Canvas-Dashboard-ARAD-4559 : Welcome

Welcome to the AARD 4559 library dashboard. The dashboard provides quick links to the resources you need to succeed in your course. Whether you are online or on-Grounds, UVA Library services and support are available to all students. 

*Elise Herget (CLAS ’12)

Director of the Watermill Foundation, the base for *Robert Wilson – look up “Einstein on the Beach” and dozens of other theatrical works.  Wilson is an American experimental theater stage director and playwright who has been described by The New York Times as "[America]'s – or even the world's – foremost vanguard 'theater artist.'"  He has also worked as a choreographer, performer, painter, sculptor, video artist, and sound and lighting designer.  Wilson has won more than 20 awards, including the 2023 Praemium Imperiale, a global arts prize awarded annually by the Japan Art Association and called the “Arts Nobel.”  His list of productions runs to more than 80, as of 2021 and he remains active.  GWS was a graduate student intern in Wilson’s office in 1983-84.

Point:  entre into Robert Wilson / international avant-garde theater artist

*Lewis Allen (1922 – 2003) CLAS TBA – Producer on Broadway (Master Class, Annie, etc.) and of films (Farenheit 451, The Connection, Lord of the Flies)  7 TONY Nominations, winner of 3: “Annie” – 1977,  “I’m Not Rappaport, Master Class” - 1986,  “Master Class” – 1996.  Claimed he smuggled the 1^st US copy of DH Lawrence’s “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” in his overcoat – and much, much more.

Point:  entre into visionary film and theater producer – theater history (partner with founder of both the NEA and the Kennedy Center)

Georgia O’Keefe – teacher in 1912, ’13, ’14 (+ more?) – May have taught the first Arts Admin courses at UVA, in the context of her summer courses on painting

Point:  entre into major modern artist / pre-War modern art scene

*Sam Goldwyn Jr (1926 – 2015) – CLAS ’48 (?)  Hollywood producer, son of Hollywood pioneer Samuel Goldwyn (the G of MGM), partial filmography has 23 titles

Point:  entre into early history of Hollywood / film

*Bob Radnitz (1924 – 2010) – CLAS TBA)  Hollywood Producer, “Dog of Flanders,” “Misty,” “My Side of the Mountain,” “Island of Blue Dolphins,” (MoMA retrospective in 1969; “Sounder,” “Cross Creek,” “Where the Lilies Bloom,” etc.

Point:  entre to major mid-century Hollywood film makers  (NAACP award winner)

*Mark Johnson (CLAS ’71), Hollywood Producer, Oscar – Best Picture “Rain Man,” 1988; child actor in David Lean’s “Dr. Zhivago,” Partner in Baltimore Pictures with Barry Levinson, “Diner,” “Good Morning Vietnam”, “The Natural”, “Tin Men”, “Toys”, “Young Sherlock Holmes,” Avalon, then “The Notebook,” the Chronicles of Narnia films,; then on TV, “Breaking Bad,”  “Better Call Saul,” A member of the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences (The Oscars), Mark has been the head of the Foreign Language Oscar committee for years.   His IMDB listing runs to 57 films plus TV and more.  He serves as Chair of the Board of the VA Film Festival.

Point:  current Hollywood major film / television producer

*Paul Junger Witt (1941-2018, CLAS ‘ ) Film and TV Producer. On Film:  “Dead Poet’s Society,” “Three Kings,” “Insomnia” and on TV, “Here Come the Brides”, “The Partridge Family”, “Golden Girls”, “Soap”, “Benson”, “It’s a Living”, “Empty Nest” and “Blossom,” “Brian’s Song.”  His TV IMDB lists more than 70 titles.

Point:  entre to television (especially, some film) producer, 1970-2010

*Stan Winston (1946 – 2008, CLAS ‘68) Hollywood Director, Producer, Special Effects studio, nominated for 9 Oscars, he won 4, also winning 2 Emmys.  His filmography has more than 72 titles.  Films – many in special effects - include “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman,” “Terminator,” “Aliens,” “Edward Scissorhands,” “Predator,” “Batman Returns,” “Jurassic Park,” “Titanic,” ”Avatar” plus the AFLAC duck and the Budweiser frogs.

Point:  entre to world of Hollywood Special Effects (class using his son to be run at UVA in Spring, 2024)

*Marc Abraham, Hollywood Producer, Director, Writer, co-founded Beacon Pictures in 1990 and Strike Entertainment in 2002.  Abraham directed, wrote and produced the 2015 Hank Williams biopic, “I Saw the Light.”   His Producer / Exec. Producer credits run to 34 titles, including “Air Force One,” “Hurricane,” “Spy Game,” “Tuck Everlasting,” “Road to Wellsville.”

Point:  current (?) Hollywood producer

*Julie Lynn, Hollywood Producer, c0-Founder of Mockingbird Pictures (1999 - on). Mockingbird productions include Marti Noxon’s “To the Bone,” Robin Swicord’s “Wakefield,” Rob Spera’s “The Sweet Life,” Rodrigo Garcia’s “Last Days in the Desert,” Vic Levin’s “5 to 7,” Mr. Garcia’s “Albert Nobbs,” Arie Posin’s “The Face of Love,” Mr. Garcia’s “Mother and Child,” Ms. Swicord’s “The Jane Austen Book Club,” Brad Silberling’s “10 Items or Less,” and Mr. Garcia’s  “Nine Lives.”  

Point:  successful woman Hollywood producer

Stanley Owsley (1935 – 2011, Engineering (1955 TBC – ND).  Owsley became the “King of Acid,” supplying LSD to the Acid Tests, Steve Jobs, Grateful Dead, Ken Kesey, The Beatles and many, many more, manufacturing 100s of thousands of dosages.  Under the name Bear, he invented the best live rock sound system, the wall of sound used by the Grateful Dead.  He did sound for  Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen, New Riders of the Purple Sage, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship, Old & In the Way, Janis Joplin, Big Brother and the Holding Company, Taj Mahal, Santana, Miles Davis, the Flying Burrito Brothers, Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Cash, Blue Cheer and others.  

His involvement is depicted in “The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test” by Tom Wolfe and other books.  For a time he was among certain cultures, one of the most famous men on the planet.  It can be argued that he made a significant behind-the-scenes contribution to much of contemporary computing technology and thus today’s life on the planet.

Point:  entre to a major figure in the 1960s / Grateful Dead – king of LSD & sound of Dead

Paul Bowles (1910 – 1999, CLAS ‘1928-’29, ND), composer and author, Bowles lived in Paris and New York, coming to know Tristan Tzara and Aaron Copeland (who was also a lover).   In Paris he became part of Gertrude Stein’s artistic circle.  As a composer in NY, he worked with Tennessee Williams and Orson Welles, Virgil Thompson, Merce Cunningham, Leonard Bernstein, others.   His music from this period, notes Wikipedia, "is reminiscent of Satie and Poulenc.”  In the mid-30s, Bowles became one of the preeminent composers of American theater music, producing works for William Saroyan, Tennessee Williams and others showing “exceptional skill and imagination in capturing the mood, emotion, and ambience of each play to which he was assigned." 

In 1947, he moved to Tangiers for the rest of his life.  His novel “Under the Sheltering Sky” made his writing reputation and he wrote many titles.   Wikipedia reports that Paul Bowles is considered one of the artists to have shaped 20^th century literature and music.  In his "Introduction" to Bowles's Collected Stories (1979) Gore Vidal ranked the short stories as "among the best ever written by an American."  His composer credits run to 59 titles.  He also recorded Moroccan music and his bio lists many titles.  Of further interest is that he was the magnet which drew the Beat writers and poets to Tangier and in this way had a profound influence on American culture.  In 1991, he won the Rea Award for Short Story and the jury noted: “Among living American masters of the short story, Paul Bowles is sui generis.  His written pieces are too numerous to catalogue.   He is the subject of a 2002 film by UVA alumnus Owsley Brown. 

Point:  entre to pre-War avant-garde music scene as composer; post-war writer success with his own title plus nexus point for the Beat generation in Morocco

*Peter Levinson (1934-2008) was a publicist and biographer.  As an undergrad, he was an early participant in WTJU radio and was proud of the fact that his concert presentation of both Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey had reunited the two heretofore warring brothers in a rare rapprochement at UVA.  (Source:  personal conversation with GWS prior to 2008.)   I believe it was the last time the two brothers appeared in concert together.  After the military, he took a job with Columbia Records.  His first job as a publicist was with country artist Jack Jones, beginning in 1962.  

He spent nearly fifty years in the music industry as a promoter and representative for artists such as Count Basie, Artie Shaw, Woody Herman, Lalo Schifrin, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Chuck Mangione, Dave Brubeck, Rosemary Clooney, Erroll Garner, Stan Getz, Peggy Lee, Bill Evans, Dexter Gordon, Maynard Ferguson, Pete Fountain, Art Garfunkel, Bud Shank, Phyllis Diller, George Shearing, Chick Corea, Jim Hall, Benny Carter, Charlie Byrd, Louie Bellson, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Jack Lemmon, and Mel Tormé.

Levinson's publicity work also extended into television and film, working on Dallas, Z, Fiddler on the Roof, and Kramer vs. Kramer. He founded his own company, Peter Levinson Communications, which was based initially in New York; though he reduced his clientele in the 1980s and 1990s, he continued to represent clients into the early 2000s.  He also helped orchestrate the 1986 introduction of a postage stamp in honor of Duke Ellington.  

Late in his career, Levinson began writing biographies, completing works on Harry James, Nelson Riddle, and Tommy Dorsey. A biography of Fred Astaire was completed just before his death.  GWS remembers being backstage with him at the Hollywood Bowl and being introduced by him to both Pat Boone and George Shearing and me thinking I had landed in White Bread Central.

Point:  entre to world of music / jazz / Hollywood publicity profession

*Merle Debuskey (1923 – 2018) was a theatrical press agent who was instrumental in many things behind the scenes.  “All New Yorkers would not have free public theater were it not for Merle Debuskey, period,” Mr. Birsh said. Philip S. Birsh was Merle’s executor and friend and President and Publisher of Playbill, who confirmed the death.  “One could say he had an acute sense of integrity wholly at odds with his occupation.”  Mr. Debuskey represented hundreds of shows, including Broadway hits like “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” (1961) and “A Chorus Line” (1975).

Point:  entre to NYC theater world

*Tina Fey, actress, comedian, writer, producer, was a cast member and head writer for Saturday Night Live (1997 – 2006).  In 2006, she created the television series 30 Rock.  In 2011 her memoir, Bossypants topped The New York Times Best Seller list for five weeks and earned her a Grammy Award nomination.  From 2015 on, she has created or co-created the comedy series Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, the musical adaptation of Mean Girls for Broadway, earning her a Tony Award nomination. 

She has received nine Primetime Emmy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, five Screen Actors Guild Awards, and seven Writers Guild of America Awards.  In 2008, the Associated Press gave Fey the AP Entertainer of the Year award for her Sarah Palin impression on SNL.  In 2010, Fey was awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, becoming the youngest recipient of the award.

Point:  current career success in 3 mediums / 1^st woman as chief writer for SNL (true?)

*Rita Dove, poet, twice Poet Laureate of the United States

Point: current faculty, entre to contemporary poetry world / African American creativity

*Nick Acquavella, gallerist, (?)

Point:  currently operating at pinnacle of international art world

*Elena Glinn, East Hampton, NY art scene / Illustrators Club / husband Bert Glinn, major photographer / Magnum Photographers

Point: entre to historical photographers (The Beats / Fidel Castro / newly discovered tribes