Photo Flash: Bonnie Comley and Stewart F. Lane Celebrate the 10th Anniversary of Their Namesake Theater

Tony Award-winning Broadway producer, writer and performer Bonnie Comley - a UMass Lowell graduate returned to campus with her husband Stewart F. Lane to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the 500 seat theater dedicated in their name. The event included a reception on the theater's stage with the couple and UMass Lowell VIPs and community arts leaders. The evening ended with a BroadwayHD screening.

Check out photos from the event below!

Comley and Lane have led master classes in acting and producing at UMass Lowell in the past. During this visit, they met with students for a discussion on BroadwayHD and how to preserve the performing arts and create a community of engaged arts enthusiasts through digital capture and streaming technology. BroadwayHD.com is the online streaming service founded by Comley and Lane

Comley, who has won three Tony Awards among numerous other honors, graduated from UMass Lowell with a business degree that helped pave the way for her career. Comley is a past recipient of UMass Lowell's Distinguished Alumni Award and a recipient of the Beta Gamma Sigma Award for Business Achievement.

Lane is an award winning Broadway producer, as well a playwright, director, actor and co-owner of the legendary Broadway Palace Theatre. A gift from the couple supported renovations of the campus performing arts venue that was renamed the Comley-Lane Theatre in their honor.

"It is so fulfilling to know that UMass Lowell students, faculty and the community have had 10 years' worth of entertainment in this theater. I love to return to Lowell to see all the improvements and additions to campus and to meet all the students looking forward to bright futures," Comley said. "As a UMass Lowell business major, that skill set has helped me in every aspect of my life. I received a great education and that foundation enabled me to pursue a career that I love."

Launched in 2015, BroadwayHD.com brings the excitement of live theater to viewers around the world through your computer, your phone, your tablet, and your TV. The venture is reinventing the way people access and enjoy live theater and is a force in the global marketplace. Available Apps include: Apple TV App, iPhone and iPad App, and Roku Channel. And the independently branded BroadwayHD on Amazon Channels.

"Our entire catalog of over 230 full length stageplays and musicals are closed-captioned for the hearing impaired and we are creating landing pages in different languages so viewers' geography will determine the language they see when they first visit the website," Comley said. "The flow of new content is exciting and is extending the reach of these shows and creating the next generation of theater-goers and theater-makers."

Over the past 10 years, the Comley-Lane Theatre has helped fuel the growth of UMass Lowell's theatre arts program, offering students a performance space in which to hone their talent in rehearsals and live shows. The theater has staged more than 30 full-scale productions and hundreds of readings, workshops and presentations of shows in the past decade.

In addition, the Comley-Lane Theatre Arts Endowment Fund allows the university to invite professional artists to campus to perform with and mentor students in acting, writing, directing and all forms of stagecraft.

Photo Credit: Gail Oskin/Getty Images for Stellar Productions

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