Director Joe Mantello Donates $1 Mil to University of North Carolina School of the Arts
The money will be used for full undergraduate scholarships, as well as to support student-run productions
Actor, two-time Tony Award winner, and stage and screen director Joe Mantello has made a generous donation of $1 million to the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA). The sum constitutes the largest gift ever made to the university's School of Drama and will be used to help create opportunities for students.
UNCSA plans to share the funds between two initiatives. Firstly, the Joe Mantello Endowed Scholarship in Drama will fund a four-year undergraduate degree in its entirety. These will be selected by the Dean and will be given to the most promising freshman applicant, with the inaugural scholarship being awarded in 2025.
Second, funds will be allocated to the new Joe Mantello Creative Catalyst Endowed Fund for Drama. This fund will support original productions run by students, and in particular the Keys to the Kingdom initiative. This comprises an entire production in the fourth year that is programmed, produced, directed, acted and often written or devised by students.
A graduate of UNCSA, Mantello played Louis Ironson in Tony Kushner’s Angels in America: Millennium Approaches, before reprising the role in the follow-up, Angels in America: Perestroika. He is best known for his work leading Wicked, which has become the fourth-longest-running Broadway production of all time.
"We are profoundly grateful to Joe for this gift," said UNCSA Chancellor Brian Cole. "His career has been a case study in creative excellence, multifaceted talent and visionary perspective. This gift will help the School of Drama attract the most talented prospective students, befitting of the program’s top-tier worldwide reputation, and build on its remarkable tradition of artistic rigor and industry relevance."
"Joe has been at the forefront of the industry for decades, and knows better than anyone how much the world of professional theater has evolved and continues to evolve," said UNCSA Dean of Drama John Langs.
"By investing in our students’ ability to create and produce original, independent work that augments and complements our existing drama curriculum, Joe is helping to prepare actors to take charge of their careers in this changing industry, training generations of actors and directors to explore the human condition and create work that reaches new audiences, just as he has done throughout his extraordinary career."
february 2025
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