Midway to Broadway
A Special Celebration of UChicago’s Award-Winning Alumni in Theater and the Arts
Thursday, September 17, 2026
Lincoln Center, New York
The creative intelligence and critical imagining of the arts have long been essential to the ways in which the University of Chicago changes lives, produces knowledge, and works in service of human flourishing.
In the College, students begin their intellectual journeys in the Arts and Humanities Core Sequences, where they grapple with profound questions about meaning and beauty that become rare, powerful elements to catalyze epistemic transformation. It’s no wonder that UChicago has such a unique culture of undergraduate interest in these fields: 30% of graduates from the college earn degrees in the arts and humanities, a number far beyond national base rates and with very few peers.
The Logan Center for the Arts, which opened in 2012, has become one of the University’s most vibrant spaces of collaboration and creativity for both UChicago and its neighboring communities, connecting the work of students, faculty, and staff with artists and audiences across Chicago and beyond. Widely beloved organizations such as University Theater and University Symphony Orchestra provide sites of artistic collaboration and lifelong connections for students across all undergraduate and graduate disciplines and programs. UChicago’s campus is home to the Tony Award—winning Court Theatre, one of the country’s finest regional professional theater companies. Graduate programs like the Committee on Theater and Performance Studies generate pathbreaking interdisciplinary research and arts practice, with faculty and graduate students forging ambitious and influential new lines of research across the global performing arts.
The Division of the Arts & Humanities is proud to support the manifold ways in which arts research, teaching, and practice shape and enrich the UChicago experience. Tonight we celebrate a brilliant constellation of our alumni in the performing arts, and art’s restless and resilient urge to inspire and restore us, to make it new.
Thank You, UChicago Alumni
The Division of the Arts & Humanities thanks the many alumni who made tonight’s event possible, and who continue to create an inspiring and interconnected network of makers and thinkers trained at the University of Chicago.
Hosts
Dean of the Division of the Arts & Humanities
Deborah L. Nelson is dean of the Division of the Arts & Humanities and the Helen B. and Frank L. Sulzberger Professor in the Department of English Language and Literature and the College. She is a renowned scholar whose research focuses on late 20th-century U.S. culture and politics. Nelson’s research interests include American literature and plays, gender and sexuality studies, photography, and Cold War history. Her publications include Pursuing Privacy in Cold War America (2001) and Tough Enough: Arbus, Arendt, Didion, McCarthy, Sontag, Weil (2017), which won the Modern Language Association’s James Russell Lowell Prize for Best Books of 2017 and Gordon J. Laing Award in 2019 from the University of Chicago Press. Nelson is a founding member of the research collective, Post45 and an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Marilyn F. Vitale Artistic Director, Court Theatre
Dr. Avery Willis Hoffman joined Court Theatre as the new Marilyn F. Vitale Artistic Director in 2025. Avery recently served as inaugural Artistic Director, Brown Arts Institute and Professor of the Practice of Arts and Classics at Brown University. Over the last two decades, she has curated multidisciplinary projects as inaugural Program Director at Park Avenue Armory, led content development for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History, managed Avery Productions, and produced multiple artistic collaborations with director Peter Sellars. A Marshall Scholar, Avery earned a DPhil and MSt in Classical Languages and Literature from Oxford, and a BA in Classics and English from Stanford.
Featured Alumni
A Conversation with Pulitzer Prize–Winning Playwrights
David Auburn is a playwright, director and screenwriter. Plays include Summer 1976, The Adventures of Augie March (based on the Saul Bellow novel), Lost Lake, The Columnist, and Proof (2001 Pulitzer Prize, Tony Award, New York Drama Critics Circle Award). Stage directing credits include Long Day's Journey into Night (Court Theatre, Chicago); Dracula, The Importance of Being Earnest, The Skin of Our Teeth, The Petrified Forest, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Anna Christie, A Delicate Balance, Period of Adjustment, Sick (all Berkshire Theatre Group, where he serves as Associate Artistic Director); and the Off-Broadway world premiere of Michael Weller’s Side Effects (MCC). Film work includes The Girl in the Park (writer/director), Georgetown, and The Lake House. A former Guggenheim Fellow, he lives in New York City.
What’s next? A new collection plays published by Methuen/Bloomsbury. Read more about it here, and on my website, www.davidauburn.com.
Martyna Majok was awarded the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her Broadway debut play, Cost of Living, which was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play. Other plays include Sanctuary City, Queens, and Ironbound, and the librettos for Gatsby: An American Myth, with music by Florence Welch and Girl, Interrupted, with music by Aimee Mann. Select awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship, Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award, Arthur Miller Legacy Award, Obie Award, Hull-Warriner Award, Academy of Arts and Letters’ Benjamin Hadley Danks Award, Lucille Lortel Award, Hermitage Greenfield Prize, NYC Mayor's Champions of Change Award, Francesca Primus Prize, two Jane Chambers Playwriting Awards, Lanford Wilson Prize, Lilly Award, Helen Merrill Award, Helen Hayes Award, Jean Kennedy Smith Award, NYTW 2050 Fellowship, NNPN Smith Prize for Political Playwriting, and Merage Foundation Fellowship for The American Dream, PoNY Fellowship at the Lark Play Development Center, and Hodder Fellowship at Princeton University. Martyna is adapting Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 for Broadway, has developed TV projects for HBO and is writing two feature films. Her first screenplay, Preparation for the Next Life, was nominated for a Gotham Award. Martyna was named by Forbes as one of the "250 Greatest Living Self-Made Americans."
What’s next? Read more on my website, www.martynamajok.com.
New Work from the Cocreators of the Tony Award–winning Urinetown: The Musical
Mark Hollmann was awarded the Tony Award, the National Broadway Theatre Award, and the Obie Award for his music and lyrics to Urinetown: the Musical. His other shows as composer/lyricist include Iceboy! (Goodman Theatre), The Sting (Paper Mill Playhouse); Yeast Nation (FringeNYC); Bigfoot and Other Lost Souls (Perseverance Theatre); and ZM (Ícaro Teatro, Mexico City). For TV, he has written songs for Disney Channel’s Johnny and the Sprites. He has a bachelor’s degree in music from the University of Chicago, has taught at Princeton University and Columbia College Chicago, and has served on the Tony Nominating Committee and the council of the Dramatists Guild of America.
Greg Kotis is the author of many plays and musicals including Urinetown (Book/Lyrics) for which he won an Obie and two Tony Awards; I Am Nobody; The End of All Flesh; The Sting (lyrics); Yeast Nation; ZM; Pig Farm; Lunchtime; The Truth About Santa; and Jobey and Katherine. Future projects include Good Luck in Space, a futuristic musical extravaganza, and an Untitled Garage Band Project. Greg co-founded Theater of The Apes with his wife Ayun Halliday, and is a member of The Wayfaring Strangers, the Neo-Futurists, the Cardiff Giant Theater Company, ASCAP, and the Dramatists Guild. He grew up in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, lives in New York City, and is the proud father of India and Milo.
What’s next? Stay in touch through my website, www.gregkotis.com. My next show will be with The Wayfaring Strangers who create an improvised musical featuring old-timey bluegrass tunes and a rotating cast on traditional instruments like banjo (I play banjo), guitar, fiddle, mandolin, washboard, egg shakers and kazoo based on a suggestion from the audience. The Wayfaring Strangers will be 10/11 at 7P at The PIT (154 W. 29th St.).
Musical Performance by by TikTok Songwriting Sensation
Jake Schroeder is a musical comedian and songwriter whose original songs have reached hundreds of millions of views online. Known for writing theatrical songs about everything from rotisserie chicken to the Louvre robbery to hot dictators, he has built a devoted audience by bringing Broadway-style songwriting to the internet. A graduate of the University of Chicago, Jake recently completed his first international comedy tour and spoke at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. He is currently developing original musicals and television projects.
What’s next? A musical in NYC at Joe's Pub on 11/6 and 12/10. Read more here. You can follow me on my social media accounts, instagram.com/frostedjake and tiktok.com/@jake_amazing. A podcast is in the works!
Performing Artists
Actor, writer, Brooklynite, and proud UChicago grad, Katlyn Carlson made her Broadway debut as Chloe Valentine in Be More Chill after originating the role at Two River Theater. Off-Broadway roles inculde: Be More Chill, The Unavoidable Disappearance of Tom Durnin. National Tour: Dirty Dancing: The Classic Story on Stage. Regional: Macbeth, Romeo & Juliet (St. Louis Shakespeare), and numerous productions in Chicago. Her film credits include: lead in new Christmas classic Holly Star, Office Race (with Joel McHale), Irresistible (multiple roles, dir. Jon Stewart), My Name is Jerry (opposite Doug Jones), Going in Style (dir. Zach Braff, opposite Michael Caine). And her television appearances include: “Tires,” “The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins,” “The Lincoln Lawyer,” "The Neighborhood," "Bookie," "iCarly," "White House Plumbers," "Henry Danger," "Alternatino with Arturo Castro," "Dash & Lily,” "Master of None," among others.
What’s next? Read more on my website, katlyncarlson.com.
Sayali Gove is a fledgling musical theatre composer and lyricist. Their last show, The Sexiest Man Alive, sold out at the 2026 NYC Fringe Festival and received an audience choice award. They’re currently most interested in exploring themes of the diffusion of moral responsibility in the global economy. Sayali was just admitted into the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop.
What’s next? My latest cast album, The Sexiest Man Alive. After that, my next musical, Murder Office, a murder-mystery comedy about office ethics.
An improvisor, writer, actor, and proud maroon, London Mahaley is honored and more than a little starstruck to be joining tonight’s cast of UChicago theatre legends. As a recent graduate, London looks fondly on his work as Michael in University Theater’s Be More Chill, as a vocalist with Voices in Your Head, and as improvisor, writer, and artistic director for Off-Off Campus (Generation 36!). Recent projects include: many a class show with the Upright Citizens Brigade, Hillary Bonhomme’s Glacial Humming, and cabaret performances as Orpheus and Alfred in Women Writing Broadway (St. Bart’s Players: 2026) and Selections from Alice By Heart (Fidelity Theatricals: 2025).
What’s next? I have a couple of projects cooking, including a new indie improv team, a devised theatre company, and a production of one of my new plays. My website (londonmahaley.com) and Instagram (@londonmahaley) are the best ways to follow my projects and learn about upcoming events.
Lighting Design
Joshua Benghiat’s lighting design work spans theater, opera, dance, and live events, with a particular focus on classical music presentation and broadcast. He currently serves as lighting designer for the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, where his work is seen in performances at Alice Tully Hall and the Daniel and Joanna S. Rose Studio, as well as on CMS livestreams and documentary projects, including Chamber Music Society Returns on PBS. Josh has designed concerts and events at many of North America’s leading music venues, including David Geffen Hall, Frederick P. Rose Hall, the DiMenna Center for Classical Music, Bing Concert Hall, and Roy Thomson Hall. He designed several seasons of Lincoln Center’s White Light Festival. Josh is a Lecturer in Design at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale. He has previously served on the faculties of Brooklyn College and the Fashion Institute of Technology, and has been a guest lecturer in the theater departments of UMass Amherst, Rutgers University, DePaul University, and NYU’s Department of Design for Stage and Film.
Dean’s Salon
Midway to Broadway also included a salon hosted by Dean Deborah Nelson, where faculty and graduate students in the Division of the Arts & Humanities shared with alumni highlights from their research, teaching, and arts practice.
Dean of the Arts & Humanities
Helen B. and Frank L. Sulzberger Professor of English and the College
Ask me about: My book, Tough Enough: Arbus, Arendt, Didion, McCarthy, Sontag, Weil; building and sustaining a global 21st-century arts ecosystem for the University of Chicago; the future of graduate education in the arts and humanities within and beyond the American university system.
Associate Professor of Practice in the Arts in the Committee on Theatre and Performance Studies and the College; TAPS Director of Creative Research
Ask me about: Why and what’s in the hyphen (dance-theater, clown-theater, etc.), queering the American family drama, and creating professional and student new work at UChicago.
What's next? Directing the TAPS Pro-Show All Eight by Lilly Camp, about a collegiate rowing team. The Pro-Show is a professionally-led production with student actors and assistant designers. Theater East in the Logan Center, Nov 12-15. And premiering FACING, a new Lucky Plush Productions dance-theater work at Chicago’s Lookingglass, January 8-17, 2026.
Assistant Senior Instructional Professor in the Committee on Theatre and Performance Studies and the College; TAPS Director of Performance
Ask me about: My current show in previews in Chicago, new plays/playwrights, the state of theater in America, the storefront scene in Chicago and Mexican clowns.
What's next? Directing the world premiere of the comedy, Bonnie’s Last Flight, at Rivendell Theatre Ensemble (running until October 25). https://www.rivendelltheatre.org/bonnieslastflight
Lecturer, Committee on Theater and Performance Studies
Ask me about: My upcoming plays, Affluenza and Expecting, premiering this season in London; my movie Straight, streaming on Hulu and Disney+; my work writing librettos and music for shows off-Broadway and on Broadway; the Musical Theater Cohort at UChicago, which since 2021 has fostered 17 student-written musicals into staged productions on campus and across Chicago, NYC, and the UK.
What's next? A new play, Expecting (written with Drew Fornarola), goes up in London in January at Riverside Studios:
https://www.londontheatre.co.uk/show/47301-expecting
Associate Professor in the Department of English Language and Literature; Committee on Theatre and Performance Studies; and the College
Ask me about: My book, Persecution, Plague, and Fire: Fugitive Histories of the Stage in Early Modern England; or my current project on wife-taming as a system for encoding and making intelligible the emerging public stage, or the digital archive of stock theatricality that I am building with Neubauer support.
What’s next? Ellen will be speaking at “Performing Dragons,” an international symposium at the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at UCLA, on October 8; the schedule can be found here: https://humanities.ucla.edu/event/performing-dragons-conference/
Executive Director of Logan Center; UT alum and former staff director of University Theater
Ask me about how arts space and resources can encourage the development of new work, educate the next generation of artists and audiences, create connections to community, and encourage all to experience, contemplate and create art in performance and across disciplines.
Associate Professor, English Language & Literature and Chair of Committee on Theater & Performance Studies.
Ask me about my book Microdramas: Crucibles for Theater and Time; impossible theaters, virtual theaters, theater and algorithms; or what it’s like chairing the TAPS program.
What’s next? John is hosting a UChicago Arts Pass conversation for students at Steppenwolf Theatre’s production of Topdog/Underdog by Suzan-Lori Parks, directed by Kenny Leon.
Associate Professor in the Department of English Language and Literature and the Committee on Theatre and Performance Studies; and the College; Associate Member in the Department of Visual Arts; TAPS Director of Undergraduate Studies
Ask me about: Race and performance, performance art, experimental dance, UChicago’s Movement Theory Lab, dance dramaturgy, performance studies as a field, coziness.
Assistant Professor in the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations; Committee on Theatre and Performance Studies; and the College
Ask me about: Japanese theater, stage mechanics, magic tricks, Japanese theme parks, true crime, and translating/staging East Asian performance in the US.
What’s next? Melissa will be speaking at “Performing Dragons,” an international symposium at the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at UCLA, on October 8; the schedule can be found here: https://humanities.ucla.edu/event/performing-dragons-conference/
Graduate Student
Department of English Language and Literature and the Committee on Theatre and Performance Studies
Ask me about: Salome beheading John the Baptist; the secret history of radioactive dance; dance & IP; showgirls; boredom at the theater; integrating embodiment into critical humanistic thinking; Movement Theory Lab.
Graduate Student
Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations; Committee on Theatre and Performance Studies; and the College
Ask me about: My current theater project opening next week in New York, or my literary fellowship with Court Theatre, or puppetry, or East Asian classics on modern stages, or my dissertation on early modern Chinese opera.
What’s next? Yiwen is dramaturging Brandon Zang's (AB, 2023) queer Asian American time travel play, The Recursion of a Moth, at Teatro Circulo in New York, September 24 - October 4; More information about the show can be found here. [https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-recursion-of-a-moth-tickets-1996321754106]