Charles LaBorde

Charles LaBorde has been an actor, director, designer, and playwright, as well as an arts educator and administrator throughout his lifetime. He has received two national and four regional playwriting awards and has had his play, "Memorial," performed in New York, across the nation, and in Europe. "Memorial" remains in print more than twenty-five years after its initial publication.

His most recent plays are "Protective Custody Prisoner 34042"—an adaptation of the Holocaust survivor memoir by Dr. Susan Cernyak-Spatz—"Affinity"—about Frank Lloyd Wright and the murders at Taliesen—and "Unbound"—about the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

He holds a Ph.D. from The Ohio State University in theatre and doctoral certification in educational administration from the University of North Carolina. He was the founder of the high school at Northwest School of the Arts in Charlotte—one of the top public arts schools in the nation—where he served as principal for 15 years until his retirement in 2008. For his work at that legendary school, he was named the outstanding arts school administrator in the nation by the International Network of Performing and Visual Arts Schools.

Additionally, he has received 11 regional and state directing awards, a national directing award from the National Youth Theatre, and numerous awards for scenic, costume, lighting, and sound design from the North Carolina Theatre Conference (NCTC). In 2010 he was named both Best Actor in a Drama and Theatre Person of the Year by Creative Loafing and was awarded the Marian Smith Lifetime Career Achievement Award by NCTC. He was also honored by having the black box theatre at Northwest School of the Arts renamed the Charles LaBorde Theatre.

He is a full member of The Dramatists Guild, Inc.—the professional theatre association of playwrights, composers, and lyricists.