Past News Articles

September 11, 2009
Sod Story: NC Picnic, Opening Sept. 11, Comes Complete With Layer of Grass
by Kenneth Jones
Playbill.com

Theatregoers at Triad Stage's revival of Williams Inge’s Picnic, the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama set over a hot Labor Day weekend, have been getting to their seats by crunching across a carpet of dead sod. It’s not an outdoor production.
Read the full article.

September 10, 2009
'Picnic' gets a perfect setting: real (dead) grass
by Dawn DeCwikiel-Kane
News & Record

Howard C. Jones designs big dreams. So when the Triad Stage scenic designer envisioned a lawn for his set of William Inge's drama, "Picnic," he naturally pictured real grass. But not a lush, plush lawn.
Read the full article.

September 6, 2009
Triad's Picnic, Starting Sept. 6, Will Be Played on a Grassy Stage in NC
by Kenneth Jones
Playbill.com

Triad Stage's new production of William Inge's Picnic, that late-summer-set play about a stranger upsetting emotions in a Kansas town, begins Sept. 6 in Greensboro, NC.
Read the full article.

August 19, 2009
Picnic Will Open Triad's Ninth Season in NC
by Kenneth Jones
Playbill.com

Casting is set for Triad Stage's new production of William Inge's Picnic, directed by artistic director Preston Lane, in Greensboro, NC.
Read the full article.

June 11, 2009
Modern-Day Tartuffe Adaptation Premieres at Triad in NC June 11
by Kenneth Jones
Playbill.com

A new 90-minute adaptation of Tartuffe, or The Hypocrite, Molière's 1664 classic of a family fooled by a falsely pious schemer, opens June 11 in a world-premiere engagement at Triad Stage in Greensboro, NC.
Read the full article.

May 21, 2009
Husband and Wife Weiss and McGuire Star in NC World Premiere of Modern-Day Tartuffe
by Kenneth Jones
Playbill.com

Casting has been announced for the world premiere of a 90-minute version of Tartuffe, or The Hypocrite, Molière's 1664 classic of a family fooled by a falsely pious schemer, to play June 7-28 at Triad Stage in Greensboro, NC.
Read the full article.

March 15, 2009
New Adaptation of Ghosts Materializes March 15 at NC's Triad Stage
by Kenneth Jones
Playbill.com

Triad Stage conjures Ghosts, the Henrik Ibsen play about family lies and legacies, in a world-premiere adaptation written and directed by Preston Lane, March 15-April 5 in Greensboro, NC.
Read the full article.

March 13, 2009
Triad Stage tackles another Ibsen play with "Ghosts"
by Brian Rose
Burlington Times-News

Things are about to get a little spooky at Triad Stage, and it isn't even Halloween. The downtown Greensboro theater will present a world-premiere adaptation of  Henrik Ibsen's "Ghosts" beginning with preview performances at 7:30 p.m. today, Tuesday and Wednesday.
Read the full article.

January 23, 2009
Music unites two strangers in "Black Pearl Sings!"
by Brian Rose
Burlington Times-News

America witnessed history last week when it inaugurated Barack Obama as the country's first African-American president. That's one of the reasons director Benny Sato Ambush is so excited to be a part of Triad Stage's next production: Frank Higgins' "Black Pearl Sings!"
Read the full article.

December 4, 2008
Sedaris' holiday hell comes to life again
by Joe Scott
GoTriad from the Greensboro News & Record

A department store "Santa" who refuses to break character, "elf" co-workers who used to work on TV soap operas and a kid encouraged by his parent to urinate on an indoor winter wonderland? It's all in a day's work for Crumpet, the main character of "The Santaland Diaries."
Read the full article.

November 26, 2008
Holiday traditions continue at Triad Stage
by Brian Rose
Burlington Times-News

The Christmas season invokes different feelings for different people. Some folks focus on the birth of Jesus, while others concentrate on shopping and gifts and Santa Claus. Triad Stage is offering something for each of those crowds this year with productions of David Sedaris' "Santaland Diaries" and Preston Lane's "Beautiful Star: An Appalachian Nativity."
Read the full article.

November 6, 2008
Triad Stage's scene stealer
by Dawn Decwikiel-Kane
Greensboro News & Record

Lil' Mo didn't aim for star status. Or maybe he did. He won't say. Four months ago, Lil' Mo was an abandoned kitten perhaps five weeks old, wanting little more than a good home.
Read the full article.

November 2008
Making Spirits Bright - See a Show: 'Beautiful Star' at Triad Stage
by Michael Breedlove
Greensboro Monthly

Preston Lane, Artistic Director at Triad Stage, is a strong believer in simplicity when it comes to Christmas. That’s why the playwright went out of his way to ensure his holiday production, Beautiful Star, stayed refreshingly simple.“We like to think of the play as sort of the antidote to all the extravagance we see around the holidays,” Lane says.
Read the full story.

October 28, 2008
Arts group pays honor to two for contributions
by Dawn Decwikiel-Kane
Greensboro News & Record

Preston Lane makes art. Pam Allen helps art get made. The United Arts Council of Greater Greensboro honored both for their contributions to the local arts scene at its annual Vanguard Society celebration Monday night at the Proximity Hotel.
Read the full article.

October 16, 2008
Triad Stage is the Triad's "Best Live Theater" Again!
GoTriad from the Greensboro News & Record

Greensboro's GoTriad readers vote Triad Stage "Best Live Theater" in the 2008 Readers' Choice Awards. That's six years in a row!
Read the full list of winners.

October 16, 2008
Triad Stage and Black Theatre: The A&T Connection
by Frank O'Neill
Carolina Peacemaker

As part of a diverse theatre community, Greensboro’s Triad Stage (TS) has made a conscientious effort to promote Black theatre. Productions include: Lynn Nottage’s “Crumbs from the Table of Joy” in Feb. 2002, the stage adaptation of Ernest Gaines’ “A Lesson before Dying” for the 2002 “One City, One Book” project, and August Wilson’s “Seven Guitars” with N.C. A&T, Feb., 2004. This past May TS staged Dr. Endesha Mae Holland’s “From the Mississippi Delta: A Memoir,” and this coming January will see the opening of “Black Pearl Sings.”
Read the full article.

October 15, 2008
Witchy women, mortal men
by Brian Rose
Burlington Times-News

When selecting the plays for this year's "Season of Spirit," Triad Stage artistic director Preston Lane knew he should include something funny. Laughter, he said, is what brought to mind John Van Druten's "Bell, Book and Candle."
Read the full article.

September 25, 2008
Meet an Artist: Lee Spencer
by Joe Scott
GoTriad from the Greensboro News & Record

ON PLAYING DRACULA
So many people already have such a preconceived notion of Dracula. It can be very intimidating, but you can't really shy away from that.
Read the full article.

September 3, 2008
Night of the New Iguana
by Amy Kingsley
Yes! Weekly

“Didn’t we have real iguanas in Dallas?” “Yes!” says Preston Lane. “And they were nightmares. They hissed, they bit, they pooed. The actor who had to bring them on stage, his arms were covered in scratches, but the minute they got under the stage lights, they thought it was the sun and they completely stopped moving.”
Read the full article.

August 27, 2008
One wild night
by Brian Rose
Burlington Times-News

A new season brings a new theme at Triad Stage, and this time around, it’s all about spirit. After a year of exploring passionate plays such as Anthony Shaffer’s “Sleuth” and George Bernard Shaw’s “Mrs. Warren’s Profession,” the downtown Greensboro theater begins its quest for spirit with Tennessee Williams’ “The Night of the Iguana.”
Read the full article.

July 20, 2008
Creative Collaboration
by Ken Keuffel
Winston-Salem Journal

When Preston Lane travels to the mountains of Western North Carolina this week, he'll be wearing two hats. One hat is well-known to area theater fans. Lane first put it on in 2002 when he became the founding artistic director of Triad Stage in Greensboro. He is directing a Triad Stage production of Doubt that will be staged Thursday and Friday in Valborg Theatre at Appalachian State University, as part of An Appalachian Summer Festival in Boone.
Read the full article.

June 10, 2008
Swashbucklers, swordsmen come to hook Greensboro
by Amy Kingsley
Yes! Weekly

There’s a pirate ship buried hatch-deep in sand at Triad Stage. The Queen Anne’s Revenge, the vessel belonging to the outlaw Blackbeard, has crashed ashore on Ocracoke Island, spilling its crew of peg-legged scalawags onto the stage. For most of the men, Ocracoke - and North Carolina - are foreign soil. But for at least three actors playing more than half a dozen characters, the crash brings them back to home turf in Greensboro.
Read the full article.

June 8, 2008
A Portrait of a Pirate: Artistic director of Triad Stage and area musician create a large-cast production about the legendary Blackbeard
by Mary Martin-Niepold
Winston-Salem Journal

Imagine a large man with thick black hair and clusters of hemp flaming from his long hair and beard. Some, they say, shuddered at the mere sight of him. Even the flag on his pirate ship could prompt terror.
Read the full article.

June 8, 2008
Infamous Carolina Rogue, Bloody Blackbeard, Sings in New Musical June 8-July 6
by Kenneth Jones
Playbill.com

Following its premieres of two Appalachian mountain-set musicals in earlier seasons, Triad Stage in Greensboro, NC, draws on lore of the Carolina coast for its new homegrown musical, Bloody Blackbeard, beginning previews June 8.
Read the full article.

June 7, 2008 
Actor’s Pirate Risks It All
by Joe Scott
GoTriad from the Greensboro News & Record

Clean-shaven actor Mark David Watson has all of Blackbeard’s height and none of his facial hair. For the next month, the 6-foot-2-inch thespian will have one of the best jobs in the world. He’ll be playing the lead pirate in Triad Stage’s original musical “Bloody Blackbeard.”
Read the full article. 

June 6, 2008
Triad Stage gives Blackbeard some bloody new tales to tell
by Brian Rose
Burlington Times-News

Preston Lane and Laurelyn Dossett made a pact with each other at the end of their last production. “We went in with the notion of no banjos and no bibles,” Lane joked in a recent interview.
Read the full article.

June 5, 2008
Triad Stage Presents Epic
by Joe Scott
GoTriad from the Greensboro News & Record

He robbed merchant ships belonging to England, Spain and France. He had about 14 wives, and according to legend, he killed them all. He braided cannon fuses into his hair and lit them during battle so smoke would billow from his head like a demon.
Read the full article.

June 2008
The Swashbuckling Adventures of Preston and Laurelyn
by Bill Cissna
Greensboro Monthly

On a busy day in mid-April, Preston Lane and Laurelyn Dossett sit down at Triad Stage’s new third-floor UpStage Cabaret and try to explain why their third play-and-music collaboration, Bloody Blackbeard, has them a little worried.
Read the full story.