This year, Dr. Chris Staley, a passionate scholar, artist, and longtime practitioner of the Suzuki Method of Actor Training, and his student, Amanda Baschnagel returned from an extraordinary journey—a pilgrimage, really—to the mountains of Toga, Japan. There, in the remote yet storied grounds of the Suzuki Company of Toga (SCOT), Dr. Staley deepened his two-decade-long relationship with a method that has shaped not only his craft, but his life.
Spring 2025 seems an appropriate time to discuss the meaning of legacy in our School, especially because we end the semester celebrating Ron Schulz, a beloved professor (1952-1982). And, sadly, we just lost a much more recent member of our School, Dr. Jonathan Marks, a Yale graduate who was not only our Head of Acting/Directing and Director of Graduate Studies, but also Interim Dean for a few years while directing several productions for us during his years at Texas Tech (1995-2018). So the concept of legacy is much on our minds.
The dance program recently staged its final production of the semester, "DanceTech: Dream" in the Maedgen Theatre. With artistic direction by Professor Anthony Denaro, the production featured choreography by our dance faculty alongside guest artists David Olarte and Carla León, Arizona’s foremost salsa dance teachers, and award-winning choreographer/performance artist, Helanius J. Wilkins.
