Chatham Arts Council

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June 8, 2026

Meet This Artist: Theater Artist Derrick Ivey

The Chatham Arts Council is investing in artists through our Meet This Artist series, introducing you to Chatham County’s creative community one interview at a time. This Meet This Artist feature is made possible with support from VRC, Ltd. In this special audio feature, we meet Derrick Ivey, a longtime Chatham County resident and regional… Read More →

By Heather O'Shaughnessy | Filed Under: Meet this Artist, Slideshow Featured | Tagged With: arthur miller, directing, redbird theater company, stage design, theater

February 28, 2026

Meet This Artist: Actor and Producer David zum Brunnen

The Chatham Arts Council is investing in artists through our Meet This Artist series, introducing you to Chatham County’s creative community one interview at a time. In this special audio feature, we meet David zum Brunnen, actor, producer and co-founder of EbzB Productions. For decades, David has brought history to life on stage and in… Read More →

By Heather O'Shaughnessy | Filed Under: Meet this Artist, Slideshow Featured |

November 25, 2025

Meet This Artist: Artistic Director Joseph Megel

The Chatham Arts Council is investing in artists through our Meet This Artist series, introducing you to Chatham County’s creative community one interview at a time. In this special audio feature, we meet Joseph Megel, longtime artistic director of the Process Series at UNC–Chapel Hill. His work has championed new plays, performance art, dance, and… Read More →

By Heather O'Shaughnessy | Filed Under: Meet this Artist, Slideshow Featured | Tagged With: dance, multidisciplinary, Poetry, the process series, theater, university of north carolina, Workshop

October 24, 2025

History Steps on Stage: When One Man Becomes Fifteen

Black actor in suspenders, white shirt, and brown paints. Onstage, he gestures while speaking in character.

Our Northwood and Seaforth tenth-graders saw a performance–and they also what happens when storytelling meets history. Because in Mike Wiley’s hands, history doesn’t feel far away at all. It’s standing right there, center stage in front of you.

By Amanda Moran | Filed Under: Artists-in-Schools, Arts for Resilient Kids, Arts in Education, Slideshow Featured | Tagged With: acting, actor, AIS, artists-in-schools, Arts education, Dar He, Emmett Till, Mike Wiley, northwood, play, playwright, school performance, Seaforth, tenth grade, theatre, US History

May 14, 2025

Meet This Artist: Musical Theater Creator Creighton Irons

Photo of White man in dark shirt smiling

The Chatham Arts Council is investing in artists through our Meet This Artist (MTA) series, introducing you to 12 Chatham County artists each year in a big way. The fine folks at Hobbs Architects in downtown Pittsboro are powering our Meet This Artist series this year. Architecture is art, and the Hobbs crew values art… Read More →

By Heather O'Shaughnessy | Filed Under: Meet this Artist, Slideshow Featured | Tagged With: community theater, creighton irons, factory girls, JumpstART, Musical Theater, NYU, the moon and the sea, woods charter, woodshed arts

January 10, 2025

Mike Wiley Brings Theatre and Writing to Siler City and Virginia Cross

Mike Wiley residency

Siler City Elementary (SCE) and Virginia Cross Elementary (VCE) students and teachers enjoyed actor and playwright Mike Wiley’s solo performance of “One Noble Journey” this past November. In addition to the performance, Mr. Wiley hosted teacher and student workshops at both schools during his week-long artist residency in Chatham. An Audience-Fueled Performance: “One Noble Journey”… Read More →

By Jessica Rigsbee | Filed Under: Artists-in-Schools, Arts for Resilient Kids, Arts in Education, Slideshow Featured | Tagged With: acting, actor, AIS, art residency, artists-in-schools, Arts education, dance residency, fifth grade, Howard Craft, Mike Wiley, one noble journey, play, playwright, school performance, Siler City Elementary, theatre, Virginia Cross, virginia cross elementary, Writing, writing residency

January 5, 2024

Mike Wiley’s Masterful Residency: Teaching through Theatre at Bennett and Bonlee School

Photo trio from L to R: An actor in historical costume stands with boy in floppy hat; Girl stands next to same actor, both with heads raised to the sky; students laughing in class.

“This was absolutely great!” Board of Education members Gary Leonard and David Hamm were enthusiastic after sitting with Bennett School students and teachers to watch actor and playwright Mike Wiley’s solo performance of “One Noble Journey.” The play’s narrative brought to life the remarkable journey of Henry “Box” Brown, a courageous slave who shipped himself… Read More →

By Jessica Rigsbee | Filed Under: Artists-in-Schools, Arts for Resilient Kids, Arts in Education, Slideshow Featured | Tagged With: acting, actor, AIS, art residency, artists-in-schools, Arts education, dance residency, fifth grade, Howard Craft, Mike Wiley, one noble journey, play, playwright, school performance, seventh grade, theatre, Writing, writing residency

April 17, 2018

Meet This Artist: Mike Wiley—The Busiest Man in Show Business

This month’s “Meet This Artist” is written by guest blogger Elisabeth Lewis Corley.  Multiple hyphenate Mike Wiley, an actor-playwright- director-arts educator, came to Pittsboro because he and his wife, Jodi Neely Wiley, were living in Apex and expecting a second child when their first was almost four and they needed more room. And Jodi Neely… Read More →

By Lesley Landis | Filed Under: Artist Close-Up, Meet this Artist, Slideshow Featured | Tagged With: actor, Arts education, books, Chatham County, Community, memoir, Music, non-fiction, performance, Pittsboro, theater

March 28, 2017

Meet This Artist: Derrick Ivey is master-of-many theater magician

 This month’s Meet This Artist is by guest blogger Elisabeth Lewis Corley. Native North Carolinian Derrick Ivey was a Radio, Television and Motion Picture major at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, studying journalism and screenwriting. He moved to Atlanta briefly then returned to Chapel Hill and settled in Chatham County where he… Read More →

By Bett Wilson Foley | Filed Under: Meet this Artist, Slideshow Featured | Tagged With: acting, actor, directing, drama, Man Bites Dog, plays, playwright, theater

March 23, 2017

Go See This: Once Upon A Mattress

image with princess gowns, harp, crown, and two pictures of couples in cast

When Pittsboro’s Northwood High School Arts students take the stage at the end of March to present the annual spring musical, they are not only continuing a long NHS tradition, but joining thousands of peers across the country for whom the term “spring musical” is, if not redundant, at least, synonymous. “Opening for A Princess”… Read More →

By Lesley Landis | Filed Under: Arts in Education, County Happenings, Go See This, Slideshow Featured | Tagged With: #ArtsEd, #CCNC, Art Show, Arts Ed, Arts education, CCSArts, Chatham County, Collaboration, Creative Culture, Cultural Events, Music, Musical Theatre, Northwood High School, NorthwoodArts, theater

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