Hollywood Comes to Kenyon

GAMBIER, Ohio (March 28, 2008) Trice Koopman '77 and Margrit Polak '77, friends and former classmates, will share the stage in Olin Auditorium on Thursday, April 3, to discuss the different paths they took to success as owners of talent-management companies in Los Angeles, California.

The Burton D. Morgan Foundation lecture, at 11:10 a.m., is called "Creating Careers: Two Paths."

Koopman started as an assistant at a small Los Angeles talent agency in 1979 and thrived through agency partnerships, mergers, and, finally, creation of her own talent-management company, Koopman Management, in 1997. She represents clients in London, Los Angeles and New York. Her stable includes actors Seth Green, Christine Estabrook, and Neal Huff.

Polak arrived in Los Angeles in the 1980s and became an acting instructor at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute. She pursued a career as an acting coach and teacher and launched a boutique management firm, Margrit Polak Management, in 1990. Among the actors she represents are Catherine Hicks, Jim Turner and Alanna Ubach.

A screening of the 2007 documentary film "Steal a Pencil for Me," directed by Michele Ohayon, accompanies the lecture. Polak translated 130 love letters written by her parents during their concentration-camp courtship amidst the Holocaust. The screening is at 7:00 p.m. Thursday in room 109 at Rutherford B. Hayes Hall. Polak will answer questions about the film after the screening.

The lecture and film screening are free and open to the public.

The lecture is funded by a grant from the Burton D. Morgan Foundation, based in Hudson, Ohio. The foundation provides grants in support of the free-enterprise system.