WINSTON-SALEM – The School of Drama at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA) presents William Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors Oct. 3-5 and 11-14. The production will be directed by UNCSA School of Drama Assistant Dean Bob Francesconi, distinguished teacher of acting, movement and mask, who has served on the faculty since 1978. The cast will feature members of Studio IV, the senior class in the School of Drama.

One of Shakespeare’s earliest works, The Comedy of Errors presents a spectacle of pure farce in the spirit of utmost fun and confusion. Two sets of identical twins provide the basis for ongoing mishaps of mistaken identity complete with quarrels, arrests, denouncement and happy reunions.

The play runs Oct. 3-5 & 11-13 at 8 p.m. and Oct. 13 & 14 at 2 p.m. in UNCSA’s Catawba Theatre, Performance Place on the UNCSA campus, 1533 South Main St., Winston-Salem. Tickets are $15 for adults and $13 for seniors/students. Call the UNCSA Box Office at 336-721-1945 for reservations, or visit www.uncsa.edu/performances to purchase tickets online.

Bob Francesconi

Before joining the UNCSA faculty in 1978, Mr. Francesconi was director and teacher at Columbia College; and teacher and actor with the Menagerie Mime Theater, touring and teaching nationally with Mr. James Donlon. He is also a consultant and master teacher in creative drama, improvisation, mime, mask and clowning. He was a guest teacher and artist at the International Mime Festival and Institute, 1974 and 1978. He was also a featured master teacher at the 1990 International Movement Symposium in Moscow, Russia. 

Mr. Francesconi has served as a consultant in gifted and talented arts education programs for the South Carolina Arts Commission and the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities. He has taught master classes in mask and movement at the Nemirovich-Danchenko School-Studio of the Moscow Art Theatre, Lunacharsky State University of Theatre Arts, Moscow; the Shchepkin Theatre School of Maly Dramatic Academy, Moscow, Russia, the Institute del Teatre, Barcelona, Spain; and the Singapore American School, Singapore. He has also served on the Institute of International Education’s selection committee for Fulbright and foreign sponsored scholarship awards. Mr. Francesconi received his B.A. and M.A. Degrees from Humboldt State University, Arcata, Calif.; where he trained with Yass Hakoshima, Carlo Mazzone-Clementi, Philip Mann and Richard Rothrock.

University of North Carolina School of the Arts

As America’s first state-supported arts school, the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA) is a unique stand-alone public university of arts conservatories. With a high school component, UNCSA is a degree-granting institution that trains young people of talent in music, dance, drama, filmmaking, and design and production. Established by the N.C. General Assembly in 1963, the School of the Arts opened in Winston-Salem (“The City of Arts and Innovation”) in 1965 and became part of the University of North Carolina system in 1972. World-renowned conductor and educator John Mauceri became Chancellor of UNCSA in 2006. For more information, visit www.uncsa.edu.

###