Forty years ago four Miami University of Ohio acting students performed in a production of Waiting For Godot. Four decades later, those performers are reuniting for lived stage readings of the play Wednesday, March 19 at Northern Illinois University and Monday, April 21 at Miami of Ohio.
Paul Kassel, dean of the NIU College of Visual and Performing Arts initiated the project and will be joined by three of his fellow Miami of Ohio alumni. “As I look past my time as dean (Kassel plans to retire from the position at the conclusion of his second term in 2026), I’m returning to my roots as an actor and theater artist,” he said. “This reading seemed like a wonderful way to not only re-create one of the best roles of my life, but a way to reconnect to my friends within the profession.”
Kassel, who has served as dean since 2016 is a published author on the craft of acting, has edited a journal by and for actors and teachers of actors, worked on and off-Broadway and several films and television shows. He remained active in his professional career during his time in academia. He is joined in Waiting For Godot by Tony Freeman who has appeared in more than 250 plays including 24 years in The Lion King as part of Broadway, national and international tours. Eric Hissom is a playwright, actor and director based in Washington DC, and has New York credits that include a national tour of The 39 Steps and the off-Broadway production of China: The Whole Enchilada. Dion Graham played Rupert Bond on HBO’s The Wire, and has appeared in other TV series that include Madam Secretary, The Blacklist, Elementary, The Good Wife, Gossip Girl, NYPD Blue and more. He is also currently the series narrator for The First 48 on A&E.
The New York World-Telegram describes Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot: “Godot cannot be compared to any other theater work, because its purpose is so different. Two dilapidated bums fill their days as painlessly as they can. They wait for Godot, a personage who will explain their interminable insignificance, or put an end to it. They are resourceful, with quarrels and their dependence on each other, as children are. They pass the time ‘which would have passed anyway.’ A brutal man of means comes by, leading a weakling slave who does his bidding like a mechanical doll. Later on he comes back, blind, and his slave is mute, but the relationship is unchanged. Every day a child comes from the unknown Godot, and evasively puts the big arrival off until tomorrow…It is a tragic view. Yet, in performance, most of it is brilliant, bitter comedy…It is a portrait of the dogged resilience of a man’s spirit in the face of little hope.”
This live staged reading of Waiting For Godot is stage managed by Cornelia Reed, an M.F.A. acting student in the NIU School of Theatre and Dance.
Paul Kassel, Dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts at NIU was the guest on Arts Engines with Aaron Dworkin, a weekly TV show that, “seeks to share the most valuable advice and input from arts administrators who tell their stories of creative problem-solving, policy, economic impact, crisis management and empowering the future of the field.”
Arts Engines is a partnership with Detroit Public Television, Ovation TV, The Violin Channel and American Public Media that reaches more than 100,000 viewers per week.
The College of Visual and Performing Arts is one of Arts Engines “creative partners” alongside institutions such as Carnegie Hall, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Opera America, Ravinia, Juilliard, Northwestern Bienen School of Music, Yale School of Music, University of North Texas School of Music, Interlochen Center for the Arts and others.
Kassel and Dworkin discussed collaborating with the arts ecosystem of a city.
We’re excited to announce six new members of our Arts Leadership Council (ALC): Christina Bourné (Forward Momentum Chicago), Taila Howe (Chicago Underground Film Festival), Paul Kassel (Northern Illinois University), Elizabeth Neukirch (Elizabeth Neukirch PR Consulting LLC), Tony Santiago (Arts + Public LIfe), and Jorge Valdivia (Chicago Latino Theater Alliance).
The ALC is an advisory group that provides field intelligence, campaign strategy, programmatic feedback, and assists with membership recruitment.
Current ALC members include practicing artists, leaders of organizations, community leaders, and creative business owners from across the state of Illinois. ALC members attend 4 meetings per year and members commit to sitting on one sub-committee. As our eyes and ears on the ground, ALC members are consistently advocating for and recruiting new members to support the Alliance’s mission to fight for arts resources and policies that benefit our members and all Illinois residents.
Since 2022, the ALC has doubled in size, bringing in new perspectives and skill sets to advise the Alliance on strategy, programs, and membership development.
We are so excited to have these leaders with us and thank them for their tireless advocacy for the creative sector in their community and across Illinois! Read their bios below.
Dean, College of Visual & Performing Arts
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Northern Illinois University
Paul Kassel is the Dean for the College of Visual and Performing Arts and a full professor in the School of Theatre and Dance at Northern Illinois University. He manages the operation of the Schools of Art and Design, Music, and Theatre and Dance. Paul also oversees the operations of the NIU Museum and the Community School of the Arts (CSA).
From July 2013 to July 2015 Paul was Interim Dean for School of Fine and Performing Arts at SUNY New Paltz, and Associate Dean for two years prior to that. He was a professor of Theatre Arts at SUNY New Paltz (2004-2016) and at Stony Brook University (1998-2004) where he taught acting, voice, movement, directing, and directed plays. Paul began his academic career as Head of Acting at Bradley University from 1993-1998.
Paul’s book, Acting: An Introduction to the Art and Craft of Playing, was published by Pearson in 2006. He recently created a Substack– Playing: Notes on the art and craft of acting. He was the editor of The Players’ Journal, an e-journal by and for actors and teachers of acting from 2004-2016. In New York City for eleven years as a professional actor, director, and writer, Paul worked off, and off-off Broadway, in regional theaters, and in several films and television shows. Paul has maintained his professional career since entering academia, most recently performing the role of “Stage Manager” in Our Town (2019) and directing Romeo and Juliet (2020) with Kane Repertory Theatre in St. Charles, Illinois. Paul is currently developing a cabaret act of musical theater songs that surveys love from inception to maturity.
Christina Bourné is an accomplished nonprofit and fundraising professional with a focus in board and staff development, annual and campaign planning, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) implementation, and strategic planning. During her 15-year career, her unique skills have allowed her to work with longstanding and emerging leaders in arts and culture, education and youth services, and social justice in the nonprofit and corporate sector both locally and nationally. Christina considers herself a community organizer at heart and takes pride in building individual and organizational capacity through lasting change management frameworks that challenge clients and organizations to go beyond rhetoric to responsibility with equity and sustainability at the helm.
Christina currently serves as the Director of Development for Forward Momentum Chicago, Adjunct Consultant with Evolve Giving Group, and Board Chair of Awakenings Art. She also sings professionally with her family of nine comprised of her siblings and mother—The Bournés.
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Taila Howe
Director of Production Chicago Underground Film Festival marketing + creative
Doja Cat
Taila Howe is the Director of Production for the Chicago Underground Film Festival and runs the marketing + creative department for Doja Cat’s management team. She’s a Third-Culture-Kid with Polish roots, and has over ten years of cross-cultural and international experience bridging the communications gap between different societies, nationalities and perspectives. As a human-centered designer, nature lover and marketing strategist, she’s passionate about helping organizations grow their community, increase accessibility, and diversify revenue streams within the discourse of local and global social change.
Elizabeth Neukirch is a Chicago-based writer and PR/communications strategist. As the owner of Elizabeth Neukirch PR Consulting LLC, she works with arts, nonprofit and mission-driven organizations to create and execute public relations campaigns, with a focus on high-impact storytelling.
Her current clients/projects include the Fine Arts Building’s 125th anniversary, Far South Community Development Corporation, the Black Arts & Culture Alliance of Chicago, the National Hellenic Museum, and the Office of Inspector General for the Chicago Board of Education. Elizabeth is also a guest lecturer for the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where for seven years she has led an annual PR workshop for students in the Masters in Arts Administration and Policy program.
Prior to starting her independent consulting practice, Elizabeth was senior vice president of Chicago PR firm The Silverman Group, where for a decade she represented world-class cultural institutions ranging from Lyric Opera and Steppenwolf Theatre Company to Cirque du Soleil touring productions. She received an honorable mention in PR Daily’s Nonprofit PR Awards for her national media campaign in support of Jessica Stockholder’s Color Jam public artwork presented by Chicago Loop Alliance. Elizabeth has also served as public relations manager for Chicago Shakespeare Theater, worked in Goodman Theatre’s Education and Engagement department, and was a contributing writer and advertising account manager for The Daily Chronicle and The MidWeek newspapers.
As a fiction writer, Elizabeth is currently working on her first novel, a speculative Greek American immigrant story narrated by a chorus of opinionated village women. She is grateful for the support she has received for this project from the Illinois Arts Council Agency, Tin House Summer Workshop, Ragdale Foundation and Vermont Studio Center. A graduate of StoryStudio Chicago’s Novel in a Year program, Elizabeth currently serves on StoryStudio’s Associate Board. She is a contributing writer for the Chicago Review of Books and Third Coast Review.
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Tony Santiago
Creative Engineer Arts + Public Life, We Will Chicago, Honey Pot Performances
Board Member Katherine Dunham Center (E. Saint Louis)
A creative engineer centering technology to help connect people to the arts, Santiago manages Arts + Public Life’s Performance Residency and teaches the Community Actor’s Program for high-school-aged youth at Green Line Performance Arts Center in Washington Park. Professional credits include Community Data Manager for We Will Chicago with Honey Pot Performance, Spinning Home Movies with the South Side Home Movie Project Producer, and Editor and Technical Director of the Rapid Response Series with Illinois Humanities. Tony currently sits on the board of the Katherine Dunham Center in East Saint Louis. When not working, Tony enjoys cooking, biking, and watching movies on the big screen.
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Jorge Valdivia
Executive Director Chicago Latino Theater Alliance (CLATA)
Jorge Valdivia is the Executive Director for the Chicago Latino Theater Alliance (CLATA). With over twenty-five years of experience in arts and media management. As a self-identifying Queer Mexican American, Valdivia has centered his work in diversity and equity through social practice, public engagement, and advocacy in the arts. He has won awards and been recognized for his contributions to both the Latino/Latine and LGBTQ communities. Prior to becoming executive director of CLATA, Valdivia served as the Director of Performing Arts for the National Museum of Mexican Art where he led the Museum in presenting a year-round calendar of events focusing on performing arts, literature, and film. There he also curated the Sor Juana Arts Festival, a multidisciplinary arts festival that he successfully expanded into seven cities. Valdivia has also cultivated partnerships in Chicago, across the country and beyond with various arts organizations and has curated festivals, events, and experiences on major stages like Harris Theater and Pritzker Pavilion at Millennium Park in Chicago, Discovery Green and The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, The Mexican American Cultural Center in Austin, and El Claustro de Sor Juana in Mexico City.
(l to r) Blaise Magnière, Marie Wang, Anthony Devroye, Cheng-Hou Lee
The Avalon String Quartet, artists in residence at the NIU School of Music will perform an original composition based on one of Shakespeare’s most famous speeches.
“All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts, His acts begin seven ages.”
Thus begins one of Shakespeare’s most famous speeches, spoken by the misanthropic Jacques in the comic masterpiece, As You Like It. It is also the basis for a new string quartet, composed by NIU School of Music Professor David Maki and performed by the Avalon String Quartet.
David Maki
This piece, specially commissioned by the NIU College of Visual and Performing Arts in honor of NIU’s 125th anniversary, will have several parts, each introduced with the accompanying text performed by actress Mary Nighosian and actor (and Dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts) Paul Kassel.
We hope you’ll join us at the world premiere of this exciting marriage of great music and theatre!
Wednesday, September 7, 7:00 p.m., NIU Music Building, Recital Hall
String Quartet in F Major, Op. 135 by Ludwig van Beethoven The Seven Ages of Man, by David Maki String Quartet in G minor by Leo Sowerby
What year did you start working at NIU? July 1, 2016
Where is your hometown? and where do you live now? Geneva, IL
Where did you attend college and what degree(s) have you earned? I attended Miami of Ohio and have a B.A. in communications and theatre. I also have an M.F.A. from Florida State University/Asolo Conservatory.
What do you like about working at NIU? The people—students are eager, talented and committed. Faculty are talented, dedicated and caring. Staff is supportive, kind and tireless.
What advice would you give to students currently attending NIU? Say yes to everything! Explore courses and activities and events. Take risks. Talk to people you don’t know. Never stop asking questions. Listen closely. Find the fun.
Tell us about a research or engaged learning project you have led. I’m teaching an honors seminar on the Evolution of Art. I’m very interested in the way the species evolved and how art-making seems to be part of that evolution. I’m also curious about how art itself has evolved. It’s all still contested, so the students and I engage in some speculation, which leads to good questions and hypotheses to be tested.
What do you hope students take away from your class? Music, dance, theater, painting, sculpting, etc. all likely were the first means by which humans communicated. Art provides a vocabulary of feeling that captures what it means to be human. Everyone is an artist, and every art form is available to each of us to express ourselves in unique and powerful ways.
What is your favorite campus event? Can’t pick one—the concerts, plays, dances and exhibits put on by and for our students. It’s wonderful and awe-inspiring to see their creativity flower.
What is your favorite memory of NIU? The Art and Soul event we co-sponsored with the Center for Black Studies after the racial incident in 2020. The whole university was invited to paint Black Lives Matter on Castle Drive, and many came and did—even amid a pandemic. There was music and dancing, and all who came participated in making this powerful statement. For me, it truly reflected the Huskie spirit!
Who has influenced your professional path? I’ve had many mentors throughout my life, but maybe the most important one was Joel Friedman. He was one of the founding directors of the New York Shakespeare Festival and was my acting teacher in NYC when I was starting out. He was not only a wonderful theater artist but also a gifted teacher. He knew what to say and, more importantly, how and when to say it so it was heard, understood and could be acted upon. He made all his students feel empowered. And I strive to do the same.
What did you want to be when you were growing up? Are you currently doing it? If not, what changed your path? I always wanted to be a theater artist. My first roles were in kindergarten. I started formal lessons at age 10, got professional gigs starting at around 16 and was a professional for the next 20 years. I never thought I’d be a teacher, let alone a dean. But my mentors pointed out to me that I had some abilities, first as a teacher and later as an administrator. When I look back, I’m really doing the same thing, more or less—putting talent together and helping it flourish.
Are you a member of or hold a position within a professional organization? If so, what organization? What is the purpose of that organization and how does being part of this organization benefit you in your role at NIU? I am a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association, the professional stage actor’s union; and the Screen Actors Guild/American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. I maintain my membership and have worked on and off in the profession my whole academic career. I think it’s very important for artists to work in their fields to stay “in shape” and to stay current.
What community organizations are you involved in? I am on the board of the Egyptian Theatre.
What do you do to relax or recharge? I bike, hike, golf and read a lot of books. I also do the NY Times crossword puzzle every day, as well as the NYT Spelling Bee.
Is there anything else you’d like to share about your NIU Huskie story? I think what we do is important—ensuring that the next generation of artists, scholars and teachers offers the world their talents and abilities. It’s been a privilege and honor to serve as dean of this great college and university.
What year did you start working at NIU?
