Drama Dean leaves Yale, prima donnas

After his 10th year as Dean of the Yale Drama School, Stan Wojewodski is on his way out. A committee of the deputy provost and nine professors, eight of whom are from the Drama School, was appointed by President Richard Levin, GRD '74, to make recommendations for a new Dean. The group has been meeting for the last six months, interviews for the position have been conducted, and the final three nominations are now on the desk of Levin.

COURTESY YALE SCHOOL OF DRAMA Underneath the smile, Stan thinks, 'You havent seen the last of me, Mr. Levin!'

"The chances are good that anyone offered the job will take it. Yale is unique—the Dean is an important leader," Professor Bill Roach, chair of the search committee, said. "We've made our nominations and the President is making up his mind."

According to a recent article in the Yale Daily News, one of the names heading the list is Oskar Eustis of the Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, R.I. Eustis is the nationally renowned director and dramaturg who commissioned Tony Kushner's Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Angels in America.

However, Roach said that the committee will not reveal the name of the new director at this time. Committee member Mark Bly, associate artistic director and chair of the Playwriting Program at the Drama School, explained that disclosing the names of candidates is a sensitive issue in part because candidates must be given a chance to inform people with whom they are currently working of a job offer at Yale before the news is publicly announced.

One of the primary responsibilities of the new Dean will be to act as artistic director of the Yale Repertory Theatre. The theater's main purpose is to serve as a "master teacher," providing Yale drama students with opportunities to work on shows side-by-side with professionals recruited by the Dean.

Because of the importance of enlisting a Dean with big-name connections in the theater world, one of the chief concerns of the search committee was to find candidates who have worked with major directors, playwrights, and actors in the past. "I instantly associate a certain candidate with particular playwrights, artists, and directors. You can't help but be interested in the people that [the new Dean] might bring," Bly said.

One of Wojewodski's most commended recruits was choreographer Ralph Lemon, who staged the show Geography at the Yale Rep last season. "The entire Geography project, of which Tree is the second part, attests to the importance and efficacy of Yale Rep's associate artist program," Wojewodski said. "I began the program because making the institution the patron of the individual artist has always been central to my notion of what it means to be an artistic director."

In a decision that several members of the Drama School called extremely rare, Wojewodski agreed to finance Lemon's travels abroad in order to find artists and inspiration for Geography. "It was an enormous project. It was a real act of faith. We had no text, no existing choreography. It was simply Ralph who had an idea to explore...Stan said we'll back it—we'll send you overseas to do research for what you want to do," Bly said.

While dance has traditionally been seen in a separate tradition from theater, Roach said that Wojewodski involved himself in new forms of theater and was also particularly innovative in developing plays of language, such as The America Play, by Suzan Lori Parks.

Wojewodski was a successful director of Baltimore's Center Stage theater for 13 years before he became the head of the Yale Rep in 1991, succeeding Lloyd Richards as Dean. During his first five-year term, Wojewodski stated among his objectives an intention to foster closer cooperation among the Drama School's eight programs and further integrate the School and Repertory Theatre.

Wojewodki's replacement will have a pronounced effect on the artistic course of the Drama School, which is greatly determined by the individual professional artists who are chosen and commissioned by the Dean.

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