Purchase College Graduates Help Make Sure Stage Management, Scenery and Lighting Befit Clinton Global Initiative Event’s Prestige

New York, NY (September 24, 2013) -- The Clinton Global Initiative’s (CGI) annual meeting is being held this week in New York City, and is featuring such notables as President Barack Obama, former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair, former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein , and countless others.   

These notables, along with hosts Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton, will be front and center at the event. But behind the scenes, ensuring stage management, lighting and scenery befit an occasion of this prestige, will be a team of top designers, stage managers, and technicians, many of whom hail from the Design/Technology Program in the Conservatory of Theatre Arts at Purchase College, SUNY, in Westchester, New York.

“This is one of the most important meetings in the world geared toward philanthropic endeavors. It is vitally important to make sure the event’s environment conveys the message of the organization’s mission and allows participants—some of the most notable anywhere—to be as effective as possible,” said Dan Hanessian, an associate professor of Theatre Design/Technology at Purchase College and a scenic design technical liaison for the CGI event.

Among the top experts from Purchase College helping manage the event are Dave Grill, (Purchase ’86), who is the Lighting Designer and Creative Director; Patrick Fahey (Purchase ’91) who is the Scenic Designer; and Jeffrey Markowitz (Purchase ’84), who is the Production Stage Manager.  Grill’s work on this event comes on the heels of his just winning his second Emmy Award, this one for Outstanding Lighting Design/Lighting Direction for a Variety Special for his work as Lighting Director on the Super Bowl XLVII Halftime Show Starring Beyoncé.

“It's an honor to lead the Stage Management team of 25 professionals for the ninth year on this unique occasion,” said Markowitz.  “We bring together an exceptional group to do our best to shepherd an exceptional event with the highest-profile participants and attendees with courtesy, punctuality and technical excellence through an arduous climate of security, expectations and endless changes, all leading to a successful conclusion.  Those of us fortunate to have years at SUNY Purchase in the Design/Technology program in our background are well prepared from the outset of our careers to develop the energy, diplomacy, technical skills and care to play our part.”

Grill added: “It’s great to be able to work on a project like this with so many former and current students from the Design/Technology Program.  It reminds me just how lucky we are to have such a successful program and so many talented folks who have gone through it.”

In addition to Grill, Fahey, Markowitz and Hanessian, another 19 from Purchase College are also involved in the CGI event, including: Associate Scenic Designers Corey Atwood (2005), Jennifer Colombo (2005), Robert John Andrusko (1990), Veronica Kimmel (2008), Danielle Shultz (2013), and Chris Thompson (2010); Stage Manager Meghan VonVett (2007); Assistant Stage Manager Jason Quinn (2001); Production Crew members Niklas Anderson (2002) and Steven Loehle (1985); Stage Management student interns Peter Chang (2014) and Natalie Price (2014); Lighting Director Jay Woods (2001); and Lighting Design student interns Nathan Avakian (2014), Catherine Clark (2014), Kelley Finn (2014), Rebekah Gould (2014), Dana Ioppolo (2014), Laura Panno (2014), Christina Robinson (2014) and Emily Rodriguez (2014).

The Clinton Global Initiatives meeting convenes more than 1,000 CGI members and leaders from business, government, the nonprofit sector, and philanthropy to create solutions to some of the world’s most pressing challenges. Members at the Annual Meeting develop commitments: new, specific, and measurable plans to address one of the world’s most pressing challenges, in areas ranging from Environmental Stewardship to Education & Workforce Development to Global Health. Convening under the 2013 theme “Mobilizing for Impact,” participants will explore how to create lasting and scalable success in their commitment efforts by effectively leveraging people, partner organizations, and key resources.

In addition to the Annual Meeting’s plenary sessions, CGI members will also engage in networking, partnering, and learning opportunities through a variety of engaging formats, including highly interactive design workshops, commitment-based community dialogues, pitch sessions, and conversations with global leaders, which will be moderated by Fareed Zakaria, host of “CNN-GPS”; Charlie Rose, host of “Charlie Rose”; Piers Morgan, host of CNN’s “Piers Morgan Tonight”; and Maria Bartiromo, anchor of CNBC's "Closing Bell with Maria Bartiromo” and “On the Money with Maria Bartiromo,” and taped for broadcast.

About Purchase College – SUNY: Purchase College, part of the State University of New York (SUNY) network of 64 universities and colleges, was founded in 1967 by Governor Nelson Rockefeller. His aspirations for Purchase were to combine on one campus conservatory training in the visual and performing arts with programs in the liberal arts and sciences. Today, Purchase College–SUNY is a community of students, faculty, and friends where open-minded engagement with the creative process leads to a lifetime of intellectual growth and professional opportunity. For more information about the College, visit www.purchase.edu