UNC Charlotte College of Arts + Architecture

Join the UNC Charlotte Department of Theatre in partnership with Three Bone Theatre for the inaugural Carolina New Works Play Festival! 🌟

Three plays by North and/or South Carolina playwrights were selected through a comprehensive review, after a three-month solicitation phase. This summer, CNWPF presents professional staged readings of each new work over the course of two festival weekends. After each reading, playwrights and artists will host post-show discussions with the audience. Audiences will witness the creative process, and their feedback will actively be a part of the plays’ future life.
📍 July 24-26, 2026, at Rowe Recital Hall, UNC Charlotte
📍 July 31-Aug. 2, 2026, at The Arts Factory

Check out this year’s plays!

TRE
Written by T.J. Lewis
Directed by Renee Welsh-Noel (!)
Stage Management by Ashlin Heise (!)
Dramaturgy by Melissa Robinson

How I Got Forgotten
Written by Glenn Rawls
Directed by Jeff Epstein
Stage Management by Lydia Elder (!)
Dramaturgy by Chris Ortiz

You Can’t Smoke In Burbank
Written by Skylar Schock
Directed by Marcella Pansini
Dramaturgy by Donna Marie McMillan
Stage Management by Ashadé Altine

Admission to all staged readings is FREE! Learn more at cnwpf.charlotte.edu.

If you're around campus tomorrow, stop by the Storrs Salon to see our summer circus arts intensive's final showcase! 🎪

Taught each summer by Professor of Physical Theatre CarlosAlexis Cruz, this intensive 5-week course allows students to explore the basics of circus arts including aerial silks, lyra, rola bola, acrobatics, juggling and cyr wheel.

Stop by their final showcase at 12 p.m. on Wednesday, June 24!

📸:

Happy first day of summer ☀️🍃🌸

📸:

"I love how connected the community [in the CoA+A] feels. I’m in the Arts and Architecture Honors Program, and it’s nice to see people of different majors within the college come together for honors seminars and be engaged with the teachings of a specific discipline. It’s nice to see how collaboration between majors can bring different perspectives to an experience, even within the same college."

Christian Richter, B.A. in Architecture '27, is this week's spotlight!

🏛️ How did you first become interested in architecture?
I first became interested in architecture as a kid when I would watch TV shows about ancient architecture and abandoned buildings.

🎓 What kind of career do you hope to have?
I hope to attend graduate school and become a licensed architect, but I am also interested in pursuing environmental architecture and sustainable building technologies.

🎶 Do you participate in any community cultural activities?
I participate in the UNC Charlotte Symphonic Band where I play clarinet. I have been involved in band since middle school and music has always been a passion of mine, so it’s nice that I’ve been able to continue this in college and in a new environment.

Check out the rest of Christian's spotlight on our website!

Three theatre students had an amazing opportunity last month! Supported by the Department of Theatre, Emma Baker, Naomi Diaz and Ashlin Heise, accompanied by Lecturer in Stage Management Rachel Watkins, attended the 2026 Broadway Stage Management Symposium in NYC! 🌟

Led by professionals who have managed Broadway hits like “Wicked,” “Mama Mia” and “Beetlejuice,” as well as the Tony Awards extravaganza, the symposium was filled with lectures and events focused solely on issues in stage management.

“My favorite part about the symposium was the variety of panelists," said Naomi, “from stage managing an immersive show to working abroad in Korea. That opened my eyes to how you can do so much with stage management, and it can take you to great places – not just Broadway.”

For Emma, the session on mental health really resonated: “Stage managers most of the time have to take care of the cast and crew and make sure everyone is OK. It was important to have a reminder to check in on yourself, make sure you’re doing good.”

And Ashlin loved the sense of community and “being validated by people who know exactly what it is like being a stage manager.”

To top it off, they attended the Broadway musical "Death Becomes Her" and had a private Q&A with the show’s entire stage management team!

Last week, Spectrum News 1 highlighted our architecture students for their work in the national Housing Innovation Challenge! 🏠

"As North Carolina continues to deal with an affordable housing shortage, a group of UNC Charlotte students is helping create solutions that could make homeownership more attainable for residents," the article opens.

Architecture graduate student Gabrielle Ciceron has dreamed of designing homes since childhood. Now, through the Housing Innovation Challenge, she has the chance to see one of her designs become a reality. "Now to finally, in real life, be at a place to where I design something and it was appreciated so much they are willing to build it – it's like a dream honestly," she shared.

The Housing Innovation Challenge is a national competition bringing together university students, builders, nonprofits and local governments to create cost-effective housing designs.

Charlotte is the first host city, and UNC Charlotte was one of 10 winning teams selected from 20 nationwide. Three of our student designs advanced, each taking a different approach: a cottage with an open courtyard, a combined unit all under one roof with shared porches, and a modular build you can customize "kind of like Legos," as Ciceron put it.

Students are now working to combine elements from all three into a single final design to be presented this summer.

Habitat for Humanity is providing the land for the Charlotte project, with construction expected to begin in February 2027 and completion targeted for October 2027. The 10 completed homes will then be sold to residents.
The goal, as one organizer put it, is to drive down not just the mortgage cost, but the cost to build, operate and maintain — and to take those lessons to cities nationwide.

Congrats to these students for their meaningful work!

📰 Article by Arin Cotel-Altman for Spectrum News 1 Charlotte
🔗 https://brnw.ch/21x3siV

🎓 // Jayla Jamison York, B.A. in Dance with a concentration in Performance, Choreography, and Theory, has accepted a full time position as the Dance Teacher at Fairfield Central High School in Winnsboro, SC!

"As the Dance Teacher at Fairfield Central High School, I will be responsible for developing curriculum, choreographing performances, assessing student growth, and creating an inclusive and engaging learning environment," she shares. "I will also help students develop their technical skills, creativity, confidence, and appreciation for dance as both an art form and a means of self expression."

Jayla was a former choreographer and mentor for the Fairfield Central High School Dance Company, and says she's excited to return and lead the program in a new role. "I look forward to inspiring students through dance and helping them grow both artistically and personally."

"As a transfer student, UNC Charlotte helped shape my vision for the future," she continues. "The dance department strengthened my skills as a performer, choreographer, and educator, while the support and mentorship of the faculty inspired me to become the kind of teacher who encourages students to reach their full potential."

Andrew Hartley, Emeritus Robinson Distinguished Professor of Shakespeare Studies, is the volume editor for the new Arden Shakespeare edition of “Julius Caesar!”

Released on May 14 by Bloomsbury Publishing, “Julius Caesar” is, along with “Titus Andronicus,” the first volume issued in The Arden Shakespeare Fourth Series.

With its first series launched in 1899, Arden Shakespeare has presented acclaimed scholarly editions of Shakespeare’s plays and poems for more than a century. Each edition in the Fourth Series will include an illustrated critical introduction and feature an improved page layout with extensive on-page explanatory notes.

Hartley has a long history with “Julius Caesar” and is the editor of The Arden Shakespeare’s 2016 publication, “Julius Caesar: A Critical Reader.” Now more than 425 years old, the play still demands new study and interpretation, he said in an interview with Bloomsbury.

“Scholarship evolves, and that changes the way we see the plays, even changes the nature of the play itself. The editions we work with as scholars and teachers should reflect the best of current thought on the play and its place in culture. And, of course, we change too. Since reading Shakespeare is in some ways about reading ourselves, editions need to evolve with the larger culture.”

While “Julius Caesar” depicts historical events in Ancient Rome, Hartley said the play “has always had a knack for contemporary resonance” and that it feels “fresh and clear-sighted, even as it balances high-minded principle and profound cynicism.”

Hartley retired from UNC Charlotte in 2022 after 18 years on the faculty. He is the author of various scholarly books, including “The Shakespearean Dramaturg” and “Shakespeare and Political Theatre,” and was the editor of the performance journal Shakespeare Bulletin (Johns Hopkins UP) for a decade.

Under the names A.J. Hartley and Andrew Hart, he is also the award-winning author of nearly 30 works of fiction. His most recent series is “Hideki Smith”; the third book in that series is underway.

Even with all of his academic and literary accomplishments, Hartley said in a recent blog post that the publication of the new “Julius Caesar” volume, which he began working on in 2017, is a “very big deal: the highlight of my career and the chance to shape discussion, classroom teaching, research and theatre/film productions of this play for something like the next three decades.”

🎓 // Since graduating last May, dance alumna Amara Krantz '25 has been studying at the Martha Graham School in New York City, pursuing the Advanced Studies Certificate in Performance program!

In May, she joined other students and the Graham 2 company in a performance celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Martha Graham Dance Company.

The program reimagined Graham's very first public performance in 1926, and Amara was tapped to perform the solo "Tanagra," which was inspired by ancient Greek Tanagra figurines.

"It was a special honor to perform this work on its 100th anniversary," Amara said. "I loved to feel that I was being transported back to this time that it was first performed and I greatly appreciated looking at this piece as it has evolved and transformed throughout its history and its interpretations over the years."

Amara has one more year of study to complete the certificate program.

"I have greatly enjoyed my time deepening my study of the Graham technique, and I feel so grateful for the opportunity to work with and study alongside such talented artists."

Today's spotlight is recent grad Erick Flowers, B.A. in Theatre with a concentration in Theatre Performance '26! After graduating this spring, Erick has headed to Orlando to perform with the Disney College Program! ✨

What first got you interested in theatre?It wasn't really until middle school that I got interested in theatre. I'd done chorus all throughout middle school, and in my 7th grade year, we had the opportunity to put on "The Lion King Jr." I'd had literally never seen anything related to theatre in my life up until that point, but it was like something clicked in my mind that said, "This is me. I want this."

What is your favorite thing about the College of Arts + Architecture?
Definitely the people that I've gotten to know in my time here. I love how everyone in the department genuinely seem to care about each other, through both the good and bad.

Congratulations, !