PlayMakers Repertory Company is the professional theater company that resides on the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's campus. PlayMakers produces six main stage shows per year, with a rotating repertory of two shows in either the fall or the spring. The shows presented at PlayMakers demonstrate a remarkable range of genres, including works from William Shakespeare, Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Stephen Sondheim and August Wilson. Two shows in recent years have had world premieres at PlayMakers: Surviving Twin and The Story of the Gun.
Loudon Wainwright III in PlayMakers' 2013 production of Surviving Twin.
History
PlayMakers dates back to 1918 when Professor Frederick Koch taught one of the first drama classes at UNC-Chapel Hill and subsequently founded Carolina Playmakers. The group consisted of students who were eager to write and perform plays in and around Chapel Hill, and in 1923 Smith Hall was renamed the Playmakers Theatre in order to continue the development of folk drama at UNC. In 1975, construction began on the Paul Green Theatre, which is now the home of PlayMakers Repertory Company.
The historic Playmakers Theatre
UNC Center for Dramatic Art, home of PlayMakers Repertory Company
The Paul Green Theatre is housed inside the Center for Dramatic Art on UNC's campus. It seats 500, and it is a thrust stage, meaning that the audience surrounds the stage on three sides. The theater is named after Paul Green, a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright as well as an early member of Carolina Playmakers.
Paul Green, playwright
About PlayMakers
PlayMakers Repertory Company is an educational theater consisting of residents, guest artists, professional staff and students (both undergraduate and graduate) in order to put on six shows per year. The company participates in education outreach, serving more than 100,000 youth in the Triangle through the performing arts both in and out of the classroom. The nonprofit theater is supported by ticket sales, donations from individuals, local and national foundations and corporations, plus support from UNC and public funding sources such as the National Endowment for the Arts, The Shubert Foundation and the North Carolina Arts Council.
PlayMakers' 2013 production of Cabaret.
Upcoming shows
The 2014-2015 main stage season at PlayMakers is as follows:
- Into the Woods
- Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike
- A Midsummer Night's Dream
- Trouble in Mind
- An Enemy of the People
- 4000 Miles.
Make a visit to PlayMakers' box office at the UNC Center for Dramatic Art on Country Club Road in Chapel Hill or call 919-962-7529 for tickets.
