After his stellar job as the director of the Mike Wiley’s play, The Parchman Hour, Craig Kolkebck, who most students just know as “Craigo” in the theatre department tells The Pioneer his story.

Professor Kolkebeck was born and raised in New York, he was always involved in the arts as a child but he never really saw himself as being a “theatre person,” and he mainly wanted to be in Radio. The university that he attended, St. Laurens University, did NOT have a theatre major but they did have a theater department.

The first year that he was there, he only did radio, but as he progressed to his Sophomore, Junior, and Senior year, he found himself being more and more involved with theater. He then moved to North Carolina for a while, hosting a radio station in Statesville. After that he moved to Long Island, unable to find a job, so he finally settled down to working in a warehouse. That’s when one of his buddies reached out to him and convinced him to get his master’s degree at the University of Texas.

He ended up falling in love it the program, and that’s where things changed for him. He received so many opportunities, including writing a play about Mexican-Americans, and he worked a lot in the Spanish community. He ended up working as a talent manager in Universal Studios and many doors were opened for him then. Including the opportunity to move to Japan and direct things there. He then  worked as a cameraman for very well-known productions such as Hell’s kitchen, The Osborne’s, The Newlyweds, Average Joes, and so much more. After the show Desperate Housewives aired, that part of the industry shut on for him. They were more focused on episodic deletion and stopped focusing on reality shows. It was at that point where he told his wife “Let’s move back and be closer to my parents in North Carolina.” His wife agreed, they packed up their belongings, sold their house, and got on the road. It was at this time when Craigo started working for the Piedmont Players as a scenic carpenter, and soon ended up meeting Professor Christopher Zink, and that is what brought him here to Catawba College. I think that I can speak for everyone when I say that he helps make the theater department another home for Catawba students.