JOHN BALABAN - PoetJohn Balaban, a poet and translator of Vietnamese
poetry, is the author of 12 volumes of poetry and
prose, including four volumes that together won
The Academy of American Poets’ Lamont prize, a
National Poetry Series Selection, and two
nominations for the National Book Award. His
Locusts at the Edge of Summer: New and Selected
Poems won the 1998 William Carlos Williams Award
from the Poetry Society of America and among other
honors, he was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim
Fellowship in 2003. Balaban is Poet-in-Residence
and Professor of English in the creative writing
program at NCSU. | HOWELL BINKLEY - Lighting DesignerHowell Binkley is a lighting designer with a
resume´ that includes a long list of Broadway
theater and dance production credits and an
equally impressive range of awards. He attended
East Carolina University, and spent four and a
half years as lighting supervisor for the Paul
Taylor Dance Company. There he met choreographer
David Parsons, with whom he cofounded Parsons
Dance Company in 1986. Binkley has lit a myriad of
hit Broadway shows; notable among them are Avenue
Q and Golda’s Balcony. He is a five-time winner of
the Helen Hayes Award and in 2006 Howell won the
Henry Hewes Design Award, Outer Critics Circle
Award and 2006 Tony Award for Jersey Boys. |
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LEON CAPETANOS - ScreenwriterLeon Capetanos is a talented and prolific
screenwriter working in the genres of comedy,
adventure, comedy-drama and drama. His credits
include Hollywood hits such as Down and Out in
Beverly Hills (1986), Fletch Lives (1989), Moscow
on the Hudson (1984), Tempest (1982) and The
Gumball Rally (1976). He and his wife live in Cary. | CAITLIN CARY - Musician / SingerCaitlin Cary launched her solo career in 2002 to
rave reviews of her debut CD. Rock, country, soul
and folk smoothly blend together with Cary’s
gorgeous voice serving as the unifying force.
Caitlin comes from a musical family and studied
violin and wrote songs as a child. She followed
her writing muse, entering North Carolina State’s
Graduate Program in Creative Writing. When she’s
off the road, Cary greatly values her time at home
in Raleigh with her husband (and former
Whiskeytown drummer) Skillet Gilmore and their two
dogs. She is currently a member of the local
favorite group Tres Chicas. |
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LYNDA CLARK - Actor / Director / CoachLynda Clark is a professional
actor/director/coach, with a myriad of television
and film credits. She appeared in a recurring
role in the CBS series American Gothic, and the
Showtime series Linc’s. Lynda has guest starred in
multiple roles for over 20 years for NC State
University’s summer repertory and appeared in
productions of Burning Coal Theatre, Theatre in
the Park, East Carolina Summer Repertory, Manbites
Dog and North Carolina Theatre. Lynda appeared
most recently in Hot Summer Nights at the
Kennedy’s Blithe Spirit. Just returning from a
season at Southern Appalachian Repertory Theatre,
Lynda also appeared in the CBS Hallmark Hall of
Fame movie, The Water is Wide. | JUDY CRANE - Visual ArtistJudy Crane has been a full-time professional
artist, maintaining a studio at Artspace in
downtown Raleigh since 1987. She works in oil,
pastel and watercolor. She has traveled and
painted in “plein air” on location in France,
Italy, Spain, and several areas of the US. She
strives to capture a true sense of place and her
emotional reaction to it. For the observer, her
work conveys a feeling of “being there.” Judy is
fascinated with the play of light in nature, and
in man’s created environment, ever changing and
refocusing one’s attention. She strives to capture
this fleeting reality in her work, and to impart
her emotional reaction to it. |
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CARL CURNUTTE - Executive Director / ProducerCarl Curnutte resides in Manteo, where he serves
as Executive Director/ Producer, in his 18th
summer with The Lost Colony. An exceptionally
diverse talent, Carl is a former recipient of The
Lost Colony’s Evelyn Russell Layton Award, for
promising theatre talent. His talents as a
costumer, designer, and producer have won numerous
video awards, including the prestigious Cindy
Award, given for distinction in video production.
Carl’s crowning achievement was receiving a
2003-2004 Primetime Emmy Awards Nomination in the
category of Outstanding Costumes for a Miniseries,
Movie or Special for his work on the HBO
Television Movie Iron Jawed Angels starring
Hillary Swank, Patrick Dempsey, and Angelica
Houston. His list of movie and television credits
includes Chris Rock’s Head of State and Commander
in Chief with Geena Davis, and his Broadway
credits include The Producers (Tony Award), Crazy
for You (Tony Award). He is a member of the
Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. | JEROME DAVIS - Artistic DirectorJerome Davis is artistic director of Raleigh’s
Burning Coal Theatre Company. For Burning Coal he
has directed Rat
in the Skull, Pentecost (twice), Winding the Ball,
Steward of Christendom, The Weir, Company, Road to
Mecca, Juno & the Paycock, Accidental Death of an
Anarchist, Taming of the Shrew and readings of Mojo
and Brothers of the Brush, as well as acted in
Love’s Labours Lost, St. Nicholas, and The Mound
Builders. This is his eleventh season as artistic
director for Burning Coal Theatre Company, which
he founded with his wife Simmie in 1997. They are
currently restoring the Murphey School Auditorium
for use as BCT’s permanent artistic home. |
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JOEL HAAS - SculptorJoel Haas’ work extends from breathtaking welded
steel angels and brightly-painted whimsical
animals to unique gates, trellises, benches,
arbors, and archways in steel for private gardens.
He has cast wall reliefs in marble and resin for
churches and hospitals and created stainless steel
fountain sculptures for private and public
gardens. Most pieces are welded and forged
together from scrap steel parts and painted with
rust-resistant primer. The final colors are
applied with sign-painters’ lacquers which won’t
fade in sunlight. When asked if there is any
serious or deep meaning to his work. Joel says, “I
hope not. There are already enough serious and
deep meanings in the world to keep thousands of
art critics busy.” | SALLIE HEDRICK - ActorSallie Hedrick is a NC native, grew up on a farm
in Wake Forest and is a graduate of Meredith
College. A child actor, she played Anne Frank in a
national tour of The Diary of Anne Frank and by
college had a cameo in Tim Burton’s Big Fish. She
was a part of the television hits filmed in NC,
Dawson’s Creek and One Tree Hill. Sallie worked
for three years for the Sundance Film Festival
where she managed 1,300 volunteers. She now serves
as Development Officer for the NC Film Office. |
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MARK HEWITT - PotterMark Hewitt is the son and grandson of directors
of Spode, the fine china manufacturers, and was
inspired to become a studio potter after reading
Bernard Leach’s A Potter’s Book. He undertook
prestigious apprenticeships in England and the US
and studied the traditional potteries in West
Africa, Taiwan, Korea and Japan. Relocating to
Pittsboro, NC in 1983, he built a wood-burning
kiln the size of a school bus, which he continues
to fire three times a year. Mark specializes in
very large planters, storage jars and vases, along
with a full range of high quality tableware. His
work has been featured in the Smithsonian magazine
and on the cover of American Craft magazine and
has exhibited in London, New York, Tokyo, and
throughout the US. He is well-represented in
museum and private collections. Mark recently
co-curated The Potter’s Eye: Art and Tradition
in North Carolina Pottery at the North Carolina
Museum of Art. His work is featured in the PBS
series, Craft in America. | KYLE HIGHSMITH - ArtistKyle Highsmith is known for his vibrant use of
color and his impressionist style of painting. His
paintings have been included in over 50 group and
one-person exhibitions over the past 20 years, and
Kyle’s paintings are in numerous corporate and
institutional collections such as the NC Museum of
Art, The Greenville Museum of Art, Rex Hospital,
Duke University and Louisburg College. He
maintains a studio at Artspace in Raleigh. |
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CLYDE JONES - SculptorClyde Jones, a nationally recognized outsider
artist, is known as the Critter Artist. A
one-of-a-kind creator whose work literally grows
in North Carolina, Clyde doesn’t sell his works.
He gives them away. Fallen trees and logs inspire
Clyde to use his chainsaw to free the animal
figures he sees inside. If you know someone who
could use a smile, bring him or her to Clyde’s.
Clyde’s own house is a critter wonderland and his
creations have traveled the world–there’s even one
that sits on the Great Wall of China | SHARON LAWRENCE - ActorSharon Lawrence is an accomplished actress, best
known for compelling television roles such as
Sylvia Sipowicz in the TV program NYPD Blue and
Maisy Gibbons in Desperate Housewives. She has
guest starred in Boston Legal, Law & Order:
Special Victims Unit and Monk, and has been
featured in numerous television movies. Sharon’s
talents have shined in movies and on the stage,
and this Broughton High School and UNC-CH graduate
is a savvy veteran of the talk show rounds who has
graced countless magazine covers. |
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BILL LESLIE - TV PersonalityBill Leslie, an award-winning anchor for WRAL
News, is an accomplished musician and composer.
Bill plays several instruments and is a talented
vocalist. Most recently he has translated his
memories of Christmas in Carolina into a 2006
holiday release. It is a gentle Celtic/folk music
experience, with Leslie personally crafting eight
of the 14 seasonal songs. | TERRENCE MANN - ActorTerrence Mann is familiar to NC theatregoers and
is a Tony-nominated actor who has originated roles
in Broadway shows including Les Miserables and
Beauty and the Beast. Other Broadway shows
include: The Rocky Horror Show, The Scarlet
Pimpernel Getting Away With Murder, A Christmas
Carol ,Cats, Barnum, Jerome Robbins’ Broadway, and
Jekyll and Hyde. Terrence remains active in NC,
most recently directing the student cast of Les
Miserables produced by the Wake County Public
School System and Broadway Series South this past
September at the Progress Energy Center for the
Performing Arts. |
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JILL MCCORKLE - AuthorJill McCorkle, author of novels and short stories,
is a native of Lumberton, NC. She studied creative
writing at UNC at Chapel Hill and Hollins College.
Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill published her first
two novels, The Cheerleader and July 7th,
simultaneously in 1984. Just 26 when she started
publishing, Jill was inducted into the Fellowship
of Southern Writers in 2003. She has authored five
novels and three collections of short stories and
her work is included in the University of South
Carolina’s Understanding Contemporary Writers
Series. Jill is a winner of the Andrew James Purdy
prize for fiction, the New England Booksellers’
Association award, and the Dos Passos Prize. Five
of her books have been selected New York Times
Notable Books of the year. She has taught at
Bennington and Harvard, teaching fiction and
directing theses. She is currently a member of the
graduate faculty of the NCSU Creative Writing Program. | JOHN MCILWEE - DirectorJohn McIlwee is the Director of University Theatre
at North Carolina State University. His talents as
a director, set designer, costume designer, actor
and administrator are well-known and respected
within the state and across the region. John
received his bachelors and two masters degrees
from West Virginia University, and came to NC
State after holding a variety of professional
positions in costume and makeup. In addition to
being the director at University Theatre, John
teaches makeup classes, directs productions, and
is active in the community presenting vintage
fashion shows. |
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BOB RANKIN - Visual ArtistBob Rankin works with bright colors and strong
brush strokes in a quiet studio at Artspace in
downtown Raleigh. A graduate of East Carolina
University, Bob has studied at the NC School of
Design and extensively in Europe. He taught art in
the Wake County Public School System for over 25
years. His work is part of numerous corporate
collections and in the private collections of
individuals as diverse as John Denver and the King
of Morocco. | LOUIS ST. LEWIS - Visual ArtistLouis St. Lewis is a self-confessed troublemaker
of the delightfully artistic sort. He is a
scavenger and an innovator, known for collage,
assemblage, and large-scale pop art. St. Lewis has
been hailed as a cunning pirate of art history,
appropriating other artists’ imagery and
transforming it into his own with brilliant and
colorful manipulations that have found their way
into the collections of such notables as Christian
LaCroix, Andre Leon Talley, HRH The Prince of
Kuwait, and Oprah Winfrey. The artist has recently
had exhibitions in Paris, San Francisco, and New
Orleans, where two paintings were acquired for the
permanent collection of the Ogden Museum of
Southern Art. |
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LILYAN VIGO - DancerLilyan Vigo is Carolina Ballet’s own homegrown
ballerina, a graduate of the North Carolina School
of the Arts. Characterized by her sleek line,
charisma, and an innate sense of artistry, Lilyan
is known for routine five pirouettes on pointe.
The ultimate example of the sophisticated style of
dancing artistic director Robert Weiss has shaped
and fostered, Vigo joined the company at its
inception in 1997. Vigo dances with a true
Balanchinean sense of musicality and has won two
Princess Grace Awards. She has created many
principal parts in new works including Robert
Weiss’ Firebird. | HUGHES WINBORNE - EditorHughes Winborne, a Broughton High School graduate,
has been editing films since the early 1990s,
making a name for himself in a number of
independent features, most notably Billy Bob
Thornton’s 1996 Academy Award-winning drama Sling
Blade. In 2006, nominated for the very first time
for his breakthrough work on Crash, Hughes took
home the Oscar for Best Achievement in film
editing. The film also captured the big prize,
Best Picture. In 2007 he edited The Pursuit of
Happyness starring Will Smith. |
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IRA DAVID WOOD III - Actor / DirectorIra David Wood III, founder and executive director
of Raleigh’s prestigious Theatre in the Park, is a
native North Carolinian and a graduate of North
Carolina School of the Arts. Locally, he is best
known for his annual stage production of A
Christmas Carol, a Triangle tradition for over 30
consecutive years. David performs the role of
Scrooge and directs the production for which he
also adapted the script and composed the original
music. While in college, he performed in Paul
Green’s outdoor drama, The Lost Colony. David is
the only two-time recipient of the Medal of Arts
award, presented by the Raleigh Arts Commission
for extraordinary achievement. National Business
Yearly has named him one of the 50 most
influential people in the Triangle. He has
appeared in motion pictures with such stars as
Cliff Robertson, Louise Fletcher, Christopher
Walken, and Natalie Wood. |
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