Paul Takacs ’04
Major: TFMS, with a theater studies focus
Paul is the founding artistic director of THE SHOP and most recently directed the U.S. premieres of Jon Fosse’s “I Am the Wind” (see Ben Brantley’s review) and Philip Ridley’s “Tender Napalm” at 59E59 Theaters in New York. His work has been seen at New York University; The Samuel French New Play Festival; The Red Room, NYC; The Cell Theatre, NYC; The New School for Drama, NYC; Theatre of the First Amendment, VA; and in Washington, D.C., at the Shakespeare Theatre Company, The Theatre Alliance, Spooky Action Theatre, and Washington Shakespeare Company. Paul has worked on new plays with John Strand, Heather Lynn MacDonald, and Judith Goudsmit, to name a few. In addition to his B.A. in theater, Paul holds an M.F.A. in directing from The New School for Drama, and has taught at SMCM as well as for Shakespeare Theatre Company and the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C.; he currently serves on the faculty at the Stella Adler Studio in NYC.
While at SMCM, Paul directed the White Room production of Chekhov’s “The Three Sisters,” appeared as Don Armado in Shakespeare’s “Love’s Labour’s Lost” and as Agamemnon in Aeschylus’s “Agamemnon,” and crafted a new translation/adaptation of Frank Wedekind’s “Spring Awakening” for his St. Mary’s Project. (“Spring Awakening” subsequently received a stage reading in the Kennedy Center’s 2007 Page to Stage Festival.)
Paul’s work can be viewed at Paul Takacs Director
Coya Paz Brownrigg ’97
Major: TFMS, with a theater studies focus
Coya co-founded the internationally acclaimed all-Latina performance group, Teatro Luna, in 2000 and served as its co-artistic director until 2009. She holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in performance studies from Northwestern University. A director, playwright, performer, poet, and scholar, Coya is currently on the full-time faculty at The Theater School at DePaul University and artistic director of Free Street Theatre. Twice in residency at SMCM with Teatro Luna, performing “Generic Latina” for the Fourth Annual Women Studies Colloquium (2003), and “S-E-X-Oh!” as part of the 2006-2007 TFMS main stage season, Coya continues her association with Teatro Luna and has recently co-founded Proyecto Latina and is director-in-residence for the Poetry Performance Incubator at the Guild Complex. Coya’s scholarly work on Latina performance, Latina/o identities, and public violence has appeared in the Oxford University Encyclopedia of Latino/as in the United States and in California History Magazine. Her artistic work has been profiled in The New York Times, American Theatre magazine, Theater Journal, and The Chicago Tribune, among others.
Judy Sellner ’09
Major: Double major in TFMS (film and media studies focus) and sociology/anthropology; minors in theater studies and women, gender, and sexuality studies
Judy holds an M.A. in International Media from American University, a dual program in both the School of Communication and the School of International Service. A former contract video producer for the Pan American Development Foundation (PADF), a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit that provides aid to Latin America and the Caribbean, and for their affiliate, the Organization of American States, she has shot video for PADF in Haiti, Colombia, Trinidad and Tobago, and the Dominican Republic. She currently works as an intern DVD developer at Acorn Media Group, a company that specializes in distributing British television on DVD in the U.S., and as house manager at Montgomery College Cultural Arts Center.Judy was a two-time recipient of the Arts Alliance Award for Excellence in Film and Media Studies (2008, 2009) at SMCM for her classroom and studio work, and was an accomplished stage performer during her time at the college.
Emily Sillcox ’12
Major: TFMS, with a film and media studies focus; double minor in biology and environmental studies
Emily was the recipient of the 2012 Arts Alliance Award for Excellence in Film and Media Studies. She has recently completed her M.F.A. in the graduate program in science and natural history filmmaking in the school of film and photography at Montana State University. Emily first combined her interest in the sciences with her passion for filmmaking when she interned at the National Wildlife Federation in Reston, VA in the summer of 2010. A year later as a summertime independent project, she produced a short documentary film, “The Importance of Being an Oyster,” about the Marylanders Grow Oysters Program for the local St. Mary’s River Watershed Association. For her senior-year St. Mary’s Project, Emily produced “A Living Museum,” a 13-minute documentary about the historical recreation ship, the Maryland Dove, which is moored in Historic St. Mary’s City, MD, and her crew. In her spare time, Emily loves to dance and to create her own choreography; even while a student at SMCM, she taught classes at local dance studios!