North Carolina Presenters Consortium

Meet Our ArtsMarket Team!

DEB ROYALS – ArtsMarket Conference Coordinator

Deb Royals is an artist, community organizer, and educator from Kernersville, North Carolina, where she grew up on a farm with her six sisters and brothers. She holds a MA in Theatre and Performance Studies from Northwestern University Evanston, Illinois (1996) and a Ph.D. in Performance and Cultural Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2016). She has started or developed several arts organizations in North Carolina including Applause Cary Youth Theatre (1998), The Justice Theatre Project (2005), and Pure Life Theatre (2019). She works each year with the African American Cultural Festival (an annual festival that serves over 44,000), where she coordinates the programming of artists and performance pieces for the festival’s Village Stage and the Village Tent. As a professor, she has taught Performance, Theatre, and Cultural studies around the country including UCLA, UNC-Chapel Hill, and Duke University. She has published papers on the politics of performance, performance studies, and the ways in which performance is related to social change and has presented at the National and International Communication Association conferences. She is the mother of three wonderful sons - Daniel, Noah & Eli and is married to her best friend, Joseph Mizerk.

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BUNNY NASH – ArtsMarket Exhibit Services Coordinator

Bunny is thrilled to be a member of this year’s NCPC ArtsMarket team! Bunny has over 20 years of experience as a performing arts presenter and event planner. For nine years she was the Performing Arts Director for the Cabarrus Arts Council based in Concord, NC. During her tenure there she was an active member of NCPC and served as an officer on the Board of Directors. Prior to coming to North Carolina, Bunny was the Director of Performing Arts at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute, Indiana. In addition to her arts programming duties at the college, she was an active theatrical director, directing over 70 college stage productions in addition to numerous local community theatre shows. She now enjoys volunteering as a judge for the annual Blumey Awards – the regional high school musical theatre awards program overseen by Blumenthal Performing Arts in Charlotte, NC.

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TATIANA (TIA) CANADA – ArtsMarket Registration Coordinator

Tatiana (Tia) Canada is a native of Jacksonville, NC but has called Raleigh her second home since Fall 2016. Being a creative (Clarinet and Percussion performance, and digital storytelling) for the majority of her life, she joins us with a love and desire to continue growing and advocating in the Arts community. A majority of her work as a professional and scholar supports, and is rooted in, Inclusion and Belonging, Self-Efficacy, Cultural Competency, and Community Outreach pedagogy and frameworks. Tia holds both her Bachelor of Arts (May 2020) and Master of Education (May 2022) from NC State University. Currently, she serves as a Program Coordinator for the Women and Minority Engineering Program in the NC State University College of Engineering; cultivating and implementing programs and events for BIPOC and Women - identifying students on campus to foster community, belonging, and a culture of care. As a professional, she hopes to serve in spaces to bridge the gaps between community, representation, sense of belonging, and the Arts.

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TRACY FRANCIS – ArtsMarket Production Manager

Tracy has always been motivated by stimulating arts and educational programming that inspires audiences of all backgrounds and has been fortunate to have played a part in creating such magic professionally for over 30 years. He has worked as a Production Manager with organizations such as Lotto World Theme Parks in South Korea and Taiwan; with Fiesta Texas Theme Parks in Texas; National Broadway Tours with Manny Azenberg; The American Gladiators Live!; PlayMakers Repertory Company; the NC Presenters Consortium, and the Carrboro ArtsCenter.Tracy is a native North Carolinian and has been fortunate to have worked with NC’s own Mike Wiley Productions for the past several years and counting. Tracy is the proud father of a stunningly amazing daughter, Alexa, a daughter he loves so much he can't hardly stand it! One of his greatest joys is witnessing the growth of such a phenomenal young lady. As the Showcase Production Manager, Tracy is pleased to be on the 2023 ArtsMarket team and looks forward to working with a lot of amazingly talented performing artists this fall.

Contact the ArtsMarket Team

Please use the contact information below to reach out to any of our NCPC and ArtsMarket team members:

Cathy Gouge, NCPC Executive Director, ncpcdirector@ncpresenters.org, 828-949-4099 Ext 1

MaryJo Birschbach, NCPC Marketing & Development Coordinator, marketing@ncpresenters.org, 828-949-4099 Ext 2

Deb Royals, ArtsMarket Conference Coordinator, artsmarket@ncpresenters.org, 919-272-1551

Bunny Nash, Exhibit Services Coordinator, expoinfo@ncpresenters.org, 812-264-6735

Tia Canada, Registration Coordinator, registration@ncpresenters.org, 910-265-8365

Tracy Francis, Showcase Production Manager, showcase@ncpresenters.org, 919-360-1750

THANK YOU TO OUR ANNUAL SPONSORS

Paramount Theatre - Goldsboro | Wellspring Retirement Community | Harmony Artists

AND OUR PARTNERS

AND THANK YOU TO OUR NCPC 2023-2024 BENEFACTORS

Randy McKay, John Ellis, Joey Bennett