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Arts & Culture

Rebecca Peace Wins University Theatre’s Thompson T. Award

Rebecca Peace stage manages a production of Blithe Spirit.
Rebecca Peace stage manages a production of Blithe Spirit.

At the end of each school year, NC State’s University Theatre (UT) holds an awards ceremony in which it honors various productions and students from the year. 

The most prestigious of these is the Thompson T. Award, which comes with a cash prize and is considered a “lifetime achievement award.” This year, the Thompson T. Award went to Rebecca Peace, a recently graduated student who spent all four years of her NC State journey working for University Theatre in various roles. 

“I was very, very happy to receive it,” Peace said. “It made me feel very good, all of my hard work the last four years was recognized.”

Joshua Reaves, University Theatre’s director, explained that the award goes to a student who has worked in multiple areas of University Theatre. 

In her first year at NC State, Peace started out as a crew member for a production of Midsummer Night’s Dream, before quickly working her way up to a stage manager position. 

This year, she also worked directly under Reaves in an administrative assistant role in UT’s office. 

“She’s seen by both staff and students as the go-to person,” Reaves said. 

Peace described a stage manager role as a “middle person” of sorts, communicating between the production staff and the cast of a show, ensuring rehearsals run on schedule, and also working with the technical crew to ensure the show runs smoothly. 

As an administrative assistant, Reaves said she has effectively taken on research projects, in which he asks her to gather information from both students and staff about potential ways to improve various elements of UT’s processes. 

“She just delivers,” Reaves said. “She’s a go-getter. She keeps us, the staff, in check, as a lot of our students do. Rebecca provides us a pulse on the students in the program, connecting us with them in a way that we simply can’t do ourselves. Conversely she does the same for the students, providing a voice to why the staff and the program makes certain decisions. She’s been that conduit between the students and staff in a way that takes professionalism and maturity, and Rebecca embodies all of that.” 

While Peace has already completed her final show as an NC State student, she’s going to manage a production of Blithe Spirit for the upcoming TheatreFEST, UT’s annual run of summer shows which feature community members acting alongside students. 

“I’m excited, because I actually knew a lot of people in the cast for this show,” Peace said. “They’re not current students, but that made me feel like I have more of a foot in the Triangle theater community than I thought. I know around 60% of the cast in my show. It just makes it easier to start having fun right away.” 

Reaves said that, in her four years with UT, he has seen Peace grow in both confidence and comfortability, and the relationships she’s been able to build with the staff. 

“In the last year, I’ve seen her not as a student but as a colleague, someone that I can rely on,” Reaves said. “We encourage students to break down what may feel like a power dynamic with staff. We encourage them to just be direct with us. Rebecca is just that. She’s able to speak to us as if she is a true collaborator. We’re all working on the same projects together.”

Peace graduated from NC State with a mathematics degree, but, because of her experiences with UT, she’s decided to pursue theater as a career. 

She’s spoken with Burning Coal, a local production company, about managing shows this fall and winter, crediting connections she’s formed with local choreographers and music directors during her time with UT. 

“Because I’ve been in this theater community, I’ve been around a lot of students and staff members who have been really good at inspiring me and helping me grow,” Peace said. “I’m feeling very excited and also optimistic about it, which is the most important part.”