Today we’d like to introduce you to Dr. Wrenn Goodrum.
Hi Dr. Wrenn, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Life Mission Statement
I believe in the power of the arts to transform lives. I am an entrepreneur whose profit is made from the intangible life growth of others. I believe the arts can educate, entertain, empower and enlighten individuals, families and communities. I believe in people and the strength of positive thought and hope! It is important to me that I use my skills and talents to help people, animals, and this planet.
I grew up in Cary NC and always wanted to be an actress, writer, designer. There were no opportunities to take drama classes where I grew up until I was a senior in High School. It was through this theatre class that my confidence grew and the door to my dreams opened. I played Helen Keller in ‘The Miracle Worker’ in the High School play and in the spring ‘for the experience of being rejected’ I auditioned for Shakespeare’s ‘As You Like It’ at the Raleigh Little Theatre (RLT). I had read most of Shakespeare’s plays by the time I was 16 and I had a love for the language and the stories. I was cast as the lead role of Rosalind and was nominated for ‘Best Actress’ at the annual Raleigh Little Theatre awards. A life-changing event. The following summer I was cast as Helena in RLT’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ performed in the RLT Rose Garden.
I entered the theatre program at UNCG but after 1.5 years I decided I wanted to move to Atlanta to pursue modelling and acting. I stayed in Atlanta for about eight months and while there I played Miss Lucy in ‘Sweet Bird of Youth’ directed by Walter Roberts. While the production didn’t get a great review, I remember that I did…I didn’t think I had done a good job and decided to return to North Carolina to continue my education. (On a side note, a few years ago I was contacted by a writer who was writing a biography on Eric Roberts, (Julia Roberts brother) and saw I had been in ‘Sweet Bird of Youth’ directed by Eric and Julia’s father, and did I remember anything about the Eric….I told him I only remembered playing ‘let’s pretend’ games with him and his younger sister.) Small world 🙂
I returned to NC and auditioned for and got into the NC School of the Arts (now UNCSA). My second year I was cast as Elizabeth Proctor in ‘The Crucible’…..it was a very professional production. (On another side note, some years ago I was meeting with the Artistic Director of Davidson Community Players, Sylvia Snople and told her I had gone to NCSA and she said when she was a high school senior she had seen the best ‘The Crucible’ production she’d ever seen and gasped when I told her I had played Elizabeth in the production.
I spent the last year of my studies in London. We were called the NCSA London 20. Twenty of us spent long days and nights studying and going to see the most amazing theatre in London and Stratford. We saw Judi Dench, Ian Mckellen, Helen Mirren, Lord John Gieglud and all the greats at the National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company and in the West End (the English Broadway). We even got to rehearse in the rehearsal space at the National Theatre where the great Lord Laurence Olivier and others rehearsed. I remember kissing the floor knowing the greats had trod upon it. Our final production was in the West End at the Arts Theatre. I played Suky Tawdry, a small role, in ‘Beggars of the Opera’. It got a good review and I was mentioned.
After school I moved to NYC with my NCSA and Raleigh friend, Katharine Buffalo. In 1976, we got off the greyhound bus in NYC and were picked up by Katharine’s cousin. We were taken to a sublet on 68th/Columbus. That night we locked all seven locks on the door.
I lived in New York City for ten years. During that time, I acted with the America Theatre Alliance (ATA) performing first Off-Off-Broadway and then Off Broadway ……I also had small parts on the soap opera, ‘Ryan’s Hope’.
It was in NYC that I started my first company, Imagination Tree, a creative dramatic afterschool program. We started our program at the renowned Bank Street School. I designed and directed a ‘Theatre Arts Education Afterschool’ program for children aged 5 – 13 for nine years. The classes expanded to an afterschool theatre company. I directed many plays during that time. A wonderful memory was after my production of Thornton Wilders play, Our Town, the stepfather of the girl who played Emily came up to me. He said, ‘I’ve worked with Thornton Wilder and your vision of the production was exactly how Thornton saw his play.’ This was one of the greatest compliments of my life. I had staged the audience sitting in the acting stage area and the actors worked audience area.
The Bank Street School/College was a unique school in that many of the parents of the students were in the arts. The parents of my theatre students included Pinchas and Eugenia Zuckerman (Famous concert musicians and conductor), costume designer for Miss Piggy, several Broadway set and costume designers, actors, directors, photographers, journalists and authors.
I love to cook and in 1983 I started my second company, ‘La Petite Soiree’, catering for the small party. My clients included Saks Fifth Avenue and Bloomingdales for fashion photo shoots with HORST, Richard Avedon, Deborah Tuberville and other fashion photographers. I also co-catered a birthday party for Robert DeNiro’s father. When I moved to Providence, Rhode Island, I took my company with me where I catered for Trinity Rep, Brown University and the John Brown House. Great memories include catering a dinner for Trinity’s Board of Directors in the Scene shop of the theatre and a graduation luncheon at Brown University where we could watch Stevie Wonder perform for the graduation ceremony just below our window.
I was married for three years, divorced and moved to Providence Rhode Island in 1985. It was providence that took me to Rhode Island. A best friend had joined the Tony-award winning repertory company, Trinity Rep. I had visited and immediately felt ‘at home’. Prior to moving, I had met with the head of the Trinity Rep Conservatory Extension program who hired me to develop afterschool programs for youth. I designed and taught all the classes and started a youth theatre company, ‘The Washington Street Players’. During the first two years in RI, I also directed a play for Looking Glass Theatre, ‘Touch’. This was a play about sexual abuse and toured the state. I went to many performances and sadly witnessed many red flags in the Q/A following the performances. I was hired to direct a play with the fifth grade of a public elementary school. I visited the very diverse school and knowing that Providence was celebrating their 350th birthday I envisioned a play celebrating the importance of the diverse community’s contribution to the history of Rhode Island. The result was a performance by 90 fifth graders of ‘The Colors of Freedom’. I commissioned a playwright to write the play. Volunteers from Trinity Rep helped with the production and the youth performed to a full auditorium. I remember the young man who played, Roger Williams (Founder of RI) saying to me, ‘Before you came, we were nothing and now you made us something’. I replied, ‘Pedro, you were always something. Always remember that!’. Pedro grew up to become a semi-famous RI lawyer whom I had drinks with a few years ago.
In 1987 Trinity Rep discontinued the community programs and I started my third company,
‘All Children’s Theatre’. I envisioned a non-competitive youth repertory company where youth ‘learned through doing’ all the aspects of theatrical production. I envisioned a company for all kids where confidence building was equally important to skill building. Our mission was to enrich, educate and entertain through the theatre arts, empowering young people within our community and our vision was
The All Childrens Theatre (ACT) is a model for excellence in theatre arts education for all young people. ACT includes all people in its acting ensemble, educational and community outreach programs. We empower our participants by offering a “total theatre” experience including performing, directing, playwriting, designing, technical theatre, arts administration and active audience involvement.
I could write many pages about my company..about the thousands of youths impacted by ACT. I could write about how many lives were changed through their participation in ACT. I could write about the socially relevant plays the youth wrote on AIDS, Disability, the Environment and toured these plays to schools. I could write about the productions we performed at the Providence Performing Arts center for 5,000 middle school students. Productions with themes of the Holocaust, Civil Rights, Cancer, Mill Girls. I could write about our outreach programs working with children with severe developmental and physical challenges. I could write about Micheal, a boy with Down syndrome who started taking classes at age seven, joined the theatre company and acted with us till he was eighteen. I could write about the youth who grew up to become filmmakers, actors, teachers, professors, Artistic Directors, CNN producers, Variety Magizine editor and more…I could write hundreds of pages about those 24 years of running All Children’s Theatre but I must move on to my work in North Carolina. I have a Curriculum Vitae with all that information but not the stories. Also have a look at my website: www.activatecommunitythroughtheatre.com.
In 2009, once again with life changes (divorce) I made a big move and returned to NC (mother was in hospice) and my family. After 34 years in the north, I returned to spend time with my family and start a new life, once again.
In 2010 I founded my fourth company, ‘Activate Community Through Theatre’ (ACT). My mission is ‘to educate, entertain and enlighten youth, intergenerational and senior communities through our educational programs and performances. ACT strives to provide a theatre arts environment that develops empowerment of the community.’ ACT is who I am and whom theatre companies hire so when I refer to plays/classes I direct/teach, it is under the name of ACT.
I taught and directed for ‘Davidson Community Players’ where I designed programs that grew their education department until I was hired by Matthews Playhouse to start their acting program for youth.
At Matthews Playhouse, I started one acting class with 12 youth and at the height of my nine years taught/directed over 100 students in the seven levels of acting programs I designed.
In 2012 I started producing audience participation plays while teaching and directing for Matthews Playhouse, Davidson Community Players and Mooresville Community Children’s Theatre. ACT was also chosen to become an educator for the Arts and Science Council in Charlotte where I had arts residencies in Charlotte Schools.
COVID led to the closure of the theatre space we used. Two years later I directed/produced an outdoors immersive audience participation production of ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’. It was performed on four acres of land, including a pond. We had four Alice’s who took four groups of people on two adventures: the forest and the garden adventures. I remounted it in 2024.
When I moved back to North Carolina my vision was to teach/direct acting to senior citizens. In 2009, retirement communities did not have the funds to pay for arts programs. Instead, I offered acting and writing classes through Davidson Community Theare and Matthews Playhouse and in 2012 I began a relationship with the Brookdale Weddington Park Assisted Living facility. I taught monthly classes until 2020 when Covid stopped the programs. My students were aged 80 – 103.
I have received many awards and honors throughout my life, including an honorary Doctorate of Pedagogy. The one I most cherish is the Citizens Bank and Providence College ‘ “VERITAS Good Citizen” Medal for being an unsung hero and citizen in the community.
Throughout my forty-five years of teaching, directing and mentoring youth, intergenerational and senior communities, I am so fortunate to say, ‘I’ve never worked a day in my life for if you love what you do you will never work a day in your life’ and to stay true to my life’s mission.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Life always has it’s challenges and starting a non-profit theatre company had its challenges. Financial stability was always the largest challenge as well as maintaining a space for our educational and performance programs both in Rhode Island and North Carolina.
Covid in NC brought ACT to a halt. We did however, receive a federal grant to restart our programs and produced ‘The Best Christmas Pageant Ever’ but still struggled to produce plays.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Please look at the four pages in the ‘tell me about yourself’ or at my websites
www.activatecommunitythroughtheatre.com or
https://actartisticdir1.wixsite.com/my-site-1
What sets me apart from other theatre companies both in RI and NC is my view of the transformative power of theatre and the arts. The importance of theatre arts is to make a difference to the participants and to the community. Theatre should educate, entertain and enlighten both its participants and the community.
We love surprises, fun facts and unexpected stories. Is there something you can share that might surprise us?
I was hit by a freight train in 1975 in Winston Salem NC where I was studying. I was driving a Fiat. The car was thrown off the track. I remember people trying to get me out of the car. It took 45 minutes. I remember telling everyone to call my parents and tell them I’d been hit by a train. I thought I was dying. I remember going through a dark tunnel and seeing light at the end and saying, ‘please let me live’…..and I did…(Long before I learned about the ‘white light’) I had cracked ribs, a lacerated shoulder and was released to my theatre teacher who came to my rescue. When she walked in the doctor asked me where I went to school and I replied, ‘When I was alive I went to the NC School of the Arts’.
Another thing people don’t know is about my travels through East Germany 1974 en route to Warsaw. German guards with their machine guns and German Shepherds came onto the train for passport checks and to look for East Germans trying to escape.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://actartisticdir1.wixsite.com/my-site-1 and www.activatecommunitythroughtheatre.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ACTinNC/
