MATTHEWS, N.C. — This Black History Month, WCNC Charlotte is honoring the Black voices, stories and achievements that have made an impact, and continue to make a difference. Corey Mitchell, a Charlotte-area theater teacher, has turned his passion into a nonprofit. Now, he’s helping his students achieve their dreams.
Mitchell is a theater student's dream.
"Teaching for me every day is a new journey because you never know what somebody is going to come in with, you never know what you're going to discover in those days," Mitchell told WCNC Charlotte's Sarah French.
The first-ever recipient of a Tony Award for Excellence in Theater Education, Mitchell taught at Northwest School of the Arts for 20 years.
Some of his students include Phillip Johnson-Richardson of Broadway’s revival of The Wiz, Tony nominee and Grammy Award-winning actress Eva Noblezada, and Mean Girls superstar Reneé Rapp.
But after 20 years, he retired from Northwest to step out and start his nonprofit, The Theatre Gap Initiative, a college-prep program to help high school grads prepare for and get accepted to Bachelor of Fine Arts and conservatory programs.
"It is harder to get into a BFA musical theater program than it is to get into an Ivy League school -- 8.7% of the BFA programs across the country are students of color, and so what we were trying to do is bridge that gap, that opportunity gap for students of color to bring those numbers up," Mitchell explained. "Also, the students that we work with are in their gap year. So they've all graduated high school, and they take a gap year to go through the process of getting into four-year colleges. So that's what Theatre Gap is all about, is helping students navigate those waters, and change the trajectory of their lives."
Mitchell teaches the course at Central Piedmont. He even has students from California come to learn, like his student Raleigh McQuarters.
"It's a privilege," McQuarters explained. "I feel like I've been shown things that I never would have been able to see before thanks to him, or at least not this soon in my life. And I feel like if I stay here, then there are going to be doors that will open for me that I didn't have the keys to before."
With Theatre Gap Initiative, Mitchell takes the students across the country to national unified auditions to get into college.
"So the auditions in New York, there are 40-50 schools there," Mitchell said. "I'm presenting the opportunity. It doesn't make any sense if you teach them the skills, if you can't get them in front of the people to help get them in. It doesn't make sense to help get them into college, if we're not working with them to apply for scholarships to go through their FAFSA form to do all of the things so that they can afford the opportunity."
So far, the Theatre Gap Initiative has had 100% of students with college acceptances.
"TGI has a particular focus on students of color, and students from economically distressed or challenged backgrounds," Mitchell told French. "But even with that, I'm looking to help students, and so whatever the ethnicity, whatever the socio-economic background, I want to have conversations."
But it's more than teaching for Mitchell.
"It's family," Mitchell said. "Once you've signed up for TGI, I've got your back for life. And that's what family is, isn't it?"
"Cory is one of the most inspirational people I've ever met," Cody Meares, another Theatre Gap Initiative student, said. "He came into my life when I really needed him. He's there for every single one of us."
McQuarters added he knows Mitchell has his back.
"I feel like no matter what step I take forward with a friend like that to call out -- everything's gonna be all right," McQuarters said.
Applications for the 2024-25 school year open on Friday, Feb. 16. More information on the Theatre Gap Initiative can be found on the nonprofit's website.
Contact Sarah French at Sarah@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.