awards and prizes you've won: two Golden Globes, four Emmy nominations, a Humanitas Prize nomination, the Nosotros Golden Eagle Award, two NAACP Image Award nominations, and two MPSE Golden Reel Awards. What were the Golden Globes for?

The Golden Globe Awards were for the first two seasons of the television series "Fame." To be honored by your peers is a nice thing but the biggest prize is the privilege of producing and or directing. With those titles comes the responsibility to serve the society in which we live. Hopefully we have a choice in the stories we tell. Sometimes we tell stores to feed our families. As you move up the ladder and build a reputation you have more choices and can tell stories that would allow the audience to experience the joys and pains their fellow humans feel and in some way build a better world.

The Humanitas Prize nomination is for television programs which most fully affirm the dignity of the human person, probe the meaning of human life, deepen human freedom and motivate love within the human community. If only all programs could have those qualities.

You've witnessed a big chunk of TV history first hand. What do you see as the biggest changes, and what do you see as the constants that never change?

Technology is ever-changing. The means of storytelling may change but the foundations of storytelling are constant. "The Poetics" by Aristotle was introduced to me in a drama lit class at SJS. It is a measuring stick I use in every production I do. Although it focuses on Greek tragedy, it sets forth the requirements to tell a story. Aristotle points out that the idea is the most important aspect while spectacle is the least important. Why is it we continue to rush to the movies to see amazing visual effects, but the movie is at base is a bad idea? I went on-line recently only to discover that the game industry is exploring Aristotle's dramatic theory in it's development of interactive dramas. The move from Broadcasting to targeting the niche audience via cable, the internet and yes even the cell phone and my ipod is a radical change. Seven years ago I remember meeting with Scott Sassa, President of NBC and asking how he planned to deal with the introduction of TIVO. He didn't have an answer. For years broadcast audiences are dwindling and now all of us program what we see. I must admit I am sorry to see so many 'reality' shows aimed at demeaning people. What does it say about our society when we take pleasure in seeing contestants being put down? Let's hope this is just a cycle where someday soon we will return to human dramas which enrich human life. Another hope might be that soon when we turn on CNN or NBC News the subject in not Iraq, Iran, Israel or Palestine. I learned in Drama Lit that there is no drama without conflict. Now that the stakes are so high, will we ever learn that war doesn't work?

You're in Ventura directing community college theatre. Do you teach there? And where do you live?

I have been invited as a Distinguished Visiting Artist to direct a musical each year, including: West Side Story, A Chorus Line, and CABARET. My wife Judie and I live at the beach in Ventura and spend some time each year in France.

I enjoyed being the First Gilliland Chair of Telecommunications and some of my students went on to be successful in Hollywood. Our life is pretty busy. Perhaps we'll visit SJS before they tear down Hugh Gillis Hall.

Don't worry; we intend to see that that doesn't happen. We've just repainted the exterior and it looks great. So, any chance that Spartan Pride LA, the Los Angeles Dept. of TV, Radio, Film and Theatre alumni group, could get you down for a speaking engagement?

Right now I'm booked pretty solid through the fall of 2007. Please contact me this October to see if there might be a window.

Yes. I would like to pay tribute to my dear friend and SJS alum Jerry Juhl. Jerry died last September, a great loss to us all. In 1958 while attending SJS, Jerry and I along with alum Sylvia (Cirone) Deck created a daily hour-long 'live' children's show on KNTV - "Sylvie and Pup." Jerry went on to become a Producer and Head Writer for The Muppets. San Jose State's Theatre and Television Department gave us both an incredible classic foundation to become storytellers. Jerry, a performer, puppeteer, writer and husband to Susan was a giant talent who is greatly missed.

CHRIS COOPER and SANDY ZIVIANI (pictured here at their departmental graduation) have gotten their MFA degrees from the New School for Drama (formerly the Actor's Studio Drama School). Dept. Graduation was on May 18th with a huge party held afterwards. Formal graduation took place on May 19th at Madison Square Garden. Both now have their MFAs in Theatre. Sandy is staying in New York and working on several projects for the summer. Chris has changed his name to Cooper Daniels (for obvious reasons) and is also staying in New York.

SJSU THEATRE ALUM DINNA MYERS AND GRAD STUDENT LARRY BARROTT BRING THE BARD TO SARATOGA WITH THEIR SHADY SHAKESPEARE TROUPE - AND IT'S ALL FREE!

The play is the thing at Shady Shakespeare Theatre Company, a local organization that produces free Shakespeare in Sanborn County Park in Saratoga each summer. Now in their eighth season, this little company has much to be proud of, and SJSU has good reason to be proud of them.

SSTC was founded in 1999 by SJSU Theatre Arts alumnus, DINNA MYERS, and her friend Sara Betts, a graduate of University of Washington. "We started with $1,182 out of our own pockets doing daytime shows in urban parks," said Myers, who is the company's Managing Director. "We had actors dodging soccer balls and had unrelated protestors marching right through our audience. Today we have an annual budget of $50,000 and produce two plays each summer in our idyllic seasonal home in Sanborn Park."

Dinna received her B.A. in 1996 with an emphasis in directing. "DR. BOB JENKINS changed the very course of my life," said Myers. "I came to SJSU to finish a degree in lighting, but there was no technology to speak of at State and I got bored. Dr. Bob grabbed me by the scruff of the neck and said, 'Come here, kid. You're going to be a director.' He, along with DR. KAHN, DR. WALKER and PROF. GLAZER, made it happen. Now, I not only direct Shakespeare for thousands of people each summer, but I direct the operations of an entire theatre company."

Betts, who was the company's Artistic Director until this year, has moved to the East Coast to pursue a graduate degree in Theatre Education at Boston University. LARRY BARROTT, former SJSU undergraduate student, and current graduate student in Theatre, has stepped in as the company's new Artistic Director.

"David Kahn pointed me in Shady Shakes' direction when I made my initial inquiry into the graduate program at SJSU," said Barrott. "It was a turning point." Although Larry finished his undergraduate degree at Santa Clara University, he sited HAL TODD with first igniting his love of Shakespeare. "Dr. Todd cast me as Oswald in "King Lear" and, later, as Sir Andrew in "Twelfth Night." His guidance along with Richard Parks' provided me with a solid foundation for understanding Shakespeare and performing his plays. The knowledge and performance skills I acquired laid the path of a long journey that has found its way to Shady Shakespeare where I am able to bring those skills to bear."

This summer Larry will be directing SSTC's production of "Romeo and Juliet," set in the opulence of the Italian Renaissance. Dinna is taking a year off from directing to focus on strengthening the company in the community, so they have hired two more SJSU Alumni to direct "The Taming of the Shrew," SHARON SALAZAR (nee CUNHA) and ANGIE HIGGINS.

Sharon, who has a B.A. in English with a Theatre Arts minor and an emphasis in performance, has been acting with Shady Shakespeare for the past six years and is head of its Volunteer Development Committee and a member of its resident Artistic Ensemble. "SSTC was my first acting experience outside of school. I could see how enthusiastic they all were to be doing these shows. It was so much hard work, but they loved to do it because of their love for theatre and for Shakespeare. I also had that love, and I felt immediately drawn to the company after their first year. I am proud to have seen the company grow over the years and be apart of every new endeavor."

Working next to Sharon is close friend and fellow SJSU graduate, Angie Higgins. "After being a loyal audience member for five years, I was eager to apply when I heard SSTC was looking for directors. The experience of being able to direct a show that would play in such a gorgeous space and to such a wide audience was a huge draw," said Higgins. Angie received both a B.A. in Creative Arts with a minor in Drama, and a Master's in Interdisciplinary Studies-Theatre Arts Education. "Having taken numerous courses in theatre and teaching, SJSU gave me a skill set that ranges from basic script analysis to outright stage experience. JOHN LOSCHMAN, my advanced acting instructor, was instrumental in developing my acting as well as my directing style. Not only was his insight into performance thought provoking, but the way in which he supported his students was an amazing model to me for how a director and teacher should be. I'm thankful to have this knowledge and experience as it directly relates to my directing position with Shady Shakespeare."

Sharon and Angie have conceptualized their version of "The Taming of the Shrew" in the wild, wild, west. It should be a rootin'-tootin' rompin'-stompin' good time. If you would like to see the work of the alums, you can do so this summer from August 11 - September 17th in Sanborn Park in Saratoga Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings at 7pm. And it's FREE! For more information, go to www.shadyshakes.org.

IN THE JUNE 2006 "PERFORMANCES SPOTLIGHT:
VETERAN HOLLYWOOD CINEMATOGRAPHER HIRO NARITA, ASC

If you've seen "Honey I Shrunk the Kids," you've seen the work of veteran cinematographer HIRO NARITA, who also shot the Disney mega-production "The Rocketeer," the Bette Midler-Sarah Jessica Parker vehicle "Hocus Pocus," the sci-fi epic "Star Trek VI," and the ravishing nature story "Never Cry Wolf" (directed by Carroll Ballad from the novel by Farley Mowat). A much-sought-after addition to film crews, in recent years Mr. Narita's worked with such actors as Joseph Feinnes, Tilda Swinton and Winona Ryder.

This summer Mr. Narita is coming to San Jose State to share his expertise with students. He'll be part of the summer feature film "Generic Thriller," a production of the SJSU Foundation's South Bay Film Studios project. Mr. Narita, hired as a "lecturer," will be mentoring a camera crew composed entirely of lucky students - who will work under him as he shoots the film. And all the students working on the project, mostly undergraduates, will gain the professional advantage of working closely with a first-rate Hollywood professional.

Narita's style differs from film to film. "Never Cry Wolf" is self-consciously ravishing, a confident tour de force full of bold images, including a series of shots at the beginning of the film that employ off-kilter compositions that somehow simultaneously manage to be startlingly gorgeous and disturbingly ugly. As the film progresses, Narita's visual style evolves in unison with the spiritual growth of the main character - a naturalist coming to respect nature as studies wolves.

But see other films shot by Narita and you wonder could they possibly have been done by the same guy. His recent Depression era film "Shadrach," starring Harvey Keitel and Andie McDowell, is filmed with a tenderness that stands respectfully back from the characters, reserving close-ups for a few, key moments. His style in "Shadrach" is as invisible as it was insistently noticeable "Never Cry Wolf." Meanwhile, "Hocus Pocus," a Disney movie, is shot with a busy, slightly swaggering energy that seems almost adolescent and is just right for a family "popcorn" movie. And of course, "Star Trek VI" and the retro-futurist Disney epic "The Rocketeer" are huge special-effects movies with cinematography done on an epic scale.

Clearly, with all these different styles at his disposal, Narita is an interpretive artist who creates a new style to fit every project and seldom repeats himself. "Performances" sat down with Mr. Narita on the eve of "Generic Thriller's" principle photography.

Some people call your job "cinematographer," but the new favorite term seems to be "director of photography," and the real hipsters just say "D.P." Which term do you prefer and why?

The title, D.P. - an abbreviation for "Director of Photography" - reflects some of the increasing management responsibility of today's cameraman. He or she is not only the lighting cameraman but also responsible for managing a number of people on the set. Health, safety and insuring a sane workplace are also a part of a D.P.'s role. I like the term, "cinematographer," because it says what I am, what I do and why I am there.

Do you like to plan the shots in advance, or to work it out on the day of the shooting once the actors and sets are in place?

I like to discuss a director's vision before shooting, and I plan my shots. Going over the script is like learning a piece of music. You need to know it and have a feel for it before you perform. But I don't want to be too locked in to what I 'think' a scene should be. I hope to remain open to how a scene unfolds in front of us, remain open to the unexpected, good and bad. The trick is to take advantage of these unplanned results, improvise on them, not randomly but within the director's theme.

What is your shooting strategy for "Generic Thriller," a small, independent feature?

"Generic Thriller" is already unique. It takes place within the single setting of a theatrical stage. The challenge will be to keep the audience emotionally involved in the creative process the artists go through.

You usually shoot much bigger movies that "Generic Thriller." Why would you spend a summer doing a low-budget digital feature at a university?

Why not? The film arts are passed from one generation to the next, shared among peers, and renewed by a few cinematic Wunderkind. I welcome the opportunity to pass on some of what I have been given and perhaps a bit of what I have learned on my own.

Do you look forward to working with your all-student camera crew? Do you envision problems in working with students?

I do look forward to working with the students and their enthusiasm. As for "problems," I think that is not quite the right term. Of course, it will be different than a Hollywood set. I hope the students will take advantage of working on a larger project, will look at and listen to all the free information floating around a feature set and then use it to develop themselves. Production days are long, film work is demanding, high pressure work. What may seem like a tedious routine often is a practice that will save you from costly mistakes when you are tired. Film's customs and traditions all have reasons behind them. I also hope we can acquaint the students with some of them

You've done epics and you've also done small, personal stories on an intimate scale. Would talk about the differences between working on a small movie and a larger one?

Both big and small films have their own problems as well as rewards. Large films offer the opportunity for elaborate technical efforts, refined lighting and carefully managed effects, but the management effort is also elaborate. This can result in complex, even breathtaking, films that, in the end, leave the viewer with little to take home. Small films often suffer from the opposite problem-a lack of resources. It can be difficult to shoot enough, quickly enough and completely enough, once again leaving the story an unrealized dream, but I think a small company is more likely to be flexible and able to find unique solutions. Creatively, I think personal involvement is more likely in small productions.

You were born in Korea of Japanese parents, and then came to the US. How old were you? Was it a hard adjustment? Did you encounter prejudice?

I was 14 when I left Japan and moved to Hawaii, I was 18 when I entered San Francisco Art Institute and 24 when I settled in the Bay Area after serving in the Army. So it took me about ten years to learn the language and the culture well enough to no longer feel like a newcomer and outsider. Once settled in film work, my ethnicity didn't seem to matter.

You're married to a script supervisor, Barbara Parker. Did you meet on a film? Did you "meet cute," like in the movies?

In the late 60's many local filmmakers were at the original American Zoetrope built by Francis Coppola. George Lucas, John Korty, Walter Murch and many others had offices there. And many more of us hung around the billiard table hoping for work. Barbara had a company that was producing documentaries in those days and I was hired as cameraman on a project. That's how we met. She was my boss.

What do you think of SJSU's policy of teaching film production by making feature films with students working alongside professionals?

Whether at the university or elsewhere, new filmmakers will have to apprentice in the film arts. This project allows them to begin the process before they have finished their studies. Hopefully, after going through the grind of getting a film in the can they will use their experience on this project to explore their own talents and develop their own imaginations.

What I hope the students learn from this project and the professionals associated with it is the attitude for tackling a project. The skills will come in time, but attitude is the basis of all the rest. It integrates disparate skills, ideas and more into a whole, gives a filmmaker access to his or her full arsenal of creative tools. I once worked with a brilliant grip. He came up with elegantly simple solutions to complex production needs that stumped everyone else. He pushed a dolly with the style and grace of a dancer. He was more than a grip, he also was an inventor, a professional ice skater, a mechanic. He was variously skilled and variously inspired, he was both craftsman and artist. I hope the students will find inspiration in such examples. Who knows what any one of us will become in a year or two? In a decade? In a generation?

Thank you, Hiro. "Performances" is thrilled the students will have a chance to learn from you.

ALUMNI GROUP "SPARTAN PRIDE LA" MEETS AT BIG WANG; NEXT SPARTAN PRIDE SUNDAY
JUNE 11 AT THE 3RD STOP

What: Spartan Pride LA, the Los Angeles SJSU Dept. of TV, Radio, Film &Theatre networking group.
Where: at Third Stop 8636 West 3rd St, Los Angeles, CA
When: Sunday, June 11, 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Phone: 310-273-3605
Yes, Spartan Pride is meeting at the THIRD STOP (near the Beverly Center) at 6:00 p.m. on SUNDAY JUNE 11. For those of you who haven't been able to attend the past few events it'd be great to see you again! And for those of you who've yet to make it to Spartan Pride...the year is half way over!!! We're interested in seeing how people are doing and who might be interested in working on a couple of projects together. So come on out! See your freinds! Find out who's new in town! Get involved! Please forward this invitation to anyone you think might like to join us. See you there!

Spartan Pride LA help another great monthly meeting in May. Group organizer MICHAELA STARR writes: "We had our Spartan Pride event this month at Big Wang's. It was a pretty good turn out. We've definitely got some regular members including "THE" KEVIN MILLER and MISS DODIE KETCHUM. The drinks were cheap and the food was...well...ask Kevin about the tater tots and ribs on the sampler platter.

Three from the Department of Television, Radio, Film and Theater (pictured, left)- CHAIR MIKE ADAMS, PROF. JIM CULLEY and JENNIE YEUNG, who has just received her degree in the Theatre Arts master's program - recently traveled to Shanghai, Beijing and outlying areas in China. They visited theater and television schools, television and radio broadcasters, film studios and tourist attractions. According to Adams, one of the goals of the trip was to set up an exchange of faculty and students between Chinese schools and the department. "China has opened up to the world, and they are embracing American culture, dress, music and ideas," says Adams. "We are a Pacific Rim university and I believe that it is important to set up long-lasting relationships between SJSU and China."

DODIE KETCHUM was seen in a recent episode of "Take Home Chef" on TLC. The show airs weekdays at 5pm ET/PT on TLC.

Alumnus OMAR BENSON MILLER starred on an episode of "Law and Order" a few weeks ago. He played a wheelchair-bound diabetic accused of murder.

TRFT Professor BABAK SARRAFAN (pictured left with his father as he receives another award at the Broadcast Education Association in Las Vegas) was selected to represent U.S. Broadcast and Film industry and San Jose State University in Goyang City Media and Visual Symposium. Sarrafan was selected for his intensive background in media technology, filmmaking, and film/television education. His attendance and presentation topic was about understanding Hollywood's role in foreign film distribution. Other countries represented were China, Hong Kong, Korea, and Japan. The event took place May 9, 2006 in the new Kintex Complex in South Korea.

MATT McTIGHE has been cast in a play called "Juke Box," part of the Blank Theater Company's "Young Writer's festival." He'll be performing June 15, 16, 17, and 18 at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood. "Juke Box" is a drama that takes place in the 60's in segregated Alabama.

New grad ASHLEY DICKENSON writes: "I will be back in San Jose for the department graduation and also wanted to give you an update on my adventures since leaving SJSU. Fortunately, I received a job with MTV right after the holidays and haven't stopped working since. I became an executive assistant for the former VP of Production at VH1. She decided to go freelance and work closer with MTV and our first project was the 'Kelly Slater Celebrity Surf Invitational.' We shot in Kona, Hawaii for one week and I couldn't have asked for a better jumping off point. After that eight week production I started pre-production for a new JLO Dance Show. I wanted to step away from the clerical/ office work and try to peruse more creative opportunities and as luck would have it-- I got my opportunity. I am currently working for Rick Austin and Joel Gallen - EP and director for the MTV Movie Awards. This new position allows me to sit in on creative meetings, offer suggestions regarding script and talent presenters and they actually listen to my ideas. I read and revise numerous scripts a day and I'm having an amazing time. So that's the update! I'm looking forward to seeing everyone again at graduation."

RANDY EARLE, (pictured left) professor of television, radio, film and theater, was awarded the Joel E. Rubin Founder's Award by the United State Institute for Theatre Technology at its annual conference in Louisville, KY. The highest honor given by the USITT, Earle was recognized for his more than 30 years of service to the organization.

A public service announcement created by student WALTER TALENS is a finalist in a competition sponsored by the non-profit Center for International Disaster Information (CIDI), an organization that helps Aide organizations with disaster information and funding.

MATT HARVEY is offering new writers free script coverage and analysis. Matt won the Crain Dramatic Writing prize in 2000 (for "Young Chief"), and was a runner-up in 2001 (for his play "A Late Night Life"). He graduated in 2001 with a BA in Radio-TV-Film and a minor in Dramatic Writing. Beyond reading for Cinequest the last two years, he also studied story analysis and coverage coursework through UCLA Extension's Entertainment Studies Program. Interested writers should contact him at allaboutmh@yahoo.com.

That's it for June! See you in July. "Performances" leaves you with the words of Asher Spittler on the subject of breaking into Hollywood: "You really need a good smile or some crazy bedroom techniques." Everyone says Asher has a great smile.

Undergraduate RTVF major CHRIS PITCHFORD won fifth place among nine finalists (from over 2,200 entries) in disc jockey HOWARD STERN's short film contest. Stern flew finalists to New York City, where they were wined, dined and generally drenched in glamour. Star-struck Pitchford, a long-time Stern fan, strolled the red carpet alongside the legendary shock jock's menagerie of regulars including High Pitch Eric, Gary the Retard, Crackhead Bob, Elephant Boy and Jeff the Drunk. Also on hand were Stern sidekicks Fred Norris, Artie Lang, Gary "Bababooey" Dell'Abate and Robin Quivers. The panel of judges was a bit more conventional: actor Richard Belzer ("Law & Order"), film critic Richard Roeper (of "Ebert & Roeper"), and hot comedy director Todd Phillips ("Old School," "Road Trip"). Pitchford's film, in accordance with contest rules, was under five minutes and was about Howard Stern. Entitled "Trapped in the Attic," it concerned an insane Stern fan who forces captives to re-enact scenes from Stern's show.

SHARON JENNINGS REPORTS ON SPARTAN PRIDE LOS ANGELES'S APRIL GET-TOGETHER AT
"THE CAT AND THE FIDDLE"

"Although we were short our hostess with the mostess, Spartan Pride prevailed. About 15 alumni made it out to The Cat and the Fiddle to drink, laugh and spew haiku (we're making use of that degree, darn it!). I am happy to say we've got some regulars with excellent attendance (check out the photos) and would like to welcome new Spartan Pride member CATHY LEYBA ('03) to the gang. Also, thanks for letting me step in for Michaela but we look forward to seeing her Starr in the show at our next Hollywood hot spot performance." Sharon adds that LA alumni should sign up for the new Yahoo group: "Get updated on the latest and greatest SJSU-in-Hollywood Spartan Pride news, events, job announcements and much, much more by signing up for our new Yahoo Group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SJSUinHollywood/. You must have or create a Yahoo ID to sign up but it's well worth it. Yahoo Groups provides one of the best FREE services available." By signing up you can:
- See pictures from the Cat and Fiddle Spartan Pride Soiree
- Post job leads, casting calls and internship listings
- Start discussion on the frequency and types of our gatherings
- Submit ideas for our new types of activities whether fundraising, going to events, creating a mentorship program, etc.
- Creating committees for welcoming new alumni, setting up speakers for events, organizing special discounts and much more...
"If you missed the April gathering, Spartan Pride hopes to see you next time!
Look for your Evite in the coming weeks."

Head of Performance Studies PROF. AMY GLAZER passed on the following email from alumnus actor ANTHONY AGRESTI: "I've been enduring the new year in relentlessly pleasant Hawaiian weather. I'm on the big island where it's been nothing like what you've probably seen on the news in regard to Oahu and Kawai. As a matter of fact, with the exception of the occasional short-lived downpour, it's consistently 80 to 90 degrees. Moreover, I've been acting in the local community theatre and am currently cast as Romeo in 'Romeo and Juliet' (set in 1906 north Appalachian gold mining country - my family represents the miners while Juliet's are the owners - cool huh?). In addition to that, I'm earning a comfortable living in the tile business. I miss San Jose State and all its support base - you, Amy, especially, for arming me with a craft and a vehicle to express myself, and bringing clarity to my psyche - which I've been fortunate to do in Kona, Hawaii, of all places. In the 'Romeo and Juliet' production I have been mentoring many young actors and actresses, teaching these young people the techniques and lexicon that you taught me." Performances is delighted to hear news of Anthony, but frankly, hearing him talk about "young people" make Performances feel old.

Alumni are encouraged to keep on the alert for the upcoming DVD release of 'Hard Scrambled,' starring departmental alumnus Kurtwood Smith. Kurtwood Smith's well known comic timing takes a deliciously dark turn in 'Hard Scrambled,' one of the most commercially viable and downright entertaining films to be screened at this year's Cinequest festival. He's sympathetic but far from cuddly as the short order cook whose twisted sense of honor sends him down a loopy, tragicomic road of vengeance. Writer-director David Scott Hay's script bubbles with smart, snappy dialogue somewhat in the manner of Mamet. The second half of the plot takes a whodunit turn that sharpens audience interest while illuminating the dark, human impulse toward betrayal that pops up when people get desperate. In a way, it's a modern, morally ambiguous version of John Huston's 'The Treasure of the Sierra Madre' - only it's set in greasy spoon diner. All in all, 'Hard Scrambled' is a unique black comedy that will satisfy the huge fan base Smith acquired playing 'Red' in TV's 'That 70s Show' while taking them someplace new.

RANDY HANSEN (BA, RTVF, 1989) is currently Television News Chief Photographer at WINK-TV (CBS) in Ft. Myers, FL, and chief photographer at WDJT-TV Milwaukee. He writes, "Rather than the creative/cinema track for my career, I chose to go the journalism route and after 17 years, four stations and 10 hurricanes, it certainly has been interesting! I also write about video production for 'VideoMaker Magazine' and answer questions about TV news at Allexperts.com. I think my education at SJSU prepared me (mostly) for my career, although I didn't get to use the gear as much as I would have liked. Overall, though, I feel I was truly enriched by my experience with such professors as DR. CLARENCE FLICK and DR. CHARLES CHESS. Thanks for your interest in me and the other graduates of this program." Old friends can reach Randy at arh33@yahoo.com.