The Marist College Theatre Hall of Fame honors those who have made outstanding contributions to the history of theatre at Marist College. The Hall of Fame provides an opportunity to honor contributors, while also inspiring current students to achieve excellence in theatre. To be inducted into the Hall of Fame, alumni recipients must have been graduated for at least five years. Criteria include contributions to campus theatre through vibrant collaboration, commitment to quality and abundant participation in any variety of positions or leadership roles. Alumni achieving career success in theatre are also eligible for induction. Other candidates for nomination are faculty, staff or artists who have demonstrated long-standing service and dedication to theatre at Marist.
The Theatre Hall of Fame Committee consists of five members: Director of the Theatre Program, faculty advisor to MCCTA (if different from Program Director), an alumnus or alumna, and two faculty, staff or student members. Nominations are solicited each year. The induction is held annually at the college during Homecoming and Reunion Weekend, and inductees, alumni, family and the greater Marist community are invited. A Hall of Fame plaque listing members is on permanent display in the theatre. Please send your nominations for the 2010 Theatre Hall of Fame to: matthew.andrews@marist.edu. Please include candidate's name, graduation year and a brief background for each submission.
Deadline is March 1, 2010.
On Saturday, October 10, 2009, during Homecoming and Reunion Weekend, the following alumni were inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame:
Dr. Jeptha H. Lanning ’53
MY LIFE IN THE THEATRE
BY JEPTHA H. LANNING, ’53
It all began with a first grade Christmas playlet in 1937 when I was cast as a shepherd. That year, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs appeared and, having been taken by my aunt to see it at Radio City Music Hall, I promptly told my classmates all about it. In the spring of 1938, our class staged a fifteen minute presentation and there I was playing Prince Charming for Parents Night. Permit a digression: The little brunette who was to play Snow White got sick and a blond was substituted in her place! My aesthetic sense was offended by the turn of events, but “Sister said…”
The years rolled on. Assembly programs followed along and I had singing roles as well as playing a doctor, a lawyer and even Ben Franklin at the Constitutional Convention. In high school it was minstrel shows and a forgettable farce entitled Breezy Money in 1948. As an English major at Marist in the early ’50s, it was time for Shakespeare. In 1952, I had the opportunity to play Henry, Duke of Lancaster in Richard II and in 1953, Henry in Henry V. In that production, Dean Jerry Cox played the Duke of Orleans. Oh, the memories . . .
From 1954 to 1960 I pursued an MA in English at St. John’s University with my specialty English Dramatic Poetry 1485 – 1642. At that time I was teaching junior and senior English at Mount St. Michael Academy in the Bronx and directing six plays in six years. Acting had given way to directing and I was in my element. What a joy it was to take a play from the page to the stage with such talented groups of boys many of whom I keep in contact with today.
After four years of doctoral studies at Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, it was back to Marist and my new duties in the English department: teaching American Literature, supervising the senior English majors enrolled in Teacher Education and serving as Moderator of the Theatre Guild, the first activity program sponsored by the Student Council in 1959.
The years 1964 – 1974 saw me heavily involved in the theatre at Marist. I had the good fortune to direct the first play produced in the Nelly Goletti Theatre in October 1965. It was the classic 12 Angry Men. Before that, plays were staged in the old gym, now Marian Hall. During the following years, I worked closely with James W. Britt who began directing plays at Marist in the early „60s. We would serve as consultants to each other’s productions and a happy marriage ensued.
Women enrolled full time in 1968 and before that date, the Guild was indebted to the young women from St. Francis Hospital School of Nursing, Dutchess Community College, Mount St. Mary College and Vassar College. During this time I directed twelve major productions and consulted on an additional twelve.
In the spring semester of 1971, Marist embarked upon a revision of the curriculum and the English Department began to expand its offerings to include more courses in drama and theatre as well as in speech, media studies, advertising and public relations.
Appointed Assistant Chair of English in 1970 and elected to a three year term as Chair in 1971, it became difficult to direct two plays a year and with my new duties I wisely cut back to one production a year. Reelected to a three year term in 1974 and faced with the task of developing the fast growing new major in Communication Arts, I stopped directing plays in the spring of 1975.
After my term ended in 1977, I was granted a year’s sabbatical to follow courses in Communication Studies at the New School of Social Research (now the New University) so as to prepare myself to teach the new curriculum. By 1978, I had passed the baton to Jerry Cox who managed the smooth uniting of the Theatre Guild, Children’s Theatre and Playwriting into what is today the Marist College Council of Theatrical Arts. From 1980 to 1986, I served on the Board of Directors of the Hyde Park Festival Theatre, an Equity Theatre project founded by the actors Biff McGuire and his wife, Jeanne Carson.
The years 1979 – 1991 found me directing the Marist Abroad Programs and later on serving as Chair (Dean) of Arts and Letters: English, Communications, Foreign Languages, Art, Music and Fashion Design. My involvement in Theatre at Marist had come to an end.
Today, in retirement, I conduct a film seminar once a month for our condominium residents and keep up on local theatre productions. At Club and Parish Halloween and Mardi Gras parties, I dress up and play the parts of different characters. My favorites: Zorro, The Phantom, and Lawrence of Arabia.
EACH IN HIS TIME MANY PARTS
BY DEAN GERARD A. COX, ’55
Dean Cox retired after more than forty years of continuous service to Marist College and generations of its students. He continues to reside in the Hudson Valley where he and his wife, Peggy, raised three children. This family of five boasts four (plus one daughter-in-law) as Marist College graduates. Their children live within the region, offering easy access to wonderful grandchildren.
Gerard Cox, class of 1955, engaged in graduate studies in speech and theatre while teaching first in NYC and later in Miami. He also coached speech and debate. The success of his students regionally and nationally in part led to his election as president in forensic organizations in both cities, followed by election to national CFL President in the mid-60s.
Recruited by Marist College as faculty in 1967, he worked in the English department with Dr. Lanning and others on designing a communication arts concentration within the English major that quickly evolved into a major field of study. Dean Cox created and taught nine new courses among which were: The Theory & Practice of Theatre, Theatre Workshop, and The History of Modern Theatre. The other six were public speaking and media courses.
As a faculty member, he directed his first play for the Theatre Guild in 1969: William Inge’s The Dark at the Top of the Stairs. He helped establish the students‟ Experimental Theatre club in 1970. For ten years he was the founding chairman of the governing board for Community Experimental Repertory Theatre (CERT) in Poughkeepsie. In 1969 he also had been named Associate Dean for Student Academic Affairs, a position he held for ten years before becoming Dean and Vice President for Student Affairs in 1979, his post for the next twenty-two years.
Shortly after the College’s three student theatre groups were reorganized as MCCTA in the mid-70s, Dean Cox was appointed its official advisor. In the early 80s a festival of student plays was established and he worked with it annually, helping it to merge with the John P. Anderson Memorial Playwriting Contest in the late 80s. Yet, he continued through these years to teach part-time and to write stage plays both for performance and publication. Marist undergraduates have staged more than a dozen of his plays, the first Exercise for a Dandy Horse (1979) and the latest A Place that Harbors Men (2007).
In June 2001 Dean Cox retired from collegiate administration. Following a brief sabbatical he returned to teaching, mainly offering a course in Shakespeare for non-English majors which he called, “Smelling the roses in Shakespeare.” He also continued working with the student theatre organization (MCCTA), a position he maintained for forty years as a staunch believer in, and as an advocate for, student clubs and activities as legitimate experiential learning. He often spoke and wrote advocating the important role of out-of-classroom experiences that complement formal instruction. It’s the learning imperative in undergraduate education.
“The Dean” resigned from teaching in August 2006. The Board of Trustees of Marist College has since honored him on separate occasions with the titles of Heritage Professor and Professor Emeritus of English.
TANNY DUMAS JONES ’73
Tanny Dumas Jones's first experience in theatre was at Marist: Fellow-student Bill C. Davis (Mass Appeal) asked her to be in his early play Everyman Revisited, performed in the Chapel. She was in a number of his other plays at Marist and also played Jean Brodie in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, directed by Jep Lanning. After graduation, Bill C. Davis, Tanny and Marist professor Don Anderson formed the acting company Troupe, and she won NY state’s Best Supporting Actress Award in the original version of Davis' Dancing in the End Zone.
At the Valley Theatre Company, she played Martha in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and won NY state's Best Actress Award as Fiona in How the Other Half Loves. Later, she was a founder and co-artistic director of the Collingwood Repertory Company, where her stage credits included Alma in Eccentricities of a Nightingale, Vladimir in Waiting for Godot and Beatrice in A Servant of Two Masters. At the Depot Theatre in Westport, NY, she played Emily Dickinson in The Belle of Amherst and toured with it both in rural Adirondack schools and in historic Hudson River mansions. Tanny is former executive director of the Hyde Park Festival Theatre, a former trustee of the Depot Theatre in Westport, and a former trustee of the Berkshire Theatre Festival in Stockbridge, MA.
CINDY DAVIS-KEEGAN ’81
Cindy is delighted to have spent the last 35 years involved in theatre wherever she has lived. She is presently the Artistic Director at Archbishop McCarthy High School (AMHS) in Fort Lauderdale, Florida where she is blessed to work with young students and instill in them the same passion she has for theatre. Throughout her career, Cindy has been a featured actress in over 25 productions. Some of her favorite roles she performed at Marist College were Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker, Katrine in I Remember Mama, Stella in A Streetcar Named Desire, and Althea in Althea's Throne – an offbeat one act written by Marist College alumnus Bill C. Davis. She has also directed over 20 productions; favorites include Zombie Prom, Bus Stop and Mass Appeal. The most memorable was the first play she ever directed at Marist College, entitled Exercise for A Dandy Horse, written by her mentor Prof. Jerry Cox. She served on the MCCTA board for three years, two as president. This gave her a wealth of experience on how to work with a budget, produce shows and put out fires, experience which proved invaluable as a business owner and artistic director. Recently she wrote the play Cyber Mare which she directed and produced at AMHS and published in 2007. She has a wonderful husband Albert, and a terrific son Danny who appreciates a good play but spends most his time playing basketball and swimming.
JOHN ROCHE ’87
In addition to serving on the MCCTA executive board for two years, including president, John acted in 15 plays during his four years at Marist. Seven of his original one-acts were performed on the Marist stage, with several going on to regional and community theatre productions. He directed two mainstage plays at Marist, and in 1987 was honored with the Gerard A. Cox Award for Outstanding Achievement in Marist Theatre. A unique internship between his junior and senior years led to him acting alongside Bill Murray and Stockard Channing at the Hyde Park Festival Theater. During rehearsals for Peter Pan, he met another undergraduate, Victoria Piazza, in the magical darkness of the Nelly Golletti Theatre, which eventually led to the production they’ve been collaborating on for the past 16 years: three terrific children. A member of Actors’ Equity Association, John acted professionally and toured as a stand-up comedian before drifting more toward his “day job” as an award-winning journalist. John was also recognized in 2008 as Outstanding Adjunct Faculty Member of the Year at Marist, where he teaches in the School of Communication and the Arts.
JENNIFER LEIGH DRESSEL ’91
Hailing from Wharton, NJ, Jenn attended Marist from 1987 – 1991, graduating with a BA in Communications/Public Relations. She served on the Executive Board of MCCTA from 1988 – 1990 as chairperson of set design and construction and from 1990 – 1991 as President. She was the recipient of the Gerard A. Cox Award in 1991. Her MCCTA credits as Stage Manager include Hair, Harvey, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, and Little Shop of Horrors. She served as Producer for Don’t Drink The Water, Brighton Beach Memoirs, and Antigone. She also directed Alice in Wonderland. Jenn had a hand in either the design or construction of every show staged at Marist during her tenure, with her favorite being the Jerome family’s house in Brighton Beach Memoirs. Sadly, Jenn lost her battle with liver cancer on May 21, 1993. Jenn and memory are alive at Marist through the Jennifer Dressel Award and Memorial Scholarship. The award recognizes the achievements of deserving students who work behind the scenes of MCCTA productions. The award was first presented in 1994.
MARIA LICARI COHEN ’93
Maria Licari Cohen appeared in MCCTA productions of Evita (Eva), King Lear (Goneril), The House of Blue Leaves, Fools, Company, The Front Page, Picnic Alice in Wonderland, Pinocchio, and Festival in 1993. She served as secretary on the MCCTA board from 1991 - 1993. Maria was house manager for Burn This and Pinocchio, and co-produced The Wizard of Oz and Sleeping Beauty. She also was on the publicity crew for Antigone, Vows, Company and several other productions. Maria was honored to be cast as "Florence" in an alumni production of the female version of The Odd Couple on the Marist stage, which raised money for the Jennifer Dressel Award and Memorial Scholarship in 1994. She attended the prestigious American Academy of Dramatic Arts in NYC from 1994 - 1995 and co-wrote a cabaret, which she performed at Danny's on restaurant row in 1995. Over the Years, Maria has made appearances singing The National Anthem at Marist homecoming games. She is a Producer for Good Morning America on ABC and resides in Peekskill, NY with husband David, who is an insurance agent for Bankers Conseco. They are proud parents of Matthew (3) and Riley (3 months).
