Schuler joins The Producers international tour

Dropping out of school is rarely a cause for celebration, but it is for Chaunteé Schuler, ’03

In November Schuler took a leave of absence from the Actors Studio Drama School in New York to join an international tour of The Producers, a Broadway show that won 12 Tony Awards. Schuler was in her second year at the drama school on a scholarship from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation that pays as much as $50,000 per year for up to six years of graduate or professional education.

“We’re proud to have helped Chaunteé begin her graduate studies,” says Dr. Matthew J. Quinn, the foundation’s executive director. “She’s a wonderfully talented performer with a higher sense of purpose, and when that final performance in Tokyo ends [in July], we’ll be ready to help her finish her degree.”

While attending drama school in New York, Schuler missed the focus on performing that had been part of her undergraduate experience at Richmond, so she started auditioning for Broadway shows.

“I didn’t know anything” about auditioning, she recalls. “School and the real world are completely different. You can have all the talent in the world and not have the business sense and get nowhere.”

Nearly 1,000 performers sought the role that Schuler landed. The company invited 40 to a special audition in late October, and she got the part. In one week Schuler had to sublet her apartment, obtain a leave of absence from the drama school, ship her belongings to her parents’ home and board a plane for Eugene, Ore., where the company was already 18 months into its international tour. After two weeks of intense rehearsals, Schuler debuted in Salt Lake City in November.

“I was extremely nervous,” she says. “Your opening night is the first time you do the full show.” But Schuler has adapted to life in the spotlight. Now, she says, “performing every night in front of thousands of people is just what I do.”

Schuler plays seven roles in The Producers, ranging from a hooker and a showgirl to an old woman and a Nazi soldier.

At age 22, Schuler is the youngest member of the cast, which is no surprise to anyone who followed her whirlwind college career. She earned her degree in only three years, majoring in theatre and minoring in political science. She served as academic affairs committee chair in the Westhampton College Student Government Association and as president of Mortar Board Senior Honor Society. Schuler performed with the Ngoma African Dance Company and the Umoja Gospel Choir, and she acted in University and professional productions.

“I’m really ambitious,” Schuler says. “I’m always jumping the gun on taking that next step. If I stopped to think about what I’m doing, I would think I’m really crazy.”

Schuler knew little about theater until she reached high school, where she was told, “You can’t do that.” During an intensive summer of theater training, however, her self-confidence soared.

“Chaunteé remembers facing rejection in the theater because, as a young, black girl, she didn’t ‘match’ other students,” according to her bio at the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation. “She also endured ridicule from members of the minority community because theater was not a typical activity for students of color.”

Schuler, however, has no time for naysayers. She is too busy following her star.

“It’s unbelievable!” she says. “It’s the life I’ve always dreamed of. I go to work at 7, do the show at 8 and get home at 11. I have plenty of time to pursue all my hobbies,” including dancing, working out and “learning to speak some Japanese.”

By Karl Rhodes

ReMine lectureship honors prominent surgeon

The Priestley Society, the Mayo Clinic’s surgical staff and alumni organization, has established the ReMine lectureship to honor

Dr. William H. ReMine Jr., R’40 and H’65, for his “extraordinary contributions to the heritage of surgery” at the world-renowned clinic.

ReMine is a retired gastrointestinal surgeon who has been honored many times during his 37-year career at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

The Priestley Society will use the annual ReMine lectureship to encourage surgeons at the pinnacle of their careers to share their experiences.

ReMine’s son, Dr. Stephen G. ReMine, presented the first lecture honoring his father at the October meeting of the Priestley Society in Puerto Rico. Stephen ReMine is a surgeon at Providence Hospital in Southfield, Mich. He also is president of the society for 2004–05.

© 2005, Richmond Alumni Magazine

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