4-27-07
Throughlines for April 27, 2007
Appointments
Aimee-Lynn Newlan is the new managing director of the Illinois Theatre Association, successor to the long-serving Wally Smith. Newlan landed the ITA position after resigning as executive director of Imagination Theater, a company she brought back from the brink of extinction and served for 10 years. Newland left Imagination reluctantly in December, following disagreements with the youth outreach company’s largely-new five-person board.
James Bau Graves, 55, is the new executive director of the Old Town School of Folk Music. Both a musical scholar and an experienced arts administrator, Graves’ career largely has been with various arts organizations in Maine. Graves has an MA in ethnomusicology – what we used to call folk music – from Tufts University. He takes the Old Town helm May 1.
Rachel Alexander is the new vice-president of public relations for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, effective April 16. Alexander’s previous gigs include the Atlanta Symphony, Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. She’s a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music.
Awards and Honors
The Theatre School at DePaul University handed out its 19th annual Awards for Excellence in the Arts at an April 18 gala at the Fours Seasons Hotel. Celebrity honorees for 2007 were Alec Baldwin and former Chicago guy and Theatre School alumnus Michael Rooker. Chicago born-and-raised Rooker threw the first pitch at the April 17 White Sox game at the former Comiskey Park.
The Theatre School also gave awards to the long-time Illinois Arts Council chair Shirley Madigan, and to LaSalle Bank, N.A. Both are institutions well-known for their arts advocacy and support. LaSalle Bank president/CEO Norman R. Bobbins will accept for the bank. Once again, Lord Piers Wedgwood has donated the magnificent Wedgwood china presentation pieces.
Passages
Members of dance community, and of the Joffrey Ballet family specifically, are mourning the March 4 death of Edith D’Addario, who served for more than 40 years as director of The Joffrey Ballet School. Known to several generations of dancers as “Mrs. D,” she was 84. Said Joffrey co-founder and artistic director Gerald Arpino, “There would have been no Joffrey School if it weren’t for Edith.”
D’Addario entered the life of the Joffrey Ballet when the company barely was five years old, looking for quality ballet classes for her daughter. One day, while her daughter was in class, she answered a ringing phone and quickly became an essential part of the organization. In September 1961, she officially became assistant to Robert Joffrey and Gerald Arpino at the School, and five years later was named executive director. When Joffrey died in 1988, she was named director of the Joffrey Ballet School, a post she held until 2005 when she was succeeded by her daughter, Gail D’Addario.
Friends of Malik Gillani, executive director of the Silk Road Theatre Project, are offering him support following the unexpected death of his mother, Khatija Gillani, on March 23. She was buried March 26 in Chicago according to Ismaili Muslim rites. She and her husband emigrated from India to Pakistan to Chicago, where they raised six sons. She is survived by her husband, five sons, the spouses and partners of her sons, 14 grandchildren and one great-grandchild. One son pre-deceased her.