2011-2012 Archived Catalog Information

12/14/2011

Suffolk University students and alumni put their theatrical training to work on professional stages throughout Boston this past fall, captivating audiences and drawing media attention.

A Boston Globe article on young actors’ choosing to stay in Boston quoted Theatre alumnus Nael Nacer. He and two other actors with roots in the Theatre Department won accolades in professional performances during the fall season.

Meanwhile, a Theatre Department production of Christopher Marlowe’s drama Doctor Faustus at the Modern Theatre in November featured student performers and lighting designed by senior Kimberly Smith, who recently completed an internship at the Santa Fe Opera.

Other highlights include:

• Sophomore Brian Bernhard was featured in Theatre on Fire’s production of Mojo at the Charlestown Working Theater in November, and a Boston Globe review said he was “superb as the jumpy, pill-popping Potts.”
• Alumnus Alex Pollock played Joe Lily in Boston Playwrights’ Theatre’s The River Was Whiskey in a performance called “remarkable” and “soulful” by the Boston Globe. As a Theatre Department student, Pollock received the 2005 Princess Grace Foundation Award and the 2004 TVI Actors Studio Scholarship from The Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival.
• Nacer played Khalil in Boston Playwrights’ The Farm. The Boston Globe said: “Nacer prowls the stage or stands offstage, a shoeless wraith, his eyes never leaving Finn’s face. Sometimes he speaks, but only Finn can see and hear Khalil, and only he can see and hear another character (also played by Nacer) who figured prominently in Finn’s past.”
• Last year Nacer and Pollock were featured in the cast of Company One’s Elliot Norton Award-winning production of The Aliens.

Nacer said that his experiences in the University’s Theatre Department played a vital part in his decision to pursue a career on stage.

“I learned so much from being able to act in as many shows as I could possibly fit into a school year,” he said. “It was an invaluable experience and in some ways a working education. I was studying theatre and learning how to become an actor at the same time.”

Suffolk’s Theatre Department prepares students for the rigors of a professional career in performance, technical theater, stage management, dramaturgy, and other areas. Many classes are taught by working professionals, and auditions for faculty-directed productions are designed to groom students for professional auditions.

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