Theatre Newsletter
Daniel Sheridan (Class of '05) and Jenny Stodd (Class of '06) Get Engaged
After hearing about the recent engagement of two of SAU Theatre's treasured alumni, the Newsletter got in touch with Jenny Stodd to get all of the details. Here's what she had to say:
"Daniel and I are very excited to be engaged. We met in the spring of 2003. The two of us had a class together right after I transferred to Ambrose. We both had crushes on each other, and it was actually persuasion from Cory Johnson that got us talking to each other. When I graduated, we had been dating for three years, and decided that I would move out to Connecticut with him, while he finished graduate school, to pursue theatre. This winter, Daniel went out and bought a ring on his own and hid it in our apartment. One Sunday when he actually had a day off, we went to a park out here called Mansfield Hollow. The huge lake was frozen, and it was on a "beach" on the lake that he proposed--he knew to get on his left knee from his role in Macbeth: you kneel closest to your heart. At first it was a little surreal, but now we've just sunk into our planning. The date is set for June 21, 2008. We'll be getting married at Ascension Chapel at Augustana College, where my parents were married.
"I am currently the manager of a Hallmark store in Manchester, CT, in hopes of saving money. Next March, I will move back home to the Quad Cities to find a job and hopefully start looking for a place to live. My good friend Kim Furness and I, along with Daniel and her husband Dave, are hoping to start a theatre company in the Quad Cities.
"Daniel has one year left in graduate school at the University of Connecticut. He will graduate in May of 2006 with his MFA in Acting. We plan to reside in the Quad Cities, living whatever life throws at us and eventually starting a family. Theatre will always be at our core. Like I said, we, along with the Furness', hope to start a theatre company and help to enrich theatrical life in the Quad Cities. It's such a great area for the arts, and we can't imagine living anywhere else."
We all wish the best of luck to Jenny and Daniel as they plan their wedding and start their life together!!
Stephanie (Massick) Alexander (Class of '01) Wins Playwriting Contest
SAU Theatre Alumnus and founder of the SAU Theatre Newsletter Stephanie (Massick) Alexander was recently honored as the winner of a playwriting contest in Pella, Iowa. The following is a press release with all the information.
"Congratulations to SAU theatre alum Stephanie (Massick) Alexander ('01) for being named first-place winner of the Tulip Time playwriting contest in Pella, Iowa. The contest, held by Pella's Union Street Players theatre group, was announced in September 2005. The challenge was to write an original, one-act play specifically based on some aspect of the history of Pella, to be performed at the town's Tulip Time Festival, which attracts more than 100,000 visitors annually from across the nation.
"Stephanie learned of the contest only weeks before scripts were due. The submission deadline was Aug. 1,' she said, 'and I started writing on July 18. Mostly I just wanted to see if I could write a viable script that quickly.'
"Judging of the scripts was done by six different members of the Iowa Scriptwriters Alliance, including Max Allan Collins, the writer of the Tom Hanks film Road to Perdition. 'I was thrilled when my play was named the winner,' Stephanie said. 'Not only were the judges of such high quality, but my fellow finalists – who included a college writing teacher and the president of the theatre group holding the contest – had very impressive backgrounds and I was honored to be among them.'
"In Stephanie's play, 'Tulip House,' a documentary film crew follows a modern-day family as they live out the ups and downs in the life of a 1935 Pella family as the town readies for its first-ever tulip festival.
"Stephanie, whose SAU stage credits include Hedda Gabler, Picasso at the Lapin Agile and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, cites Dr. Cory Johnson's assistance during the writing process. 'When I made it past the first round, I had a month to do rewrites,' Stephanie said. 'I immediately sent it to Cory, who is always a huge support to her students, past and present. She gave me some very valuable feedback, which helped me to make the end of the show much stronger. Cory is a truly wonderful resource.'
Tulip House will be performed May 2-5, during the 2007 Tulip Time Festival. Congratulations to Stephanie on this outstanding achievement!
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