Beth to Receive Honorary PhD & Give Address at UNCG Commencement
On 6 May, Beth will receive an honorary doctoral degree from UNCG, her alma mater, and will be addressing students as the 2022 Commencement Speaker!
On 6 May, Beth will receive an honorary doctoral degree from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG), her alma mater, where she received her Master of Fine Arts as part of the class of 1980. She will also address UNCG graduates as the 2022 Commencement Speaker.
“They’re getting a storyteller – who was one of the stories. I hope I can share something, impart something. I hope I can be entertaining. And I hope they leave with more joy in their hearts.”
Beth was the cover star of UNCG Magazine in 2007, while she was starring in The Drowsy Chaperone on Broadway. She welcomed the magazine’s creative team backstage, as she prepared for her performance – one that would earn her a Tony Award and Drama Desk Award.
Since that 2007 cover story, she has received Tony Award and Drama Desk Award nominations for her work in The Prom and Baby, It’s You. She has been in 13 shows on Broadway and counting.
She has also visited the UNCG campus several times over the past decade to give masterclasses and speak with students.
More recently, she has just finished filming for a Hallmark holiday movie, and is currently preparing for the lead role in The Devil Wears Prada in Chicago this summer, in anticipation of a Broadway run.
The most important thing she learned as a grad student at UNCG? “That I was in the right place, and doing what I should be doing. And to have that affirmed and confirmed, in the two years I was there, gave me the confidence to leap and take the next step. That was huge, because if I did go someplace else and been hidden or not encouraged or lost in a million students, I probably wouldn’t be going into my 14th [Broadway] show.”
You can watch Beth delivering the 2022 UNCG Commencement Address via livestream on 6 May from 10am ET at the link below.
Source: UNCG Commencement, UNCG Magazine
