Bohemian Rhapsody: Alumni to Discuss Careers in the Arts during Fall Family Day

Chestertown, MD, October 18, 2001 — Washington College's Alumni Council will host a Life After Liberal Arts Symposium to coincide with Fall Family Day on Saturday, October 27 from 1:30 to 3:00 p.m. in the Norman James Theatre, William Smith Hall. Students, parents, alumni and the community are invited to this event to interact with and learn from alumni who have put their degrees to good and sometimes unusual use in the working world. This symposium will focus on "The Performance of a Lifetime: Careers in the Arts" and will feature alumni John Harris '94, Vicco Von Voss '91 and Michele Volansky '90 discussing the challenges, lessons, opportunities, and successes that they have encountered through careers in the arts. Drama Department Chairman Dale Daigle will moderate the event.

John Harris, a 1994 graduate in music, is a trombonist who decided to pursue a career in business, joining an Annapolis-based company manufacturing and marketing small wooden boat kits. He eventually bought the firm, Chesapeake Light Craft Company, and has made it one of the largest wooden boat kit companies in the nation, but he has not given up his love of music. John pursues a second career as a jazz musician and has created a small jazz ensemble that plays at music festivals, including Chestertown's Saturday Evening Concert series. John credits Washington College with fostering his love of the arts while helping him develop writing skills and business acumen.

Vicco Von Voss is a 1991 graduate who majored in art. During college, Vicco worked with a local furniture restorer and discovered his love of wood, bringing natural forms into functional existence. After college, Vicco began a three-year carpentry and furniture-making apprenticeship in Germany and returned to the Eastern Shore to pursue his dream as a master furnituremaker. Vicco credits the art department with encouraging his love of the visual arts and natural forms, an appreciation that inspires the function and unique aesthetics of his handmade furniture.

Michele Volansky is a 1990 graduate who currently works for the Philadelphia Theatre Company and lectures in drama at Washington College. An English major with a devotion to theatre, Michele pursued a masters in theatre and dramaturgy from Villanova University. She has been a guest dramaturg at the Atlantic Theatre Company, Victory Gardens and Next Theatre, in addition to serving on the staff of Actors Theatre of Louisville and as dramaturg/literary manager at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago. Her play "Whispering City" was produced as part of the Steppenwolf Arts Exchange Program in 1999, and she is currently at work on a musical adaptation of Thulani Davis' novel "1959". Michelle serves on the advisory board of" Theatre Forum" magazine and is an artistic consultant for the Chicago-based Serendipity Theatre Company.

Life After Liberal Arts is sponsored by the Washington College Alumni Council.