Our Highlanders are using their education to do extraordinary things. Every other week, we’ll highlight some notable mentions from local, regional, national and international news media. Whether our students, alumni, faculty and staff are featured as subject matter experts in high-profile stories or simply helping make the world a better place, we’ll feature their stories.
Stage direction
After a hiring search that spanned nearly a year and involved more than five dozen candidates, a Radford graduate – Matt Shields – has been chosen to serve as the next managing director of Roanoke’s Mill Mountain Theatre.
Shields’ term begins Jan. 1, following the retirement of current director Ginger Poole, who’s helmed the Star City stage since 2008.
Shields, from Loudon County, has already worked at Mill Mountain in a variety of roles, most recently as its current director of production.
According to a Dec. 10 article in the Roanoke Times, he was chosen after an 11-month selection process that considered more than 65 candidates.
The head of the search committee, Cynthia Lawrence, noted that “Matt’s unique blend of strategic thinking and production expertise makes him the ideal leader for this next chapter at Mill Mountain Theatre.”
Poole, in a statement, said of her successor: “His business insight has been instrumental in optimizing budgets, fostering community partnerships, and ensuring Mill Mountain Theatre remains a vibrant cultural hub for and beyond.”
Shields’ promotion was also covered by American Theatre, and the stage publication noted that Mill Mountain, which was founded in 1964 as the Mill Mountain Playhouse, last year operated on $1.42 million budget.
War and peace
Synthetic rubber.
Duct tape.
And a rugged little general-purpose vehicle that came to be known as the jeep.
Those are just a few of the American innovations that were spawned by the advent of the Second War, according to the National World War II Museum.
But in a Dec. 10 report by WSLS-TV, Radford University Associate Professor of Music Dave Rivers said the conflict also helped drive such popular Christmas carols as “White Christmas” and “Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!” into classic status.
He said the tunes helped boost morale for troops overseas.
“It really was the fact that they were played on armed forces radio during World War II that gained their initial popularity, and perhaps had they not been released when they were, they wouldn’t have been as popular and may not have endured,” Rivers told the Roanoke news station.
The proof is in the polling – WSLS used Rivers’ report as a springboard to quiz viewers on their favorite of a half-dozen holiday favorites and “White Christmas” ran the board, drawing 76% of the votes, putting it way ahead of the second runner-up, “Jingle Bell Rock” (a 1957 release), which took 16%. Mariah Carey’s “Last Christmas” was third with 8% of the ballots.
First tee
Marty Smith ’98 is about to pull a hat trick and settle into his third ongoing broadcasting gig, besides being an ESPN reporter and a host for the SEC Network.
In a Dec. 12 story in The Roanoke Times, it was announced Smith will also be part of a three-man team providing coverage for Tiger Woods’ TGL golf league’s upcoming first season.
TGL is a venture formed by pro golfers Woods and Rory McIlroy alongside sports executive Mike McCarley.
Sportscaster Scott Van Pelt will host pre- and post-match shows with an intermission in between.
ESPN’s Sportscenter’s Matt Barrie will cover the games’ play-by-play.
And Smith will be reporting from the scene, interviewing golfers, team owners and celebrity guests at the SoFi Center in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, where, as of this writing, one week before Christmas Day, the temperature is a shorts-and-T-shirt-friendly 82-degrees.
Smith will appear in a season preview broadcast, airing Jan. 5 on ABC, and the first TGL telecast premieres on Jan. 7 at 9 p.m.