THEATER: Co-producer

• REDBIRD - a festival of new one-act plays by North Carolina playwrights, The ArtsCenter, Carrboro, 2015
  

As Jeri Lynn Schulke, artistic director of the ArtsCenter, is fond of saying,”Ideas are something we can work with.” Two years ago, when I approached her with the idea for this play festival, she went to work immediately. Developing and producing new works for the stage, it turns out, is a particular passion of hers, especially new works by local writers. I have been involved in theater as a writer, singer, actor, designer, but never as a producer. I wanted to do something “bigger than me.” Well, producing not one but five plays at once turned out to be very much bigger. But Jeri Lynn has taken the whole enterprise in stride, juggling rehearsal times and space for all these casts at once, engaging a first rate technical/production team, and most importantly always thinking about and promoting a culture of collaboration among the thirty-odd people it has taken to bring REDBIRD at last to the stage.

My thanks then, to Jeri Lynn Schulke, for embracing a big idea; to the talented group of playwrights whose works have been brought to life by five astonishingly inventive directors; to the casts and especially to the production team members who never once panicked at the number of balls they had to keep in the air at all times.

We did not plan it this way (except for length constraints, the playwrights were given carte blanche commissions) but 4 of the 5 plays developed for REDBIRD are adaptations of original works by North Carolina authors. My thanks to these authors, too, for allowing their work to be re-imagined as theater, in this way making REDBIRD a kind of exponentially local festival of new works for the stage.

THEATER: Professional Productions

• Shakespeare's Birthday: A celebration of his songs and words - directed by Jay O'Berski, Manbites Dog Theater 2003
• Julius Caesar - Angel; directed by Tom Marriott for Shakespeare & Originals, Manbites Dog Theater 2003
• Shakespeare in the Spring (songs and scenes) - Horace Williams House, collaboration with Shakespeare & Originials 2003; reprised as Shakespeare in September, Hyde Hall, UNC-Chapel Hill 2003
• The 30th Anniversary Extravaganza and Benefit - ArtsCenter Stage: Live at the Center, 2004
• Cabaret Berlin - House Production & Fundraiser for Little Green Pig,  2005
• Globalization, Empire & Imperialism (songs & scenes)- for The Historical Society, The Friday Center, UNC-Chapel Hill in collaboration with Little Green Pig, directed by Jay O'Berski, 2006
• In The Doghouse: The Execution of Dostoevsky, Serf (world premiere) - directed by Tom Marriott for Little Green Pig, Manbites Dog Theater, 2007
• Europe Central, Hilde Benjamin (world premiere)- directed by Jay O'Berski for Little Green Pig, Manbites Dog Theater, 2008
• Servant of Two Masters, Doctor - directed by Derrick Ivey for Deep Dish Theater, August 21 through September 13, 2008

THEATER: Student Productions

• Carousel, Carrie Pepperidge
• The Young Elizabeth, Elizabeth
• Pajama Game, Gladys
• Spoon River Anthology, various
• Hello Dolly, Ernestine
• The Lark, Joan
• Agammemnon, Cassandra

In 2004, I created and performed in Vincent, an appreciation of Edna St. Vincent Millay. There were three productions of the piece: in Maine, at Meredith College in Raleigh, and at ManBites Dog Theater in Durham, North Carolina.

A special interest of mine is bringing song into theatrical settings.

OPERAS:

Design by Dick Hill

I've been privileged to benefit from the teachings, coaching and master classes of: