The Design Program at David Geffen School of Drama at Yale Welcomes Jill BC Du Boff and Mikah Berky

	(l-r) Jill BC Du Boff and Mikah Berky

Jill BC Du Boff has been appointed to the faculty at David Geffen School of Drama at Yale and head of the Sound Design Concentration and will also serve as sound design advisor at Yale Repertory Theatre. She joins the leadership of the Design Program which includes co-chairs Riccardo Hernández and Toni-Leslie James, who serve as heads of the Set Design and Costume Design Concentrations respectively; Stephen Strawbridge, head of the Lighting Design Concentration; and Wendall K. Harrington, head of the Projection Design Concentration.

"Jill BC Du Boff brings to Yale both her significant experience as a theater artist, and many years of teaching the fundamentals of design, as well as a capacious understanding of how theory and practice are applied in film, television, radio, video games, podcasts, and sonic branding," says James Bundy, Elizabeth Parker Ware Dean of David Geffen School of Drama. "I look forward to her leadership of our program and her contributions to the field as she puts her own stamp on the Sound Design Concentration in the years to come."

Du Boff is a graduate of the New School with a B.A. in Dramaturgy and taught for eight years at Sarah Lawrence College. Her professional theatre career spans hundreds of resident theater and Off-Broadway productions and over two dozen on Broadway. Her Broadway credits include Summer, 1976; Hand to God; Other Desert Cities; Wit; Good People; and Disgraced. For five years, she was the senior audio producer at The New Yorker, leading the podcast slate and producing The New Yorker Radio Hour for WNYC, and most recently, she has served as the director of audio for Marvel, producing ongoing fiction, talk, and documentary series. Du Boff is an OBIE and Lilly Award winner and was shortlisted for the Publisher Podcast Hero of the Year in 2023. She is married to Adam Lerman and together they have two children.

"I am honored and excited to step into this role and join the incredible program that David Budries created," shares Du Boff, "The School of Drama faculty is made up of so many world-class theater makers -- all of whom I look forward to collaborating with in years ahead. Yale has trained some of the best designers I've worked with in my career, and I look forward to championing and evolving the Sound Design program to support tomorrow's talent."

Mikah Berky will join the Design Program faculty on December 1, 2023, and will also serve as Scenic Charge at Yale Repertory Theatre.

"Mikah Berky is a versatile and ambitious theatremaker and teacher, and I am delighted to welcome her to our community," says Bundy. "I am certain that Mikah's tenure will enhance the legacy of excellence that has been the hallmark of Yale's training in Design for nearly a century, exemplified today by each and every faculty member in the program."

Berky served for eight years at Oregon Shakespeare Festival as assistant scenic charge and scenic charge artist and has worked previously as a freelance scenic artist for shows at Lookingglass Theatre, Santa Fe Opera, Steppenwolf, and Baltimore Center Stage, among others. Berky is a graduate of Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, where she majored in theater, minored in creative writing, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She anticipates receiving her M.F.A. in advanced theatre Practice at London's Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, where she is currently enrolled. She previously taught at Furman University and Southern Oregon University.

Berky says she's "thrilled to be joining the strong creative community at Yale and looks forward to future collaborations."

Biographies of the entire Design Program faculty are published online.

Applications for Fall 2024 admission will be accepted beginning September 1, 2023.