A scan of Seattle’s “Best of . . .” lists provides just a sampling of the influence of Cornish alums and faculty on the arts field and our community. Musicians, visual artists, actors, playwrights, designers, and more are represented in a variety of lists, from the Seattle Times to the Huffington Post.
We know this is just the tip of the iceberg. Let us know if you’ve found other Cornish artists on local, regional, national and international lists by posting a message on our Facebook page.
Best of 2011
Seattle Dances
Starting with Alia Swersky’s Beyond Our Own Immensity, created with the Cornish Dance Theater and performed in the I5 Colonnade Park, Cornish infuses this entire list.
Seattle Art Museum: SAMBlog
The Nick Cave “Soundsuits,” brought to life by dancers from Cornish and Spectrum Dance were a big audience favorite in 2011.
Seattle Weekly
Milk Milk Lemonade was written by Josh Conkel, and featured Tim Smith-Stewart and Noah Benezra, all Theater alums. Sandra Kurtz called out Cornish’s Cunningham minEvents in recognizing the Merce Cunningham Legacy Tour.
Seattle Times Footlight Awards
Among those saluted are these alums: Kjerstine Anderson’s performance in Sense & Sensibility (also directed by Makaela Pollock, who directs Romeo & Juliet for us this spring and featured Emily Grogan and Samantha Leeds); Connor Toms in Cymbeline; Don Darryl Rivera in Harold and the Purple Crayon; and N’Tasha Anders in My Wonderful Day (sharing the stage with Emily Grogan.)
Other highlighted productions included Pilgrims Musa and Sheri in the New World and All My Sons, both of which featured theater faculty member Carol Roscoe; The Odyssey, with alum Nicholas Beach; Hardball, with Alyssa Keene and directed by Meghan Arnette, both alums; Crooked with alum Mariah Caine Ware; Threepenny Opera with alum Jerick Hoffer; Café Nordo with alumnae Opap Peachey and Dana Blasingame and faculty member Aimee Bruneau; Robin Hood with Hans Altweis; and Love Horse, directed by Makaela Pollock with alum Emily Chisholm.
Crosscut
In “12 Good Things That Happened in the Past Year,” they included Pacific MusicWorks, led by Cornish faculty member Stephen Stubbs.
CityArts Live Music
THEEsatisfaction, which include alumnae Catherine Harris-White, was among the “Live Music Moments” highlighted for 2011.
Seattle Gay News
This “best of” list also called out acting by alums Don Darryl Rivera, N’Tasha Anders, Miriah Caine Ware and David Goldstein. Theater Schmeater’s Live from the Last Night of My Life was written and directed by theater grad Wayne Rawley and featured theater staffer Alyson Bedford and alumna Samie Detzer. Theater faculty member Aimee Bruneau receives a mention for A Lie of the Mind and Hardball at Live Girls was directed by alumna Meghan Arnette and featured faculty member Alyssa Keenee. Performance Production was represented by faculty and staff member Carl Bronsdon for his costumes for Emilie at ArtsWest and alumna Mikiko Suzuki MacAdams for the set of The Brothers Size at Seattle Rep.
Huffington Post
On the national scene, Ensemble Studio Theatre’s wildly successful production of Hand of God includes alum Megan Hill.
CityArts
Finally, looking ahead, CityArts’ Future File includes The Allies: Catherine Harris-White (alumna) and Stasia Irons; The Crusader: Andrew Russell (who directed Oo Bla Dee last fall) and The Curator: Sierra Stinson (Art alumna.)
Diana Huey and Don Darryl Rivera. Photo by TeamPhotogenic.
