Numerous theater companies have been created over the years. The most renowned group is PlayMakers Repertory Company, now entering its 27th season. It is a professional, nonprofit organization dedicated to the exploration of drama and to the relationship between itself and the community.
PlayMakers features a resident company that includes both faculty members and people outside the university.
PlayMakers Artistic Director David Hammond noted that students who come from theater-heavy cities from around the globe have been pleasantly surprised by the quality of the company's work.
"If they go through UNC and never get over here for one show, they're really missing an experience," Hammond said.
PlayMakers is a fully professional theater company based in the Center for Dramatic Art. Other groups exist on campus that have students holding the reins.
Of these companies, Lab! Theatre is the oldest, established in 1946. Each year, Lab! presents 12 full productions free of charge -- the company is financially supported by student fees, the Department of Dramatic Arts, donations and a system of benefactors.
Company Carolina, founded in 1994, is young, but the group's recent shows have received praise while allowing students to experience how a professional theater operates on a day-to-day basis.
The performance arts encompass the musical in addition to the dramatic. According to Daniel Huff, professor of music and adviser for the Pauper Players, the interest in musical theater has allowed that company to remain largely self-sufficient through ticket receipts. The Pauper Players showcase two productions and a musical revue each year.
For many theater companies in the area, work doesn't end with the mere presentation of a play. Both Wordshed Productions and the StreetSigns Center for Literature and Performance are as concerned with exploring new plays, literary adaptations and classics modified for a contemporary audience as they are with putting them onstage.
