Joseph Megel is rounding home

“Rounding Home,” the theme of this year’s Process Series, could also define artistic director Joseph Megel’s own journey as an artist.

More than the idea of reaching home plate as a culmination, an end point, the phrase also describes a way forward beyond that, a continuation of the journey.

Megel founded the Process Series, a performance series and creative incubator dedicated to the development of new and significant works in the performing arts, 18 years ago. Performances have involved interdisciplinary collaborations with multiple campus entities, showcasing dance, theater, music, art, poetry, oral history, storytelling and hybrid productions of digital arts and media.

This is Megel’s final season at the helm, as the communication department evaluates what’s next for the series. Megel retired in December but is teaching a solo performance class as an adjunct professor this spring.

Megel said he has long been drawn to works-in-progress and to partnerships with artists in bringing their vision to life.

“I find the energy and the collaborative process of working with playwrights and other artists to be very invigorating,” he said. “I enjoy helping them find their footing in terms of what they want to accomplish. I’m trying to elevate the work, and I think the pieces get better in the process.”

But bringing a new performance to the Process Series stage has never been the end point, Megel said. The goal is for the productions to live beyond the series.

Fruitful collaborations

Megel has worked on multiple projects with long-time collaborator Howard Craft, a playwright and visiting professor in the communication department, including “Caleb Calypso and the Midnight Marauders” and “Freight: The Five Incarnations of Abel Green.”

Kane Smego ’10 collaborated with Megel on multiple productions but perhaps most notably on “Temples of Lung and Air,” which premiered at PlayMakers Repertory Company in 2018.

“Some of my fondest memories and achievements in my career, especially in theater, have been because of what Joseph believed in and cultivated in me and all the ways he chose to encourage, support and challenge me,” said Smego, who directs the U.S. Department of State-funded Next Level cultural exchange program. “There are generations of artists and actors and writers who have been impacted in similar ways. I am among the lucky ones.”

Creative spaces for creative work

Megel played a key role in the renovation of Swain Hall’s Black Box Theatre as well as the opening of the Media Arts Space @ 108 East Franklin Street, which he called “the beginning of a new era in media production and live performance.”

Megel received a 2024 Tanner Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. “There is nothing more rewarding than giving someone the opportunity to find their creative voice in a deep way,” Megel said. “That’s been a gift, an exciting thing for me to get to see time and time again.”

Embracing his encore

Megel said he’ll continue to foster the development of new works, post-retirement.

Before coming to UNC-Chapel Hill, as artistic director of the Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey, he directed “Radium Girls” by D.W. Gregory, which became one of the most produced plays in colleges and high schools. He will work with Gregory on a musical version.

“I’m going to continue to do the work that feeds me, to focus on projects that feel essential, that make a difference in this time and place,” Megel said. “I think we live in a world where we need to heal as much as possible, and hopefully the work I choose to do will become a part of that.”