Theatre major Annie Bolte takes the director’s chair with student production

Annie Bolte’s Highlander history goes a little further back than just her freshman year – her parents, John “Stoney” Bolt, M.A. ’92, and Virginia “Jenny” Leadbetter-Bolte ’89, met while they were students at Radford, and both later became teachers.

She has now reached the same destination as her mother and father while forging a path of her own.

Bolte, of New Castle, Virginia, arrived on campus having won the Nancy Necessary Pridemore Scholarship for dramatic artists while still in high school. Three years later, she’s now a junior theatre major, focusing on directing and tech with minors that include creative writing and education. That latter field will help her pursue her overall goal of becoming a high school theatre instructor.

“When I came in, I wasn’t going to be like, ‘I only want to act,’ or ‘I only want to do tech,’” she said. “I’m primarily focused on directing, but I would like to learn everything, if I’m going to be a theatre teacher who teaches kids everything.”

This week, after having helmed standalone scenes and a one-act play, Bolte is directing a highly ambitious student production of “The Aliens” by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Annie Baker.

“This is the big league,” she said of the project.

“This is my first time working with other technicians as a director. The designers I’m working with, they’re also really close friends of mine, and that’s really special to me … I have so many rehearsal pictures and so many things written down about fun things that happened since we’ve been working on it.”

One of those crew members, Ashlee Ramey, a junior from Christiansburg,  is running the lighting for the show. 

“We just had a crew watch, and it was the first time we saw the lights on the actors, and it was so cool, seeing how talented one of my best friends is,” Bolte said.

“My parents swayed me to go to Radford because it’s a teaching college, and they came here to become teachers,” she added. “They’re also very good about letting me do what I want to do, but they’re very glad I chose Radford.”

“The Aliens” will be performed Feb. 14 - 17 at 7:30 p.m. and on Feb. 18 at 2 p.m. in the Bondurant Auditorium in Preston Hall. For more information, visit the Theatre and Cinema Box Office online at https://rutheatretickets.universitytickets.com/ or call 540-871-5289.