Playwright

Randolph Umberger – Playwright

“Theater and music are the two addictive drugs that must always remain legal in the US,” so says Randolph Umberger, author of Strike at the Wind! “If we took the two entertainments from the American public, we’d all pay for it at the psychiatrist’s office.”

With a strong belief in the social value of drama, Umberger came to Robeson County in the Spring of 1970. Fresh from receiving a Ph.D. at Tulane University, where his dissertation was on the Cherokee drama Unto These Hills, and on his way to Germany and Greece to study outdoor productions, he considered the possibility of such a project. “The ties with Roanoke Island’s Lost Colony were obvious, but dramatically out of the picture. In searching the material, only one character was historically viable—Henry Berry Lowry.” Out of the myth and legend that surrounded the character, Umberger decided to create the play Strike at the Wind!

Dr. Umberger is Senior Professor of Theatre at North Carolina Central University, where he chaired the department for seven years. He is also the supervisor for the undergraduate Critical Foundations Division of Arts and Humanities. He holds and B.A. and M.A. from UNC-Chapel Hill in Dramatic Art and a Ph.D. from Tulane University in Theatre Literature and Criticism.

Of Mules and Men, which Dr. Umberger wrote and directed, won the Kennedy Center Medal at the American College Theater Festival and premiered at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 1991. He is also the author of another North Carolina outdoor drama, The Liberty Cart. He has directed over one hundred productions, including classical and contemporary plays, musicals, operas, and outdoor dramas. Previously he was the artistic director for the Durham Savoyards, Ltd., and has directed the entire full-length Gilbert and Sullivan canon. He also paints Southwestern landscapes and had a one-man show recently, Isolations, at the North Carolina Arts Gallery. He recently served as stage director for Carlisle Floyd's Susannah at Opera Fort Collins in Colorado. He and Maestro Benjamin Keaton also staged the world premiere of Hollister's The Inca's Chosen Bride in Chapel Hill in 1997.

Dr. Umberger is also the author of the theatre section for a soon-to-be published book on the history of the arts in Durham. His latest play, Bye Bye, Blackbirds, played a month's limited engagement at the Harlem Theatre Company in New York City, and his adaptation of the Gilbert & Sullivan musical, Utopia (Un)limited, was performed in Cornwall, England, as the summer touring show for Cambridge University. Currently he serves as the Artistic Director of the Long Leaf Opera in Chapel Hill, N.C.