The broadcast of the student-populated production will be hosted by UNCSA Chancellor John Mauceri, who served as musical director and artistic supervisor of the stage production.
The TV production is made possible by a $500,000 grant from the A.J. Fletcher Foundation of Raleigh. The gift, $100,000 a year for five years, "will expose statewide audiences to UNCSA's talented students by broadcasting their performances over UNC-TV." Oklahoma! is the first UNCSA production to be filmed and aired over UNC-TV with the grant.
Emmy Award-winning television director David Stern directed; UNCSA School of Filmmaking alumnus Andrew Young serveed as associate director and editor of the project.
More than 10,000 people saw UNCSA's faithful restoration of the 1943 Broadway production, which played April 28-May 8 at the school's Roger L. Stevens Center in Winston-Salem, NC.
UNCSA faculty and students "extensively researched all aspects of the original production and painstakingly recreated the original costumes and stage designs." UNCSA's restoration included the original Agnes de Mille choreography. The show and accompanying gala generated more than $330,000 for student scholarships at UNCSA.
The UNC system is unique in many ways," Chancellor Mauceri said in a statement. "Two of them are in having a system-wide arts conservatory, UNCSA, and another is in having a system-wide television network, UNC-TV. It seemed only natural to me that we find a way for these two institutions to work together. The Fletcher Foundation has shared in that vision, making this fantastic dream a reality."
TV director Stern's recent projects include the 9/11 Memorial from Ground Zero/Tenth Anniversary, "Restoring Courage: Jerusalem 2011," "Transcendent Man: Live with Ray Kurzweil," Broadway's The Importance of Being Ernest (all in 2011); "A Prairie Home Companion Live in HD! Again!" (2010); "This American Life Live!" (2009); "A Christmas Celtic Sojourn Live" (2007); "Broadway Under the Stars" (2006); and more. He also was recently nominated for a Tony Award as a producer of The Scottsboro Boys on Broadway.
The University of North Carolina School of the Arts is the first state-supported, residential school of its kind in the nation. Established as the North Carolina School of the Arts by the N.C. General Assembly in 1963, UNCSA opened in Winston-Salem in 1965 and became part of the University of North Carolina system in 1972. More than 1,100 students from high school through graduate school train for careers in the arts in five professional schools: Dance, Design and Production (including a Visual Arts Program), Drama, Filmmaking and Music. UNCSA is the state's only public arts conservatory, dedicated entirely to the professional training of talented students in the performing, visual and moving image arts.
For more information, visit www.uncsa.edu.
