Meet PlayMakers Repertory Company, a dynamic collaboration between renowned Broadway artists and local talent like none other. Discover the world-class theatre being created right here in the Triangle, from reimagined classics to groundbreaking world premieres, from comedies to thrillers, and so much more. Whether you are a lifelong theatregoer or someone just wanting to try something new, we’re saving a seat for you!
PlayMakers is located in beautiful Chapel Hill, North Carolina, proudly in residence on the dynamic campus of the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill. At the very heart of the PlayMakers experience is our resident company, made up of accomplished performers, directors, designers, artisans, and technicians, and supported by exceptional graduate students in UNC’s Department of Dramatic Art. Our company works side by side with guest artists from all over the world and our alumni include Pulitzer Prize, Tony, Emmy, and Grammy Award winners.
OUR MISSION
As the premier professional theatre company of North Carolina, PlayMakers Repertory Company strives to produce entertaining, relevant, and courageous work that tells stories from and for a multiplicity of perspectives and creates transformational impact in our immediate and extended communities.
OUR VISION
PROVOKE. REPRESENT. CREATE.
OUR VALUES
Artistic excellence and artistry
Education and training
Community engagement
Access and equality
Financial health
Discovery and innovation
Collaboration and communication
Culture of support
LAND ACKNOWLEDGMENT
We acknowledge that the land on which the University of North Carolina stands is the ancestral homeland of Eastern Siouan-speaking Indigenous peoples (Yesah, “The People”). We honor and acknowledge the citizens of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, the Coharie Indian Tribe, the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, the Haliwa-Saponi Indian Tribe, the Sappony, the Meherrin Nation, the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation, and the Waccamaw-Siouan Tribe, who, along with citizens of other tribal nations, comprise one of the largest populations of Indigenous people east of the Mississippi River. As we look to the future, may we build upon the memories and goodwill of all who walked and labored here before us with truth, integrity and honor. Learn more: UNC American Indian Center
SUPPORT US
Your support is essential to both create the artistic excellence you see onstage as well as sustain our acclaimed educational and community programs.
OUR LEADERSHIP
VIVIENNE BENESCH
PRODUCING ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Vivienne is in her eighth full season as a company member and Producing Artistic Director at PlayMakers, where she has helmed productions of Hamlet, The Skin of Our Teeth, The Storyteller, Dairyland, Life of Galileo, Leaving Eden, The May Queen, Three Sisters, Love Alone, RED and In The Next Room. In her eight seasons with the theatre, she is particularly proud to have produced 12 world-premieres and launched PlayMakers Mobile, a touring production aimed at reaching under served audiences around the Triangle. For 12 seasons, she served as Artistic Director of the renowned Chautauqua Theater Company and Conservatory, presiding over the company’s transformation into one of the best summer theatres and most competitive summer training programs in the country. Vivienne directed both the world premiere of Noah Haidle’s Birthday Candles for Detroit Public Theatre and, in 2022, its Broadway production starring Debra Messing. She has also directed for the Folger Shakespeare Theatre (Helen Hayes nomination for best direction 2019), The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, Trinity Repertory Company, NY Stage & Film, and Red Bull Theatre, among others. As an actress, Vivienne has worked on and off-Broadway, in film and television, at many of the country’s most celebrated theatres, and received an Obie Award for her performance in Lee Blessing’s Going to St. Ives. Vivienne is a graduate of Brown University and NYU’s Graduate Acting Program. As an educator, she has directed for and served on the faculty of some of the nation’s foremost actor training programs, including The Juilliard School, UNC-Chapel Hill’s Professional Actor Training Program, Brown/Trinity Rep MFA Program, and at her alma mater, NYU’s Graduate Acting Program. She is the 2017 recipient of the Zelda Fichandler Award given by the Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation.
OUR PARTNERS
