CBS Detroit’s “Best Directors In Local Theatre Scene” includes WSU Faculty Lavinia Hart, Bonstelle Alumni Jaclyn Sterz and Frannie Shepherd-Bates

Best Directors In The Local Theater Scene In Detroit

Congratulations to Lavinia Hart on being selected as one of the best directors in the local theatre scene by CBS Detroit! We would also like to congratulate WSU alumni Frannie Shepherd-Bates of Magenta Giraffe Theatre and Jaclyn Sterz of Puppet ART for also making the list! We’re so proud of all of our WSU family!

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Click HERE to read the entire list.

Lavinia Hart
The Hilberry Theatre

Lavinia Hart is the Associate Professor of Theatre at Wayne State University. She serves as head of the MFA Acting Program at Hilberry Theatre, at Wayne State University. Hart previously held the position of artistic director at the Attic Theatre. Hart has acted, directed and produced over 100 stage productions throughout her career. Hart has directed “The Servant of Two Masters,” “Detroit,” “Eurydice,” as well as “The Lusty and Comical History of Tom Jones.” Hart was co-director of “The Kentucky Cycle.”

Jaclyn Strez
PuppetArt Theater

Jaclyn Strez directs many short and one-act plays. Directing credits include “Fabula Rasa,” “This is the Play” and “Lambert Street.” She has been directing professionally for six years. Strez holds a BFA in Acting from Wayne State University and studied at the Moscow Art Theatre School. In 2008, she started puppeteering at the Detroit PuppetArt Theatre. In addition to her directing credits, Strez writes, produces and designs costumes for stage performances. She also performs as an actress and has received critical acclaim for the challenging roles she portrays.

Frannie Shepherd-Bates
Magenta Giraffe Theatre

Frannie Shepherd-Bates has directed many stage productions. “Soul Mates,” “Rosmersholm” and “Last of the Boys” were all directed by Shepherd-Bates. She has also directed ”Dog Sees God,” “The Last Five Years,” “No Exit” and Woody Allen’s “Play It Again, Sam.” She received a BFA in Theatre from Wayne State University. She currently serves as executive artistic director at Magenta Giraffe Theatre Company, which was founded in 2008. In addition to her directing credits, she also acts and is a choreographer. She will be directing “The Maids” this spring.

Ghostbuster and Bonstelle alum, Ernie Hudson, returns to WSU

On October 17, 2011, Ernie Hudson returned to Wayne State University to talk with and inspire graduate and undergraduate students in the Department of Theatre.

Ernie Hudson in Ghostbusters

Born in Benton Harbor, Michigan, a career in show business seemed like an unlikely path for young Ernie Hudson, who was already married with a young son when he enrolled at Wayne State University as a Speech and English major. Hudson’s early ambition was to be a writer, and was for a time the resident playwright at Detroit’s Concept East, the oldest black theater company in the country at that time. Later, he founded the Actors Ensemble Theater, which allowed him and other black performers to stage and appear in their own works. After attending Wayne State, Hudson accepted a full scholarship to the Master of Fine Arts Program at Yale University. This led to a number of regional theater roles and critical acclaim, and his feature film debut in Leadbelly. Hudson found himself alternating between film and television roles until 1983, when he was cast as Winston Zeddemore, the fourth member of the Ghostbusters team. The two Ghostbusters films, starring Bill Murray and Dan Akroyd, were huge box-office hits and gave Hudson a higher profile than he had ever known.

Hudson’s subsequent screen roles included parts in Weeds with Nick Nolte, Leviathan, Sugar Hill, The Cowboy Way, Speechless, No Escape, The Substitute, and Basketball Diaries. When director Curtis Hanson (LA. Confidential) was making The Hand that Rocks the Cradle, he cast Hudson in the pivotal role of Solomon. “After Ghostbusters, it was hard to get the dramatic parts I wanted,” says Hudson. “Doing The Hand that Rocks the Cradle reminded the studios of what I could do, and it reminded me of the fun I could have while acting.” Another favorite role of Hudson’s was in the thriller Congo. “For a long time, I had been told that I wasn’t a ‘leading man’ type, and I had started to buy into that. The character in Congo was my Ronald Colman character, the man who ran the show. After I saw my performance in that movie, I felt really good about what I have to offer as an actor.” Hudson also co-starred as Officer Albrecht in the 1994 thriller The Crow opposite the late Brandon Lee.

http://www.ernie-hudson.com

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More Grad Tribute Photos!

Welcome to post 2 of 2!

Here are more Grad Tribute photos!

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Seriously, it was a great and amazing time. Those cakes of Sue Nine’s were just to die for!

Looking for the other post? Hilberry.wordpress.com has it! Or, even better – Did you graduate? Would you like the photo of you hugging Blair? Stop into the management office — we have them all. We’d love to share!

Spotlight on Alumni: Henrí D. Franklin – Undergraduate Theatre Major Makes it to Hollywood!

The Department of Theatre at Wayne State University announces the daytime acting debut of alumnus Henrí D. Franklin.  Franklin joined the cast of the Emmy-winning television show Days of Our Lives on Wednesday, April 21.  Last November, upon the encouragement of some friends, Franklin participated in an open casting call contest sponsored by Days of Our Lives, NBC affiliate WDIV Local 4 and the MGM Grand in Detroit.  Franklin was chosen out of several thousand hopeful actors to appear in an open-ended role with the possibility of returning for future episodes.

In a recent interview, Franklin mentioned that large casting calls (cattle calls) were not normally something he gave much time to, but he decided to go because three separate friends contacted him and insisted he give it a try.

Louise Sorel (Vivian Alamain), Henrí D. Franklin (Nurse Greg), Nadia Bjorlin (Chloe Lane) in Days of Our Lives, 2010

While a student in the Department of Theatre at Wayne State, Franklin and his classmate, Thomas Harris, accomplished something that no other theatre students at Wayne State had done before.   A play they had written was produced as an actual Wayne State Theatre production in the university’s Studio Theatre. The play, Before There Was Broadway, was inspired by the true story of the first Black acting company, The African Company, which came out of lower Manhattan in the early 1800s. The company was a controversial group because it formed when slavery was still legal in the South, and also because it was an “integrated theatre,” meaning black and white actors performed together in its productions. Franklin had learned about The African Company in one of his acting classes. The play was so successful that it was sold out for six out of the seven performances.

The Director of the Black Theatre Program at Wayne State University, Aku Kadogo, had the following to say about her former student:

“I had the pleasure of directing Mr. Henrí Franklin in his last semester at WSU in The Adventures of a Black Girl in Search of God. I cast him in one of the leading roles. He was great to direct because he did his “homework” and came to each rehearsal prepared with new material. But it was our conversations on the side of the production which really struck me. He informed me that he is a writer and that he and his partner, Thomas Harris, had already produced a play and that what he really wanted to do was start his own company. So I began to mentor him in becoming an independent producer and in how to effectively network. I have included him on panels I’ve conducted and recommended him to advisory boards of community organizations.  And he is now indeed the director of his own company.  I really believe in listening to the voices of our ‘up and coming’ students, and Henrí’s voice is clear, strong, creative, disciplined and determined.”

Louise Sorel (Vivian Alamain), Henrí D. Franklin (Nurse Greg) in Days of Our Lives, 2010

Along with two of his Wayne State University classmates, Anton Bassey and Thomas Harris, Henrí Franklin co-founded Project Theatre Company in Detroit.   All productions put on by the Project Theatre Company are productions they write themselves. These productions, Franklin says, are inspired from ideas that come from everywhere, mostly from real life experiences, like the many hardships that Detroiters and Americans country wide are currently facing, for example. In addition to his involvement with Project Theatre Company, Henri Franklin uses his skills in theater as a means of teaching others life skills. Franklin is involved in three youth organizations, Teen Hype, Arts League, and Michigan Youth Theatre, in which he uses what he knows best, drama, to teach children of all ages how to act and how to use their new skills in their everyday lives.

Days of Our Lives airs weekdays on NBC at 1:00 P.M. Eastern Standard Time and on SOAPnet weeknights at 6:00 P.M. and again at 11:00 P.M.

Spotlight on Henrí Franklin

Henrí Franklin

While enrolled in the Wayne State University Theatre program, Henrí Franklin and his classmate Thomas Harris accomplished something that no other theatre student at Wayne State had done before; they wrote a play that was so good that it was produced as an actual Wayne State Theatre production in the university’s Studio Theatre, not just as a “student” production.  The play, Before There Was Broadway, was inspired by the true story of the first Black acting company, The African Company, which came out of lower Manhattan in the early 1800s.  The group was controversial because it formed when slavery was still the law of the land in the South, and also because it was an “integrated theatre” with black and white actors performing together in their productions.  Franklin learned about the African Company in one of his acting classes with Wayne State Theatre Professor Aku Kadogo.  The play was so successful that it sold out, with standing room only, for six out of its seven performances.

Franklin’s success in writing theatrical literature has not stopped there. He is a co-founding member of the Project Theatre Company in Detroit with two of his former classmates, Anton Bassey and Thomas Harris.  All productions put on by the Project Theatre Company are original productions the company members write themselves.  These productions, Franklin says, are inspired mostly by real-life experiences, such as the many hardships that Detroiters and Americans countrywide are currently facing.  In addition to his involvement with Project Theatre Company, Franklin uses his knowledge of theatre as a means of teaching life skills to others.  He is involved in three youth organizations – Teen Hype, Arts League, and Michigan Youth Theatre – in which he uses drama to teach kindergarten through twelfth-grade students how to deal with life’s challenges through the vehicle of youth theatre.

Recently, Franklin had the opportunity to fly out to California and play a role in the daytime drama Days of Our Lives.  He was one of two winners in a talent competition at a Days of Our Lives casting call at Detroit’s MGM Grand Casino in November 2009.  Franklin says that massive casting calls are not normally something he gives much time to, but he decided to go to this one because three separate friends contacted him and insisted because they had a “good feeling” about it. His cold reading for talent agents from both Detroit and Los Angeles so impressed them that they chose Franklin from among more than a thousand auditioners to appear on the show.  His “open-ended” character might be brought back for future episodes.  Stay tuned!