NEWS

Award-winning Hollywood duo teaches directing, acting and writing at UNC

CHAPEL HILL -- Two award-winning veterans of writing and directing for television have arrived at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to teach directing, acting and writing for the stage and screen.

Director Joan Darling, a two-time-Emmy Award winner, and her husband, screenwriter and playwright Bill Svanoe, will be visiting professors through the 2002-2003 academic year in an emerging, interdisciplinary program in the College of Arts and Sciences. An alumnus who wishes to remain anonymous provided funds to support their positions in the departments of communication studies and dramatic art.

Darling directed numerous television episodes including "Chuckles Bites the Dust" for the Mary Tyler Moore Show, which TV Guide called the "number one television episode of all time" and a New York Times critic called "the funniest half hour on television."

Svanoe has written for television series and movies, and his plays have been produced in the United States and Europe. He launched his career by writing the tune "Walk Right In," a number-one record for the "Rooftop Singers," which he co-founded.

"It’s a real feather in the university’s cap to have these two here," said David Sontag, UNC's Wesley Wallace distinguished professor of communication studies and an award-winning film and television writer and producer. "Bill is one of the leading screenwriters and playwrights in the country," Sontag said. "Joan has won many accolades for her directing and was named one of the top new acting teachers in America [in ‘The New Generation of Acting Teachers’]."

Sontag is leading the development of the new program in writing for the stage and screen, involving faculty in communication studies, dramatic art, English and creative writing.

Besides other Mary Tyler Moore shows, Darling directed the pilot of "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman" and award-winning shows, including "M.A.S.H.," "Magnum PI," "Phyllis," "Rhoda," "Doc" and "Rich Man Poor Man." She directed two of the highest rated episodes of Steven Spielberg’s "Amazing Stories" and also has held starring roles on stage and television.

She was one of the first women directing film and television in the 1970s and the first woman nominated for an Emmy for directing. She won an Emmy and a Directors Guild Award for directing the ABC special "Mom’s on Strike." CBS selected her first feature film, "First Love" starring Susan Dey, as one of the year’s 10 best.

Darling acted for four years in the award-winning improvisational production "The Premise" with Gene Hackman and George Segal, and played Viola in "Twelfth Night" for the American Shakespeare Festival. She won an Emmy for her portrayal of Dorothy Parker in "Woven in a Crazy Plaid."

Also an acting and directing instructor, Darling created the "Directing the Actor" workshop for Robert Redford’s Sundance Institute, where she has been a creative adviser for the past 10 years. She has also been a guest lecturer at UCLA, the American Film Institute, the California Institute for the Arts and the University of Southern California.

Svanoe wrote for television movies including "Returning Home" starring Tom Selleck (a remake of the classic "Best Years of Our Lives), "Miles to Go" with Martin Balsam (for which he won the Christopher Award for Outstanding Writing) and "Terror on the Beach" with Dennis Weaver (which TV Guide called "one of the 10 best movies of the year"). He also wrote "Sparks," starring Victoria Principal; "Seduced by Evil," with Suzanne Sommers and "Superdome" with David Jansen.

He has written for major television series including "The Six Million Dollar Man" starring Lee Majors and "Grif" with Lorne Green. His feature-film screenplays include "Waltz Across Texas" starring Anne Archer and "Extreme Measures " (released as "Fatal Beauty") with Whoopi Goldberg.

Svanoe's first play, "The Newsstand," won him the Outstanding New Playwright Award in New York City and the Outstanding Foreign Playwright award in Holland. He also wrote "The Downside Risk," "Jellyroll Shoes," "Punch and Judy," "Trader Jack and the Stinger" and "The Black Duck."

He taught writing at The University of Colorado, Carnegie Mellon University and West Virginia University. He and Darling previously taught at UNC-Chapel Hill during the spring 2001 semester.

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Contact: Dee Reid, (919) 843-6339, deereid@unc.edu

News Services contact: L.J. Toler, (919) 962-8589, laura_toler@unc.edu