We are so grateful to have you in our community. As I begin my seventh academic year as chair of the Department of Theatre Arts, I am once again honored and delighted to be writing to you.
This is a complicated time we are living in. We are deeply appreciative for the institutional support and recognition that comes with being part of a Research 1 university that is committed to elevating the arts and fostering scholarship, creative engagement, and experiential learning in our studios and rehearsal spaces and on our stages. We remain dedicated to our core values and our pedagogical mission to provide students with state-of-the-art learning tools and exposure to wholistic training that encourages intellectual curiosity while also engaging imagination and infinite possibilities. We are proud that our department continues to be valued for the art we produce and celebrated for the students we graduate. In fact, last year bore witness to some incredible work by our esteemed alumni that has been experienced by audiences here and throughout the country.
Celebrating the Legacy of Our Alumni and Faculty:
Brian Quijada (2011 BA) visited campus in October 2024 to perform at Hancher Auditorium, sharing unplugged excerpts from his ground-breaking musical play Mexodus (which just opened off-Broadway to excellent reviews) with creative partner Nygel D. Robinson. He led several workshops with our students, who were inspired by Brian’s generosity as a teaching artist and mesmerized by his mastery of spoken-word and hip-hop-infused storytelling. You can see a video about the residency on our website at theatre.uiowa.edu/alumni.
Our playwriting alumni continue to burnish Iowa’s reputation as one of the top playwriting programs in the country through their work as educators and creators. Keith Josef Adkins (1995 MFA) teaches a hybrid course in Writing for Television for our department and Eric Holmes (2016 MFA) returned as a Visitor in Playwriting for the spring 2025 semester. David Adjmi has received rave reviews this year for the London production of his Tony Award-winning play Stereophonic. This fall, Samuel D. Hunter will have the Broadway debut production of his play, Little Bear Ridge Road, featuring the marvelous Laurie Metcalf. Tony Meneses (2010 MFA) continues to see his work produced in regional theatres and his new play, The Myth of the Two Marcos, was recently presented at the prestigious O’Neil National Playwrights Conference.
We feel blessed that UI alumnus Dee Silver (1967MD) created the annual post-graduate Dee Silver, MD, Iowa Playwright Fellowship to support graduates of the Iowa Playwrights Workshop. Dr. Silver received his medical degree from the University of Iowa and spent many years working as a neurologist in the San Diego area before establishing the award in 2023. The fellowship provides mentorship and support for a workshop graduate working on a new play, along with a reading at the Cygnet Theatre in San Diego.
We took 54 students to the Goodman Theatre in Chicago this spring to see Assistant Professor Caroline Clay perform in the world premiere of Bust by Zora Howard. Students met with the cast and artistic team, while our stage managers met with the stage management team. It was an exciting excursion that was generously supported by alum David Humphreys (1969 BA) and his wife, Gloria.
Kaelen Novak (2023 MFA, Design) is innovating on the use of Unreal Engine software to accelerate the developmental and production process of theatrical work that embraces interactive digital technologies. An article on the specifics of this work, which I co-authored with Kaelen and faculty member Mark Bruckner, was featured in the July 2025 issue of Theatre Design and Technology.
Building Community:
We continue to collaborate with MISSE (Multicultural & International Student Support & Engagement) and other UI affinity groups.
- In Fall 2024, in collaboration with the Pride Alliance Center, MFA Playwriting candidate Adrian Enzastiga curated the Big Ballroom Extravaganza, a night of runway, comedy, drag, and other genre-bending performances.
- This year we will graduate our first scholar, Jason Vernon (double major in Theatre Arts and Dance), earning the UI Certificate in Social Justice and the Performing Arts. For his capstone project, Jason will be creating an original piece of theatre that explores disability aesthetics—devising new artistic modes of accessibility embedded in performance.
- Empowered by collaboration with the IVETS office (Iowa Veteran Education and Transition Services) and a major Arts and Humanities Initiative grant, I was honored to direct the complete production of ARatorio for the Mis-Remembered in our Motion-Capture studio. This VR/AR musico-theatre work is based on stories of University of Iowa veterans and features original music by theatre faculty member Mark Bruckner, libretto by Sandy Dietrick (1985 MFA, Playwriting), and interactive design by Kaelen Novak (2023 MFA, Design).
Productions and New Works Development:
During the 2024-25 season, we averaged 80-100% attendance in our theatres! To open the season, I directed alumnus David Adjmi’s masterful play, Marie Antoinette, to sold-out audiences. Our campus community was thrilled to see the work of one of their own. It was an honor to have Dr. Tawnya Pettiford-Wates back on campus to direct Ntozake Shange’s classic choreo-poem for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf. Dr. T appeared in the original Broadway production and brought deep context to our production. Next, our MFA directors presented stirring re-imaginings of one-act plays by Caryl Churchill, Amiri Baraka, Celine Song, and Tennessee Williams (1938 BA) as part of the 2025 Iowa Director’s Festival. In March, Associate Professor Paul Kalina directed Bill Russell and Harvey Krieger’s haunting and dazzling musical, Side Show, with music direction by Assistant Professor Mark Bruckner. For our final mainstage of 2024-25, Assistant Professor Johanna Kasimow directed her original adaptation of An Enemy of the People, devising the script adaptation in collaboration with the ensemble throughout the rehearsal process.
Our season culminated beautifully with the 2025 Iowa New Play Festival—our annual celebration of collaborative artistry and theatrical ingenuity. Faculty, students, and staff worked together to put up seven readings and four fantastic productions, including an evening of short works from the Undergraduate Playwrights Workshop. The festival was one of the featured events in New Work City, an initiative that highlights new works created by students across the performing arts. As a part of the festival, students in Professor Dan Fine’s Digital Graffiti class projected their digital art projects on the front façade of the Theatre Building. It was truly a wonderful experience sitting on the lawn in front of the Iowa River among students from theatre, dance, art, and music departments and the Iowa Writers Workshop gathered to witness and celebrate their stunning work.
Fare Thee Well and Well-Met: Retirements and New Faculty/Staff
We continue to evolve as a department through the retirement of cherished colleagues and the hiring of exceptional new faculty members. In fact, this will be the first time since COVID that we have had a full faculty. A gifted educator, scholar, artist, and champion for change, Associate Professor of Instruction and Voice teacher Mary Mayo retired in May. We miss her presence in the department already, even as the equally talented and delightful Associate Professor Caroline Clay stepped into the Voice position this fall. Cristina Goyeneche, who joined the department as a Visitor in Acting for the 24-25 academic year, has accepted a tenure-track position in Acting.
After the completion of a national search, Ryan Adelsheim joined the department this fall to teach Theatre History and Dramatic Literature. With interests in performance studies, trans studies, and queer temporality, their interdisciplinary work considers theatre, performance, dance, and devising. They received their doctorate and MFA from the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University in Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism, and their BA in English from the University of Pennsylvania. Ryan is also a nationally recognized new-play dramaturg, adaptor, and producer.
Alumnus Tony Meneses (MFA Playwriting 2010) joined the department this fall as Assistant Professor of Playwriting. His work has premiered at Two River Theater, The Denver Center, The Old Globe and been developed at the Lark Play Development Center, Berkeley Rep, The Denver Center, South Coast Rep, and the 2025 O’Neill National Playwrights Conference. He is currently a playwright-in-residence at New Dramatists, is a two-time recipient of The Kennedy Center Latino Playwriting Award, and is published by Dramatists Play Service and Theatrical Rights Worldwide. For our west-coast graduates, Tony’s play Hombres will be featured in the Old Globe’s season next spring—so make plans to see it if you can!
Ricky Ramón has joined the department as Visiting Assistant Professor of Acting, coming to us from Howard University. A multi-faceted theatre artist and educator with a passion for performance and teaching, Ricky has worked professionally as a director, stage manager, actor, and theatre educator for over 25 years. Ricky holds a Master of Education from Harvard University, an MFA in Acting/Directing from Texas Tech University, and an MA in Performance Studies from NYU-Tisch School of the Arts.
Celebrating The Year Ahead:
As always, we are thankful for our students, who challenge us daily to be our best selves as educators, artists, and human beings. For them and with them, we embrace the everyday work of creating art. We encourage all our students to imagine what is possible, confront what some might call impossible, and make their dreams come to life. It is that ethos that sustains our educational mission and guides the vision we all share for our upcoming 2025-26 season.
This year our Directing MFA candidates will be directing their thesis projects on the mainstage. They each have unique gifts, and I look forward to experiencing their work. To open the season, Søren Olsen directs his adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. We follow this production with Mary Zimmerman’s Argonautika, directed by Joshua Turner. How to Defend Yourself by Liliana Padilla, directed by Meredith Healy, will kick off our spring semester of programming. This will be followed by the jukebox musical Head Over Heels directed by Michael C. Flores, featuring the punk-new-wave music of the Go-Go’s. Kayla Adams closes out the mainstage season directing Annie Baker’s adaptation of Uncle Vanya. As always, we will end the year with our annual New Play Festival, which now joins the UI’s New Work City event series that highlights creative work by students in the performing arts.
As we celebrate the infusion of scholarly talent and creative acumen that our new faculty members offer, we remain steadfast in our commitment to the holistic training of our students. We strive to offer a world-class education that feeds their capacity for wonder and creativity, while fostering a desire to build community through the art of theatre.
Your ongoing and generous support continues to remind us how we are all connected through legacies of learning and collaboration. Your engagement sustains us and contributes enormously to the growth and vitality of our department. On behalf of our students, staff, and faculty, I thank you.
Namaste,
Mary Beth Easley
Chair of the Department of Theatre Arts
Associate Professor, Head of Directing
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