Jill BC Du Boff and Mikah Berky Join Yale Faculty
Jill BC Du Boff has been appointed to the faculty at David Geffen School of Drama at Yale and Head of the Sound Design Concentration and will also serve as Sound Design Advisor at Yale Repertory Theatre. She joins the leadership of the Design Program which includes Co-Chairs Riccardo Hernández and Toni-Leslie James, who serve as Heads of the Set Design and Costume Design Concentrations respectively; Stephen Strawbridge, Head of the Lighting Design Concentration; and Wendall K. Harrington, Head of the Projection Design Concentration. Mikah Berky will join the Design Program faculty on December 1, 2023, and will also serve as Scenic Charge at Yale Repertory Theatre.
“Jill BC Du Boff brings to Yale both her significant experience as a theater artist, and many years of teaching the fundamentals of design, as well as a capacious understanding of how theory and practice are applied in film, television, radio, video games, podcasts, and sonic branding,” said James Bundy, Elizabeth Parker Ware Dean of David Geffen School of Drama. “I look forward to her leadership of our program and her contributions to the field as she puts her own stamp on the Sound Design Concentration in the years to come.”
“Mikah Berky is a versatile and ambitious theatermaker and teacher, and I am delighted to welcome her to our community,” said Bundy. “I am certain that Mikah’s tenure will enhance the legacy of excellence that has been the hallmark of Yale’s training in Design for nearly a century, exemplified today by each and every faculty member in the program.”
Du Boff is a graduate of the New School with a B.A. in Dramaturgy and taught for eight years at Sarah Lawrence College. Her professional theater career spans hundreds of resident theater and Off-Broadway productions and over two dozen on Broadway. Her Broadway credits include Summer, 1976; Hand to God; Other Desert Cities; Wit; Good People; and Disgraced. For five years, she was the Senior Audio Producer at The New Yorker, leading the podcast slate and producing The New Yorker Radio Hour for WNYC, and most recently, she has served as the Director of Audio for Marvel, producing ongoing fiction, talk, and documentary series. Du Boff is an OBIE and Lilly Award winner and was shortlisted for the Publisher Podcast Hero of the Year in 2023.
Berky served for eight years at Oregon Shakespeare Festival as Assistant Scenic Charge and Scenic Charge Artist and has worked previously as a freelance scenic artist for shows at Lookingglass Theatre, Santa Fe Opera, Steppenwolf, and Baltimore Center Stage, among others. Berky is a graduate of Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, where she majored in theater, minored in creative writing, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She anticipates receiving her M.F.A. in advanced theater Practice at London’s Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, where she is currently enrolled. She previously taught at Furman University and Southern Oregon University.
“I am honored and excited to step into this role and join the incredible program that David Budries created,” shares Du Boff, “The School of Drama faculty is made up of so many world-class theater makers – all of whom I look forward to collaborating with in years ahead. Yale has trained some of the best designers I’ve worked with in my career, and I look forward to championing and evolving the Sound Design program to support tomorrow’s talent.” Berky says she’s “thrilled to be joining the strong creative community at Yale and looks forward to future collaborations.” For further information and complete faculty bios go to www.drama.yale.edu .
USITT: Applications Open for SMMP
The Stage Management Mentor Project (SMMP) connects professional stage managers with mentees for a time of practical training experiences for USITT 24’s most high-profile events. Those who are selected will be paired with a mentor and assigned the role of stage manager or assistant stage manager for up to three events at Conference. Participation in roundtable discussions about stage management and related areas and skills are also part of the agenda. You must be available from 12 p.m. Monday March 18 through 10 p.m. Saturday March 23. If you are accepted into SMMP, you will receive a complimentary Full Conference registration. If you have already registered, your registration fee will be refunded.
This one-of-a-kind experience is available to students who are members or will become a member and are enrolled in at least the third year of an undergraduate university program or are graduate students. If you’re a young professional, you must be in the first two years of paid employment in the performing arts field. The application deadline is Nov. 9, 2023.
All applicants will need to fill out a short questionnaire, and submit $15 entry fee (non-refundable) a resume/CV, a photo showing their face, a letter describing why you wish to participate in SMMP and how you feel this will help your development as a stage manager, and a letter of recommendation. There is also a $15 non-refundable entry fee. Interested individuals can apply at https://usitt.secure-platform.com/a/ .
The 1/52 Project: $88,000 in Grants Announced
The 1/52 Project, the financial grant program founded by Tony Award-winning set designer Beowulf Boritt, has selected the second round of seven early-career designer recipients to benefit from $88,000 in grants. Applicants were chosen based on talent, creativity, innovation, and potential for future excellence in the professional theatrical field, and each of the recipients will receive grants up to $15,000. The 2023 recipients are lighting designer Ebony M. Burton; lighting designer Mextly Couzin; costume designer Mika Eubanks; costume designer Wilberth González; sound designer Kathy Ruvuna; scenic designer Gerardo Díaz Sánchez; and hair/wigs/makeup designer Destinee Steele.
The 1/52 Project, launched in January 2022, is primarily funded by designers with shows running on Broadway who are encouraged to donate one week every year of their weekly royalties to this fund. The project hopes to encourage early career designers from historically excluded groups, including all women, with the aim of diversifying and strengthening the Broadway design community.
“I am deeply grateful to the members of the Broadway community who have made this grant possible through their generous contributions, and to this year’s grant committee who shouldered the task of reading 62 applications from talented early career designers, conducting interviews with finalists, and making the impossible decisions of who should receive these grants from among so many worthy applicants. It breaks my heart we could not give funding to all of them,” says Boritt. “We had double the number of applicants this year. As the theatre community as a whole faces grave financial challenges, I fear the financial burden falls the hardest on the talented early career artists who need some support.”
Stefiania Bulbarella, who is a 2022 1/52 Grant Recipient and is about to make her Broadway debut with Jaja’s African Hair Braiding, says, “The 1/52 Project was a before and after in my professional career. I now have the funds to rent a studio to work, bring animators to work along with me as I develop different projects. I no longer have to have animators working along with me in my room, instead I have a professional setup with optimum working conditions.”
An Award Reception for this year’s grant recipients at West Bank Café’s Beechman Theatre was sponsored by Hudson Scenic Studio. Though the 1/52 Project is primarily funded by donations from professional designers working on Broadway, anyone is welcome to make a tax-deductible contribution at: www.oneeveryfiftytwo.org/contribute. Applications will open again in January 2024 for next year’s early career designer grants.
