From shows created by UNC students to full scale Broadway-style musicals, Chapel Hill’s theater companies are ushering in the spring season with an assortment of alluring productions.
The Daily Tar Heel spoke with several of Chapel Hill’s theater companies to get an inside look at what the community can expect over the next few months.
- Company Carolina
Credit: Andrew Jones
A student-run theater group at UNC, Company Carolina operates on a professional theater model, similar in titles and organization to most professional theater collectives worldwide.
Founded in 1994, Company is celebrating its 21st season with three upcoming performances: “Terminus” (March 20-22), “The Drowsy Chaperone” (March 27-29) and “Edges” (April 10-12).
“Our season this semester is pushing boundaries in certain ways,” said Duri Long, computer science major and artistic producing director for Company Carolina. “It’s bringing newer, lesser seen shows to the forefront, but still balancing them out with more mainstream plays. We like a mixture of the two.”
The group’s latest production of “The Last Five Years” is currently playing at the ArtsCenter in Carrboro, with a final performance this Monday at 8:00 p.m.
Long said “The Last Five Years” marks the start of Company’s new “West End Winters” series, in which the group provides a space for smaller plays and musicals to thrive within the campus community.
“It’s a tear-jerker, but a truly beautiful show,” Long said. “It’s about a man and women living through the last five years of their relationship, with the man telling it in chronological order and the woman experiencing it in reverse chronological order. It’s incredibly moving.”
In addition to her role as artistic producing director for the shows, Long is also directing Company’s production of Terminus. She said the time and energy she has put into studying the play have made her extremely excited to see the finished result.
“It’s kind of a gripping thriller, but very musical,” she said. “There’s no singing, but the whole thing is written in rhyme. I think it and ‘Edges’ are going to be something really different.”
- Pauper Players
Credit: Max Bitar
UNC’s Pauper Players' spring season is already in full motion with its yearly production of “Broadway Melodies,” which consists of three student written one-act musicals running through Feb. 2.
Pauper’s performances are comprised solely of musical theater pieces, a fact which executive director of publicity and dramatic arts major Max Bitar said sets the company apart as an institution.
“We’re the only company in Chapel Hill that I know of that exclusively does musical theater,” he said. “It’s an American art form and it really binds us together as an organization. We’re proud of bringing that to people.”
Pauper’s Broadway style spring musical is “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown,” which will mark the company’s 25th season of performance.
“A quarter century is a big milestone for us, and this show’s kind of got all the things we love,” Bitar said. “(It's) very touching and poignant.”
Lochlan Belford, director of “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown,” said the versatility and realism of the play is what first drew his interest.
“One thing I like is that looking at the script, the authors are clear they want you to take this show and make it your own,” he said. “(The characters) are all quite diverse, but there’s a lot of realistic heart and emotion. You really believe they're real people.”
- PlayMaker’s Repertory Company
Credit: Jon Gardiner
One of the best known professional theater companies in North Carolina, PlayMakers is entering into spring with a variety of theatrical feats.
First opened almost 40 years ago, PlayMakers utilizes a unique mixture resident, professional and guest artists into its performances, as well as UNC graduate students.
Its 2015 showcase is currently underway with Alice Childress’ “Trouble in Mind,” which runs through Feb. 8.
Credit: Jon Gardiner
“It’s very much about artistic integrity as well as issues of race,” said Jeffery Meanza, associate artistic director and Chapel Hill alumnus. “One of the most exciting things is how our audience is finding how relevant the text is, even though it was written years ago.”
Over the spring, PlayMakers will host two more main-stage shows — ”An Enemy of the People” (Feb. 25 through March 15) and “4000 Miles” (April 1 through 19) — as well as its second stage show “Mary’s Wedding,” (April 29 through May 3) which is part of a campus wide look at the WWI centennial.
Meanza said there will even be a special concert version of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” performed near the beginning of summer given the popularity of the play when PlayMakers staged it in the fall. He said having a broad-based lineup of shows is something PlayMakers prides itself on.
“We don’t really seek to select plays falling under one umbrella, we’re actually looking for a diversity of voices,” he said. “It’s really about the play itself and if it has something to say. That’s what’s really exciting.”
arts@dailytarheel.com
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