Chattanooga Theatre Centre Appoints 4 To Professional Team

The Chattanooga Theatre Centre has brought four staff members on board to elevate the quality of its productions and expand its services to the community.

Ricardo Morris has joined the theatre as Group Sales and Events manager. A graduate of Howard High School and Tennessee State University, Mr. Morris attended Yale University, where he earned an M.F.A. in arts administration. He was executive director of the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame in Birmingham, where he founded the Taste of 4th Avenue Jazz Festival. He also led the Harris Arts Center in Calhoun, Ga., where he created the International String Band Festival. He later founded the Green Street Arts Center in Middletown, Ct.  Mr. Morris has directed and appeared in several Theatre Centre productions.

N. Eric Knauss, the Theatre Centre’s new technical director, has spent most of the last 25 years working full-time in professional theatre in the Washington, DC, area. He started at The Studio Theatre in 1992, moved to the Round House Theatre in 1999, then to the Olney Theatre in 2009. After leaving the Olney in 2012, he spent three years working in the theatre department at George Washington University. Altogether, he has been a part of building more than 175 productions.

Nicole Coleman has joined the CTC as a box office operations assistant. Ms. Coleman holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Tennessee and a master of arts journalism degree from DePaul University. She serves as an ArtsBuild panelist for the Community Cultural Connections Grant panel and program coordinator for the Martin Luther King Birthday Party Celebration, sponsored by the Unity Group of Chattanooga. She won a Nashville Midsouth Regional Emmy Award while co-hosting KidsTalk for WRCB-TV.  Ms. Coleman has volunteered at the Theatre Centre since her youth.

Marie Dance is joining the Theatre Centre staff to assist in coordinating special events. She is a graduate of the Center for Creative Arts, where she majored in dance, and Reinhardt University in Waleska, Ga., where she earned a bachelor of science degree in sociology and criminal justice. Ms. Dance has appeared on the Theatre Centre stage, acting, dancing and volunteering.