Finnegan Named 1996 Fendrick Grant Recipient

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Buffalo actor and director Jerry Finnegan, assistant professor of theatre and dance at the University at Buffalo, has been selected to receive the 1996 David Fendrick Fund grant by the board of directors of the David R. Fendrick Foundation.

The $1,250 grant will make it possible for Finnegan to represent the Buffalo theater community this year in Scotland¹s Edinburgh Fringe Theatre Festival with his exceptional production of Samuel Beckett¹s one-man play, "Krapp's Last Tape."

Finnegan has a long association with several Buffalo theater companies, including the Irish Classical Theatre and Shakespeare in Delaware Park.

His excellent performances in productions of work by Beckett is well-established here through stagings of "Waiting for Godot," "Endgame" and, most recently, "Krapp's Last Tape," which represented the United States last fall in the First International Theatre Festival for Young Audiences in San Luis, Argentina.

The Fendrick Fund is one of very few philanthropic funds available to individual actors, directors, technicians, designers and producers. It was founded in memory of David Roos Fendrick, a critically applauded Western New York actor, director, writer and scholar known in part for the roles he played for Shakespeare in Delaware Park when it operated under the auspices of the UB Department of Theatre and Dance.

Several past Fendrick Fund grant recipients have been associated with UB. Robert Waterhouse, who received his doctorate in comparative literature from UB, received the 1991 grant to direct "The Seagull" by Anton Chekhov for the Buffalo Ensemble Theatre. Vincent O'Neill, UB adjunct professor of theatre and dance, received the award in 1995 to develop a stage adaptation of "Finnegan's Wake" by James Joyce for the Irish Classical Theatre Company.