New Team Members & Grant Applications
After an incredibly successful Hickory Playground 5 Theater Festival, the company is announcing that Bill Morgan will be taking over the role of Executive Director for the company, replacing co-founder, Dylan Tashjian, who will move to the Playground’s Board of Directors. Morgan is a longtime friend of HPG and has participated in the annual theater festival since its second year. He will look to continue the pre-established tradition of a yearly theater festival with all proceeds going to arts departments in public schools in addition to expanding Hickory Playground’s presence in the greater Hickory community, as was intended in the company’s founding back in 2016.
Bill Morgan has been a part of over one-hundred theatrical productions, either as an actor or director. He is the former Artistic and Executive Director at the Old Opera House Theatre Company in Charles Town, WV, where he instituted several new artistic programs such as the New Voice Play Festival. His local directing credits include directing West Side Story, Little Shop of Horrors, A Streetcar Named Desire, and The Drowsy Chaperone for The Green Room Community Theatre as well as Ramona Quimby and True West at the Hickory Community Theatre. Local audiences will remember Bill’s performances at HCT as Brother Jeremiah in Something Rotten!, Javert in Les Miserables, Alan in God of Carnage, and Arthur in Spamalot and at The Green Room playing the classic characters Sweeney Todd, Atticus Finch, Harold Hill, Nathan Detroit, and half the citizens in the Greater Tuna series. He has been an actor in four Hickory Playground festivals, including in the audience favorite for 2021, You Be You. Bill and his wife, Michelle, live in Hickory where he practices law and mediation in with Morgan Law, PLLC.
“Bill is the perfect person to continue and expand upon HPG’s programming…To fully ensure and grow our role as community builders, we must have someone as passionate as I am on the ground to engage with the community. I am excited to continue to build upon the founders’ (Robert Fuller, Jordan Makant, and Tashjian) mission and vision as a leader on the board,” says Tashjian, who currently resides in New York City. He still plans to be involved in all things HPG.
In addition to this exciting news, Hickory Playground is announcing that applications are open for their yearly donation to the arts in public schools. The organization has given over $40,000 to 15 schools from pre-school to high school since its founding in 2016. All teachers instructing courses within arts departments within public education can apply to receive funding at hickoryplayground.org/school-grants. Hickory Playground plans to give another $15,000 this year to support the artists, activists, and leaders of tomorrow going through North Carolina public education. “Every school that’s ever applied for funding has received it. Ask for what you need, and HPG will do everything it can to support teachers and students,” says Jordan Makant, a fellow founder and current Technical Director of the organization.
“HPG is an extraordinary artistic and community gem,” says Morgan. “I am truly honored and humbled to take a more active role, and I can’t wait to reveal our plans on how the festival will continue to expand while keeping true to its roots.”