Screen and Stage Veteran Pat Hingle performs in UNCW’s production of Our Town
2/9/2004 12:00:00 AM
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By Rebecca D’Amico, PR Intern
Wilmington, N.C. – The University of North Carolina at Wilmington Art and Theatre Department presents Thornton Wilder’s Our Town from Thursday, Feb. 26 to Sunday, Feb. 29 in Kenan Auditorium. The play will star film and stage legend Pat Hingle, UNCW students and middle school students from the Wilmington community.
Hingle’s performance as the stage manager in the play will mark the first time a professional actor has appeared in a UNCW performance. The play’s director and UNCW art and theatre professor Terry Theodore said he wanted to cast Hingle as soon as he started on the production. According to Theodore, “Mr. Hingle has a tremendous reputation, earned over five decades of performing as a solid character in film, stage and television. He has lived up to this reputation by always being on time, always prepared and a constant source of inspiration to our students.”
At age 79, Hingle has been performing in movies, television and on stage for over 50 years and can be seen in such movies as the Batman series, The Quick and the Dead, Hang ‘Em High, Splendor in the Grass and many more. His stage work is just as impressive, with performances in four Pulitzer Prize-winning plays: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955), J.B. (1958), Strange Interlude (1963) and That Championship Season (1973).
There will be 26 cast members on stage with Hingle including UNCW students Max Darby and Jaclyn Hinds as George Gibbs and Emily Webb. Darby is a senior who will graduate in December 2004 with a degree in theatre. Darby’s performance as George will mark his eighth appearance on the university stage. Hinds, a sophomore, has appeared in one other show at UNCW and is a theatre major with a psychology minor. Beau Tison and Heather Jaynes will play George’s parents. Tison, a theatre and film major, is a junior and this will be his second production at UNCW. This will be the first time Jaynes, a sophomore double majoring in French and theatre, has performed in a UNCW production. Emily’s parents will be played by Adam McManamy and Emmy De Visser. McManamy will also be making his UNCW Theatre debut as a junior, majoring in communication studies with a minor in theatre. De Visser, a freshman, will major in theatre and communication studies and this is also her first UNCW performance.
Theodore commented, “This production has been one of my biggest challenges here at UNCW and a positive challenge for the students as well.” Theodore has been a professor at UNCW for 26 years and has been involved in many productions with the theatre department. He describes Wilder’s play as “universal in spirit and theme while at the same time, it is informal, intimate and compellingly human.”
Our Town will open at 10 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 26 with a morning matinee for local middle and high schools. The play will open to the public at 8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 26 through Saturday Feb. 28 and the final show will be a matinee Sunday, Feb. 29 at 2 p.m. All performances will be in Kenan Auditorium. Tickets are $2 for UNCW students with valid student ID and $8 for the general public and are available at the door only. For more ticket information contact Kenan box office at 910/962-3500 or visit http://www.uncw.edu/kenan/calendar/kenanCalendar.html or the Art and Theatre Web site at http://www.uncw.edu/att/UT/uncwtheatre0304.html.
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NOTE TO MEDIA: For more information contact Terry Theodore 910/962-3774.
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Pat Hingle
Pat Hingle with Jaclyn Hinds and Max Darby
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