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George Contini

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Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor
Performance Area Head
Director of London Study Abroad
Affiliate Faculty, Institute for Women's Studies
Faculty, Grady MFA in Film

Please visit George's website www.georgecontini.com.  George Contini is a Professor in the University of Georgia's Theatre and Film Studies Department where he specializes in Characterization, Acting on Camera, Queer Theatre and Film, Broadway Musical Theatre, and Solo Performance.  George serves as the Head of Performance.   In addition to teaching, George maintains a career as an actor, director, and playwright.  Most recently he appeared in the final two seasons of "Legacies" as Mr. Springthorpe, the drama teacher; and in the final episodes of "Black Lightning".  In the Atlanta area he appeared in "The Explorer's Club" at Aurora Theatre (Nominated for Suzi Bass Award , Best Ensemble, 2015) Prior to that he directed "Don't Dress for Dinner" at the Aurora Theatre. His original solo show "Put It In the Scrapbook" has toured to the Chicago Fringe Festival and the New Orleans Fringe Festival. Professor Contini is a Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor at UGA. He values his time with his students and hopes that after engaging with him they are able to identify art and beauty in unexpected places or they will make art where it never was.    

Professor Contini is Director of the London Study Abroad program through the Theatre and Film Dept.  This is a six week residential program in London in which students experience London theatre, history, and have internships with professional companies in the industry.

Other directing credits include the South Regional Premiere of “Assistance” at Pinch N Ouch Theatre in ATL, and the ATL One Minute Play Festival. He was seen as “Reverend Howard Finster” in the world premiere of Hidden Man at Atlanta’s 7Stages. Prior to that he was seen in Shear Madness at Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre and The Big Bang at the Horizon Theatre . Among the diverse shows George has directed are A Lesson Before Dying, Pride and Prejudice, The 39 Steps, 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Grapes of Wrath, Dangerous Liaisons, Iphigenia at Aulis/ Trojan Women, Children of an Idol Moon, Pippin, Laramie Project, Lion in Winter, Fifth of July, Psycho Beach Party, Company, Raft of the Medusa, and the original opera A Good Man is Hard to Find. TV/Film credits include featured roles in Lifetime’s Shame II, Pointman, and commercials for “White Castle”, “Motorola”, “LaBatt’s”, and "Toyota”. George provided the voice and motion capture for 19th century vaudevillian Frank Bush in the innovative Virtual Vaudeville Project (www.virtualvaudeville.com). Mr. Contini received his MFA from the University of Miami, Florida in Film Production. and received his B.A. from Baldwin-Wallace College with a double major in Theatre and English. George is a proud union member of both Actor's Equity and SAG/AFTRA.

Education:

M.F.A., University of Miami

B.A. Baldwin Wallace University

Research Interests:

Current Research : 

Early 20th Century Drag Performance

Don't Know the Half! Musical based on forgotten scripts and songs for female and male impersonators.

Had a workshop reading Spring 22.

 

Phyllis Wheatley and Mary Church Terrell 

Favored by the Muses, Presentation at the Genius of Phillis Wheatley Project ,  November 6, 2023

 

Currently working with two undergraduate CURO Projects

Wyn Thomas,  First Semester, A New Musical

Aris Dominguez-Canela, Disability Accessibility in UGA Theatre

 

One Graduate Fellowship 

Sofia Ruiz, Sallie Bingham Award--Margaret Cavendish's The Convent of Pleasure 

 

Grants:

While at UGA George has been honored to receive many university wide awards recognizing his outstanding teaching and research including the prestigious Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professorship,  Richard Russell Award, Sandy Beaver Teaching Fellowship, M. G. Michael Award (twice), Sandy Beaver Special Teaching Award, Willson Center for Humanities and Arts Jr. Faculty Fellowship Grant, WCHA Sr. Faculty Fellowship, Jr. Faculty Research Grant, as well as two separate artistic project grants through Ideas for Creative Exploration (ICE). He has used these grants and rewards in his continued study of Michael Chekhov's Acting Technique and for the research and creation of his solo show Put It In the Scrapbook based on the life and career of early 20th century female impersonator Julian Eltinge. His most recent grants allowed him to travel to archives in NY and DC to complete his work in creating Don't Know the Half! A "forgotten" 1920's Drag Musical!  

Selected Publications:
Of note:

Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professorship

Richard Russell Award for Excellence in Teaching

Sandy Beaver Award for Excellence in Teaching

M.G. Michael Award for Excellence in Research

Sandy Beaver Fellowship

Articles Featuring George Contini

This upcoming Tuesday (January 16) we will be holding a start-of-semester meeting for Theatre majors and minors involved in department or student organization productions. This meeting is mandatory and will discuss a range of production-related topics.…

UGA students, faculty, and Athens community members have had the opportunity to collaborate this semester on a unique and original performance presentation titled Favored by the Muses.

Athens,GA - UGA students, faculty, and Athens community members have the opportunity to collaborate this semester on a unique and original performance presentation, “Favored by the Muses.” Auditions will be help September 10 from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. in room 151 of…

Two department undergraduate students, Aayush Umesh and Wyn Thomas, will be presenting their research at the 2023 CURO Symposium. The annual CURO Symposium highlights…

Torch Song

UGA’S MFA Performance Ensemble announce their debut performance with Love and Information by Caryl Churchill, an immersive, multi-media piece. Directed by Head of Performance Studies, George Contini, Love & Information plays December 1st –…

Professor George Contini was chosen (along with thirteen other UGA faculty members) for the UGA Special Collections Fellows Program. 

AUDITIONS AND ADMISSIONS

In the coming weeks, we will have three different theatre companies auditioning/interviewing our students. Horizon Theatre, Aurora Theatre, and Actor’s Express are looking for interns and apprentices in all areas: acting, design/tech, stage management, and…

Robert Hindsman will be visiting the department on Feb 24 from 4:30–6:00PM to recruit Teaching Assistants for the Alliance Drama Camps. Many of our alum have served as Alliance interns and TA's and gone on to work in other Alliance positions…

ATHENS, GA – UGA Theatre presents “Young Frankenstein” by Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan. Directed by Professor George Contini and co-directed by alumnus John Terry. Performances will be held  April 5–6 and 10–13 at 8 p.m. and April 7 & 14 at 2:30 p.m.…

George Contini has just been selected as a Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor. This highly prestigious teaching professorship is one of the highest honors the University of Georgia awards for instructional excellence.

Actors and UGA alumni Blair Jasin & Matthew Zuk dropped by Professor George Contini and guest professor John Terry's Acting for the Camera class to talk about their careers post graduation in the film and television industries. A special thanks for…

Events with George Contini
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Cellar Theatre
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Cellar Theatre

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