Alumni
From Dreamgirls to Dream Come True: Theatre Alumna’s Journey to Broadway
By Amy Milgrub Marshall
Since she was a teenager, Carla Hargrove (’97 M.F.A. Theatre) dreamed of becoming an actress in New York City. She even wrote about her aspirations in a high school essay. Carla’s mom must have known her daughter would one day achieve her goal, because she kept that essay. And when she sent it to Carla on her last birthday, the Broadway actress was able to revel in the fact that she had made her dream come true.
However, realizing her dream wasn’t easy. “Making it in New York City is difficult,” Hargrove explains. “It’s not always a happy story.”
This chapter in Carla’s life is definitely happy. After hundreds of auditions, some Off-Broadway roles and all kinds of temp jobs, she snagged her first Broadway part, in Little Shop of Horrors, in 2003. When Little Shop closed in 2004, she joined the cast of Hairspray. Although it’s challenging work, she is grateful to be living out her dream. “Hairspray is probably the most difficult job I have ever had. The energy required is immense. The other performers are so talented and dedicated and hard-working that it makes me want to be better.”
Hargrove majored in acting as an undergraduate at Howard University, and she experienced a highlight in her career early on. During her senior year, the theatre 
department’s production of Dreamgirls toured to Hong Kong after receiving an invitation from the American Community Theatre to perform there. Carla played the role of Deena. “I had so much fun! It was my first trip out of the country and my first airplane ride. The production was awesome and the best part about it was that I got to spend a part of my senior year in such an unforgettable way.”
Following graduation, Hargrove worked in regional theatres in Washington, D.C. After a year, she says, she needed a break, so she headed home to Harrisburg, Pa. Caring for a group of challenging 3-year-olds at the YMCA helped her realize she was meant to be a performer. She did a lot of acting with them, coaching them through performances of stories like “The Three Little Pigs.” “It was great fun. It also showed me that I was ready to get back to performing. I truly believe that the year I stayed home solidified the fact that I am a performer and I don’t want to do anything else.”
In the fall of 1994, she enrolled in the graduate acting program at Penn State. “I chose Penn State because it was close to home and the University has an excellent reputation,” she says. While at Penn State, she played the lead in several mainstage shows, including Tamer of Horses and Raisin in the Sun. She also performed her one-woman show, Chained, based on the novel by Pearl Cleage.
Hargrove moved to New York City in 1997, immediately after graduating from Penn State. “It was so exciting! I come from a family of women who start families early, so moving to New York City was a big deal.”
She made her New York debut in My Brother’s Keeper, an Off-Broadway show written and directed by Penn State theatre faculty member Charles Dumas. After My Brother’s Keeper, she performed with cabaret group LaBro and with the gospel group New York’s Broadway Inspirational Singers. She also toured with Dinah Was, an original play about Dinah Washington, in which she played three characters: Mama (Dinah’s mother), Maye (Dinah’s assistant) and Violet (a maid). Hargrove earned rave reviews for her work in that play and garnered regional theatre awards in Philadelphia, Dallas and Chicago.
Although Carla was working as an actress and singer, she had yet to achieve her ultimate goal—a role on Broadway. Before she got the part in Little Shop, she had auditioned for some of the same shows numerous times, and began to question whether being an actress in New York City was what she really wanted to do. She even took a permanent 9 to 5 job to make ends meet. Soon after accepting that job—in a timely twist of fate—she got the Little Shop role.
Getting her first Broadway role was hard work, but Carla says she has to work even harder now. “My daily life consists of voice lessons, exercise, rehearsals—I’m always worrying about being in top form for the show.”
She says performers have to find a way to make the show exciting every time. “It’s your job,” she explains. “The motivation for doing my best work day after day is the fact that it is a reflection of my work ethic, my seriousness about the show and the role, and the fact that there are roughly 1,500 people in the audience every night. None of them really cares that I had a bad audition that day, or that I didn’t sleep well the night before. Audiences come to the theatre to learn a little more about themselves, to process the events that make up our history and to escape for a while into a different world. It is truly a communion. I can’t imagine doing anything else and loving it this much.”
Class Notes
Architecture
Joy Carlson (’75 B.S., ’86 M.S.), Alfred State College Professor of Computer Imaging and Architectural Engineering Technology, was honored with the college’s Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. A faculty member since 1988, Carlson teaches courses in commercial building, model building and architectural graphics. She serves as advisor to the College’s WINS (Women in Non-Traditional Studies) Club. Prior to joining the ASC faculty, Carlson worked for architectural firms in Massachusetts, New Jersey and Pennsylvania; she also served as a facilities space analyst and planning engineer for General Electric Co.’s Aerospace Division in Valley Forge, Pa. She is a registered architect in the states of New York and Pennsylvania. Joy and her husband, William B. Carlson, are the parents of two daughters, Krista and Kara.
LouAnn Fornataro (’80 B.A.), RA, CSI, of Mount Vernon, N.H., became a Fellow of the Construction Specifications Institute (CSI) in April 2005. CSI is a national association of specifiers, architects, engineers, contractors, building materials suppliers and others involved in institutional and commercial building design and construction. Although the organization has nearly 17,000 members, only 340 have ever been elevated to Fellowship in CSI’s 57-year history. Fornataro is the principal architect at LouAnn Fornataro, Registered Architect, P.A. in Nashua, N.H. She has been a member of CSI for 20 years, and is a leader in the New Hampshire Chapter.
Gregory Sobotka (’97 B.Arch.) received the David M. Schwartz Good Times Award for 2004, a fellowship awarded for travel and study in Europe. He received his master of architecture degree from Yale University in 2004.
Art History
John M. Taylor III (’87 B.A.) was appointed divisional vice president for Federal Government Affairs at Abbott, a global, broad-based health care company devoted to the discovery, development, manufacture and marketing of pharmaceuticals and medical products, including nutritionals, devices and diagnostics. Taylor previously worked for 14 years as associate commissioner with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, where he was responsible for managing the Office of Regulatory Affairs and advising the commissioner and deputy commissioners on regulatory and compliance matters. Taylor currently resides in Maryland.
Integrative Arts
Stacy Rosenthal (’02 B.A.) received an M.Ed. with a concentration and certification in library science from Arcadia University in December 2004. She is currently employed as a librarian at Unami Middle School in Chalfont, Pa., in the Central Bucks School District.
Landscape Architecture
Mark A. Focht (’83 B.S.) has been appointed the new executive director of the Fairmount Park Commission in Philadelphia by Mayor John F. Street and the Park Commissioners. Focht is a member of the board of directors of the Landscape Architecture Alumni Affiliated Program Group.
Dave Heatwole (’83 B.S.), a member of the American Society of Golf Course Architects, recently opened his own golf course design firm that specializes in new design and renovation of golf courses in North America. The firm’s newly designed Web site is www.heatwolegolf.com. Prior to opening his own firm, Heatwole worked for golfer Jack Nicklaus for 18 years, designing golf courses worldwide.
Music
Valerie Ertter Galczynski (’82 B.S. Music Ed) was listed in Who’s Who Among American Women and Who’s Who in Education and was nominated for Walt Disney Teacher of the Year. She is a member of the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh, as well as the Robert Page Festival Singers. She has also performed at Carnegie Hall in New York.
Jim Villani (’84 B.M.) was appointed permanent music director and conductor of NOVA Manassas Symphony Orchestra.
Shannon Love Engle (’97 B.S. Music Ed.) married Dr. David Engle on May 28, 2005, in Allentown, Pa. They live in Lebanon, Pa.
Ariel Noel Miller Scholz (’00 B.S. Music Ed.) finished four years of active duty in the U.S. Army as a musician, serving throughout Europe and the Middle East. She married her college sweetheart of six years on May 21, 2005. Scholz currently teaches private music lessons and is pursuing a music education position in the Lehigh Valley public schools.
Theatre
Chris Loprete (’93 B.A.) is an actor, writer and producer in Los Angeles, and has appeared on MAD-TV and voiced several radio commercials. He’s worked with the Groundlings and the Circle X Theatre Company and he brought his one-man show, You’re from Philly, Charlie Brown, to the Philadelphia Fringe Festival in September 2004.
Carolyn Farrand Mills (’97 B.A.) received her M.F.A. in theatre for youth from Arizona State University in 2004 and is currently working as the education director for the Asolo Theatre Company in Sarasota, Fla. She married Lorenzo Mills in 2001.
Doug Cockle (’99 M.F.A.) is the senior lecturer at the Arts Institute at Bournemouth in England, where he teaches acting and movement. He finished a post-graduate Certificate in Education and is now working on qualification as a Certified Stage Combat Instructor with the British Academy of Stage and Screen Combat. He is the father of two boys.
Visual Arts
Nancy Hughes Richardson (’63 B.S. Art Ed.) has charted a course for her retirement that includes tall ships and children. Richardson is vice-president of the Top Sail Youth Program based in San Pedro, Calif., which helps adolescents develop a broader knowledge of mathematics, physics, biology, geography, history, literature and the environment, while gaining self-esteem by developing skills in problem-solving, decision-making, teamwork, planning and leadership.
Muriel E Zerbe (’62 B.A.) is semi-retired from health care, communications and public relations, and now works part-time with Foundation of the Arts and Sciences.
Jan Eckardt Butler (’73 B.F.A.) has, after 30 years as a full-time studio artist, taken a full-time position teaching fine art at a private middle school. After one year, Butler is a department chair and also a student advisor. She still works in ceramics part-time.
Robert Diercks (’74 M.F.A.) was on sabbatical in fall 2004 and created a body of work that was exhibited in spring 2005 at the Franklin Pierce College’s Thoreau Gallery.
Carol Alleman (’75 B.S.) relocated to Tucson, Ariz., in 1994 and began experimenting in clay with slab, coil and hand-building techniques. She has held a number of exhibits in Arizona and is a member of the National Sculpture Society. In 2005 she won the Industry Award, Sculptural Pursuit annual competition.
Ralph V. Oswald (’87 B.A.) is proud to announce the celebration of the tenth anniversary of his commercial photography business, RVOIII Photography. He specializes in architectural and industrial photography. He and his wife, Jane, have been married for 14 years and have two children: Sam, 7, and Sara, 4.
Greg Zukowski (’91 B.A.) has an online exhibit at www.gzuk.com.
Dorotha Grace Lemeh ('89 M.F.A., ’05 Ph.D.), former School of Visual Arts advising coordinator, is now assistant professor of studio arts at Florida Atlantic University. She has recently presented papers at Rochester Institute of Technology, Yale University and the College Art Association 2005 Annual Conference in Atlanta. In October 2005, she served as a panelist for the U.S. and China Exchange. Her first solo museum exhibition, Who Am I? The Journey of an Artist: Dorotha Grace Lemeh, was on display at Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art in Altoona, Pa. She will also participate in the Artist as Traveler Trunk Exhibition, curated by Ann Shostrom, Penn State associate professor of art.
Taha Belal (’05 B.F.A.) was awarded the prestigious International Sculpture Center’s Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award for 2005. Belal’s award-winning work appears in the October 2005 issue of Sculpture magazine, the Grounds for Sculpture’s Fall/Winter Exhibition and online at www.sculpture.org.
Performing Arts
Glenn E. Orndorf (’46 B.A. Business Admin., Blue Band, Symphony Orchestra) was awarded an honorary doctorate for public services at the Stevens College commencement in May 2005.
Nancy T. Rude (’53 B.S. Child Development and Family Relations, Thespians, Chapel Choir, Players) is a retired singer-actress who volunteers for public radio and Ronald McDonald House and ushers for local theatre groups. She has traveled extensively, visiting Norway, Jamaica, Canada and most of the United States.
Carl K. Vogel (’74 B.A. Communications, Blue Band) has joined a musicians union and now volunteers at a local community college. He has even learned a new instrument—bass trombone.
