Triad Stage

UNCG and Triad Stage Announce Expanded Partnership

February 16, 2016

 

UNCG Media Conact:
Alyssa Bedrosian
336-334-9769
A_bedros@uncg.edu
 
Triad Stage Media Contact:
Tiffany Albright
336-274-0067 ext. 203
tiffany@triadstage.org
 

Greensboro, N.C. (Feb. 16, 2016) – The UNCG School of Music, Theatre and Dance (SMTD) and Triad Stage have announced plans to create a formal partnership that will capitalize on the capabilities, connections and histories of both organizations. 

The partnership will provide new curricular opportunities, enhance SMTD recruitment efforts and build a bridge to the profession for students, while providing top talent for Triad Stage to draw upon for its artistic productions. 
“We look forward to working with Triad Stage to create a new national model for synergistic relationships between educational and professional entities,” said UNCG SMTD Dean Peter Alexander. “This is going to be a wonderful opportunity not just for our students, but for the Greensboro community as a whole.”
 
As the largest professional theater in the region, Triad Stage has been an important partner of UNCG since the theater’s inception. The new, formalized partnership is built on a history of collaboration between the two organizations, which dates back to Triad Stage’s 2002 inaugural production of “Suddenly Last Summer” featuring a UNCG graduate student and a UNCG alumna.
 
Over the course of the next year, Triad Stage Founding Artistic Director Preston Lane and Founding Managing Director Richard Whittington will serve as SMTD’s artists in residence. The two will teach courses and will open the doors of Triad Stage to UNCG students in formal and informal ways. This semester, Whittington is working to develop a theater management course that will be part of SMTD’s new arts administration major.   
 
“Part of what originally attracted Rich and I to choose Greensboro as the artistic home for our professional theater was the presence of so many quality institutions for higher education,” Lane said. “We are so fortunate to have UNCG and its MFA programs in acting, directing and design from which to draw talent.”
 
Throughout its 15-season history, Triad Stage has provided professional opportunities to more than 250 UNCG students and has been an artistic home for UNCG alumni to come back to and share their talents. The theater is also a major employer of UNCG alumni, including current Triad Stage Resident Stage Manager Emily Mails ’06, Company Manager Ramon Perez ’12 and Costume Shop Manager Jennifer Stanley ’00, among others. 
 
“Triad Stage provides our students and faculty with opportunities to put our training into practice,” said UNCG Theatre Interim Chair Ken White. “At the same time, UNCG Theatre provides Triad Stage amazing talent and a laboratory for exploring new opportunities.”
 
Throughout 2016, UNCG and Triad Stage will participate in ongoing discussions about possibilities for the expanded partnership, including professional training opportunities, case studies, expanded educational theater opportunities and cross-institutional collaborations.
 
While both institutions recognize the other as their primary educational/professional partner, the developing relationship does not prevent UNCG Theatre or Triad Stage from working with other institutions.
 
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About UNCG School of Music, Theatre and Dance
As the largest and most comprehensive school of the performing arts in North Carolina and one of the largest in the Southeast and the nation, the School of Music, Theatre and Dance has the capacity to provide experiences that other institutions cannot. The school consists of the departments of music education, music performance, music studies, theater and dance. All programs are nationally accredited, thus assuring the highest level of quality. The school offers an impressive variety of degrees and certificates from the bachelor’s through the doctoral level. With more than 1,000 students, excellent facilities and an internationally recognized faculty of well over 100 members, SMTD is a vibrant community of artists that annually produces more than 350 performances, lectures and other events. The school is engaged with its community, partners with professional arts organizations and offers pre-college opportunities to thousands of K-12 students each year. It has a strong record of helping its undergraduate and graduate students develop their craft and the knowledge necessary to succeed in the highly competitive world of the arts. Because the school is part of a large research university, a full range of interdisciplinary and collaborative opportunities are readily available. For more information, visit performingarts.uncg.edu. 
 
About UNCG Theatre 
The UNCG Department of Theatre provides conservatory-quality training in the studio and cutting-edge scholarship in the classroom to its more than 300 undergraduate and graduate students. The wide knowledge base of the department’s nearly 30 faculty members offers practical experience in a variety of theories and practices. Areas of study include design and theatre technology/technical production, direction, theatre education, theatre performance and theatre for youth. UNCG Theatre has memberships in more than 10 national theater industry organizations and is partnered with the North Carolina Theatre for Young People and Theatre 232. For more information, visit performingarts.uncg.edu/theatre. 
 
 
About Triad Stage 
Triad Stage is a professional not-for-profit regional theater company based in Greensboro with operations in downtown Greensboro and Winston-Salem. Now in its 15th Anniversary Season, Triad Stage productions feature the bold acting and breathtaking design that have been nationally recognized by The Wall Street Journal and by the American Theatre Wing, founder of the Tony Awards®, which named Triad Stage one of the top ten most promising theatres in the country as a recipient of the 2010 National Theatre Company Grant. Triad Stage has also earned accolades including “Best North Carolina Production of 2010” for The Glass Menagerie by Triangle Arts & Entertainment magazine; “One of the Best Regional Theatres in America,” New York’s Drama League; “Best Live Theater” (nine years running), Go Triad/News & Record and The Rhinoceros Times; and “Professional Theatre of the Year” (2003, 2011), North Carolina Theatre Conference.