PlayMakers Repertory Company
Formation | 1976 |
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Type | Theatre group |
Location |
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Website | http://www.playmakersrep.org/ |
PlayMakers Repertory Company is the professional
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 theater company to produce original plays.[4] Koch and the Playmakers mainly produced what they considered to be "folk plays." Koch defined a folk play as 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 to be familiar with, and, as in the experience of Paul Green, to address the experiences of "marginalized populations of the South," such as black people and Native Americans.[6]
The Carolina Playmakers began touring locally in 1920, then statewide 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][7]
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 (which Wolfe himself wrote) in the Playmakers' first bill of plays on March 14 and 15, 1919.[8] 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 appeared in several Playmakers performances, including Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado and HMS Pinafore.[9]
Other notable writers associated with the Carolina Playmakers include Paul Green, Josefina Niggli, Kermit Hunter, Margaret Bland, John Patric,[10] and Jonathan W. Daniels.
Venues
Historic Playmakers Theatre
The Historic
Paul Green Theatre
The Paul Green Theatre was completed in 1976. It seats 500. Located in the Center for Dramatic Arts on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, this building is the primary venue of PlayMakers Repertory Company. The Paul Green Theatre stages plays by professional actors, directors, and artists from across the nation.[12]
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 and 265 depending on stage configuration and is considered a
The venue also hosts productions by undergraduates from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.[13]
Selected artists
Directors Vivienne Benesch, Desdemona Chiang, Wendy C. Goldberg and Joseph Haj have worked at PlayMakers, as well as the actor Ray Dooley
See also
Dramatic and performing arts at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
References
- ^ "About PlayMakers". Archived from the original on 27 November 2011. Retrieved 30 November 2011.
- ^ a b "PlayMakers Repertory Company". Shakespeare in American Communities. National Endowments for the Arts. Retrieved 5 December 2011.
- ^ "PlayMakers Repertory Company". Production: General Information. Department of Dramatic Art at UNC Chapel Hill. Archived from the original on 8 December 2011. Retrieved 5 December 2011.
- ^ Forty Years: The Carolina Playmakers 1918-1958. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina. 1958.
- ^ a b c Spearman, Walter. The Carolina Playmakers: The First Fifty Years, Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1970.
- ^ "Carolina's Literary History". The Carolina Story: a Virtual Museum of University History. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Retrieved 14 February 2013.
- OCLC 62742647.
- ^ Holman, C. Hugh. "Thomas Wolfe". The North Carolina Collection, UNC-Chapel Hill. Retrieved February 14, 2013.
- ^ "Student Organizations - Carolina Playmakers". The Carolina Story: a Virtual Museum of University History. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Retrieved 14 February 2013.
- ^ Patric, John (1930). For Auntie's Sake.
- ^ "Historic Playmakers Theatre". Carolina Performing Arts. Carolina Performing Arts. Retrieved 5 December 2011.
- ^ "Paul Green Theatre". PlayMakers Repertory Company. PlayMakers Repertory Company. Archived from the original on 13 December 2011. Retrieved 5 December 2011.
- ^ "Kenan Theatre". PlayMakers Repertory Company. PlayMakers Repertory Company. Retrieved 5 December 2011.