List of 13 items.

• Jonathan Adler '84, Interior Designer, Potter, Writer

  Jonathan Adler '84, Interior Designer, Potter, Writer

  
  Jonathan Adler is an American potter, interior designer, and writer. After Tatnall (where he was a Showcase performer and enthusiastic ceramicist), Jonathan graduated from Brown University, where he studied art history but mostly spent his time at nearby Rhode Island School of Design making pots. He launched his first ceramic collection in 1993 at Barneys in New York City and then expanded quickly into home furnishings. 

  
  He opened his first namesake boutique in Soho, Manhattan in 1998 and now has 17 stores around the country. Jonathan's lines of textiles, furniture, bath accessories, and giftware are sold in 30 stores and over 1,000 retailers. He is the creator of award-winning interior designs that can be seen in major hotels, top restaurants, and private homes around the world. Initially known for his pottery work, he has been praised for the inclusion of South American textiles in his creations. He is the author of several books on interior design, namely Jonathan Adler on Happy Chic Colors. Jonathan has discussed his various projects on "Good Morning America" and "The Oprah Winfrey Show."

• Dr. Bruce Chipman, Teacher, Director, Professor, Cinephile

  Dr. Bruce Chipman, Teacher, Director, Professor, Cinephile

  
  Dr. Bruce Chipman is a longtime English teacher, Department Chair, and Theater Director who came to Tatnall in 1973. His name is synonymous with the inimitable reputation of Tatnall's storied Theater Program which has been featured in regional newspapers and magazines. For over 47 years, Dr. Chipman was devoted to directing Tatnall's Showcase Theater Company, one of the most respected dramatic programs at any level in the greater Wilmington area.  As Theater Program Coordinator, Dr. Chipman was also instrumental in the development and success of both Drama Club and Playbill. He is venerated in the annals of Tatnall's theatrical history and beloved by his Showcase Alumni, who return often to visit Dr. C and witness the next iteration of Showcase.

  
  Dr. Chipman also taught upper-level literature courses for over 25 years at the University of Delaware after earning his Ph.D. in English from Tufts University in 1980.  He was awarded a Fulbright Professorship in 1983 at the University of Khartoum, Sudan, where he taught modern American drama.  He is the author of two books, one about American novelists who wrote for Hollywood movies and the other about early rock 'n’ roll performances.  He also founded the current Upper School film curriculum in 1979 and has spoken at national conferences about academic programs in cinema literacy.

• Jim Graham '77, Photographer

  Jim Graham '77, Photographer
  
  

  Jim Graham is a Pulitzer Prize nominated photojournalist and proud Tatnall alumnus.  He works as an editorial and commercial photographer and is based in Centreville, Delaware. He was formerly a staff photographer with The News Journal and The Delaware County Daily Times and served as Photography Editor and Chief Photographer for both Lacrosse Magazine and Fine Times Magazine.

  
  Jim was named Southern Photographer of the Year and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. His work has been recognized in Communication Arts Photo Annual and was praised in The Photo District News article “50 States Fifty Photographers.” Jim was second in The Gannett Chain in Color Photography and won The Society of Professional Journalist's "Best News Photograph of the Year". His work has been lauded by the Pennsylvania Press Photographers Association and recognized regionally and nationally by the NPPA.
  
  

  Jim remains an active alumnus of Tatnall, often seen prowling along the sidelines of sports games, community gatherings, and theatrical performances, looking for light, moment and the spirit of the event.  His work is featured prominently in nearly every Tatnall publication and in many marketing initiatives.

• Thomas Huang '90, Architecture and Design

  Thomas Huang '90, Architecture and Design
  
  

  Thomas Huang is an Associate Professor of Architecture and Design at the University of Kansas.  Tom holds an MFA in Furniture Design from the Rhode Island School of Design, and has exhibited nationally.  In 2007, he was named a “searchlight artist,” an emerging artist to watch by the American Craft Council. A Fellow of the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship, he has held exhibitions at the Delaware Center for Contemporary Art, as well as other nationally acclaimed art centers. He has been published in American Craft Magazine among other journals. 

  
  Huang’s work originates in the realm of Studio Furniture. He has employed weaving and binding in his work as a metaphor for cultural reconciliation in his exploration into his Asian-American heritage. His love for teaching and making has led him to observations and questions about craft (exercises that stimulate both brain and hand simultaneously) and the liminal or trance-like state of mind that sometimes occurs when the hands are engaged in repetitive motion. His course “Kaw River Canoe Workshop” (at the Lawrence Art Center of the University of Kansas), engages the community with some of these creative techniques.

  
  , Architecture and Design

  
  Thomas Huang is an Associate Professor of Architecture and Design at the University of Kansas.  Tom holds an MFA in Furniture Design from the Rhode Island School of Design, and has exhibited nationally.  In 2007, he was named a “searchlight artist,” an emerging artist to watch by the American Craft Council. A Fellow of the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship, he has held exhibitions at the Delaware Center for Contemporary Art, as well as other nationally acclaimed art centers. He has been published in American Craft Magazine among other journals. 

  
  Huang’s work originates in the realm of Studio Furniture. He has employed weaving and binding in his work as a metaphor for cultural reconciliation in his exploration into his Asian-American heritage. His love for teaching and making has led him to observations and questions about craft (exercises that stimulate both brain and hand simultaneously) and the liminal or trance-like state of mind that sometimes occurs when the hands are engaged in repetitive motion. His course “Kaw River Canoe Workshop” (at the Lawrence Art Center of the University of Kansas), engages the community with some of these creative techniques.

• Timothy Huang '93, Playwright, Actor, Composer, Lyricist

  Timothy Huang '93, Playwright, Actor, Composer, Lyricist

  
  Tim Huang is based in New York and is the creator of the award-winning one-man musical The View From Here, the song cycle LINES, and "American Morning" (aka Costs of Living) which won the 2016 Richard Rodgers Award for Musical Theater.  He is only the third Asian-American to win the award since its creation and the first to win as a “triple threat” composer/lyricist/librettist. His musical creations have been taught and produced around the world. 

  
  After graduating from Tatnall, where he was active in our Showcase Players and a singer/soloist in the Tatnall Concert Choir, Tim left for New York City and graduated from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts with both BFA and MFA degrees in musical theater.  Tim is a 2012 Dramatist Guild Fellow and a member of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop.  He is also the composer, lyricist, and librettist of the full-length musical And the Earth Moved, which was featured in the inaugural New York Musical Festival. Tim currently lives in New York and remains an active supporter of The Tatnall School.

• Tara Keefe '79, Painter

  Tara Keefe '79, Painter

  
  Tara Keefe is an award-winning painter who grew up inspired by the works of Andrew Wyeth, N.C. Wyeth and Howard Pyle. After a decade of composing and performing music, Tara discovered a deep passion for painting. She was mentored by the artist Anna B. McCoy, a Wyeth family member, as well as studying at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Working primarily in oil, Tara’s paintings include landscapes, figures, still lifes and portraits. Her landscapes are painted en plein air -- in the Bay Area, Pennsylvania and Maine -- with an emphasis on atmosphere and brushwork. In her still lifes and figure paintings, she uses her understanding and respect for traditional oil techniques as a starting point to express deeply emotional, painterly realism.

  
  Tara has been featured in the Artists Magazine, American Artist Drawing Magazine, and the book, “100 Artists of the Brandywine Valley”.  Her work has been exhibited in the John Pence Gallery in San Francisco, Horton Hayes Fine Art in Charleston, SC, the Principle Gallery in Alexandra, VA, and Somerville Manning Gallery in Greenville, DE.

• William Kenyon '87, Lighting Design and Theatre

  William Kenyon '87, Lighting Design and Theatre

  
  William Kenyon, Tatnall Class of 1987, is a professor and the Head of Lighting Design in the School of Theatre at Penn State University. During his years at Tatnall, William was head of lighting design for several Showcase productions, contributing original ideas to virtually every play. He continued his study of technical theatre at the University of Connecticut and earned his graduate degree at Brandeis University. 

  
  William has created over 150 professional theatre, dance, and opera designs around the world, including at The Lincoln Center in New York, and at both The Kennedy Center & Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC.  William has been the resident lighting designer for more than 15 years for the American Indian Dance Theatre.  He is also the author of the textbook Theatre & Stage Photography and offers stage photo workshops around the world. William has returned to Tatnall numerous times to meet with our tech theatre students and to offer career insights to our performers.

• Helen Mason, Sculptor, Metalsmith, Teacher

  Helen Mason, Sculptor, Metalsmith, Teacher

  
  Helen Mason was the Chair of the Tatnall Art Department in the late 1970's until the early 1990's, and has kept in close contact with the school since her departure. Helen received her MFA from the University of Delaware and her BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design/Brown University. 

  
  Among her many honors are a NEA/DSAC Individual Artist Fellowship, and a Gulbenkian Foundation Grant in Portugal. She was appointed by the governor to serve on the Delaware State Arts Council for two terms. Selected National and International Exhibitions include The American Craft Museum (MAD), NY, The National Museum of Women In The Arts, DC, Delaware Art Museum, DE, Takashimya, Japan, Fulda Museum, Germany, a 50 Year Retrospective, Layered Abstraction, Delaware Art Museum. 2020-2021, DE. Permanent Collections, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, MA, Delaware Art Museum, DE, High Museum, GA.

• Amy Porter ‘82, Flutist, Professor

  Amy Porter ‘82, Flutist, Professor

  
  Flutist Amy Porter has been praised by critics for her exceptional musical talent and passion for scholarship. In a versatile and distinguished career as a concert performer, she has become one of the most skillful and creative muses for composers of our time. Ms. Porter has been hailed for her “strength, beauty, a captivating and seductive force, sensitivity, perfection, and a sense of humor.”

  
  Winner of the 3rd Kobe International Flute Competition and the Paris/Ville d’Avray International Flute Competition, Ms. Porter has served on international juries around the world, including the 6th Kobe International Flute Competition. She has been heard in recital on National Public Radio; highlighted on PBS’s Live From Lincoln Center, and featured on the covers and as a writer for the magazines Flute Talk in the USA and The Flute in Japan.

  
  Formerly a member of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Ms. Porter is Principal Flute of North Carolina’s Brevard Music Center, where she performs as soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral player. Amy Porter has been Professor of Flute at the University of Michigan School of Music Theatre and Dance since 1999. She is host of the podcast PorterFlute Pod.

  
  Born in Wilmington, DE, Ms. Porter graduated from The Juilliard School and pursued further studies at the Mozarteum Academy in Salzburg. She plays a 14K white gold flute with rose gold engraved keys made for her by the Wm. S. Haynes Co.

• Calida Garcia Rawles '94, Painter, Author

  Calida Garcia Rawles '94, Painter, Author
  
  

  Calida Garcia Rawles is a Los Angeles-based artist who is renowned for painting African-American men and women submerged in glistening water. Merging sharp hyper-realism with poetic abstraction, Calida's subjects are swarmed by a flurry of bubbles, ripples, and refracted light. For Rawles, water is a spiritually healing element for all people, yet she recognizes its historical connotations to racial exclusion and cultural fears. She uses the complicated duality of water as a platform to address identity politics while reimagining her subjects beyond cultural tropes. 

  
  At Tatnall, Calida was the lead artist in creating the massive London city-scape (circa 1785) for the Showcase Players’ production of Sweeney Todd in 1994, a 60x40 foot creation that can still be seen on the back wall of the Beekely Theater. After Tatnall, Calida attended Spelman College in Atlanta, where she earned a B.A. before moving to New York City to earn her M.A. from New York University. She is celebrated for creating the cover art for Ta-Nehisi Coates’s debut novel, The Water Dancer (a 2019 New York Times bestseller), and her works can be found in numerous public and private collections, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York. Calida is also the author and illustrator of the children’s book Same Difference.

• Wilson Gault Somers, Choral Teacher, Composer, Conductor

  Wilson Gault Somers, Choral Teacher, Composer, Conductor
  
  

  Emmy Award winner Wilson Gault Somers was Tatnall’s esteemed Choral Director for 30 years. He first came to Tatnall in 1990 and immediately began building a legacy as a world class Director and Conductor. His choral groups were long considered some of the finest in the greater Wilmington area, and their performances were received both regionally and internationally with great acclaim (during several trips to Europe and especially Italy, the Tatnall Concert Choir were honored to receive a Papal Audience with Pope Paul II at the Vatican in 2000). Mr. Somers is also an established Composer and Guest Conductor for the Delaware Symphony Orchestra, where he is best known for his original work Mass for the Homeless (co-written with his wife, Joan Walworth Somers) performed in 1997 and 1999. 

  
  Outside of Tatnall, Mr. Somers is a highly respected member of the musical community, having ‘moonlighted’ for 20 years as a jazz pianist at the former Rodney Square Club and the University and Whist Club as well as serving as Director of Music and Organist at The Episcopal Church of the Advent, Kennett Square, PA. He is also co-founder and Artistic Director of Mass for the Homeless, Inc/Music with a Mission (Mass4thehomeless.org) which has raised over 100K for homeless ministries in Delaware since 1995. Somers won an Emmy Award for the original Jazz score in the film ‘Edward L. Loper, Prophet of Color’ in 2000 with the local film studio, Teleduction/Serviam, Inc. He is also the Composer/Conductor of ‘Requiem for 9/11’, premiered at the Grand Opera House in 2012. The 20th Anniversary Edition of ‘Requiem for 9/11’ was performed on 9/12/21 as a benefit for Gold Star Families of DE.

• Ti West '99, Film Director, Writer, Producer

  Ti West '99, Film Director, Writer, Producer

  
  Ti West is a nationally recognized film director, producer, screenwriter, editor, cinematographer, and (occasional) actor, best known for his work in thrillers/horror films.  He directed the horror films The Roost (2005); The House of the Devil (2009); The Innkeepers (2011), nominated for Best Film at South by Southwest Film Festival (2011); The Sacrament (2013); and the western In a Valley of Violence (2016), starring John Travolta and Ethan Hawke. 

  
  At Tatnall, Ti took several film classes and sharpened his creative efforts in lights/sound in several Showcase productions. He was frequently seen with camera in hand as he introduced himself to the art of cinematography. Ti attended the School of Visual Arts in New York.  In addition to his illustrious film career, he has also directed 17 episodes of television for MTV and FX, among others.  He has premiered films at the most prestigious celebrations of independent films in the world (notably the Venice Film Festival, Toronto Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, South by Southwest Film Festival, and Tribeca Film Festival) and has been profiled in and has written for many magazines and professional journals.

• Michael Zimmer '87, Film Producer

  Michael Zimmer '87, Film Producer

  
  Michael began his career acting in professional regional theater and assisting Broadway directors, as well as working for talent agencies, a Broadway record label, and the Gershwin estate. He is currently Vice President of Production and Development at Lucamar Productions, a renowned production company that specializes in movie musicals. Michael has co-produced numerous award-winning films with Walt Disney Studios, including The Little Mermaid (2023), Mary Poppins Returns (2018), and Into the Woods (2014). Other film and TV work includes Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011), Nine (2009), and NBC’s Emmy-winning special, Tony Bennett: An American Classic.  

  
  Michael is a "proud Showcase Alumnus" (he performed in several of our major productions) who brought his considerable theatrical talents gained at Tatnall to Yale University (’91). At Yale, he was a Board Member of the Yale Dramatic Association and Musical Director of the a capella singing group The Society of Orpheus and Bacchus. He is currently a member of the Producers Guild of America and Actors’ Equity Association, and when not traveling for work he resides in Brooklyn with his longtime partner and their chihuahua.