John Ulrich has joined the Rational USA team as the vice president, business unit key accounts North America. The company is the market and technology leader for professional cooking appliances for commercial kitchens.

You can read more about John and his new position at http://www.qsrmagazine.com/news/rational-welcomes-new-vp-ulrich.

A long-time artistic associate at Porchlight Music Theatre, Sarah has landed the lead role in Bells Are Ringing, the upcoming Porchlight Revisits… production. The Porchlight Revisits… series raises the curtain on “forgotten” Broadway musicals.

Bells Are Ringing is set in 1950’s New York, where Ella Peterson, an operator at telephone message service,  “Susanswerphone,” falls for one of her clients, aspiring playwright Jeff Moss, AKA telephone number “Plaza 0 double-four double three.” But Ella, unsure of herself, assumes other identities in an effort to keep the conversation continuing—and the comical plot thickens.

Bells Are Ringing will play October 28 and 29 at Stage 773 in Chicago.

Rachael has spent another great season in Ashland with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. This season, she has performed in two productions, as the Baker’s Wife in “Into the Woods” and as Sheriff’s Auxiliary, Muriel Humphrey, Pat Nixon and Ensemble in “The Great Society”. Reviews for both productions can be found through the links.

Now the production of “Into the Woods” (for which Amanda Dehnert (’94) is the director and music director) has been announced as part of the new season at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, where it will run from December 2-21; Rachael’s husband will be performing in the production as well. When the production closes, Rachael and her family will return to Rhode Island where she and her husband are both Resident Actors at Trinity Repertory Company.

David Brown, a ’96 English major graduate, is now managing editor of Defense News, based in the Washington, D.C. metro area. According to its website, “Defense News is the authoritative, independent, professional news source for the world’s defense decision-makers. In print and online, Defense News provides the global defense community with the latest news and analysis on defense programs, policy, business and technology. With bureaus and reporters around the world, Defense News sets the standard for accuracy, credibility and timeliness in defense reporting. The weekly newspaper circulates to top leaders and decision-makers in North America and in Europe, Asia and the Middle East.”

Previously, Dave worked as managing editor of the Navy Times and Marine Corps Times.

I hope so, because Shut In, a new psychological horror thriller written by T.J. Cimfel and David White, began production this week!

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film will star Beth Riesgraf as “a woman who suffers from agoraphobia so crippling that when a trio of criminals break into her house, she cannot bring herself to flee. But what the intruders don’t realize is that agoraphobia is not her only psychosis.”

Cimfel and White’s script previously won Best Horror Feature Screenplay at the 2011 Shriekfest and was on the 2012 Blood List of Hollywood’s top unproduced horror screenplays.

Can’t wait for a good scare? You can already see one of Cimfel’s other movies! No Tell Motel is available on DVD or through Amazon’s Instant Video.

Lookie, lookie! Bloomington-Normal has made a list of the 50 best college towns in America!

More than 5,000 alumni showed their support by making a gift to IWU in fiscal year 2014!

And for the second year straight, Illinois Wesleyan alumni have grown our alumni giving percentage. We are now at 23%!

THANK YOU for doing your part to keep IWU strong.