Graduates of UD's Professional Theatre Training Program (PTTP) and other theatre graduates are appearing across the country, performing on stage, screen or behind the scenes. Check out our theatre guide to see if one of their performances is being presented near you. For those of you who don't want to leave the comfort of your home, you can be entertained by PTTP alumni, including Ty Jones, AS '95M, who appears in many national television commercials, and Steve Harris, AS '92M, who plays Eugene Young on TV's The Practice. And, don't forget to visit Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey circus when it comes to your town, especially since the operations manager is UD's Christine Schott, AS '99M.
--Sara Funaiock, AS 2002, and Beth Thomas
Alabama
Michele Tauber, AS '99M, performed at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival in A Christmas Carol through Dec. 23. In January, she will join the cast of The Tempest, which runs through Feb. 23. Located in Montgomery, the theatre is the fifth largest Shakespearean company in the world. Read more about it at [http://www.asf.net/ASF.html].
California
Forget about leaving your heart in San Francisco. Grab your dancing shoes instead and head on over to the 9:20 Special, one of the largest weekly dance parties in the Bay Area. Paul Overton, AS '92M, who has been teaching and performing swing dance and the Lindy Hop across the country and around the world for the past six years, runs the dance party every Thursday night from 9:20 p.m.-12:30 a.m. Tickets are just $6 per person. For more details, call (510) 336-3613.
Delaware
Kathleen Pirkle Tague, AS '92M, appeared in the Delaware Theatre Company's production of Our Town, Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, in December. For more information, visit the company's web site [http://www. delawaretheatre.org/], where you also can see a photo of Pirkle Tague in a previous performance of Macbeth.
Florida
If you are making a pilgrimage to the land of Disney with the family, be sure to take in a showing of the Disney/MGM production of The Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular. UD alumna Heather Fleming, AS '99M, helps put the spectacular in that production as well as The Voyage of the Little Mermaid. During the stunt spectacular, Heather's husband, Rich Fleming, AS '99M, a Disney co-worker, says she can be seen working with pyro devices, flame mortars and other props.
Illinois
Steve Cardamone, AS '99M, recently appeared in ShawChicago's production of Widowers' Houses, the first play ever written by George Bernard Shaw. You can read more about ShawChicago, where Cardamone is in charge of outreach, at [http://www. shawchicago.org/]. In December, Cardamone appeared in 1001 Nights in Chicago at the Prop Theatre. Read more about it at [http://www.propthtr.org/].
Nevada
After trying your luck at the slots, take in a show while in the City of Lights. Steve Warner, AS '99M, is technical director for Cirque du Soleil's aquatic production of O in Las Vegas. For tickets, call (888) 488-7111 or go to [www.cirquedusoleil.com].
New York
Broadway itself belongs to a UD alumna this year as Susan Stroman, AS '76, has three shows in production, a special Christmas show and a revival scheduled to open in March.
The multi-award winning Stroman is:
The director and choreographer teamed with crooner Harry Connick Jr. on the new musical Thou Shalt Not, set to run through Jan. 6 in the Plymouth Theatre.
She's scheduled to direct and choreograph a revival of Oklahoma! set to open in March in the Gershwin Theatre.
Oh, and, if by chance you can't get to Broadway, you can also see her work in the Contact national tour that runs through June 16, and in the Columbia Pictures teen film, Center Stage, the story of three young roommates striving to become ballerinas.
New York/California
PTTP alumni have the role of Ed, the laughing, trouble-making hyena, in the stage production of Disney's The Lion King, well-covered on both the East and West coasts.
On Broadway, Wayne Pyle, AS '95M, will join the cast of The Lion King in January. Cast as Ed, he also will be the understudy for Timon, the hyperactive meerkat with a motor mouth, and Zazu, the prim and proper hornbill, who is the Lion King's trusted adviser.
Not to be outdone, on the West Coast, Price Waldman, AS '92M, is cast in identical roles in the Los Angeles production of The Lion King. Like Pyle in New York, Waldman plays Ed and is an understudy for Timon and Zazu. Joining Waldman in the L.A. cast is Hassan El-Amin, AS '92M, a member of the ensemble and an understudy for Mufasa, the king himself, and Scar, the king's evil, cunning brother. For information on both productions visit [http://disney.go.com/ disneyonbroadway/lionking/index.htm].
Ohio
Ron Bashford, AS '92M, was assistant director of Lone Star Love or The Merry Wives of Windsor, Texas at the Great Lakes Theatre Festival in Cleveland, Ohio, this fall. Billed as a "hilarious foot-stompin', hand-clappin', rip-roarin" Shakespearean musical western, the show included live music performed by the Red Clay Ramblers. For more information, visit the show's web site at [http://www.greatlakestheater. org/].
Oregon/California
Rene Thornton and Gerson Dacanay, both AS '95M, joined forces with other members of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival's School Visit Program to present three different shows at schools in California in December. The tour took them to northern California, Sacramento and the Bay Area. Read more about them at [http://www.orshakes.org/].
Texas
Elizabeth Heflin, AS '92M, is a resident company member at the Alley Theatre in Houston, where her favorite pastime is swimming in the bayou. She performed in A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story of Christmas through Dec. 30. Read about the Alley Theatre at [http://www.alleytheatre.org/site/HomePage].
Virginia
Another holiday performance that featured a PTTP grad was Holiday Memories, a Christmas show adapted from two Truman Capote short stories. Carine Montertrand, AS '99M, was cast in this show that recounts Capote's youthful holidays in a small Alabama town and his boyhood bond with an elderly spinster cousin. The show was presented at TheatreVirginia in Richmond. Read more at [http://www.theatreva.com/].
Wisconsin
David Daniel, AS '99M, has had a busy few months. He performed in Ancestral Voices, a tender and poetic play by the author of Love Letters, in December. He appears in The Herbal Bed, a tale about Shakespeare's daughter, through Feb. 17. Both plays were at the Milwaukee Chamber Theatre. Read more about the shows at [http://www. chamber-theatre.com/index02.asp].