Triad Stage
Encyclopedia
The Triad Stage is a regional theatre
located at 232 South Elm Street, Greensboro, North Carolina
.
. After managing a theater in Connecticut for two years, they undertook the three-year task of opening their own theater in the heart of historic Greensboro.
In September 1999, Triad Stage purchased the former Montgomery Ward building, which had been built in 1936 and vacant for almost 40 years. Renovations commenced in the spring of 2001, transforming the five-story building into a world class theater center (now called The Pyrle Theater) complete with a 300-seat live performance space, rehearsal hall, offices, two spacious lobbies, special events areas and other audience amenities. Triad Stage also manages an offsite production facility, the Greensboro Scene Shop.
The Grand Opening of the theater took place in January 2002 with Tennessee Williams
’ modern classic Suddenly, Last Summer
. Since then, Triad Stage has produced 60 productions and has sold over 300,000 tickets.
In 2008, Triad Stage finished a second round of renovations to The Pyrle. A scene shop annex was added in the basement. The top floor underwent major construction to turn what was previously a storage center into the 80-seat Upstage Cabaret performance space, the Sloan Rehearsal Hall and the studio and office facilities of WUNC North Carolina Public Radio’s new Greensboro Bureau.
Now celebrating its 9th season, Triad Stage has over 3,000 Season Passholders and more than 400 annual donors. The theater has received accolades on the national, state and local levels, including being named “One of the Best Regional Theaters in America” by New York’s Drama League, voted the Triad’s “Best Live Theatre” by the readers of Go Triad seven years in a row and “Professional Theatre of the Year” by the North Carolina Theatre Conference. Its production of Tobacco Road
was listed among the “Best of 2007” by The Wall Street Journal
. The theatre has been spotlighted in American Theatre, Southern Living, Playbill.com, Our State and UNC-TV’s “North Carolina Weekend”.
Triad Stage has been further honored with the award of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts
and The Shubert Organization
.
Preston was recently honored with the 2008 Betty Cone Medal of the Arts and is also the Artistic Partner for Theatre for An Appalachian Summer Festival. He was formerly Artistic Associate at the Dallas Theater Center where his productions included the US premiere of Inexpressible Island (Dallas Observer Best of Dallas Awards: Best Director, Best Production) and The Night of the Iguana (Dallas Morning News: 2002 Top Ten Theatre List). Other productions include: A Tuff Shuffle (National Black Theatre Festival), Overruled (Off-Broadway), Love! Valour! Compassion! (Stage One), and the world premieres of If Only and Get It While You Can (Summer Cabaret).
As a playwright, he is recipient of a grant from the Fox Foundation to develop Wondrous Love. Other adaptations and original works include: Hedda Gabler, Dracula, Mirandolina, Julie’s Dance, Brother Wolf, Beautiful Star, Bloody Blackbeard, Ghosts, Tartuffe, or the Hypocrite, Providence Gap, and the upcoming A Christmas Carol, and Masquerade (Triad Stage); A Christmas Carol (Dallas Theater Center, Sonoma County Rep, Kids Who Care); and Three Weeks After Marriage and Helen! (Summer Cabaret).
He has taught at the University of North Carolina Greensboro, NC A&T University, NC School of the Arts, Southern Methodist University, and the Professional Actors Workshop at the Dallas Theater Center. He is an alumnus of the Drama League of New York’s Director’s Project. A native of Boone, NC, Preston received his MFA from the Yale School of Drama.
Richard Whittington (Managing Director/Co-Founder) has served as Managing Director of Triad Stage since its inception. A native of Dallas, Texas, Rich previously served as Managing Director for the Ensemble Company for the Performing Arts (ECPA), as Artistic Administrator for the Dallas Theater Center and Associate Producer of The Big D Festival of the Unexpected. Prior experience also includes work at the Roundabout Theatre in New York and StageWest in Springfield, Massachusetts.
Rich has a BFA in Acting and Directing from Marymount Manhattan College and an MFA in Theatre Management from the Yale School of Drama. He has taught at Greensboro College and NC A&T University and has been a guest lecturer at UNC Chapel Hill, NC School of the Arts, Wake Forest University and UNC Greensboro. He serves on the board of ARTS North Carolina and the Executive Committee for the North Carolina Arts Council.
Regional theatre in the United States
Regional theaters, or resident theaters, in the United States are professional or semi-professional, theater companies that produce their own seasons. The term regional theatre most often refers to professional theatres outside of New York City...
located at 232 South Elm Street, Greensboro, North Carolina
Greensboro, North Carolina
Greensboro is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the third-largest city by population in North Carolina and the largest city in Guilford County and the surrounding Piedmont Triad metropolitan region. According to the 2010 U.S...
.
History
Triad Stage began as the dream of creating a professional not-for-profit regional theater to serve the communities of the Triad. Co-founders Preston Lane and Richard Whittington forged their artistic partnership as graduate students at the Yale School of DramaYale School of Drama
The Yale School of Drama is a graduate professional school of Yale University providing training in every discipline of the theatre: acting, design , directing, dramaturgy and dramatic criticism, playwriting, stage management, sound design, technical design and production, and theater...
. After managing a theater in Connecticut for two years, they undertook the three-year task of opening their own theater in the heart of historic Greensboro.
In September 1999, Triad Stage purchased the former Montgomery Ward building, which had been built in 1936 and vacant for almost 40 years. Renovations commenced in the spring of 2001, transforming the five-story building into a world class theater center (now called The Pyrle Theater) complete with a 300-seat live performance space, rehearsal hall, offices, two spacious lobbies, special events areas and other audience amenities. Triad Stage also manages an offsite production facility, the Greensboro Scene Shop.
The Grand Opening of the theater took place in January 2002 with Tennessee Williams
Tennessee Williams
Thomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams III was an American writer who worked principally as a playwright in the American theater. He also wrote short stories, novels, poetry, essays, screenplays and a volume of memoirs...
’ modern classic Suddenly, Last Summer
Suddenly, Last Summer
Suddenly, Last Summer is a one-act play by Tennessee Williams. It opened off Broadway on January 7, 1958, as part of a double bill with another of Williams's one-acts, Something Unspoken. The presentation of the two plays was given the overall title Garden District, but Suddenly, Last Summer is...
. Since then, Triad Stage has produced 60 productions and has sold over 300,000 tickets.
In 2008, Triad Stage finished a second round of renovations to The Pyrle. A scene shop annex was added in the basement. The top floor underwent major construction to turn what was previously a storage center into the 80-seat Upstage Cabaret performance space, the Sloan Rehearsal Hall and the studio and office facilities of WUNC North Carolina Public Radio’s new Greensboro Bureau.
Now celebrating its 9th season, Triad Stage has over 3,000 Season Passholders and more than 400 annual donors. The theater has received accolades on the national, state and local levels, including being named “One of the Best Regional Theaters in America” by New York’s Drama League, voted the Triad’s “Best Live Theatre” by the readers of Go Triad seven years in a row and “Professional Theatre of the Year” by the North Carolina Theatre Conference. Its production of Tobacco Road
Tobacco Road (play)
Tobacco Road is a play by Jack Kirkland first performed in 1933, based on the novel of the same name by Erskine Caldwell. The play ran on Broadway for a total of 3,182 performances, becoming the longest-running play in history at the time...
was listed among the “Best of 2007” by The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
. The theatre has been spotlighted in American Theatre, Southern Living, Playbill.com, Our State and UNC-TV’s “North Carolina Weekend”.
Triad Stage has been further honored with the award of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
and The Shubert Organization
The Shubert Organization
The Shubert Organization is a theatrical producing organization and a major owner of legitimate theatres based in Manhattan, New York City. It was founded by the Shubert brothers, Sam S. Shubert, Lee Shubert, and Jacob J. Shubert of Syracuse, New York in the late 19th century in upstate New York,...
.
The Pyrle Theater
Triad Stage named its theater building after Greensboro resident Pyrle Gibson.The Founders
Preston Lane (Artistic Director/Co-Founder) has directed over 35 productions including: the Grand Opening production Suddenly Last Summer, the award-winning Hedda Gabler and A Streetcar Named Desire, the acclaimed Tobacco Road and four productions he created specifically for Triad Stage audiences - Brother Wolf, Beautiful Star, Bloody Blackbeard, and Providence Gap.Preston was recently honored with the 2008 Betty Cone Medal of the Arts and is also the Artistic Partner for Theatre for An Appalachian Summer Festival. He was formerly Artistic Associate at the Dallas Theater Center where his productions included the US premiere of Inexpressible Island (Dallas Observer Best of Dallas Awards: Best Director, Best Production) and The Night of the Iguana (Dallas Morning News: 2002 Top Ten Theatre List). Other productions include: A Tuff Shuffle (National Black Theatre Festival), Overruled (Off-Broadway), Love! Valour! Compassion! (Stage One), and the world premieres of If Only and Get It While You Can (Summer Cabaret).
As a playwright, he is recipient of a grant from the Fox Foundation to develop Wondrous Love. Other adaptations and original works include: Hedda Gabler, Dracula, Mirandolina, Julie’s Dance, Brother Wolf, Beautiful Star, Bloody Blackbeard, Ghosts, Tartuffe, or the Hypocrite, Providence Gap, and the upcoming A Christmas Carol, and Masquerade (Triad Stage); A Christmas Carol (Dallas Theater Center, Sonoma County Rep, Kids Who Care); and Three Weeks After Marriage and Helen! (Summer Cabaret).
He has taught at the University of North Carolina Greensboro, NC A&T University, NC School of the Arts, Southern Methodist University, and the Professional Actors Workshop at the Dallas Theater Center. He is an alumnus of the Drama League of New York’s Director’s Project. A native of Boone, NC, Preston received his MFA from the Yale School of Drama.
Richard Whittington (Managing Director/Co-Founder) has served as Managing Director of Triad Stage since its inception. A native of Dallas, Texas, Rich previously served as Managing Director for the Ensemble Company for the Performing Arts (ECPA), as Artistic Administrator for the Dallas Theater Center and Associate Producer of The Big D Festival of the Unexpected. Prior experience also includes work at the Roundabout Theatre in New York and StageWest in Springfield, Massachusetts.
Rich has a BFA in Acting and Directing from Marymount Manhattan College and an MFA in Theatre Management from the Yale School of Drama. He has taught at Greensboro College and NC A&T University and has been a guest lecturer at UNC Chapel Hill, NC School of the Arts, Wake Forest University and UNC Greensboro. He serves on the board of ARTS North Carolina and the Executive Committee for the North Carolina Arts Council.
External links
- Triad Stage's official website
- Go Triad, Greensboro's Arts News Magazine covers Providence Gap creators Preston Lane and Laurelyn Dossett
- Musicians of Providence Gap on WUNC Radio's State of Things
- Yes! Weekly interviews artistic director Preston Lane and his mother for Mother's Day 2010
- Managing director of Triad Stage Rich Whittington stands up for local arts funding in Greensboro