When I was a Westfield State student, very active in the Musical Theatre Guild, I often fantasized about moving to New York City after graduation and becoming a dancer—a Rockette perhaps, taking Radio City Music Hall by storm, covered in sequins and feathers.
Life turned me toward journalism instead, but I know some of my fellow MTG cast members headed to the Big Apple. Stu Rogers ’84, Jeff Wakeen, Peter Gardner ’85 and Russ Shapiro moved to the city after graduation, but Russ tells me—via a Facebook chat—that none of them got too far in their pursuits.
Russ got a call back to one Broadway show, “but it was only because I could roller skate,” he says. He became an engineer, and the others all went into unrelated fields as well. Stu is back in the arts now, behind the scenes as a studio mechanic, or “grip,” as he calls it, in movies and television. Stu is currently working on a Martin Scorsese HBO pilot project called “History of Rock and Roll.” Visit IMDb.com to learn more about his work.
Mike Avila ’83, the musical director of Jesus Christ Superstar, the second play I danced in as a freshman—along with Stu, Jeff, Peter and Russ—has also carved a secure niche in the entertainment industry. A pianist, Avila worked for several years as a jazz musician; now he’s the music director for The Imagination House, a creative media company based in Orlando, Fla.
Mike and Stu are not alone as University success stories in the entertainment industry. This issue of Focus features a package of stories on alumni who are making names for themselves on television, the big screen and the stage, in one-time appearances on reality television and in total industry immersion.
Surviving on television is Trish Hegarty’s thing.
Hegarty ’88 (See Page 12) lived out a dream this year when she appeared on CBS’ Survivor in its 28th season and held her own in a competitive field of participants after 10 years of trying.
Through his work on the production end of Survivor, Jacob Teixeira ’04 (Page 13) has travelled the world, visiting nine different countries.
Noah Lis ’14, a piano player and singer (Page 13), has also done the reality show thing, living out his dream to compete on NBC’s The Voice in 2013.
Then there’s Roman Alis ’79 (Page 14) who has spent 30 years on the stage and screen, performing in such prestigious venues as the Ford Theater in Washington, D.C., and in popular films such as Mission Impossible III and Exorcist Part II.
Alis recently won an Emmy Award for his work on a short educational documentary called The Bill of Rights, in which he plays a futuristic dictator in a world where the Bill of Rights was never ratified.
Westfield State can also boast of alumni behind the scenes, pens in hand.
Turn to Page 14 to read about Anthony Cipriano ’97 and his escapades in Los Angeles, Calif., where he has been working on the hit show Bates Motel, a concept he pitched to A&E about Norman Bates and the childhood that formed the psycho killer.
Steph DeFerie ’83 (Page 15) is also writing, but her niche is fairy tales for children. DeFerie’s first children’s play, Once Upon a Wolf, has been picked up at the Theater at Monmouth in Maine, and it was published by Baker’s Plays in 1997.
DeFerie gets a kick out of putting a new twist on the traditional genre plot of handsome-prince-rescues-distressed-maiden. “Sometimes, the beautiful princess is a jerk, and the handsome prince is a pain in the butt,” she says. “I like to flip it around and change the audience’s expectations.”
As for me, I still dance. In my fitness room, in the basement of my home in Easthampton.
Sometimes, I hold the television clicker and sing really loud, too. I’m not sure what Westfield State’s elite performers would have to say about that. n
