RDU on Stage’s Kim Jackson interviews Ian Finley and John Wood about pivoting to virtual instruction amidst a pandemic.
Ian Finley is the former Director of Education for Burning Coal, having headed its WillPower (now Fuse) residency programs, its Summer Theatre Conservatories, New York & London tours, and many other programs. He is author of 1960 (Burning Coal, 2009), Green Square, Suspense, Nightengale Song, and The Nature of the Nautilus (winner of the Kennedy Center’s Jean Kennedy Smith Award), as well as Burning Coal’s Oakwood cycle of plays. As an actor, he has performed in Burning Coal’s Twelfth Night, KidsWrite ’08, Inherit the Wind, 1776, Pentecost, The Taming of the Shrew, Accidental Death of an Anarchist and James Joyce’s The Dead. He holds an MFA from the NYU Tisch School of Arts and is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America. He was also named the NC Piedmont Laureate in Playwriting in 2012. He has taught at Southern Methodist University, as well for the OLLI programs at NC State University and Duke University. He currently serves as Chair of Fine Arts at Research Triangle High School.
John Wood was a news journalist/photographer for 20+ years before becoming a teacher. He has taught English, social studies, and now digital media. During his time in television working in Atlanta, he won an Emmy in 2002 (Best Newscast). He is also a freelance writer, filmmaker, and photographer.
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Listen to Lauren’s interview with Ian Finley for the RDU on Stage podcast.