PlayMakers Repertory Company

PlayMakers Repertory Company is the professional theater company in residence at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.^[1] PlayMakers Repertory Company is the successor of the Carolina Playmakers and is named after the Historic Playmakers Theatre. PlayMakers was founded in 1976 and is affiliated with the Dramatic and performing arts at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The company consists of residents, guest artists, professional staff and graduate students in the Department for Dramatic Arts at UNC and produces seasons of six main stage productions of contemporary and classical works that run from September to April. PlayMakers Repertory Company has a stage series, PRC², that examines controversial social and political issues. The company has been acknowledged by the Drama League of New York and the American Theatre magazine for being one of the top fifty regional theaters in the country.^[2] PlayMakers operate under agreements with the Actors' Equity Association, United Scenic Artists, and the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers.^[3]

History of the Carolina Playmakers

In 1918, Professor Frederick Koch came to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to teach the University's first courses in playwriting. In that same year, he founded the Carolina Playmakers theatre company for the production of these original plays.^[4] Koch and the Playmakers mainly produced what they considered to be “folk plays.” Koch defined a folk play as being based on “the legends, superstitions, customs, environmental differences, and the vernacular of the common people.” He saw them as primarily “realistic and human,” and chiefly concerned with “man’s conflict with the forces of nature and his simple pleasure in being alive.” ^[5]

Working with folk plays encouraged Koch's students to write about the small communities and rural populations they were likely familiar with, and, as in the experience of Paul Green, to address the experiences of "marginalized populations of the South," such as African-Americans and American Indians.^[6]

The Carolina Playmakers began touring locally in 1920, then state-wide the following year. In 1922, the first series of Carolina Folk Plays was published, which included five plays written and produced by the Playmakers. In 1925, Smith Hall, a building on campus previously used as a library and ballroom, was remodeled and dedicated as Playmakers Theatre for Playmakers performances.^[5]

A number of successful writers and actors honed their craft in the Carolina Playmakers. Novelist Thomas Wolfe wrote and acted in several plays as a UNC student - including taking the title role in "The Return of Buck Gavin" (also written by Wolfe) in the Playmakers' first bill of plays on March 14 and 15, 1919.^[7] Betty Smith, who would later write A Tree Grows in Brooklyn from her home in Chapel Hill, first came to town in 1936 as part of the WPA Federal Theater Project, and wrote many plays for the company.^[5] In the late 1940s, Andy Griffith had featured roles in several Playmakers performances, including Gilbert and Sullivan's "The Mikado" and "HMS Pinafore." ^[8]

Other notable writers associated with the Carolina Playmakers include Paul Green, Josefina Niggli, Kermit Hunter, John Patric,^[9] and Jonathan W. Daniels.

Venues

Historic Playmakers Theatre

The Historic Playmakers Theatre is a Greek Revival temple built in 1851 that was originally designed by New York architect Alexander Jackson Davis as a combined library and ballroom. Its original name, Smith Hall, was in honor of a former North Carolina Governor, named Benjamin Smith, who donated his land to the university for the building. After the building was also used as a laboratory, bath house, and law school, it became a theater in 1925. The theatre is the perpetual home of the Carolina Playmakers, although their successor, the Playmakers Repertory Company, uses the Paul Green Theatre as their primary venue. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971 and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1973. The Historic Playmakers Theatre is also one of the oldest buildings dedicated to the arts of the university. The theatre is located next to South Building on East Cameron Avenue on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.^[10]

Paul Green Theatre

The Paul Green Theatre was completed in 1976 as a 500 seat facility. Located in the Center for Dramatic Arts on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, this building is the primary use of the PlayMakers Repertory Company. The company's annual six Mainstage productions are featured in this facility. The Paul Green Theatre is also the home to the professional actors, directors, and artists from across the nation.^[11]

Kenan Theatre

The Elizabeth Price Kenan Theatre was built in 1999 as an extension to the Paul Green Theatre. The Kenan Theatre seats between 120 to 265 depending on the stage configuration and is considered a Black box theatre. It features the productions of the PlayMakers Repertory Company's second stage series, PRC². PRC² performs plays that examines controversial social and political issues.^[2] and it is supported by the North Carolina Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts. ^[12]

The venue also hosts productions by undergraduates in the Dramatic and Performing Arts at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Two student-run organizations, The Lab! Theatre and The Kenan Theatre Company, produce student-directed work in this venue. ^[13]

2011-2012 Season

Mainstage Season

• In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play) by Sarah Ruhl September 21 - October 9, 2011
• The Parchman Hour- Songs and Stories of the '61 Freedom Riders written and directed by Mike Wiley October 26 - November 13, 2011
• Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee November 30 - December 18, 2011
• The Making of a King Henry IV & Henry V by William Shakespeare in rotating repertory January 28 - March 4, 2012
• Noises Off by Michael Frayn April 4–22, 2012

PRC2 Season

• A Number by Caryl Churchill September 7–11, 2011
• No Child... written and performed by Nilaja Sun directed by Hal Brooks January 11–15, 2011
• Penelope written and performed by Ellen McLaughlin music composed by Sarah Kirkland Snider April 25–29, 2012 ^[14]

Artists

Actors

Justin Adams, David Adamson, LeDawna Akins, Josh Barrett, Dee Dee Batteast, Sarah Berk, Weston Blakesly, Brett Bolton, Janie Brookshire, Bryan Burton, Doug Bynum, Matt Carlson, Nathaniel P. Claridad, Julia Coffey, Jason Edward Cook, Jeffrey Blair Cornell, Toshia Cunningham, David Aron Damane, Kelsey Didion, Ray Dooley, John Dreher, Lenore Field, Julie Fishell, Matt Garner, Matthew Greer, Lucas Griffin, Kathryn Hunter-Williams, Rasool Jahan, Nilan Johnson, Thomasi McDonald, Randa McNamara, Jeffrey Meanza, Marianne Miller, Matthew Ellis Murphy, J. Alphonse Nicholson, Paul O'Brien, Katie Paxton, Kashif Powell, Jason Powers, Charlie Robinson, Jessica Sorgi, Allen Tedder, Ray Anthony Thomas, Jeremy Webb, Michael Winters ^[15]

Directors

Seret Scott, Libby Appel, Vivienne Benesch, Trezana Beverley, Mike Donahue, Brendon Fox, Wendy C. Goldberg, Joe Haj, Kathryn Hunter-Williams, Davis McCallum, Rob Melrose, Mike Wiley ^[15]

Creative Team

Bill Black, Jan Chambers, Helen Q. Huang, Tyler Micoleau, Cliff Caruthers, Peter West, Mike Yionoulis, Charles K. Bayang, Jade Bettin, Scott Bolman, Burke Brown, McKay Coble, Pat Collins, Jeffrey Blair Cornell, Alexander Dodge, Mike Donahue, Cecilia R. Durbin, Josh Epstein, Nelson T. Eusebio, III, Anthony Fichera, Roz Fulton, Ryan J. Gastelum, Katja Hill, Trevor Johnson, Gregory Kable, Anne Kennedy, Eric Ketchum, Lauren La May, Junghyun Georgia Lee, Richard Luby, Ashley Lucas, David McClutchey, Karen O'Brien, Kristin Parker, John Patrick, Kathy A. Perkins, Mark Perry, Robert Peterson, Rachel Pollock, Bonnie Raphael, Jamila Reddy, Ros Schwartz, Aya Shabu, Narelle Sissons, Sarah Smiley, Rozlyn Sorrell, Heather Stanford, Francesca Talenti, Justin Townsend, Craig Turner, Adam Versenyi, Marion Williams, Jiayun Zhuang ^[15]

See also

Dramatic and performing arts at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

References

External links

• http://www.playmakersrep.org/
• Link to digital version of "Carolina Folk Plays," edited by Frederick Koch, 1922
• Finding aid for UNC-Chapel Hill Department of Dramatic Art Collection, in North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives, includes many images from Playmakers productions.