Theatre Arts Alumni
A-Z \ Z-A
('91SOA) -
Screenwriter and director Greg Mottola is best known for hit coming-of-age comedies Adventureland and Superbad. His latest project, a sci-fi comedy called Paul, was released in March 2011. The film stars Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, and Seth Rogen. Mottola made his feature directing debut in 1996 with The Daytrippers, an independent comedy starring Hope Davis, Stanley Tucci, Parker Posey, and Liev Schrieber.
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('98SOA) -
Anson Mount received his BA from the University of the South (1995) and his MFA from Columbia University (1998). He began his professional career at Manhattan Theater Club playing the leading role in Terrence McNally's Corpus Christi for which he was honored by The Drama League in 1998.
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Adjunct Assistant Professor -
Michael Naumann is the Managing Director for Theatre Development Fund (TDF), the largest not-for-profit service organization for the performing arts in the country. Prior to joining TDF, Michael was the Finance Director for Frankel Green Theatrical Management/Richard Frankel Productions for 6 years. RFP produces and FGTM general manages Broadway and Off-Broadway plays, musicals and touring productions. FGTM/RFP’s productions Naumann worked on include A Little Night Music,
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Adjunct -
Jay Neugeboren is the author of 18 books, including two prize winning novels (The Stolen Jew and Before My Life Began), two prize-winning non-fiction books (Imagining Robert and Transforming Madness), and three collections of award-winning stories.
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('06SOA) -
Tommy Nohilly made his Off-Broadway debut to critical acclaim with Blood from a Stone for The New Group. The play, starring Ethan Hawke, is Nohilly’s first and was his thesis play for Columbia. It opened to rave reviews from The New York Times, Slant, and others. Nohilly—an ex-Marine who has also worked as a security guard, waiter, bouncer, and bartender—has acted in films and TV series. He began writing while in Marines boot camp and became hooked on playwriting after seeing Brecht’s The Irresistable Rise of Arturo Ui.
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Playwriting Mentor -
Marsha Norman is the winner of the 1983 Pulitzer Prize, Blackburn Prize, Hull-Warriner, and Drama Desk Awards for her play ‘NIGHT, MOTHER. In l992 she won a Tony Award and a Drama Desk Award for her book for the Broadway musical, THE SECRET GARDEN. She also wrote the book for the Broadway musical, THE COLOR PURPLE, for which she also received a Tony nomination. THE COLOR PURPLEis currently in the third year of its national first-class tour. Her new play, THE MASTER BUTCHER’S SINGI
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Playwriting Mentor -
Lynn Nottage’s new play, By The Way, Meet Vera Stark, enjoyed an extended run Off-Broadway at Second Stage Theatre (Lily Award, Drama Desk Nomination). It can be seen this upcoming season at The Geffen Playhouse and Goodman Theatre. Her Pulitzer Prize-winning play Ruined premiered at Manhattan Theatre Club and Goodman Theatre (OBIE, Lucille Lortel, New York Drama Critics’ Circle, Audelco, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Play).
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('75SOA) -
Sigrid Nunez has published six novels: A Feather on the Breath of God, Naked Sleeper, Mitz: The Marmoset of Bloomsbury, For Rouenna, The Last of Her Kind and Salvation City. Her most recent book is Sempre Susan: A Memoir of Susan Sontag. Her work has also appeared in several anthologies, including three Pushcart Prize volumes and four anthologies of Asian-American literature.
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('81SOA) -
Ron Nyswaner is a screenwriter, playwright, activist, and author.
He wrote the screenplay for The Painted Veil, an adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham’s novel, for which he received an Independent Spirit Award nomination and the National Board of Review’s Best Adapted Screenplay Award.
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Adjunct -
Stephen O'Connor is the author of two collections of short fiction, Rescue and Here Comes Another Lesson, and of two works of nonfiction, Will My Name Be Shouted Out?, a memoir, and Orphan Trains: The Story of Charles Loring Brace and the Children He Saved and Failed, a narrative history.
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Associate Professor -
Patricia O'Toole is a biographer who teaches nonfiction workshops as well as seminars on research and on plot. She also directs the MFA Research Internships, a three-credit independent study program in which graduate students assist accomplished authors with research for works in progress. In 2004, she received a Presidential Award for Outstanding Teaching from Columbia. Her most recent book, When Trumpets Call: Theodore Roosevelt after the White House, was selected as one of the year's best works of nonfiction by several national publications.
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('04SOA) -
Ben Odell is currently head of production for Pantelion Films, the joint venture between Lionsgate and Grupo Televisa. In his role at Pantelion, Odell is developing and producing films aimed at the Hispanic market in the United States. He recently produced the movie See If I Care, directed by Patricia Riggen (Under the Same Moon) and starring Eva Mendes, Matthew Modine, Patricia Arquette and Mexican comedian Eugenio Derbez.
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('06SOA) -
Ian Olds is a director of both narrative and documentary work. He directed Fixer: The Taking of Ajmal Naqshbandi, a feature-length documentary that follows the relationship between an Afghan interpreter and his client, American journalist Christian Parenti. The film won Best New Documentary Filmmaker at the Tribeca Film Festival, First Prize of the Jury at Documenta Madrid, and the Special Jury Prize at Pesaro Film Festival.
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Adjunct Professor -
Mark Olsen: Former Head of Graduate Acting at Penn State University. Olsen currently teaches and directs at the Juilliard School. An award winning and nationally recognized acting and movement specialist, he has been a guest director and professor at Bucknell University, Carnegie Mellon University, The New York Public Shakespeare Lab, Ryerson Theatre School in Toronto, and Sarah Lawrence College.
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Adjunct Professor -
Han Ong became one of the youngest recipients of the MacArthur Fellowship in 1997. He has written nearly three dozen works for the stage, which have been produced across the country in venues like the Joseph Papp Public Theater (New York), Berkeley Rep (Berkeley, CA), the Magic Theater (San Francisco), the American Repertory Theater (Cambridge, MA), the Mark Taper Forum (Los Angeles), Ma-Yi Theater (NY), as well as abroad, at London’s Almeida Theater.
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Robert Yik-Fong Tam Professor of the Humanities -
Orhan Pamuk is one of Turkey's most prominent novelists.
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Adjunct Assistant Professor -
Bonnie Panson is presently the Production Stage Manager for Bring It On, the Musical, now on Broadway after a 12 city USA tour.
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Chair, Associate Professor of Professional Practice -
Christian Parker is the Associate Artistic Director at the Atlantic Theater Company, where he has worked since the fall of 2001.
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Adjunct Assistant Professor -
Michael J. Passaro has over twenty-five years experience as a Production Stage Manager for theatrical productions – on Broadway, regionally, and world-wide. He is currently the PSM for Evita, his 22nd Broadway show.
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('04SOA) -
David Pastor is a writer and director. He made his feature debut with Carriers, which he co-wrote and co-directed with his brother Àlex Pastor. The horror film starred Chris Pine, Piper Perabo, Lou Taylor Pucci, and Emily VanCamp as four friends facing difficult choices as they flee a deadly pandemic. Pastor’s most recent work has been writing episodes for the Spanish science-fiction series El barco, which chronicles the aftermath of a catastrophic accident in a particle accelerator.
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Columbia University School of the Arts offers MFA degrees in Film, Theatre Arts, Visual Arts, and Writing, an MA degree in Film Studies, a joint JD/MFA degree in Theatre Management & Producing, and a PhD degree in Theatre History, Literature, and Theory.
Columbia University School of the Arts offers MFA degrees in Film, Theatre Arts, Visual Arts, and Writing, an MA degree in Film Studies, a joint JD/MFA degree in Theatre Management & Producing, and a PhD degree in Theatre History, Literature, and Theory.