College of Visual and Performing Arts Dean bruce d. mcclung has announced the appointment of Natalie Sowell as the new Director of the School of Theatre.
Sowell has taught and served in administrative roles at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts for the past 16 years where she founded the Child Drama and Community program. Sowell currently serves as Dean of the School for Interdisciplinary Arts and Dean of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion.
Specializing in applied theatre for social change, creative drama, critical literacy, and oral storytelling, Sowell is a trained Theatre of the Oppressed practitioner having studied with Augusto Boal, Julian Boal, TOPLAB New York, and the Center for the Theatre of the Oppressed NE.
Sowell has conducted applied theatre workshops, classes, and artist residencies in schools, prisons, community centers, and churches throughout the United States and in Nigeria. She has worked as the Artistic Director of UJIMA YOUTHEATRE and Associate Managing Director of Manbites Dog Theater, and has served on many arts organization boards.
Sowell has directed dozens of socially conscious plays for young audiences and adult audiences and is a consultant on issues of diversity, inclusion, and access for several organizations.
She currently serves as an Arts Ambassador for the Massachusetts Department of Secondary and Elementary Education and is the faculty consultant for Five Colleges Inc.’s Doors to the World: Global Children’s Literature for Critical Multicultural Literacies project.
Sowell received a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Creighton University, and an MFA in Theatre for Youth from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
Please join us in welcoming Natalie Sowell to the CVPA faculty!
Photo by Sigal Gerson Kadden
About CVPA
The College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA) at UNC Greensboro is the premier and most comprehensive set of visual and performing arts programs in North Carolina with Schools of Art, Dance, Music, and Theatre. CVPA has been designated by the UNC System Board of Governor’s as an “area of distinction.” CVPA transforms lives by providing exceptional artistic and academic experiences.