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Motifs: July 2023

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Jeff Dalton (IAA 76-79) recently became the chairman of Broadsword, a technology company he founded in 2005. He and his wife Patty also opened Sunrise Studios, a youth music school and recording studio, in the Florida Keys.

Dan Slott (IAC/NMC 77-79) will write Marvel’s new Spider-Boy comic series. The first issue will go on sale on Nov. 1.

Beverly Gage (IAC/NMC 86-88) won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize in Biography for G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century. Gage is a professor of 20th-century American history at Yale University and writes frequently for The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, and other publications.

Michael Arden (IAC 99, IAA 99-01, IAC St 01) will co-direct the world premiere of The Preacher’s Wife at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia, in May 2024. The musical, which is based on the 1947 movie The Bishop’s Wife, features a book by Tituss Burgess and Azie Dungey and music and lyrics by Burgess. Award-winning actor and director Tinashe Kajese-Bolden will serve as Arden’s co-director.

Emma Steinkraus (IAC 99-03, IAA 03-05) made her New York City debut with her solo exhibition, Princess Botticelli. The exhibition runs June 29 - Aug. 12 at the 1969 Gallery in Tribeca, with an opening reception on June 29. Steinkraus’s paintings are influenced by her research into art history, women’s history, and the flora and fauna of the Shenandoah Valley where she lives. In this multi-layered exhibition, she repurposes imagery from mythology, the Italian Renaissance, and Romanticism to ask questions about femininity and humanity’s destruction of the biosphere. See more on her website and Instagram profile.

Paul Heaton (ICA St 99-06) has been named a principal with eAdvancement Consulting, which helps educational and nonprofit organizations elevate their outcomes. He specializes in communications, executive advising, constituent engagement, and public speaking. He is based in Asheville, North Carolina.

Ashley Park (IAC 03) starred as “Audrey” in the comedy Joy Ride, which was released on July 7. Park, who previously appeared as “Mindy” in Emily in Paris and “Gretchen Wieners” in Broadway’s Mean Girls, recently spoke to Women’s Health about the mental process of shifting from a supporting character to a lead role.

Da’Vine Joy Randolph (IAC 03, IAC St 05) appears as “Destiny” in Sam Levinson’s HBO drama series The Idol. Randolph’s performance was recently praised in a Collider feature, “‘The Idol’: We Need More of Da’Vine Joy Randolph.”

John Early (IAC 04) recently released a solo stand-up comedy special, Now More than Ever, on HBO Max.

Sarah Pidgeon (IAC 05, 07-12; IAA 12-14; IAC St 14, 17) appeared as the younger version of Kathryn Hahn’s character in the miniseries adaptation of Cheryl Strayed’s New York Times best-selling book, Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar.

Betty Who (IAC 07, IAA 07-10, IAC St 10) performed at President Joe Biden’s Pride Month celebration, which was held on June 10 on the South Lawn of the White House.

Mishka Yarovoy (IAA 17-19) recently appeared as “Orlando” in the Actors' Shakespeare Project and The Theater Offensive’s collaborative production of William Shakespeare’s As You Like It at Tufts University’s Balch Arena Theatre. Yarovoy was also part of the cast of the Elliot Norton Award-winning production of Inheritance at SpeakEasy Stage Company.

Sam Watson (IAC 18) will join the Boston Symphony Orchestra in the fall as contrabassoonist.