Tanglewood Children's Theatre, a comprehensive child drama program co-sponsored by UNC Asheville and Asheville Community Theatre, was honored recently for its achievements by the North Carolina Theatre Conference, a statewide association. Accepting the Constance Welch Theatre for Youth Award for outstanding work in presenting theater for children were Patricia Snoyer, UNCA associate drama professor, and Peter Carver, Asheville Community Theatre managing director.

Tanglewood Children's Theatre offers afterschool and Saturday classes, mainstage performances, touring shows and summer creative arts camps for 6- to 18-year-olds. The program had an informal start in 1959 and then moved to a permanent home at Asheville Community Theatre until 1980, when it was brought to UNCA by then Drama Department

Chair Arnold Wengrow. In 1988, Wengrow hired Drama Professor Pat Snoyer to direct Tanglewood programming. She expanded the program into a theater laboratory, where UNCA

students planning on becoming theater arts educators could work with school-age children in classes and theatre productions. The theater lab has continued as UNCA and ACT rekindled their partnership in 2001, providing increased resources, performance space and staffing for the program.

Since 1988, Tanglewood has offered a host of productions, including "Clarissa's Closet," "Pinocchio," "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," "Schoolhouse Rock," "Place of the Great Turtle's Back," "The Yellow Boat," and "Wilma's Revenge." Some were offered as mainstage productions, which were open to the public and invited school audiences, and others toured in public schools in Asheville and surrounding counties.

Many Tanglewood alumni have chosen to return to UNCA to major in drama or theater arts. Among them is Lauren Spear, a UNCA senior who stage managed Tanglewood's 2001 summer production, "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" and taught makeup for summer school classes. "While participating in the Tanglewood program as an adolescent, and recently as an educator, I've always viewed Tanglewood as a unique experience where participants can not only form an appreciation for theater, but do so in an innovative and accepting environment," Spear said. In addition to finishing her bachelor's degree in drama, Spear is also completing her

theatre arts teaching licensure and plans to go on for a master of fine arts degree in theater for young audiences.

For more information about Tanglewood Children's Theatre, and its 2002 Summer Creative Arts Camp which begins June 17, call Peter Carver at 828/253-4931.

Media Contacts:

• Patricia Snoyer, UNCA Associate Drama Professor, 828/251-6940
• Merianne Epstein, UNCA Public Information Director, 828/251-6676