Nancy Hager

HAGER (SANFORD), Nancy Skow "Nancy"

January 6, 1937- November 15, 2023

Nancy Hager, a "godmother" to Atlanta theater, passed away peacefully at her home in Eugene, OR, on November 15, 2023.

During a 20 year career, Nancy Hager helped to nurture Atlanta's early theater scene. In 1967, Nancy started a 16 year run as Managing Director for the Academy Theatre, and guided it from an avocational theater to one of the Southeast's major professional repertory theaters in partnership with Artistic Director Frank Wittow. The Academy Theatre focused on new productions and innovative adaptations, training new actors, and creating community engagement through artists-in-school programs, actor training, and fostering new playwrights. The artists in schools program won national awards for helping to facilitate the desegregation of Georgia's public schools. Many of the leaders of Atlanta theater are Academy "alumni". Nancy also broke new ground with funding: soliciting record-breaking grants from the Rockefeller Foundation, the US Dept. Health, Education, and Welfare, and the Georgia Council for the Arts. Nancy loved to teach and direct. She founded the Academy Lab Theater to provide a space for beginning directors and actors to hone their skills, and directed ten plays herself.

Nancy co-founded the Mayor's committee on the Arts under Mayor Maynard Jackson, served on the Fulton County Arts Council, served on national theater panels with the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, the Theater Communications Group and others. In 1977, Nancy co-founded the Atlanta New Play Project in support of new playwrights, providing leadership during its inception, and producing the first Atlanta New Play Festivals in 1983 and 1984. In 1985 and 1986, she helped Jomandi Theatre become a professional company, and directed a play for them.

Nancy did her theater work while raising three children in a loving and supportive family. She showed the same creativity and determination in making sure her children received the education that fit their individual needs. And there was family fun in the Georgia mountains, at the beach, and annual house parties with her "crazy theater friends".

In 1986, Nancy took a writing sabbatical in Isla Mujeres, then journeyed west to continue her professional and personal growth. She studied native American spirituality, became a certified Acupuncture Diplomate and managed the Peacehealth Guest House for Sacred Heart Medical Center in Eugene, OR. She retired to Bend, OR, in 2006, where she could enjoy the high desert and continue to write poetry, practice Tai Chi, host writing and knitting groups, and volunteer at the Northwest Crossing Farmers Market. Nancy moved to Eugene in 2020.

Nancy loved the beach, snorkeling, sailing, and swimming in the ocean, reading, writing, discussing politics, and watching football. Most of all, she loved her three children, her family, and her friends. Nancy is survived by a brother, three children, and three grandchildren. The family are planning a memorial service to take place Spring 2024 in Atlanta. For more information on Nancy's life or to contact the family visit https://cragerhagerfarm.com/nancy-skow-hager-memorial.html