Appalachian alumnus David Furr nominated for Tony Award

View larger image — David Furr ’94 has been nominated for a 2016 Tony Award for his performance as Garry Lejeune in the 2016 revival of “Noises Off,” a comedy by playwright Michael Frayn.

Posted May 9, 2016 at 1:28 p.m.

BOONE—David Furr, a 1994 graduate of Appalachian State University who is originally from Greensboro, is a 2016 Tony Award nominee for his performance in “Noises Off,” a Broadway comedy by English playwright Michael Frayn. The most recent revival of Frayn’s play concluded a 13-week limited run on March 13 as part of the subscription series at the Roundabout Theatre Company in New York City. Furr starred as Garry Lejeune, a volatile actor with a stutter.

“I’m just surprised and incredibly honored to be nominated, especially among so many incredible performances this Broadway season,” Furr said in a statement to Playbill.com. “Upon seeing the nomination online, I thought it was entirely likely that I was misreading something. I wasn’t able to really believe it until all the phone calls, texts, emails, Facebook messages started streaming in.”

Furr’s passion for acting started at Appalachian, where he studied theatre as an interdisciplinary studies major, starring as Oberon in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” which inaugurated the new Valborg Theatre in spring 1994. He credits the faculty and his fellow students with nurturing his love of performance.

“I honestly don’t know that the seed would have been planted so firmly at any other place or time,” he recalls. “It was that specific community of students and teachers that drew me in, that made my involvement in theatre become something I wanted to do for the rest of my life. They taught me the fundamentals, gave me those first opportunities, challenged me, and even allowed me the feeling that I had value on stage.”

Furr is a recipient of the prestigious St. Clair Bayfield Award for his performance as Orlando in “As You Like It” in 2012. His career spans more than 20 years and includes film, television, Broadway and regional theatre performances.

Two of Furr’s co-stars in “Noises Off,” Megan Hilty and Andrea Martin, were also nominated for a Tony. The 70th annual Tony Awards air June 12 on CBS.

About the Department of Theatre and Dance

Appalachian’s Department of Theatre and Dance is housed in the College of Fine and Applied Arts. Its mission is to provide liberal arts educational opportunities including B.A. degrees in dance studies and theatre arts. The department also values the opportunity to offer coursework for integrated learning through the arts to the general university student population. Vital to the support of this mission is a dynamic co-curricular production program that provides exemplary theatre and dance experiences to departmental students, the university community and the region. The departmental philosophy is to support the university’s liberal arts environment through a balanced and integrated emphasis on teaching, creative activity, scholarship and service.

About Appalachian State University

As a premier public institution, Appalachian State University prepares students to lead purposeful lives. App State is one of 17 campuses in the University of North Carolina System, with a national reputation for innovative teaching and opening access to a high-quality, cost-effective education. The university enrolls more than 21,000 students, has a low student-to-faculty ratio and offers more than 150 undergraduate and 80 graduate majors at its Boone and Hickory campuses and through App State Online. Learn more at https://www.appstate.edu.