Updates

A Permanent Fund for New Plays

In 2008, the School of Drama and the Yale Repertory Theatre got a three-year, $2.85 million grant from the Robina Foundation to nurture the development of new plays, resulting in the creation of the Yale Center for New Theatre (“Drama Grant Means More New Plays,” September/October 2008). The center has since given grants to 30 playwrights and aided in the premieres and subsequent productions of 12 new plays and musicals. Now, the foundation has given $18 million to endow the center’s work permanently. The center, now called the Binger Center for New Theatre after the Robina Foundation’s creator, James Binger ’38, will continue to commission, develop, and produce new works.

Student in Tailgating Accident Faces Charges

Nearly six months after an accident in the Yale Bowl parking lot that killed one woman and injured two others (“Tragedy in Lot D,” January/February 2012), New Haven police arrested Brendan Ross ’13, the driver of the U-Haul truck that struck the three pedestrians, on misdemeanor charges of negligent homicide and reckless driving. Ross was driving a truck loaded with beer kegs and several passengers to a tailgate party before the Yale-Harvard game when the accident occurred. The arrest warrant shed little light on how Ross lost control of the truck; police mechanics who examined the vehicle afterward found no evidence of mechanical problems that could have contributed to the crash.