Catawba College alumnus Mike Wiley '95, an actor, director, and playwright, will have one of his plays produced by the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, Minn.
Wiley's wonderful and powerful production, "The Parchman Hour," will run October 1st through November 6th, 2016 on the McGuire Proscenium Stage. The play found great success at Lee Street theatre in Salisbury recently. It was the third time the show had been produced in full, and it has also been produced as a one-act play by a Charlotte high school.
The Guthrie Theatre, founded in 1963, is known for artistic excellence that has remained constant for over four decades. Over the years, it became a complex organization operating year-round and employing more than 500 people per year. The Guthrie Theater is a living organization reflecting the culture and human spirit of its audiences today.
Wiley has a Master of Fine Arts degree from the professional acting program at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. He uses his many theatre talents to bring audiences to a Montgomery bus boycott or a Jackie Robinson major league baseball game or the trial of the man who murdered Emmett Till. In 2015, the film version of one of his plays took the best film award at the Black International Film Festival. He also acted in an August Wilson play and worked on the filming of yet another screen adaptation of one of his plays.
In February, Wiley led two theatre workshops for students, teachers, and aspiring actors in Hedrick Little Theatre on Catawba's campus. He was inducted into the Catawba College Blue Masque Hall of Fame in 2013.
