Newsmakers

QUOTE/UNQUOTE "Rob [Portman '78] knows that America's farmers and workers can compete with anybody, anytime, anywhere in the world so long as the rules are fair." —PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH, IN NOMINATING PORTMAN AS U.S. TRADE REPRESENTATIVE IN MARCH

With four Dartmouth alumni involved in the Classic Stage Company's production of Chekhov's Three Sisters, the Great White Way looked mighty green in early January. Directed by Pavol Liska '95, assistant directed by his wife, playwright Kelly Copper '93, and featuring actors Zachary Oberzan '96 and Karen Koontz '96, the play kicked off the company's new "On the Verge" program, which is designed to promote emerging artists. Liska, a native of Slovakia, was inspired to become a playwright by Vaclav Havel during Czechoslovakia's "Velvet Revolution." Prior to his country's overthrow of Soviet rule in 1989, Liska had never set foot in a theater. "Theater people made the revolution happen," he told The New York Times in early January. "So I believe that theater is something that can change the world. I still hope and strive for that."...Scott Listfield '98 is not the first person to be profoundly affected by Stanley Kubricks landmark film, 2001:A SpaceOdyssey. However, he maybe the first who was inspired to create a series of astronaut-themed oil paintings. "The contemporary world seems like such an odd place to me. I needed a protagonist to show that," Listfield told The Boston Globe in mid-January. Listfield s paintings depict a helmeted astronaut doing such things as flagging down a bus and visiting a tank in Baghdad, and they exhibit a "postmodern feel (and) biting sense of humor," according to the Globe. Sixteen of his paintings were exhibited this past winter at Bostons Locco Ritoro Gallery, and nearly 500 people attended the shows December opening thanks to the buzz generated by Listfield's Web site: www.astronautdinosaur.com. In the four years since his own space odyssey began, Listfield has created more than 20 astronaut paintings. "Each painting I finish I think of as a little addition to the story of the astronaut," says the artist, who works as a graphic designer in Somerville, Massachusetts. "As long as there are places for him to go and people for him to see, I'll keep going."...At the age of 37, Sarah Konrad '89 did the inconceivable: She qualified for the 2005 world championships in both Nordic skiing and biathlon. Even more remarkable is that Konrad, who in 2001 earned a Ph.D. in geology while juggling elite training for cycling and skiing, didn't start skiing at the national level until the age of 30 and had fired a gun only three times before taking up biathlon two years ago. Frequently teased for being at least 10 years older than her teammates and fellow competitors, the Laramie, Wyoming, resident told USAToday in late February, "The funniest thing is when 25-year-olds say, 'Gosh, I'm getting old.' "...After earning a masters in public policy from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, Tom Longstreth '89 could have joined the consulting ranks or easily landed a government position. Instead, eight years ago he became executive director of the nonprofit ReCycle North in Burlington, Vermont. "I liked the three-part mission of the organization, which is to promote reuse, provide job skills training and offer poverty relief," Longstreth told The BarreMontpelier TimesArgus in mid-December. Under Longstreths leadership the nonprofit s staff and budget have quadru- pled, and it now provides job training and community service programs for more than 200 people annually....Sculptor Bruce Beasley '61, whomAScribe.Newswire called "one of the most noteworthy and innovative sculptors on the West Coast," will be the subject of a 45-year retrospective presented by the Oakland Museum of California from April 16 through July 31. The first retrospective survey of his career, the exhibition includes 75 works in aluminum and acrylic, cast and fabricated bronze, stainless steel, iron, granite and wood. Beasley, who still works in the large West Oakland warehouse complex he bought in 19 64, describes himself as an "unrepentant modernist." As critic Peter Frank notes, "Beasley hews to modernisms formalist position, the art-for-art s-sake strain that has constituted the bedrock of modernist practice for a century and a half. Being a good modernist, however, he has always been engaged in and influenced by innovation, not novelty, but true inventiveness." Beasley created a 32-foot steel sculpture, Artemon, forthe 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games, and his works are in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Ait, Le Musee d'Art Moderne in Paris and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum....As Casey Cramer '04 admitted last January to the Valley News, he had "a wild ride" in the NFL this past season. During a five-day span in mid-November the former Big Green tight end went from the Tennessee Titans' practice squad to starting in his first NFL game as a member of the Carolina Panthers. After Cramer stepped in at fullback, the 2-7 Panthers won their next four games and made a serious run at the playoffs. Cramer was credited with some key blocks and was featured on ESPN's Sports Center, which highlighted the fact that Cramer didn't have a locker prior to his first game due to his speedy call-up. Cramer, who had been drafted by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last spring before being cut last summer, was to learn his fate with the Panthers in March...Don "Dr.Mac" MacMannis'70 recently won a 2005 Teacher's Choice Award for his children's CD/activity book, A Pocket of Tunes. The music director and songwriter for the PBS animation series, Jay Jay the Jet Plane, MacMannis has a doctorate in clinical psychology and specializes in the treatment of children and families. For more information on his CD and activity book, go to www.apocketoftunes.com....Last September Samantha Burnham '04, the former co-captain of the women's basketball team, and Jen Levitt '04, the team's former manager, embarked on a year-long assignment in Peru. Working for the nonprofit Girl Sport Works, the pair is teaching English and a variety of sports to poverty-stricken girls in and around Cuzco, the Incan empires capital. "In Peru it's clear there are certain rules for women and certain rules for men," Burnham told the Valley News in January, while home in Vermont for the holidays. "Athletics can help women change their outlook, change their attitude toward what their role is in the family and in the city, and what kind of jobs they can have. The goal is to help the girls get interested in athletics and continue to play after we leave." In addition to her day job, Burnham also moonlights as the tallest member of the Cuzco Cosmos basketball team....Four alumni were cited in Black Enterprise magazines March listing of the "50 Most Powerful Blacks in Sports": Reggie Williams '76, vice president of Disney Sports Attractions; Jimmie Lee Solomon '78, senior vice president of baseball operations for Major League Baseball; Kery D. Davis '79, senior vice president of sports programming for HBO; and Pamela Wheeler 'B9, director of operations for the Women's National Basketball Players Association.

Bruce Beasley '61

Pavol Liska '95 and Kelly Copper '93

QUOTE/UNQUOTE "It was great to hit the shot of my short career with the girls there watching. It made a statement to some of the women. Even though I'm new, I can still compete and give you a run for your money." —PAMELA CBIKELAIR '01, ON SCORING HER FIRST EAGLE, ON THE GOLF CHANNEL'S BIG BREAK III IN MARCH