CLASS NOTES
WHERE ARE THE CSF ALUMNI NOW?
College of Santa Fe alumni were contacted through Facebook and other online avenues to generate a random sampling of what just a few of the institution’s thousands of grads are doing now. Theater alumni:
Robb Anthony Sisneros (’86) has spent nearly eight years as artistic director for Musical Theatre Southwest in Albuquerque.
Veronica Newton (’89) lives in New York City and writes plays and features for Backstage magazine. David Anzuelo (’89) is a member of Labyrinth Theater Company and owner of Unkle Dave’s Fight-House. Rockmond Dunbar (’96) has acted in numerous movies and television shows, including Prison Break, Sons of Anarchy, and The Family That Prays (2008). William J. Harper (’03) plays Chidi, the indecisive philosopher, on the NBC sitcom The Good Place. Angela Hanks (’04) has a new play, Wilder Gone, premiering in June in as part of the Clubbed Thumb’s Summerworks in New York. Alexis Kassel Stansfield (’05) manages a children’s theater company called Imagination Machine. Rachel M. Wilson Carothers (’06) is a high school theater director and fine arts educator in Texas. Max Webb (’09) is a journeyman prop-maker who has built sets for The Biggest Loser, Gilmore Girls, and A Christmas Story Live. Destany Gorham (’07) is an Equity stage manager in New Orleans. Jon Derrington (’09) works for Austin City Limits as the house lighting designer.
Kelly Marteney (’09) teaches children’s theater and dance for nonprofit organizations in New York and New Jersey.
Anna Smith (’09) is an actor and director in the San Francisco Bay Area, and the founder of The Quinan Street Project, a nonprofit that provides accessible arts education to her hometown school district.
Creative writing alumni:
James Evans (’93) teaches at Columbia College - Hollywood; one of his students recently transferred from Santa Fe University of Art and Design. Catherine Meng (’97) lives in Santa Fe and is the author of Tonight’s the Night and The Longest Total Solar Eclipse of the Century. Her third book, LOST Poems, is forthcoming in 2019 from Apostrophe Books. Chad Dean (’97) published a novel, School of Marble and Mud, in 2004. Danielle Cadena Deulen (’01) is the author of several books including Our Emotions Get Carried Away Beyond Us and The Riots. Jose Angel Araguz (’04) books include Small Fires and Until We Are Level Again. Christopher J. Johnson (’05) is the author of &luckier. He has created storylines and characters for Meow Wolf since 2009, and is currently creating storylines for Meow Wolf’s forthcoming Las Vegas and Denver locations.
Griselda Castillo (’07) is the author of the poetry collection Blood & Piloncillo.
Visual arts alumni:
Jessica Guttman (’97) is a painter and animals rights activist in Santa Fe.
Vida Vigil (’97) studied photography and is now an archivist for the Jicarilla Apache Nation. Vigil’s daughter, Cougar (’09), also studied photography at CSF; she is finishing her master of fine arts degree at Pratt Institute.
Evy Lareau (’04) has worked as an art therapist, case manager, and art teacher in residential treatment centers, juvenile detention centers and specialized/alternative schools, as well as public schools. She now lives in Guangzhou, China, where she is developing an art program at a founding international school.
Brandon Soder (’08) is a freelance photographer in Santa Fe. He has worked with SITE Santa Fe, the Santa Fe Opera, and Meow Wolf.
Contemporary music alumni:
David Broyles (’97) is a lecturer of music theory and songwriting at the Academy of Contemporary Music at the University of Central Oklahoma. Alissa Moreno (’98), has written theme songs for television shows and hits for Rascal Flatts and Vince Gill. Jenny Luna (’08) lives in Brooklyn and works as a musician, composer, and educator. Elise Southwick (’09) lives in Santa Fe. She plays with Treemotel and performs solo work as Elise Marie, and she is a professional aerialist and acrobat with Wise Fool New Mexico and AIDA Cruises. Alysha Shaw (’09) earned a degree in politics and interdisciplinary art, focusing on music, installation, and performance art. She lives in Santa Fe, where she performs with the Rumelia Collective and is involved in community organizing.
Moving image arts alumni:
Liza Bambenek (’98) lives near Santa Fe and has done camera work on locally-set productions that include Longmire, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, and Crazy Heart.
Eric Trenkamp (’00) is on the film and video faculty of the Pratt Institute. His new short film, Park Slope, recently premiered at the Manhattan Film Festival. Neil Lee Thompsett (’06) is a VFX artist in Hollywood whose credits include Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Transformers: Age of Extinction. Curtis Busker (’09) runs the video production company Simply Cinema in Albuquerque.