News Release

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PlayMakers Repertory Company
names producing artistic director

CHAPEL HILL — PlayMakers Repertory Company at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has appointed Joseph Haj as its new producing artistic director. He will begin work on July 1.

Haj, a 1988 graduate of UNC’s master of fine arts professional actor training program, has theatrical credits across the United States and abroad. He has guest-directed three times for PlayMakers, a nonprofit professional theater company based in UNC’s dramatic art department, a part of the College of Arts and Sciences.

“The university community and PlayMakers audiences are already familiar with Joe Haj’s directing talent, so we are especially excited about welcoming him back to campus now as producing artistic director,” said Dr. Bernadette Gray-Little, dean of the college. “He has the vision, experience and creativity to take PlayMakers to new heights.”

Haj worked with director Mark Wing-Davey on PlayMakers’ production of “King Lear” in 2004. He returned to direct “Not About Heroes,” selected by The News & Observer of Raleigh as one of the area’s 10 best productions of 2004. This year, he directed his own adaptation of “Cyrano de Bergerac” for the company’s 30th anniversary season.

Haj has worked in Berlin, Edinburgh, Paris, Salzburg, Venice and Japan, as well as in regional theatres across the United States. The latter include the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, the Alley Theatre in Houston, Actors Theatre of Louisville, the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles and the New York Shakespeare Festival.

He received a National Endowment for the Arts Millennium Grant, awarded to 50 of America’s finest artists in 2000, and the 2004-2005 National Endowment for the Arts / Theatre Communications Group Career Development Grant for Directors.

Other accomplishments include conducting workshops with Palestinian and Israeli actors in the West Bank and Gaza, directing “Henry V” with maximum-security inmates in California and creating and directing “Voices” with members of the rural community of Batesburg-Leesville, S.C. – the latter, through a National Endowment for the Arts and White House Council grant.

Haj has worked with notables including Anne Bogart, co-founder of the Saratoga International Theatre Institute in New York, and theater director Peter Sellars; he also has acted on television programs including “24,” “Without a Trace,” “Navy NCIS,” “Crossing Jordan” and “Charmed.”

“It is an honor to be selected to guide PlayMakers Repertory Company – the theater where my career began and where I earned my union card 20 years ago,” said Haj. “I am eager to begin working with my colleagues to build upon the proud legacy of this institution.

“I look forward to programming and creating powerful, dynamic work on stage, expanding the connection between PlayMakers and the university and connecting the theater ever deeper to this exceptional community,” he said.

David Hammond, with PlayMakers for 21 years and artistic director for 14 seasons, became artistic director emeritus in September, 2005. He will advise PlayMakers and teach dramatic arts at UNC and in the graduate acting program of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.

As producing artistic director, Haj will provide artistic vision and guidance, direct plays, plan programs, select guest directors and artists and raise funds for PlayMakers. For the dramatic art department, he will train masters’ degree students in acting and technology through the professional theater.

“Joe has the talent to recognize material that will foster genuine interest in our endeavors,” said McKay Coble, chair of the dramatic art department. “He has the skill to lead a team to excellence and prosperity and a heart that is dedicated to the success of the theater and department in which he began the journey that has brought him back to us.”

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Photo URL: http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/staff/haj_joseph.jpeg

For more information about PlayMakers, visit http://www.playmakersrep.org

PlayMakers contact: Pam O’Connor, (919) 621-1230, pamo@nc.rr.com
College of Arts and Sciences contact: Dee Reid, (919) 843-6339, deereid@unc.edu