Department of Theatre and Dance

• Master of Fine Arts- UNC-Greensboro
• Bachelor of Arts, Magna Cum Laude- Western Carolina University
• NC Teaching Licensures:
  • Theatre Arts K-12 , Communication K-12,
  • English as a Second Language K-12

1998-99 Fellow, Shakespeare Lives!, a program of Shakespeare’s Globe of London & UNC School of the Arts, studying classical theatre and performing on the Globe stage.

Awards: Creative Drama Award, American Alliance for Theatre & Education, for excellence in the field of drama for young people.

With 35 years of teaching experience, Jonathan Ray was a member of the full-time faculty in the Department of Communication Arts and Director of Appalachian Young People’s Theatre before leaving in 1988 to help found a new elementary school Theatre Arts program in Catawba County.  He has also taught at Lenoir-Rhyne University and Catawba Valley Community College.

His public school teaching experience includes Northwest School of the Arts Magnet School in Charlotte, Catawba County Schools, and Newton-Conover City Schools. He has taught at elementary, middle, and high schools in Theatre Arts, ESL, and Public Speaking. He served as Director of Theatre at St. Andrews School in Tennessee.

His professional acting credits include CPCC Summer Theatre, Charlotte Shakespeare, and Carolina Actor’s Studio Theatre in Charlotte. He has performed in summer stock at Flat Rock Playhouse, Lees-MacRae Summer Theatre, and Southern Appalachian Repertory Theatre.

He has made numerous presentations at professional conferences and has served on the Board of the American Alliance for Theatre and Education, the Southeastern Theatre Conference, and the North Carolina Theatre Conference. He is Past President of Watauga County Arts Council. 

As a freelance director, he has staged more than 60 productions for professional, university, community, secondary, and children’s theatre companies. For the past 19 years he has co-directed (with ASU Theatre alumnus David Brown) The Green Room Summer Shakespeare Theatre Institute in Newton, training young people ages 6 and up in classical performance. The 2016 Institute featured 12 certified faculty and 12 university student interns supervising 110 campers in a festival production of Julius Caesar.