University of North Carolina School of the Arts
Encyclopedia
The University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA), formerly the North Carolina School of the Arts, is a public coeducational arts conservatory in Winston-Salem, North Carolina
that grants high school, undergraduate and graduate degrees. It is one of the seventeen constituent campuses of the University of North Carolina
system. It was founded in 1963 as a conservatory of the performing arts by then-Governor Terry Sanford
and was the first public arts conservatory. The school owns and operates the Stevens Center
in Downtown Winston-Salem and is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools
.
Five professional schools make up the University of North Carolina School of the Arts: Dance, Design and Production (including a Visual Arts Program), Drama, Filmmaking, and Music. With its full academic program, the School is accredited to award the high school diploma, the College Arts Diploma, the Professional Artist Certificate, and bachelor’s and master’s degrees.
Students must audition or interview for admission to UNCSA. UNCSA is said to be one of the most exclusive arts conservatories in the world. Of the more than 1,000 students enrolled, half come from two-thirds of North Carolina’s 100 counties. Half come from 45 other states (from New York to California) and nearly two dozen foreign countries (from Germany to Japan).
Students study with resident master teachers who have had successful careers in the arts, such as the New York City Ballet
and the Los Angeles Philharmonic
and who remain active in their professions. Noted guest artists such as filmmaker Spike Lee
and actor Mandy Patinkin
bring lessons directly from the contemporary arts world.
The question of "How The Pickles got their name" has come up with the passage of time since 1972 when the football team first took to the field as "The NCSA Pickles". The answer is very simple: a contest was held to name the football team. The winning entry was submitted jointly by three undergraduates. In 1972 it was simply "The Pickles", along with a slogan, "Sling 'em by their warts!". Eventually they became "The Fighting Pickles". This account of how the Pickles got their name is corroborated by large numbers of those who were at the school at that time.
In the spring of 2010, UNCSA hosted a competition to choose the new, official "Fighting Pickle" mascot. Design entries and voting was opened to students, alumni, faculty, staff and former faculty and staff. The winner was unveiled on May 21, 2010 in the Student Union's cafe, "The Pickle Jar."
and enlisting help from John Ehle
to support his dream of a school of the arts. Through Giannini's vision the NCSA was created. Later the North Carolina Conservatory Committee investigated the possibility of opening a state-supported music conservatory. A resolution dated December 3, 1966 by the Board of Trustee of the NCSA and the Governor pays tribute to Giannini as "the founder of the School noting that "When it was a dream, he sought a home for it and elped bring it into being. When it was an infant institution, he gave it structure and design." Importantly, Giannini left a legacy of arts education that continues to serves as a model. He established that the School's President must be a noted composer. When the school was founded, the focus was broadened to include dance and drama, and the Enabling Act of the school, passed in 1963 by the North Carolina General Assembly, founded a school for "the professional training, as distinguished from the liberal arts instruction, of talented students in the fields of music, drama, the dance and allied performing arts, at both the high school and college levels of instruction, with emphasis placed upon performance of the arts, and not upon academic studies of the arts." The North Carolina General Assembly also gave the new school $350,000. The Gray High School was bought to house the new conservatory and Vittorio Giannini
, an American composer, was picked as the first president of the school (the title would later be changed to chancellor).
, previously the Carolina Theatre, in downtown Winston-Salem. The gala opening featured the UNCSA symphony orchestra, conducted by Leonard Bernstein
, with Isaac Stern
as soloist and Gregory Peck
as the Master of Ceremonies. Attendees included Agnes de Mille
, Cliff Robertson
, Governor James Hunt
, President and Mrs. Gerald Ford
and Lady Bird Johnson
. The Stevens Center remains UNCSA's largest performance facility and is booked with either performances or rehearsals all but 80 nights of the year.
Dr. Jane E. Milley was the fourth chancellor of UNCSA and was installed in 1984. Although she increased faculty salaries and secured funding for a new facility dubbed Performance Place she was forced out of the school by students who found her too academic.
Alex Ewing was appointed as the fifth chancellor of UNCSA in 1990. His biggest accomplishment was the establishment of UNCSA's fifth arts school, the School of Film. He also helped bring the Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts to the School and increased the endowment from $4 million to $15 million.
Wade Hobgood was UNCSA's sixth chancellor, starting in 2000. He helped UNCSA secure five new buildings, a Center for Design Innovation and free tuition for all North Carolina high school residents in his five years tenure.
is UNCSA's seventh and current chancellor. He was installed on July 1, 2006 and maintains an active performance career in addition to his duties as chancellor and has encouraged the teachers and deans to do so. As of 2010, he had appointed three new deans, Ethan Stiefel
as the Dean of the School of Dance, Jordan Kerner
as the Dean of the School of Filmmaking and Wade Weast as the Dean of the School of Music.
On April 9, 2008, the UNCSA Board of Trustees voted unanimously to support a name change of the school from the North Carolina School of the Arts to the "University of North Carolina School of the Arts." The reasons given for the change were to raise the profile of the school as part of the University of North Carolina
system. The name change was approved by the University of North Carolina Board of Governors on May 9, 2008, the North Carolina Senate
on June 24, 2008, and the North Carolina House of Representatives
on July 11, 2008. The law was signed into law by Governor Mike Easley
and took effect in August 2008. A group of alumni have attempted to register "UNCSA" as a federal trademark
to block the change.
The school's campus consists of 77 acres (311,608.2 m²) in Winston-Salem, near Old Salem. There are eight residence halls – six for college students, two for high school students, an on-campus student apartment complex and an off-campus student apartment complex within walking distance. The school has eleven performance and screening spaces; the ACE Exhibition Complex with three movie theaters, Crawford Recital Hall (with a Fisk Organ), deMille Theatre for dance, Hood Recital Hall, Performance Place with three theatrical spaces, the Stevens Center
in downtown Winston-Salem, and Watson Chamber Music Hall. Performance Place is the home of the drama department, the ACE Theatre is the home of the filmmaking department, deMille theatre is the home of the dance department and Watson, Hood and Crawford halls are used by the music department. The Stevens Center is shared.
The school also has a fitness center with an interior basketball court, the Semans Library, the Hanes Student Commons, Workplace (adjacent to the library) which holds Visual Arts Studios as well as Offices and Studios for the School of Dance, Gray Building, which holds high school academics on the third floor and music offices and practice rooms on the first and second floors, a building holding two dance studios, a visual arts sculpting studio, a large design and production complex, a costume, wig and makeup studio, a welcome center, and several buildings for administrative offices and college academics. A new library is in the planning stages.
The School of Design and Production is responsible for the scenery, costumes, wigs, makeup, lighting, sound, and stage management for all shows produced by the School of Drama, two operas that UNCSA produces each year through the Fletcher Opera Institute, as well as dance performances, although dance costumes are provided partly by the Costume department and also by the School of Dance's own professional costume shop.
Last but not least, the Filmmaking school is host to the ACE Exhibition Complex, where students can display their work and watch others. This complex, along with the Stevens Center
, is host to the RiverRun International Film Festival
every spring.
, Kiss Me Kate
, and Canterbury Tales, with the most recent one being Oklahoma!
. The purpose of the all-school musicals are not only to provide the students with a professional experience, but also to raise money and awareness for the school. For example, for West Side Story the lead roles and Chancellor John Mauceri traveled to New York to promote the school and the school's revival of the musical. West Side Story was performed at UNCSA's Stevens Center from May 3-13, 2007, and then went on tour to Chicago
's Ravinia Festival on June 8, 2007. The production was directed by Dean of Drama Gerald Freedman
, the assistant director of the original production, and conducted by UNCSA Chancellor and world renown conductor John Mauceri
. It has also been reported that Arthur Laurents
changed portions of the dialogue for the UNCSA production. In May of 2011, UNCSA will present "Oklahoma!" as an all-school musical.
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
that grants high school, undergraduate and graduate degrees. It is one of the seventeen constituent campuses of the University of North Carolina
University of North Carolina
Chartered in 1789, the University of North Carolina was one of the first public universities in the United States and the only one to graduate students in the eighteenth century...
system. It was founded in 1963 as a conservatory of the performing arts by then-Governor Terry Sanford
Terry Sanford
James Terry Sanford was a United States politician and educator from North Carolina. A member of the Democratic Party, Sanford was the 65th Governor of North Carolina , a two-time U.S. Presidential candidate in the 1970s and a U.S. Senator...
and was the first public arts conservatory. The school owns and operates the Stevens Center
Stevens Center
The Roger L. Stevens Center is the primary performance venue in downtown Winston-Salem and is owned and operated by the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. It is named after the theatre producer and real estate magnate Roger L. Stevens and was opened on April 22, 1983...
in Downtown Winston-Salem and is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools
Southern Association of Colleges and Schools
The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools is one of the six regional accreditation organizations recognized by the United States Department of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation...
.
Professional schools
There are five professional schools of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts:- School of Dance
- School of Design and Production (including a Visual Arts Program)
- School of Drama
- School of Filmmaking
- School of Music
General information
The School’s mission is to train students from middle school through graduate school for professional careers in the performing, visual, and film and television arts. Performance is an integral part of the training program, and students, faculty and guest artists present more than 400 public performances and screenings annually in the School’s facilities in Winston-Salem, as well as across the state and the Southeast, in major U.S. cities and overseas.Five professional schools make up the University of North Carolina School of the Arts: Dance, Design and Production (including a Visual Arts Program), Drama, Filmmaking, and Music. With its full academic program, the School is accredited to award the high school diploma, the College Arts Diploma, the Professional Artist Certificate, and bachelor’s and master’s degrees.
Students must audition or interview for admission to UNCSA. UNCSA is said to be one of the most exclusive arts conservatories in the world. Of the more than 1,000 students enrolled, half come from two-thirds of North Carolina’s 100 counties. Half come from 45 other states (from New York to California) and nearly two dozen foreign countries (from Germany to Japan).
Students study with resident master teachers who have had successful careers in the arts, such as the New York City Ballet
New York City Ballet
New York City Ballet is a ballet company founded in 1948 by choreographer George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Leon Barzin was the company's first music director. Balanchine and Jerome Robbins are considered the founding choreographers of the company...
and the Los Angeles Philharmonic
Los Angeles Philharmonic
The Los Angeles Philharmonic is an American orchestra based in Los Angeles, California, United States. It has a regular season of concerts from October through June at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and a summer season at the Hollywood Bowl from July through September...
and who remain active in their professions. Noted guest artists such as filmmaker Spike Lee
Spike Lee
Shelton Jackson "Spike" Lee is an American film director, producer, writer, and actor. His production company, 40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks, has produced over 35 films since 1983....
and actor Mandy Patinkin
Mandy Patinkin
Mandel Bruce "Mandy" Patinkin is an award-winning American actor of stage and screen and a tenor vocalist. He is a noted interpreter of the musical works of Stephen Sondheim, and is best-known for his work in musical theatre, originating iconic roles such as Georges Seurat in Sunday in the Park...
bring lessons directly from the contemporary arts world.
Mascot
Although UNCSA has no officially-sanctioned athletic teams, students are very proud of their mascot: The Fighting Pickle. The premiere athletic event from the early 1970s was an annual touch-football game between a UNCSA team versus one from a Wake Forest University fraternity.The question of "How The Pickles got their name" has come up with the passage of time since 1972 when the football team first took to the field as "The NCSA Pickles". The answer is very simple: a contest was held to name the football team. The winning entry was submitted jointly by three undergraduates. In 1972 it was simply "The Pickles", along with a slogan, "Sling 'em by their warts!". Eventually they became "The Fighting Pickles". This account of how the Pickles got their name is corroborated by large numbers of those who were at the school at that time.
In the spring of 2010, UNCSA hosted a competition to choose the new, official "Fighting Pickle" mascot. Design entries and voting was opened to students, alumni, faculty, staff and former faculty and staff. The winner was unveiled on May 21, 2010 in the Student Union's cafe, "The Pickle Jar."
Beaux Arts
The end of the year at UNCSA is capped with a giant all-school party known as Beaux Arts, where the biggest attraction is the Beaux Arts Ball. Originally Beaux Arts was founded as a sort of rebel party run by the students, and the ball was actually a costume ball. The festival was started in 1972 and included a large statue of a cow that was "borrowed" from a local business and became the symbol of the festival. Eventually the festival became a school-run event.Founding
The idea of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts was initiated in 1962 by Vittorio Giannini, the School's founder and first President, a leading American Composer and teacher of Composition at Juilliard, Curtis and Manhattan, who approached then governor Terry SanfordTerry Sanford
James Terry Sanford was a United States politician and educator from North Carolina. A member of the Democratic Party, Sanford was the 65th Governor of North Carolina , a two-time U.S. Presidential candidate in the 1970s and a U.S. Senator...
and enlisting help from John Ehle
John Ehle
John Marsden Ehle, Jr. is an American writer known best for his fiction set in the Appalachian Mountains of the American South.-Biography and literary career:...
to support his dream of a school of the arts. Through Giannini's vision the NCSA was created. Later the North Carolina Conservatory Committee investigated the possibility of opening a state-supported music conservatory. A resolution dated December 3, 1966 by the Board of Trustee of the NCSA and the Governor pays tribute to Giannini as "the founder of the School noting that "When it was a dream, he sought a home for it and elped bring it into being. When it was an infant institution, he gave it structure and design." Importantly, Giannini left a legacy of arts education that continues to serves as a model. He established that the School's President must be a noted composer. When the school was founded, the focus was broadened to include dance and drama, and the Enabling Act of the school, passed in 1963 by the North Carolina General Assembly, founded a school for "the professional training, as distinguished from the liberal arts instruction, of talented students in the fields of music, drama, the dance and allied performing arts, at both the high school and college levels of instruction, with emphasis placed upon performance of the arts, and not upon academic studies of the arts." The North Carolina General Assembly also gave the new school $350,000. The Gray High School was bought to house the new conservatory and Vittorio Giannini
Vittorio Giannini
Vittorio Giannini was a neoromantic American composer of operas, songs, symphonies, and band works.-Life and work:...
, an American composer, was picked as the first president of the school (the title would later be changed to chancellor).
Growth
Composer Robert Ward became NCSA's second president following the unexpected death of Giannini in 1966. In 1968 the School of Design and Production (informally known as D&P) was created, and in 1970 a subsection of the D&P program, the visual arts program, was created as well. In addition, the school became a part of the newly formed University of North Carolina system in 1972. In 1974 Robert Suderburg became UNCSA's third chancellor. During his time at UNCSA the Workplace building, containing the Semans Library, was opened on the UNCSA campus, as well as the Stevens CenterStevens Center
The Roger L. Stevens Center is the primary performance venue in downtown Winston-Salem and is owned and operated by the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. It is named after the theatre producer and real estate magnate Roger L. Stevens and was opened on April 22, 1983...
, previously the Carolina Theatre, in downtown Winston-Salem. The gala opening featured the UNCSA symphony orchestra, conducted by Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim...
, with Isaac Stern
Isaac Stern
Isaac Stern was a Ukrainian-born violinist. He was renowned for his recordings and for discovering new musical talent.-Biography:Isaac Stern was born into a Jewish family in Kremenets, Ukraine. He was fourteen months old when his family moved to San Francisco...
as soloist and Gregory Peck
Gregory Peck
Eldred Gregory Peck was an American actor.One of 20th Century Fox's most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1960s, Peck continued to play important roles well into the 1980s. His notable performances include that of Atticus Finch in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird, for which he won an...
as the Master of Ceremonies. Attendees included Agnes de Mille
Agnes de Mille
Agnes George de Mille was an American dancer and choreographer.-Early years:Agnes de Mille was born in New York City into a well-connected family of theater professionals. Her father William C. deMille and her uncle Cecil B. DeMille were both Hollywood directors...
, Cliff Robertson
Cliff Robertson
Clifford Parker "Cliff" Robertson III was an American actor with a film and television career that spanned half of a century. Robertson portrayed a young John F. Kennedy in the 1963 film PT 109, and won the 1968 Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in the movie Charly...
, Governor James Hunt
Jim Hunt
James Baxter Hunt Jr. is an American politician who was the 69th and 71st Governor of the state of North Carolina . He is the longest-serving governor in the state's history.-Early life:...
, President and Mrs. Gerald Ford
Gerald Ford
Gerald Rudolph "Jerry" Ford, Jr. was the 38th President of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977, and the 40th Vice President of the United States serving from 1973 to 1974...
and Lady Bird Johnson
Lady Bird Johnson
Claudia Alta "Lady Bird" Taylor Johnson was First Lady of the United States from 1963 to 1969 during the presidency of her husband Lyndon B. Johnson. Throughout her life, she was an advocate for beautification of the nation's cities and highways and conservation of natural resources and made that...
. The Stevens Center remains UNCSA's largest performance facility and is booked with either performances or rehearsals all but 80 nights of the year.
Dr. Jane E. Milley was the fourth chancellor of UNCSA and was installed in 1984. Although she increased faculty salaries and secured funding for a new facility dubbed Performance Place she was forced out of the school by students who found her too academic.
Alex Ewing was appointed as the fifth chancellor of UNCSA in 1990. His biggest accomplishment was the establishment of UNCSA's fifth arts school, the School of Film. He also helped bring the Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts to the School and increased the endowment from $4 million to $15 million.
Wade Hobgood was UNCSA's sixth chancellor, starting in 2000. He helped UNCSA secure five new buildings, a Center for Design Innovation and free tuition for all North Carolina high school residents in his five years tenure.
Present and future
John MauceriJohn Mauceri
John Francis Mauceri is an American conductor, producer and arranger for theatre, opera and television. For fifteen years, he served on the faculty of Yale University. He was a protege of Leonard Bernstein...
is UNCSA's seventh and current chancellor. He was installed on July 1, 2006 and maintains an active performance career in addition to his duties as chancellor and has encouraged the teachers and deans to do so. As of 2010, he had appointed three new deans, Ethan Stiefel
Ethan Stiefel
Ethan Stiefel is a principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre . His fiance is Gillian Murphy, also a principal dancer with ABT.-Biography:...
as the Dean of the School of Dance, Jordan Kerner
Jordan Kerner
Jordan Kerner is an American film producer, who was born on February 5, 1950 in Los Angeles, California.- Biography :Kerner began his undergraduate studies at the University of Southern California. He subsequently transferred to Stanford University where he graduated in 1972 with distinction and...
as the Dean of the School of Filmmaking and Wade Weast as the Dean of the School of Music.
On April 9, 2008, the UNCSA Board of Trustees voted unanimously to support a name change of the school from the North Carolina School of the Arts to the "University of North Carolina School of the Arts." The reasons given for the change were to raise the profile of the school as part of the University of North Carolina
University of North Carolina
Chartered in 1789, the University of North Carolina was one of the first public universities in the United States and the only one to graduate students in the eighteenth century...
system. The name change was approved by the University of North Carolina Board of Governors on May 9, 2008, the North Carolina Senate
North Carolina Senate
The North Carolina Senate is one of the two houses of the North Carolina General Assembly.Its prerogatives and powers are similar to those of the other house, the House of Representatives. Its members do, however, represent districts that are larger than those of their colleagues in the House. The...
on June 24, 2008, and the North Carolina House of Representatives
North Carolina House of Representatives
The North Carolina House of Representatives is one of the two houses of the North Carolina General Assembly. The House is a 120-member body led by a Speaker of the House, who holds powers similar to those of the President pro-tem in the state senate....
on July 11, 2008. The law was signed into law by Governor Mike Easley
Mike Easley
Michael Francis "Mike" Easley is an American politician who served as the 72nd Governor of the U.S. state of North Carolina, from 2001 to 2009. He is member of the North Carolina Democratic Party and became the first North Carolina governor to admit to a felony in a deal that halted a lengthy...
and took effect in August 2008. A group of alumni have attempted to register "UNCSA" as a federal trademark
United States trademark law
Trademarks were traditionally protected in the United States only under State common law, growing out of the tort of unfair competition. As early as 1791, Thomas Jefferson proposed that the marks of sailcloth makers could be protected under the Commerce Clause, but it was not until 1870 that...
to block the change.
Campus
Stevens Center
The Roger L. Stevens Center is the primary performance venue in downtown Winston-Salem and is owned and operated by the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. It is named after the theatre producer and real estate magnate Roger L. Stevens and was opened on April 22, 1983...
in downtown Winston-Salem, and Watson Chamber Music Hall. Performance Place is the home of the drama department, the ACE Theatre is the home of the filmmaking department, deMille theatre is the home of the dance department and Watson, Hood and Crawford halls are used by the music department. The Stevens Center is shared.
The school also has a fitness center with an interior basketball court, the Semans Library, the Hanes Student Commons, Workplace (adjacent to the library) which holds Visual Arts Studios as well as Offices and Studios for the School of Dance, Gray Building, which holds high school academics on the third floor and music offices and practice rooms on the first and second floors, a building holding two dance studios, a visual arts sculpting studio, a large design and production complex, a costume, wig and makeup studio, a welcome center, and several buildings for administrative offices and college academics. A new library is in the planning stages.
Performance opportunities
UNCSA offers many performance opportunities throughout the course of a school year. Dance students have three seasonal performances: Fall dance, Winter dance, and Spring dance. They also perform the Nutcracker every Christmas, and have many other minor performances throughout the school year. Music students have the chance to perform in front of their peers every Wednesday at performance hour, and students are usually in a large ensemble, such as jazz band, orchestra, opera, or wind ensemble. These ensembles each perform several times a year.The School of Design and Production is responsible for the scenery, costumes, wigs, makeup, lighting, sound, and stage management for all shows produced by the School of Drama, two operas that UNCSA produces each year through the Fletcher Opera Institute, as well as dance performances, although dance costumes are provided partly by the Costume department and also by the School of Dance's own professional costume shop.
Last but not least, the Filmmaking school is host to the ACE Exhibition Complex, where students can display their work and watch others. This complex, along with the Stevens Center
Stevens Center
The Roger L. Stevens Center is the primary performance venue in downtown Winston-Salem and is owned and operated by the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. It is named after the theatre producer and real estate magnate Roger L. Stevens and was opened on April 22, 1983...
, is host to the RiverRun International Film Festival
RiverRun International Film Festival
The RiverRun International Film Festival is a regional film festival held annually each spring in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The festival is a 5013 non-profit organization and presents a variety of feature-length and short films from all genres, and also presents special events, regional...
every spring.
All school musicals
Once every four years, UNCSA produces an all school musical- a massive, extensive, Broadway style production involving all five arts schools of the conservatory. All students have the opportunity to audition. Past all-school musicals have included Brigadoon, Oklahoma!Oklahoma!
Oklahoma! is the first musical written by composer Richard Rodgers and librettist Oscar Hammerstein II. The musical is based on Lynn Riggs' 1931 play, Green Grow the Lilacs. Set in Oklahoma Territory outside the town of Claremore in 1906, it tells the story of cowboy Curly McLain and his romance...
, Kiss Me Kate
Kiss Me Kate
Kiss Me Kate was a British sitcom that ran from 1998 until 2000. It followed the everyday life of a woman counsellor, Kate , who must not only manage her clients' problems, but must also help her neighbours and unsuccessful business partner, Douglas, played by Chris Langham. Amanda Holden played...
, and Canterbury Tales, with the most recent one being Oklahoma!
Oklahoma!
Oklahoma! is the first musical written by composer Richard Rodgers and librettist Oscar Hammerstein II. The musical is based on Lynn Riggs' 1931 play, Green Grow the Lilacs. Set in Oklahoma Territory outside the town of Claremore in 1906, it tells the story of cowboy Curly McLain and his romance...
. The purpose of the all-school musicals are not only to provide the students with a professional experience, but also to raise money and awareness for the school. For example, for West Side Story the lead roles and Chancellor John Mauceri traveled to New York to promote the school and the school's revival of the musical. West Side Story was performed at UNCSA's Stevens Center from May 3-13, 2007, and then went on tour to Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
's Ravinia Festival on June 8, 2007. The production was directed by Dean of Drama Gerald Freedman
Gerald Freedman
Gerald Freedman is an American theatre director, librettist, and lyricist, and a college dean.Born in Lorain, Ohio, Freedman was educated at Northwestern University, where he received both BA and MA degrees. He began his career as assistant director of such projects as Bells Are Ringing, West Side...
, the assistant director of the original production, and conducted by UNCSA Chancellor and world renown conductor John Mauceri
John Mauceri
John Francis Mauceri is an American conductor, producer and arranger for theatre, opera and television. For fifteen years, he served on the faculty of Yale University. He was a protege of Leonard Bernstein...
. It has also been reported that Arthur Laurents
Arthur Laurents
Arthur Laurents was an American playwright, stage director and screenwriter.After writing scripts for radio shows after college and then training films for the U.S...
changed portions of the dialogue for the UNCSA production. In May of 2011, UNCSA will present "Oklahoma!" as an all-school musical.
Summer session
UNCSA offers five week summer courses in dance, filmmaking, visual arts, and drama, as well as two week courses in voice, guitar, and percussion, and a three week course in stage combat, to middle school, high school, and college students seeking intensive study in the arts. All summer programs are highly reputable, and a great introduction to an art form for some, and an opportunity to delve into a discipline for others.Student organizations
UNCSA has many active student organizations, including, but not limited to, the following:- Pride (UNCSA's Gay, Lesbian, and Transgender support organization)
- UNCSA Democrats
- the Kudzu Gazette (School Newspaper)
- UNCSA Student Government Association
- United States Institute for Theatre Technology (USITT) Student Chapter
- ONYX (An Interdisciplinary Performance Group)
External links
- UNCSA website
- Kudzu Gazette (Student Newspaper)