College of Arts + Architecture

Associate Professor of Theatre Robin Witt is directing a production of “A Doll’s House, Part 2” at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre, one of the premier ensemble theatre companies in the United States.

A new “tiny park” near the corner of 10th Street and Jackson Avenue is the result of a community collaboration that brought students of the UNC Charlotte Master of Urban Design (MUD) program together with seventh-graders from Piedmont Open IB Middle School.

Deborah Ryan has been named the new director of the Master of Urban Design program.

Assistant Professor of Trombone Jeremy Marks will present a Faculty & Friends Concert on Tuesday, Jan. 15, in Rowe Recital Hall. Performing on tenor and bass trombones, Marks will be joined by pianist Nia Imani Williams Reyes; UNC Charlotte brass faculty Eric Millard (trumpet), Christopher Griffin (French horn) and Doug Black (tuba); and Winthrop University trombone professor Justin Isenhour.

UNC Charlotte voice professors Carl DuPont and Christina Pier will perform in the Opera Carolina production of Bizet’s “Carmen,” which will be presented on Jan.19, 20 and 24 in the Belk Theater at the Blumenthal Performing Arts Center.

DuPont, bass-baritone, will perform the role of Zuniga; Pier, soprano, will sing the role of Micaëla. The production will be presented in February by the Toledo Opera in Ohio.

Lee Gray is interim dean of the College of Arts + Architecture (COA+A). He follows Ken Lambla, who served 10 years as the founding dean of the college. Lambla is returning to the faculty as a full professor. A search committee is at work to find the college’s next dean.

In recognition of the Martin Luther King holiday, the Department of Theatre will present actor Wali Jamal in August Wilson’s “How I Learned What I Learned.” Performances will be Thursday and Friday, Jan. 17-18.

This one-man show, created by August Wilson and Todd Kreidler, chronicles Wilson’s life as a black artist in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, recounting his life from childhood to the completion of “The American Century Cycle” of award-winning plays. Wilson, himself, performed the premiere, presented by Seattle Repertory Theatre in 2003.

In partnership with the Levine Museum of the New South, Assistant Professor of Urban Design Ming-Chun Lee and UNC Charlotte students will help Charlotte residents discover the stories behind the rise and fall of Eastland Mall and its surrounding neighborhood at an event on Saturday, Dec. 8.

The event, “Being a Historian for a Day,” will take place at Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, Hickory Grove Branch, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The University Chorale, under the direction of Randy Haldeman, will perform a holiday concert at 7:30 p.m., Monday, Dec. 3, in the Anne R. Belk Theater in Robinson Hall.

“Vibrant Practices: Masquerade in Southwestern Burkina Faso,” on exhibition in the Student Union Art Gallery through Saturday, Dec. 8, celebrates in brilliant photographs and videos the research of art historian Lisa Homann.