Midway through my second year as Head of the Department of Theatre at UNCG, I am increasingly impressed with the quality of work being done by our faculty, staff, and students. I have also greatly enjoyed reconnecting with old friends from my student days here in the mid-1970s and meeting UNCG Theatre alumni of more recent vintage. I continue to marvel at the program’s growth and I welcome being a part of continuing the traditions of UNCG Theatre and creating new ones. I am supported by the intrepid duo of Connie Prater and Neil Shepherd, as well as the department’s “coordinators,” Jim Wren, Deb Bell, and John Wolf, not to mention the entire faculty and staff.

 

It has been an eventful year, to say the least. Last spring, UNCG Theatre’s Theatre for Young Audiences’ tour of Degas’ Little Dancer, directed by Jennifer Ridgway, received much acclaim throughout the tour, including as part of the childrens’ theatre festival at the Southeastern Theatre Conference, where I was pleased to attend a performance. All of this under the able supervision of Rachel Briley, who was granted tenure at UNCG last spring. Also during the spring, alumnus David Grapes collaborated with the Department of Theatre on a new work, Simply Simone, a revue drawn from the career of Nina Simone. The production, directed by Jeff West, was received with great enthusiasm and David reports that other theatre companies are gearing up for productions of this piece. Christine Morris directed a fine production of Love’s Fire, a work featuring an assortment of one-act plays by important contemporary American playwrights inspired by Shakespeare’s sonnets – Chris had a very involved production year, as she had taken over the direction of Sweeney Todd earlier in the year. John Gulley staged the world premiere of Michael Ferrell’s new play, Jersey Shore House, to an enthusiastic response from audiences and local critics, and the play recently continued its journey with a workshop production in New York City arranged by Stephanie Yankwitt and featuring Tony Award winner and UNCG Theatre alum Beth Leavel in the cast. The spring also featured Stephen Hyers’s MFA directing thesis production of Tales of the Lost Formicans. Stephen continues to head Greensboro’s City Arts program.

 

In February, I found myself on Saturday afternoon at the annual PlayWorks offered at Triad Stage by our Theatre Education Office under the supervision of Lorraine Shackelford. PlayWorks is an all-day event during which UNCG acting students rehearse and perform short plays written by middle and high school students. After a morning of intense rehearsal, the plays are presented in the afternoon to teacher, parents, and a responder, in this case Alan Cook. Although Alan retired at the end of 2006-07, he has returned as a most distinguished adjunct teaching our non-Western theatre course. Needless to say, I was very proud of our students for volunteering to participate in PlayWorks. Also at the event, Dr. Ethel Glenn, a legendary UNCG figure, was honored for her many contributions to Theatre Education.

 

The spring was topped off with the annual New York Showcase at which graduating BFA and MFA actors strut their stuff for professional agents, producers, etc. Michael Flannery took on the huge responsibility of setting up the Showcase events, which included a “dress rehearsal” for New York area UNCG alums, and the Showcase itself the next day. Jim Wren and John Gulley joined Michael to guide the students, while John Wolf saw to technical demands while Jody Cauthen and Neil Shepherd took care of publicizing the event and planning entertainment for alums, including Alexa (formerly Mary) Kelly, Glenn Jussen, Belle Wesel, Carly Price, Barry Schwartz, Ginny Lee, Stephanie Yankwitt, Josh Tyson, Chris Chalk, Jamie Dunn, Cara Reid, Jesse Pressler, Ben Holbrook, Amanda Martin, Emily Rieder, Sterling Hurst, Alex Marshall Brown, Brett Robinson, Alli Pentland, Eric Kuenneman, D. H. Johnson, Jenny Greer, Michael Ferrell, Michael Legg, Chrissy Fiorelli, Peter Duffy, Patty Walker Duffy, and Joe Morrissey, among many others.

 

The summer brought Theatre 232 (the current manifestation of the old summer rep) at Triad Stage. Jim Wren and Joe Sturgeon collaborated on a delightful theatre for youth play, Redbeard, and it featured a company of our students, who also appeared in David Ives’ bill of one-acts, Mere Mortals, which was performed in Triad’s new cabaret space. I had the pleasure of directing two on the five Ives one-acts presented – the others were directed by Jay Putnam, John Wolf, and Wade Hughes – and I enjoyed it thoroughly. The students also appeared in the Triad’s mainstage production of Bloody Blackbeard, about the legendary pirate, and acquitted themselves admirably in a lavish, epic production. The play was written by Preston Lane, the Triad’s artistic director, who also is co-coordinating our MFA Directing program with Tom Humphrey. Our collaboration with Triad Stage continues to bloom, with many students working on and off stage gaining considerable professional experience. Our students also continue to perform in other area theatres, including the North Carolina Shakespeare Festival, The Community Theatre of Greensboro, Open Stage Theatre, etc., as their school schedules permit.

 

With the new school year of 2008-09, we welcomed a new colleague, Christine Woodworth, who is teaching our theatre history courses, as well as playscript analysis, Introduction to Graduate Studies, and others. Chris comes to us from a stint at Pennsylvania’s Lock Haven University. Her Ph.D. is from Bowling Green State University, with an M.A. from Indiana University and B.A. from St. Lawrence University. Chris plunged right in, working as dramaturg on all three fall productions, Big River, Holiday, and The Revenger’s Tragedy, and is writing about British feminist playwright Sarah Kane.

 

The fall also brought our Angels opening party, held this year in the lavish new lower lobby of the fabulously renovated Aycock Auditorium, brought out a host of benefactors and alumni, including Herman Middleton, Marian Smith, Kate Barrett, Camilla Millican Samuelson, Angela Cobb, and numerous others. During the fall, I had the privilege of directing Philip Barry’s Holiday in the recently renovated Brown Theatre, working with an outstanding group of student actors and designers. Aycock Auditorium reopened this fall and among its first events was UNCG Theatre’s production of the musical Big River, directed by John Gulley, with a huge cast and impressive production values. Our final production of the fall semester, The Revenger’s Tragedy, freely adapted by Jim Wren and Joe Sturgeon from Thomas Middleton’s Jacobean play, was a true epic – with a cast of thirty-five and spectacular visual effects. The production, inspired in part by such popular films as Kill Bill and Sin City, was a thrill ride for its audiences and challenged cast and designers alike. By the way, John Wolf, who created spectacular lighting for the production, was promoted to Full Professor last spring and he continues to serve as UNCG’s production coordinator and has taken significant responsibility for facilities matters, including the recent renovations of Aycock and Brown buildings.

 

Speaking of renovations, the lobby of Taylor Theatre will be getting a facelift over the next few months, and some other spaces around the building will be spruced up as well. In addition, a new lift from the street level to Taylor lobby will be installed, hopefully in time to provide access for disabled and elderly patrons to attend performances coming as part of the Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival regionals, which UNCG Theatre is hosting in early February 2009. Our production of The Revenger’s Tragedy is also entered in the festival.

 

Over fall break, Deb Bell escorted the graduate design students to Washington, D.C. for an eventful round of theatre-going and exploring the inner workings of such D.C. area theatres as The Shakespeare Theatre, Signature Theatre, Studio Theatre, and the Eisenhower Theatre at the Kennedy Center. Deb continues her extraordinary work interviewing and writing about international mask-makers. She has published several interviews and essays in Theatre Design & Technology in recent years and is moving toward a book on the subject.

 

On a grant from the Bell Foundation, which is supporting the university’s Entrepreneurship in the Arts initiative, Jody Cauthen developed a new arts management course and Rachel Briley and I serve on the EIA committee, which is chaired by John Lee Jellicorse. Recent graduate Josh Purvis stepped in to teach movement classes while Marsha Paludan recovered from some health issues, and Josh and his wife, current graduate student Annika Pfaender Purvis, expect a baby on December 24.

 

Randy McMullen has taken on major responsibilities as the department’s assessment czar and in the area of recruitment, while continuing an active career as a scene designer here and elsewhere. Chip Haas attended a week-long rigging seminar as he moves toward certification. Noah Davis has worked tirelessly on installing new sound equipment for Brown Theatre and mounting Big River, our first production in newly reopened Aycock Auditorium. Virginia Provencher, our stage carpenter, left UNCG to pursue an MFA in Design at the UC-San Diego, and has been replaced by Chad Hain, who joins Jeff Gillis in the scene shop. In the costume shop, Julian Cheek, Jennifer Stanley, and Gay Hensley continue their long and able service to the department. Marc Williams, a UNCG Theatre alum, continues to teach a popular on-line version of our Drama Appreciation course.

 

A visit by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, Tony Kushner, was initially scheduled for October 28, but was postponed due to a personal emergency for Mr. Kushner. He was rescheduled to appear December 3, when he will make a class visit, be feted at a reception, and do a reading and on-stage Q&A (interviewed by me) that evening. Needless to say, the students are very excited about his appearance. This event was funded in part by the College of Arts and Sciences at UNCG, with a particular helping hand from Bob Hansen, and generous contributions from Marian Smith and Herman Middleton, among others. I had a delightful lunch one day with the ageless Herman Middleton, who also attended an alumni gathering during the run of Simply Simone and the opening Angels event this fall.

 

Over the course of this year, I have had the great pleasure of hearing from many UNCG alumni, reminding me of the diversity of experiences typical for our graduates. A case in point is Johnny O. Pickett, who earned an M.F.A. in Design-Technical Theatre from UNCG. He is currently is a Flying Director for Flying by Foy and has worked on such productions as Spamalot (in Chicago, on Broadway, on the national tour, etc.), Pirate Queen (in Chicago), and Wicked (in Tokyo). He has also worked with Siegfried and Roy, for the MTV Music Video Awards, the Billboard Awards, and many others, along with working as a university professor and a lighting designer. Another is Marty Johnson, who was recently elected to the Board of Director of The Theatre for Young Audiences/USA Membership. Also, Carl Lefko was elected President of USITT and took the reins of office on July 1, 2008. Bonnie Lee Becker is currently stage manager for the Broadway production of Billy Elliot, in the midst of a career that has included stage management of many Broadway productions. Sara Stuart works in partnership with her husband, Karl Stiegelbauer, running ADCO, a media production company and their daughter, Mary, is a UNCG sophomore dance major. Dana and I see a great deal of Mina Penland, who works as Assistant Registrar at Salem College, and Mina’s husband, Craig Fuller, a talented actor and teacher. Barry Schwartz, whose son, Josh Schwartz, is a current UNCG Theatre major, visits regularly – Barry has retired from his executive position with the Fox network and is attending a seminary. Mitchel Sommers continues his long tenure as artistic director of The Community Theatre of Greensboro. Lynn Emmert is an art quilter whose work has been featured in numerous national exhibitions. Susan Mickey is a designer on the faculty of the University of Texas at Austin. Michael Lilly produced a play about Thomas Wolfe in Asheville, with Fran Adams among the performers, and Brenda Lilly continues with a highly successful writing career and has paid a few visits to Greensboro during which we lunched and laughed about old times. Deborah Kintzing works with a local Jewish organization and directs at The Broach Theatre and elsewhere. Ed Simpson, who has had a distinguished playwriting career (in addition to work as an actor and director), is heading the Department of Theatre at High Point University at present, but is also teaching playwriting for us UNCG. His new work, Periphery, about the Greensboro lunch counter sit-in, was performed at the Greensboro Historical Society. At last year’s UNCG Theatre reunion party at the Southeastern Theatre Conference such alums as Lynn Lockrow, Herschel Harper, Tim and Lisa Bohn, Barbara Sloan, Hardy and Lori Bartlett Koenig, Sandy Foreman, Keith Martin, Eric Olson, and others turned up. During the year, Dana and I had a chance to catch up with Tom Behm on one of his periodic visits to Greensboro. By the way, Hardy Koenig is working for the Southeastern Theatre Conference, but finding time to teach as an adjunct for the Department of Theatre.

 

There was also a sad loss suffered this year when Hall Parrish, a BFA in Acting from the early 1970s, died after a six months battle with liver cancer. Hall and his longtime partner, Stephen Gee, another UNCG theatre alum with an MFA in Directing, founded Greensboro’s Broach Theatre twenty years ago and shortly before Hall became ill, the two had appeared together in the Broach’s production of A Tuna Christmas. Hall’s memorial service was something of a reunion of UNCG theatre alums, including Marnie Andrews, Katherine Cortez, Sybil Rosen, Barry Bell, Bill Raulerson, Mina Penland, Rob Jarvis, Glenn Jussen, Bell Wesel, and others. Hopefully, the next gathering will be for a happier occasion.

 

As many of you already know, our beloved movement teacher, Marsha Paludan, has been experiencing significant health problems for more than a year. At present, she is recuperating in a rehab facility in Greensboro and I know many of you will join all of us in hoping for her speedy recovery.