Yale Alumni LIVE: Behind the Scenes of The Wandering

Jeremy Weiss (ES ’15) is a classical vocal artist and actor who specializes in new and devised work. Recently, Jeremy performed on PBS Great Performances as a street singer in Bernstein's Mass with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Marin Alsop. In 2019 he also made his debut at National Sawdust in the premier of Dialogues of the Travelers and premiered the role of The Creature in The Modern Prometheus in Redhook’s Studio 153. He is also a two time finalist and award winner at the Lotte Lenya Competition (2019, 2020). Recent roles include: the title role in The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, West Side Story (Action), and Rodelinda (Garibaldo) at Indiana University Opera, The Good Swimmer (Lifeguard) at BAM, Di Goldene Kale (Berke) with the National Yiddish Theater Off-Broadway, Belli's Orfeo Dolente (Orfeo), Cavalli's Erismena (Erimante), Oklahoma! (Curly), My Fair Lady (Freddy), and Into the Woods (Wolf/Prince). Jeremy completed his MM at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music where he studied with Dr. Brian Gill and graduated from Yale University with a double major in Humanities and Theater Studies.

Calista Small (BR ’14) fosters innovation in the arts by creating opportunities for artists to work outside of their chosen mediums and collaborate in interdisciplinary teams. Trained as an actor, she has performed with The Neo-Futurist Theater, Redmoon Theater, and Filament Theater in Chicago as well as Richard Schechner of East Coast Artists in New York. She is a co-founder of The Merchant St. Gallery for Artists with Autism, a non-profit studio space in Kankakee, IL, and is the former director and creator of Play On!, a summer theater program for ESL students in Chicago. She holds a B.A in Humanities from Yale University, where she received the Susan J. Smith Arts Prize for outstanding contribution to the arts.

Zach Bell (PC ’14) is a writer and director based in Los Angeles, CA. Working in music videos, he has directed for Republic Records, Island Records, BMG, Universal Music Japan, Nettwerk, Deckstar, Photo Finish Records, Eleven Seven Records, Crooked Paintings and Milton Archer. His work has been featured on The Fader, Complex, Pitchfork, Noisey, Mass Appeal, Pigeons and Planes, Earmilk, HollywoodLife and Ones to Watch, among others. As a director, his debut narrative short, Grapefruit, starring Olivia Olson (Adventure Time), will debut at the 2020 Woods Hole Film Festival in July. As a writer he has most recently worked with AwesomenessTV and Scale Management on web series for digital distribution.

Sahil Gupta (SY ’17) is the founder and CEO of Spase, Inc., a 3D and Augmented Reality asset production company. He loves working on projects where technology and imagination have no limits. Sahil has previously written software for Tesla, Microsoft, and SpaceX, and graduated from Yale in 2017 where he created and hosted the satirical news show The Bull Report, wrote for the campus humor mag The Yale Record, and graduated with degrees in Computer Science and Economics.

Julian Manresa (MY ’22) is a junior comparative literature major at Yale University interested in opera, drama and film in Austria during the late 19th and early 20th century. A trained classical musician, he was drawn to the project because of his long-standing admiration for Schubert’s music and interest in exploring the many facets of the composer’s personal identity. In his free time, he enjoys salsa dancing, cycling, and studying Christian theology.

Charlotte McCurdy (JE ‘13) is an award-winning interdisciplinary designer and researcher who works at the intersection of technology, futuring, and existential threats. Her work on carbon-negative materials, “After Ancient Sunlight,” debuted as part of “Nature — The Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial.” Fast Company selected it as the winner in the Experimental category in the 2019 Innovation by Design Awards and her work has been featured in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Guardian, Wallpaper, Dezeen, NowThis, Buzzfeed, and beyond. Based in New York City, McCurdy is a partner of the One X One initiative with the support of Swarovski, the UN Office for Partnerships and the Slow Factory Foundation; a member of the New Museum’s cultural incubator, NEW INC with the support of Science Sandbox; and a member of Alternative Thinkers, a collective of change-making designers. She is a 2019 PopTech Fellow and a co-founder of cofutures, a platform for futurist creatives focused on directly impacting the world around them. She is a visiting professor at the Rhode Island School of Design where she previously served as the inaugural Global Security Fellow with the support of the MacArthur Foundation. She holds a Master of Industrial Design from RISD, and a Bachelor of Arts in Global Affairs from Yale University.

Lara Panah-Izadi (PC ’14) is a French-American writer and director. She began directing for the stage by putting on an Opera at age 19. Her first play was selected for the 2013 Yale Playwright’s Festival. In 2015, she directed and edited an award winning documentary based on The Seagull by Chekhov. Lara continued learning her craft by assisting on set for Barry Levinson and Quentin Tarantino. In 2017, she directed her first narrative short film Chloe, and moved to LA to work in creative development at Paramount Television. Her latest short film The Summer of Snakes, inspired by the life of artist Niki de Saint Phalle, was produced by Levantine Films (Hidden Figures, Beasts of No Nation.) Lara holds a BA in "Mathematics and Philosophy" and "Theater Studies" from Yale and recently graduated from the prestigious AFI Directing Workshop for Women program. She is currently developing two feature films  and one TV show.

Daniel Rigberg (BK ’17) is a senior software developer at the reproductive health company SimpleHealth. His primary hobbies include but are not limited to scuba diving, traveling, surfing, and playing with his cats, Fish and Chips. He likes piña coladas and getting caught in the rain. 

Max Sauberman (MY ‘18)  manages strategy & analytics for Whisps full-time and is an alumnus of Bain & Company’s Boston office, where he spent two years as an associate consultant dedicated to corporate strategy, post-M&A integration and private equity commercial due diligence. Max is an Economics graduate of Yale College with executive producer credits of world-premiere musicals at the New York Musical Festival and Yale University. He has spent time as a full-time touring vocal artist and business manager with the Whiffenpoofs. As both a performer and producer, Max is dedicated to developing and stewarding innovative new works. Max is trained in classical voice and musical theater performance at the Paper Mill Playhouse, and in 2017 led management and programming of a brand new black-box theater in New Haven, CT for its inaugural season. He serves on nonprofit boards for multiple performing arts outreach organizations and is dedicated to using the arts as a medium for bringing social impact and change.

Christine Shaw (GH ‘14) is a devised theater creator and performer dedicated to making work that asks her audiences impossible questions. Past and current provocations include: How do we wrap our heads around the immensity of natural disasters and our climate? (Sheet Metal Soup, 2019); How do we reckon with the absurdity of death? (The Usual, 2019); What does “surviving” sexual assault actually look like and how does a person heal? (The Aftermath, 2021); and how do women navigate the complex choices around motherhood? (The Motherhood Project, 2020-2030). Her work was in residence with Bethany Arts Community in 2020. Georgia-born and raised, she attended Yale University where she studied theater and dance. Since then, she has performed and created original works in Chicago (The Home for Wayward Artists), New York (The Araca Project), and Philadelphia. Now Philadelphia-based, she recently received her MFA from the UArts/Pig Iron program in devised theater. 

TanTan Wang (SY ‘20) is a recent graduate of Yale University with a Bachelor's Degree in Computing and the Arts. He has worked both as designer and developer, and is interested in drawing on both disciplines to shape new digital experiences. TanTan's most recent work was his senior thesis Liquid Dreams, where he explored the intersection between digital and physical materiality with abstract light and projection. He looks forward to exploring more of these avenues in upcoming projects.