Class of 1985 | 2014 | Issue 1

Mary Beth writes: The flurry of 50th birthday celebrations has been lots of fun. I remember being a student at Wesleyan and thinking turning 30 would feel strange! This past fall I had brunch with Desirée Alvarez, Amy Seplin and Liz Maher Muoio, whose daughter, Molly ’17, is a frosh. Joe Muoio ’13 attended Homecoming 2013 weekend last fall with Molly and members of his former Wesleyan football team, including Head Coach and Wesleyan Athletic Director Mike Whalen ’83. Wes enjoyed victories over Amherst and Williams this year, winning our first Little Three Crown since 1970. Desiree, Amy and I had to feign interest in football while Liz explained how remarkable this achievement is. But, really: WOW. Congratulations and thank you, Mike! Amy Seplin has been a film editor since graduating from Columbia Film School, working in NYC on documentaries, and has now returned to Columbia to become a nurse practitioner. By the time you read this, we will have surprised her with a birthday toast at Bemelmen’s Bar. Desirée Alvarez is an artist and poet living in Soho. She exhibits widely and her fabric art can be seen at Central Booking Gallery on the Lower East Side. She designed sets for Gayathri Khemadasa and Jeff Hush ‘84’s Phoolan Devi Opera, which was performed at South Church in Middletown last spring. She also teaches at New York City College of Technology, CUNY. You can see more work and get more details at her website. Last April Desirée had an exhibit at Piermont Straus Gallery, owned by Laura Straus ’88, where Patty Fabricant has also exhibited. Patty has been hard at work designing many beautiful books over the years, and drawing and painting seriously in more recent years. She has now amassed an impressive and varied portfolio of work, and she is exhibiting more widely; details and images are available on her website. Patty and I had dinner last fall with Ellen MacLeod Korbonski, who has two young daughters and is also creating artwork in varied media, including some mesmerizing embroidery.

I attended the Second Annual Guitar Mash in New York, an interactive play-and-sing-along fundraising event, co-produced by Brooklynite Maureen McSherry ’87, who has become an all-around theatrical and event producer. She is a producer of Matilda, The Musical, and a producer of The Williamsburg Independent Film Festival. She also produced a beautiful, talented daughter who is trying to launch an acting career.

Michael Stephen Schultz ’84 and I also attended Dana Lesley Goldstein’s play, Daughters of the Sexual Revolution, at Workshop Theatre in New York this past fall, and was happy to learn that Dana was getting inquiries from additional producers as a result of this production. The play is about a family with a daughter who attends a liberal arts college in New England, which felt familiar.

I am hearing good things from friends who have attended the Wesleyan Sons and Daughters weekend, which I attended last year with my son. It’s a smart way to start the college application process, helped us tremendously, and I recommend it to everyone with children in high school. Keep the notes coming, and happy birthday to the last few of you who have yet to cross over. Feels fine on this side.

CAROLINE WILKINS and MARY BETH KILKELLY
mbkeds@Yahoo.com
cwilkins85@yahoo.com