Dr. Randolph Umberger is Senior Professor of Theatre at North Carolina Central University, where he chaired the department for seven years. He is also the supervisor for the undergraduate Critical Foundations Division of Arts and Humanities. He holds and B.A. and M.A. from UNC-Chapel Hill in Dramatic Art and a Ph.D. from Tulane University in Theatre Literature and Criticism.

He is the author of two North Carolina outdoor dramas, The Liberty Cart and Strike at the Wind!, and has written or adapted a large number of plays for professional and university production. Of Mules and Men, which he wrote and directed, won the Kennedy Center Medal for the ACTF and played there to critical acclaim in 1991.

He has directed over one hundred productions, including classical and contemporary plays, musicals, operas, and outdoor dramas. Previously he was the artistic director for the Durham Savoyards, Ltd., and has directed the entire full-length Gilbert and Sullivan canon. He also paints Southwestern landscapes and had a one-man show recently, Isolations, at the North Carolina Arts Gallery.

He recently served as stage director for Carlisle Floyd's Susannah at Opera Fort Collins in Colorado. He and Maestro Keaton also staged the world premiere of Hollister's The Inca's Chosen Bride in Chapel Hill in 1997.

Randolph is also the author of the theatre section for a soon-to-be published book on the history of the arts in Durham. His latest play, Bye Bye, Blackbirds, played a month's limited engagement at the Harlem Theatre Company in New York City, and his adaptation of the G&S musical, Utopia (Un)limited, was performed in Cornwall, England, as the summer touring show for Cambridge University.

Maestro Benjamin Keaton is a well-known composer and conductor who has directed opera and musical theatre throughout the southeast. Mr. Keaton holds a master's degree in music from East Carolina University with additional graduate study at UNC-Chapel Hill. He taught in the Department of Music at North Carolina Central University for eighteen years and has been musical director for the Carolina Playmakers, The Durham Theatre Guild, The Liberty Tree, Jenny Wiley State Theatre of Kentucky, The Lost Colony, and Opera House Productions of Wilmington.

He was music director for the Durham Savoyards, Ltd., for whom he has directed the entire Gilbert and Sullivan canon, together with Places, Please!, his four-movement symphony for chorus and orchestra based on themes from all thirteen operas.

He has composed the music for four outdoor dramas, including Paul Green's Lone Star, and Randolph Umberger's The Liberty Cart. He composed the score for Remembered Nights, the 125th anniversary musical for Wilmington's Thalian Hall, and has composed a number of song cycles and choral anthems.

He has recently served as music director for Opera Fort Collins, in Colorado, where he conducted Floyd's Susannah

Most recently, Benjamin was awarded an Outstanding Citizen Award by the Durham Jaycees for his contribution over the years to the cultural enrichment of the Triangle. Two new works for chorus were premiered this year by St. Phillips Episcopal Church and Durham, and his collaboration with Umberger on Utopia (Un)limited was also performed this summer by Cambridge University.