News Category: Community News

MEL SHAPIRO
December 16, 1935 – December 23, 2024

The School of Drama honors the life and artistic contributions of alumnus and former Head of School Mel Shapiro, who died December 23, 2024 at the age of 89.

Mr. Shapiro earned his BFA and MFA from Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama in 1961. He launched his impressive directing career at the Pittsburgh Playhouse, and went on to direct at the country’s leading regional theaters, including Arena Stage in Washington D.C., the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, Hartford Stage in Connecticut, and Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles.

In 1972, Mr. Shapiro won the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical for his musical adaptation of “Two Gentlemen of Verona,” co-written with John Guare and Galt MacDermot. Mr. Shapiro was also nominated as Best Director for the production, which won the Tony for Best Musical that year.

He returned to CMU as head of the School of Drama in 1980, where he mentored generations of future artists.

While we mourn his loss, we also celebrate the impact he made on our school and the theater world at large. Our thoughts are with his family, friends, and all those whose lives he touched.

Read more about Mel Shapiro’s life and work.

By Liggera Edmonds-Allen

It’s the most wonderful time of the year. Playground time, of course!

PLAYGROUND: A Festival of Independent Student Work is one of my favorite things we do at the School of Drama. For a week, classes are cancelled, and students sprint around Purnell like headless chickens for rehearsal spaces, last minute props, and costumes cobbled together from the closets of various friends throughout campus. It’s always overwhelming, intense, and electric, and something you don’t want to miss!

Faculty Champions

This year, I reached out to Catherine Moore and Dick Block to learn a bit more about how this Festival came to be. Moore and Block have been with the Festival since the very beginning – an idea brought to a staff meeting in 2003 by former Head of School Elizabeth Bradley. Having noticed how the students were trying to juggle classes, productions, and independent projects, Bradley had the idea to cancel classes for a week to encourage student-led projects. 

“Dick was already onboard,” Moore said, “And when Liz asked for a volunteer from the faculty, I jumped right in.” 

Moore and Block are Faculty Coordinators for the Festival, offering advice and mentorship to the student committee, as well as taking part in the selection and curation of performances and installations. But what keeps them coming back some 20 years later?

“Playground is one of the most exciting weeks of the year in part because it is one of the only activities in the School of Drama that is wholly ‘owned’ by students.” Block said. “[It is] not graded, not assessed; discussed, perhaps, but there is no penalty for a piece that doesn’t go as planned…And it is some of the best work that we see all year.”

“The reason I’ve been involved with Playground since its inception is because it offers our students the opportunity to explore and create their own work.” Moore said. “It is a time of intense collaboration that results in a joyful expression of our students’ many gifts. I am continually inspired by the commitment and risk taking that every student participating in Playground exhibits, the support that students show for each other, and the sense of community that exists in Purnell during this special week.”

But just to set the record straight, Moore reminded me about the work we might not see: “There are a number of staff and faculty who are supporting Playground from behind the scenes. We couldn’t have this week and the festival without their assistance.” 

We are so grateful to everyone who works so hard to make this Festival a success! I’ve participated in the Festival a few times now, and I am so excited to see what this year brings. 

Stepping Outside Comfort Zones

The reason I love Playground is part of the learning philosophy behind it: everyone should try something new, and stretch themselves outside their comfort zone. Nothing illustrates this better than this year’s Tech Workshops, ideated by Alexander Farrell and implemented by Delaney Price. 

“The tech workshops were introduced this year to help foster the explorative and curious energy of Playground,” Price said, when I asked about the idea and implementation. “We wanted to empower those outside declared design and production majors to design and create. We sent out a Google form to gauge interest and our incredible student department heads – Iris Chiu, Gemma Tait, and Cyril Neff – organized their curriculums around the responses.” 

This resulted in a day full of rotating drop-in lectures on lighting, sound, and media. A student who may have never touched a soundboard was able to learn the basics of sound design, Cue Lab, and how to connect their designs to the theatrical spaces they were working with. 

“It was great to feel as though individuals were empowered to create, and looking at program info for this year’s festival, we see lots of cross-departmental engagement,” Price said.

What to Expect This Year

In every piece I hear about, I see more and more cross-departmental engagement, and folks ready to make new friends. I can say from word of mouth that the first year Masters students are especially excited to make new friends in the School of Drama, and learn more about the spaces we work with. First year Dramatic Writing MFA Candidate Kate Foley is the director for Route 66(6). She is most excited to “work with people I wouldn’t normally collaborate with otherwise.” In putting on a director hat, she also said that the festival is “a great low-stakes chance [to] push myself out of my comfort zone.” Route 66(6)’s playwright, MFA Dramatic Writing candidate Hannah Honey Shepard, feels similarly, and is excited to work with a team of new friends. Acting as the scenographer for the piece, she is most excited about making a dead rabbit!

Playground runs from Thursday to Saturday, with performances in the Chosky, Wells, and Rauh Theaters in the Purnell Center for the Arts. There will also be nine installation pieces available to view throughout the festival: on the third floor, in the lobby, and even in the basement dressing rooms! Be sure to go beyond the first floor of Purnell in order to see all the fabulous work. 

One installation that caught my eye was The Spine: A Banned Book Library. Proposed and ideated by Reigh Wilson, the installation encourages the CMU community to interact with the book bans enacted throughout the United States, an issue that ‘seems more distant to us’ at our University. The installation displays some of the most frequently banned books in the country, inviting readers to consider ‘…stories that go untold or are silenced elsewhere in our society.’ You can find this installation on the 3rd floor seating nook, across from the main elevator. 

I’m always so happy to see ‘extension’ or ‘legacy pieces’ at Playground, as well – projects that continue through multiple years and classes, even after the originators may have graduated! You may remember the choreopoem Black Renaissance from 2022, ideated by Chloe Kaitlyn Brown and Steven Taylor Jr. This incredible piece touched and inspired so many – including Siggy Bijou, who proposed Black Resurgence. This 45-minute piece is described as a ‘manifestation of the universe in black bodies,’ ‘inspired by the teachings of our black faculty members (elemental movement, African yoga, Dunham and Jack Cole choreo/warmups).’ You can see this piece in the Rauh Theatre at 2:45 on Friday. 

But this is just a tiny slice of the breadth of this amazing Festival! With nine installations and 40 productions, you’re sure to find something amazing this week. The opening event will be held in the Purnell Lobby at 7:00 on Thursday, December 5th. I’ll see you there! 

New Plays

Students in rehearsal for “Real English” – a new play by first-year acting student Von Nishan Markarian.

New Musicals

A new musical version of “The Little Match Girl” by junior music theater student Hudson Orfe will make its debut at Playground this year.

Film Projects

Students film at Phipps Conservatory & Botanical Gardens for the Playground project “When We Begin Again,” led by junior acting student Olivia Ruhnke.

Liggera Edmonds-Allen (they/them) is a first year Master’s student in the School of Drama’s Dramatic Writing program. You can catch their sound design in Route 66(6) or their drag performance in House of Phobic: she wants revenge!

By Stacey Federoff

Wearing white coveralls while standing in front of plastic-covered shelves on each wall of the props department in the Purnell Center for the Arts, Arden Zemler Wu placed a capsule filled with fake blood into their mouth, then snapped it with their teeth so the gooey mixture oozed past their lips.

“It tastes like chocolate,” they said.

Zemler Wu, a senior at Prisma High School from Boston, took part in the design and production option of the Pre-College Program in Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Drama this summer that included trips to the props warehouse, creating molded props, and ways to use prop blood.

About a half-dozen high school students took part in the workshop led by props manager Todd Kulik and senior arts technician Kristin Ward, joined by teaching assistants Sydney de Haan and Carolyn Burback, both juniors majoring in drama.

Jake Isenberg, a senior at the Galloway School in Atlanta, said during the six-week program he was able to try out different types of design and production techniques that he hadn’t before including sound, projections, costumes and props.

“You’re really in the weeds. It definitely tells you if you want to do this in school or not and prepares you for Carnegie Mellon,” he said. “Most of the classes and teachers are at the top of their game in their fields and it’s a tough, exciting program.”

By Alexander Johnson

Since its founding, Carnegie Mellon University has served not only as a premier institution of higher learning in engineering and the sciences, but as an environment where community members can collaborate across traditional boundaries.

In 1911, when the plans were first submitted for the building which currently houses the College of Fine Arts, university founder Andrew Carnegie rejected them on the basis of the inclusion of a 420-seat auditorium. His thoughts on the matter were straightforward: “It is not elevating, and a college campus is no place for a theatre.”

Henry Hornbostel, the building’s designer, did not give up on the plan — or the theater. Instead, he rebranded the auditorium and its adjacent spaces as a “Dramatic Laboratory,” resubmitting the plans for Carnegie’s consideration. They were approved soon after, and the groundwork was laid for what is now the nation’s oldest degree-granting drama program.

Much of the mindset that Hornbostel applied while planting the seeds for the college’s construction — ardently pursuing the arts while paying homage to the sciences — is applied by students today. This holds especially true for the BXA Intercollege Degree Programs, which allow undergraduate students to combine an arts curriculum with studies in science, technology, engineering, math (STEM) or the humanities.

“The best work in a discipline happens when you get new questions being asked,” said M. Stephanie Murray, senior associate dean for interdisciplinary initiatives and a teaching professor in BXA. “Interdisciplinary education is a way to make that happen, and to make sure that you have people asking interesting questions from perspectives that hadn’t been thought about before.”

Murray said that many students choose drama as part of their degree knowing that their combination of interests may be one of a kind. However, advisers in the program encourage them to embrace this unfamiliarity precisely because it promotes innovative thinking.

“In drama specifically, there’s such a tradition of both the establishment and of what avant-garde looks like, that the introduction of technology into those spaces brings the kinds of perspectives and creativity that maybe wouldn’t be featured in a more traditional theater program,” she added.

The 76th Primetime Emmy Award nominations were announced on July 17 and 10 Carnegie Mellon University alumni from the School of Drama racked up a total of 16 nominations.

Matt Bomer (BFA, 2000) is nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for his role as Hawkins “Hawk” Fuller in Showtime’s “Fellow Travelers.” 

The television miniseries has a little bit of everything, billed as a political, romantic, historic thriller based on the 2007 novel of the same name by Thomas Mallon. The miniseries also features 2009 School of Drama alumnus Will Brill (who recently won a Tony Award for his portrayal of Reg in the Broadway hit “Stereophonic”) as the infamous lawyer Roy Cohn. This marks Bomer’s second Emmy nomination. He was also nominated in 2014 for his role as Felix Turner in HBO’s “The Normal Heart.”

Two-time Emmy winner Noah Mitz (BFA, 2002) added four nominations to his credit, bringing his career total to 32. Mitz is a lighting designer, nominated this year for Outstanding Lighting Design/Lighting Direction for a Variety Series for his work on both “America’s Got Talent” and “Dancing with the Stars,” as well as Outstanding Lighting Design/Lighting Direction for a Variety Special for his work on both the 66th Grammy Awards and the 76th Tony Awards.

Also in lighting, Ryan Tanker (BFA, 2010) and Will Gossett (BFA, 2015) earned two nominations each, for their works as lighting directors on both “America’s Got Talent” and the 66th Grammy Awards. 

Art Directors Alana Billingsley (BFA, 2004), Kristen Merlino (BFA, 2005) and John Zuiker (MFA, 2011) added to their climbing number of Emmy nominations. All three are nominated for Outstanding Production Design for a Variety Special. Billingsley, a three-time Emmy winner, and Zuiker were both nominated for their work on the Oscars, while Merlino earned her tenth nomination for her work on the 66th Grammy Awards.  

This year marks the first Emmy nominations for alumni Hillary Knox (BFA, 2002), Emma Present (BFA, 2016) and Hannah Kerman (BFA, 2021). Knox is nominated for Outstanding Lighting Design/Lighting Direction for a Variety Series for his work as moving light programmer for “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” Present is nominated for Outstanding Sound Editing For A Limited Or Anthology Series, Movie Or Special for her work as dialogue editor on “All The Light We Cannot See.” Kerman earned two nominations as lighting director in the category Outstanding Lighting Design/Lighting Direction for a Variety Series, for her work on both “America’s Got Talent” and “Dancing with the Stars.”

Pictured: Matt Bomer in “Fellow Travelers.” Photo courtesy Ben Mark Holzberg/SHOWTIME

The Hollywood Reporter’s Annual “Best Drama Schools” list for 2024.

THR consulted with members of the industry and educators to determine its ranking of the best schools for an acting degree, with factors including overall training, cost, alumni success and more. Tuition, when applicable, is listed on an annualized basis and does not include housing and other fees, unless otherwise indicated.

4. Carnegie Mellon

Pittsburgh

In the school’s strong undergraduate program, both acting and music theater students take the same core curriculum before moving into more specialized training, including classes on the business side of the profession, with the goal of preparing students for work in film, television, theater and more. Its illustrious alumni include Judith Light, Zachary Quinto and Matt Bomer, and several who have seen success on Broadway in the past year, with acting Tony recognition for Leslie Odom Jr. (Purlie Victorious) and Sarah Pidgeon and Will Brill (both in Stereophonic). Tuition for the undergraduate program is just under $65,000.

Broadway raised the curtain at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York to hold The 77^th Annual Tony Awards on Sunday, June 16.

The theater community honored the 2023-2024 Broadway performances and productions during a multiplatform preshow on Pluto TV, Paramount+, and a primetime telecast on CBS.

Throughout the evening, Carnegie Mellon University alumni were among the award show performers, presenters, nominees, winners and advocates for theater education. CMU has a long-standing tradition of producing top talent onstage and behind the scenes. Its School of Drama (opens in new window)is the oldest degree-granting drama school in the country and consistently ranks as one of the world’s best drama schools.

CMU ALUMNI WINNERS

• Will Brill, School of Drama, BFA 2009
  Best Featured Actor in a Play – Reg in “Stereophonic”

• Jamie deRoy, School of Drama, 1967
  Best Revival of a Musical “Merrily We Roll Along” (Producer)
  Best Play “Stereophonic” (Producer)

• Billy Porter, School of Drama, BFA 1991
  2024 Isabelle Stevenson Tony Award