Catawba News Service

SALISBURY  —The Catawba College Musical Theatre BFA Program is adding two faculty to the roster. Theatre Arts Department Chair Erin Dougherty made the formal announcement during the Week of Welcome activities for first-year students.

David Loudermilk, an alumnus of the Catawba theater program, was with the department in 2021-22 as a visiting instructor in musical theater. He returns this year as assistant professor of musical theater. Loudermilk has performed both regionally and internationally at theaters, theme parks, and on cruise ships.

He holds a master of fine arts degree and has a bachelor of fine arts with an emphasis in directing from Catawba College. He has also served as an educator, artistic director and producer/investor (Broadway: Doctor Zhivago, Tuck Everlasting;  West End: Memphis).

Loudermilk recently received recognition for his direction and choreography for his thesis production of Hair, and choreography for Newsies and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. He was the 2005 Region IV Society of Directors and Choreographers Finalist and received an honorable mention at the 2019 Region V Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, in the same category. He has also received awards from the North Carolina Theatre Conference and Star News Media.

Also joining the faculty this year with a joint appointment in Music and Theatre Arts Department is Nicholas Fuqua. He will join the School of Performing Arts as an assistant professor of musical theater. Fuqua will receive his master of fine arts degree from the University of Idaho in May of 2023. He holds a master of education from the University of Louisville, a master of music in musical theater/opera performance from Arizona State University, and a bachelor of arts in theater/musical theater from Siena Heights University.

Fuqua has a broad variety of experience ranging from teaching theater, musical theater, music theory, to mentoring tap students who placed first overall in dance competitions, to designing sets and lights for musicals, dance performances, and showcases. He has worked extensively in theater for youth as a director, music director, coach, and mentor.

He has also managed auditorium spaces, taught voice, violin, viola and piano. A performer of note, Fuqua was a semifinalist in the first national musical theater competition where he placed in the top sixteen.

Fuqua has worked professionally on musicals including Hair, Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Shrek, Peter Pan, 42nd Street, Tick, Tick . . . Boom!

He also has worked at the Kentucky Opera, The Barn Theatre, Phoenix Theatre, Halifax Opera, Arizona Opera and Hale Center Theatre.

Both will join the current musical theater faculty and, according to Theatre Arts Department Chair Erin Dougherty, “leverage Catawba’s intimate setting to provide top-flight artist-faculty that gives Catawba’s musical theater students the kind of performance and real-world experiences that only Catawba can provide.”

Catawba’s Musical Theatre Program provides students with the professional training of a bachelor of fine arts degree in musical theater combined with the breadth of a liberal arts degree.

Catawba developed the Musical Theatre Major as a divisional major of the Shuford School of Performing Arts in 1985. The first student to complete this major was Fred Inkley in 1988. After leaving Catawba, Fred made his first Broadway appearance as Jean Valjean in Les Misérables and he originated the Beast in the first national tour of Beauty and the Beast among many other professional roles.

In 1997, the Musical Theatre Major became the Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Musical Theatre furthering the professional training of Catawba musical theatre students with an enlarged faculty focused on the “triple threat” of acting, song, and dance.

Catawba has many alumni active in professional theatre on Broadway, in regional theater, and working in communities throughout the country. The Musical Theatre program provides each student with a solid foundation in fundamental musical and theater skills, as well as a broad background in practical entertainment business, literature, and the humanities.