Pearl Rea

Pearl is the facility and theater manager for the School of Dance at the University of Arizona.  In addition to her stewardship of the buildings and School of Dance assets, Pearl is also the production manager for the School of Dance season while serving as stage manager and lighting designer for all School of Dance performances. Pearl holds a Master of Fine Arts in Theater Design and Technology from the University of MN in Minneapolis, MN along with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in both Theater and English from Henderson State University. 

She is currently teaching Dance Production, Advanced Dance Production (geared to graduate students on the MFA track), and Independent Studies in dance lighting.

Before arriving at the School of Dance, Pearl spent 15 years as the Production Manager, then the Director of Event Production, at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.  While there, she coordinated art of all genres (performance art, theater, live music, and dance), including the internationally renowned mount of Merce Cunningham’s Ocean in a working rock quarry in central Minnesota that was the culmination of over 2 years of planning. 

Before that, Pearl had significant touring experience as a lighting supervisor based out of NYC for Paul Taylor Dance Company (including the 50 state 50th-anniversary tour), Shapiro and Smith Dance Company, Brian Brooks Moving Company, Margolis Brown Theater Company, and Ailey 2, to name a few.  Her national design credits include Existence Without Form by choreographer Uri Sands for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Shapiro and Smith’s Anytown and Notes for a Séance, and about a million or two versions of The Nutcracker.