Morgan Writer-in-Residence Program hosts final speaker after losing funding

Athol Fugard’s visit to UNC this week marks the end of an era.

Fugard, an award-winning South African playwright, will be the last guest of the 20-year-old Morgan Writer-in-Residence Program that recently lost its funding.

Daniel Wallace, head of the creative writing department, said he didn’t expect the program to last forever.

“It is an expendable program, we knew that, but most importantly we are thankful to the Morgans for their generosity,” he said.

Alumni Allen and Musette Morgan began the annual literary program in 1993 and have funded it through this spring.

Susan Irons, UNC English professor and director of the program, said Fugard, 79, fit the bill for the creative writing department.

“They wanted someone who reflects the value of literary arts,” she said.

In his plays, Fugard explores the politics of race and the South African system of apartheid.

During his stay, he will give lectures about his work, and some of his plays will be read or performed in venues in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro area.

Fugard, who is being honored at New York’s Signature Theater with an entire season dedicated to his work, has a lot of buzz Irons said.

“It came down to one word — ‘serendipity.’”

StreetSigns Center for Literature and Performance is currently producing Fugard’s play, “Blood Knot,” in repertory with the multimedia event “Poetic Portraits of a Revolution.”

The play focuses on half-brothers living in South Africa under apartheid. One brother is white and the other appears black.

Joseph Megel, co-artistic director of StreetSigns and UNC artist-in-residence, is directing the production.

“We pushed our actors to their limits because we wanted to do work that feels essential,” he said.

Wallace said Fugard is a dramatist who is hard to exaggerate.

“His ability to write a line is so beautiful,” he said.

“He’s a first-class literary masterpiece who’s still rockin’.”

Contact the Arts Editor at arts@dailytarheel.com.