NEW YORK -- "A teacher lives on the legacy of those we teach, and it's nice to see another chapter in those lives," said David Feldshuh, Cornell professor of theater and artistic director of Cornell's Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts. "This room is filled with remarkable people, and it gives us great joy to see you give back to the world, and we hope it gives back to you a sense of accomplishment."

Feldshuh was addressing more than 60 alumni and faculty of Cornell's Department of Theatre, Film and Dance who reconnected and reminisced at a March 10 reception at the Cornell Club in midtown Manhattan.

The nostalgic reunion of performing arts alumni was long overdue, Feldshuh told the gathering, which included many of his former students.

"David's Directing I and Directing II classes changed my life [and] made me want to do this. We sat and argued about scripts for 30 hours a week. He's still my mentor by e-mail," said Daniel Fischer '02, currently in the directing MFA program at The New School, who has worked on Broadway and off-Broadway shows, including six months as assistant resident director on "The Lion King."

Many attending were accomplished actors, directors and filmmakers. Others were entertainment industry executives, including Peter Entin '68, vice president of theater operations for the Schubert Organization; Nicole Soffin '88, an intellectual property attorney for NBA Properties Inc.; Mike Duffy '65, vice president of operations at ABC News; and Bruce Probst '78, senior vice president of interactive technology for HBO.

"I went into the media side of the business because I was trying to supplement my acting income," said Probst, who graduated from Cornell's former MFA theater program and joined HBO in 1983. "But I still act -- in the boardroom."

Soffin said she "spent every waking, breathing moment outside the ILR [Industrial and Labor Relations] school in a lot of theater productions," and her senior year leading the Whistling Shrimp improvisational comedy troupe. "I was performing in a group here in New York for about 15 years," she said. "I still love it. It's definitely my first love."

Her friend Jane Gabbert was one of Cornell's first resident professional teaching associates in 1986. "Bruce [Levitt] brought me in because we'd done a play together in New York," she said. "It's a wonderful idea that has stuck for 20 years." Her former students -- all non-theater majors -- have told her "the craft of acting that they learned has been a great benefit in their business life," she said.

Rori Bergman '02, a casting assistant for Laura Rosenthal Casting, is a principal (along with Amy Bravo '04) in the New York Theatre Experiment, now in its third season and dedicated to "producing and developing new works from the ground up," Bergman said. "We start out with a concept, and the director comes up with an experiment behind every show."

Neal Freeman '97 and Gad Guterman '96 reminisced about their roles at Cornell. "I had to take my clothes off in 'Caucasian Chalk Circle,'" recalled Freeman, who returned to Ithaca recently to direct "Vincent in Brixton" at the Schwartz Center.

"The theater program at Cornell is fantastic," Freeman said -- even without an MFA program. "People can come out with the experience and expertise to succeed without a degree. It's the best of both worlds."

Guterman was in "House of Blue Leaves" and "Working," among others, while studying theater and economics. He's now at the City University of New York Graduate Center working with former Cornell professor Marvin Carlson in a new Ph.D. program in theater history and theory. "I'm amazed at how well prepared Cornell got me for this," Guterman said. "The benefit of the practical experience was really rich."