In This Section:
The play's the thing - Gary English, fine arts
Adapting addiction treatments to gambling - Nancy Petry, medicine

English has designs on theater

Photo: Peter Morenus

Gary English, professor and head of dramatic arts, is directing a special adaptation of Julius Caesar at UConn this fall.

Gary English wears a lot of hats.

Named the recipient of a 2003 Board of Trustees Distinguished Faculty Award, English is head of the department of dramatic arts, founding artistic director of the Connecticut Repertory Theatre (CRT), professor of stage design and directing, and a working director and stage designer. English came to UConn in 1988 and was appointed department head in 1993. His tenure has been an exciting one. Not only will the dramatic arts department be part of the structural redesign of the fine arts complex, but also will soon have a new on-campus theater - the Nafe Katter Thrust Stage Theatre. The facility, named after the emeritus professor of dramatic arts who donated $1 million to the University, will open in October with a special adaptation of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, directed by English.

"We'll be collaborating with the UConn Center for Human Rights," he says, "so it promises to be a unique and powerful production."

As an educator, English believes students learn best when working in a professional environment. That's the idea behind the CRT, which English founded in 1993.

"We put together the best students, professionals and teachers and create a dynamic mix that not only results in better work - which audiences certainly appreciate - but also gives students the opportunity to learn and grow. They also establish contacts, which in the theater is a definite advantage," he says.

English remains extremely active, with a long list of directing and stage design credits in regional theater, Broadway, off-Broadway, television and university theater productions.

As stage designer, English says he tries "to create a landscape, a physical place but, depending on the play, that literal landscape can become a social, political, or philosophical landscape as well."

English is working as stage designer in Charles Morey's Alexander Dumas and the Lady of the Camellias for the Pioneer Theatre Company in Salt Lake City. The play was first seen at the CRT's New Playwright's Lab workshop at UConn.

"The play takes place in a theater during a rehearsal of La Traviata," English says, "but the environment is filled with the ghosts and images of Dumas' past as time shifts from past to present. The rehearsal piano becomes the piano at a party in [the central character] Violetta's apartment. In fact, everything on stage has a double or triple meaning."

It seems a fitting play for a man who wears as many hats as Gary English.
- John Surowiecki '66 (CLAS) '78 M.A.

Nancy Petry has pioneered studies on gambling addiction

Photo: Peter Morenus

Nancy Petry has gained widespread recognition for her landmark research on compulsive gamblers.

A few years ago, the behavioral similarities between victims of substance abuse and compulsive gambling piqued the interest of Nancy Petry, a psychologist at the UConn Health Center. Could treatments found to be effective for cocaine and heroin addicts also work for people who struggled to control their gambling? Petry set out to find the answer.

Forging a relationship with the Compulsive Gambling Treatment Program in Middletown, Conn., Petry began a study that has established her as a pioneer in this uncharted territory. No one in the nation was conducting clinical trials on identifying the most effective treatments for problem gamblers, when in 1999 Petry received an unprecedented five-year, $1 million grant from the National Institutes of Mental Health, a branch of the National Institutes of Health, to expand her research.

"At that point," says Petry, "the NIH had never supported any work on gambling treatment."

Since then Petry has conducted a number of studies related to gambling and gained widespread national attention. NBC Nightly News, the BBC, and National Public Radio have interviewed Petry, and her research has been featured in USA Today, The New York Times, and other major newspapers. She produced one of the first empirical studies to describe gender differences among pathological gamblers who seek treatment. Gambling is on the rise, and problem gambling will likely increase correspondingly, she says, noting, "current estimates are that 10 to 15 percent of adolescents have a gambling problem."

Before her landmark gambling studies, Petry's main focus had been in substance abuse treatment. In her clinical studies, she employs a behavioral therapy called "contingency management," which uses incentives to encourage addicts to participate and remain in the treatment process. Patients earn T-shirts, gift certificates - even television sets - for complying with treatment protocols. Research has shown that addicts stay in treatment longer and achieve longer periods of abstinence when contingency management is part of the therapy. Petry is beginning to apply these same ideas with gamblers as well.

Petry's innovative work in addiction and gambling has won her not only a number of major research grants but also several significant awards. In 2003, the 35-year-old researcher was honored with the American Psychological Association's Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contribution to Psychology.

Petry divides her time between overseeing several federally funded research projects and teaching post-doctoral students, candidates for the masters in public health, medical students and psychiatry residents about addiction. While she devotes much of her energy toward data analysis and publishing results, she never forgets that the science has a human face.

Says Petry, "I like finding things that have never been found before, finding something in the data that shows there might be a better way to treat people, finding unexpected things that might actually make a difference in somebody's life."
- Leslie Virostek