NANCY SKOW HAGER
January 6, 1937 - November 15, 2023
May you Dance to the Stars, Dear Mom

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

ACT ONE: Nancy’s play began in Durham, North Carolina, in 1937 where she was born the first of three children to Carl N. Sanford, an Aeronautical Engineer and Professor; and Gertrude Skow Sanford, a pioneering Home Economics educator, both from Oregon. The family moved to Ames, Iowa in 1945, where Nancy joined the Girl Scouts and drama club, excelled in violin, and took up modern dance. In 1955 the family moved to Atlanta, GA and Nancy attended The University of Georgia before transferring to The University of Wisconsin where she studied violin, modern dance and political science. It was in Madison that Nancy connected with young activists who were involved in the civil rights movement, strongly influencing her future career as a professional arts leader. At a music festival in Aspen, Colorado Nancy met and fell in love with a young doctor in training, Donald Hager, whom she married and with whom shared three children, Bryan, Lori, and Scott.  

ACT TWO: In 1963 Nancy divorced Don and moved back to Atlanta. While raising her three children, Nancy taught modern dance at Georgia State University and Oglethorpe University, and went on to create her own dance studio. While searching for studio space Nancy connected with a startup theater company, the Academy Theatre, that was housed in an old church in Buckhead. Nancy taught movement to the young actors and began working to promote the theater.  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 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. 

Many of the leaders of Atlanta theater are alumni of the Academy Theatre, including, Kenny Leon, Larry Larson, Samuel L Jackson, Rosemary Newcott, Jeff and Lisa Adler, and many more.   Nancy's vision of a community-based professional theatre reached across racial, economic, and civic divides. One of the highlights of the community work was the partnership with NAACP, Atlanta University, and American Friends Service Committee to support the development of original plays, and teaching programs, in order to facilitate the desegregation of Georgia’s public schools. Nancy also broke new ground with funding for professional regional theaters: 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’s work for the arts went beyond support of the Academy Theatre. She co-founded the Mayor’s committee on the Arts under Mayor Maynard Jackson, served on the Fulton County Arts Council, and 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, a cooperative effort of area theaters to support new playwrights, providing leadership during its inception, and producing the first Atlanta New Play Festivals in 1983 and 84.  In 1985 and 86 she helped Jomandi Theatre become a professional company, and directed a play for them.

While Nancy was moving from being a dance instructor to being a “godmother” of Atlanta’s theater, she was also a loving mother to three children. On days off, she would load the kids in the car on camping trips to the Georgia mountains, and for swimming at Lake Lanier. She shared her resilience, passion, creativity and vulnerability with her friends and family, and her big hugs. She was also known for the big annual house parties for her “crazy theater people”.

ACT THREE: 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 in South Dakota, and became a certified Acupuncture Diplomate at Northwest Institute of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine in Seattle WA. She practiced acupuncture for several years, 1991-96, including with the WA Dept of Corrections helping inmates with detox.

In 1998 she moved to Espanola, NM to be interim director for Northern NM Community Theater. Then Nancy moved to Eugene, OR  to manage the Peacehealth Guest House for Sacred Heart Medical Center, 2000-2006. She wrote poetry, took up knitting, fell in love with the western high desert, started the “Love Myself, Love My Size’ dance instruction, and began a Tai Chi practice. Nancy was an accomplished artist, violinist, dancer, and writer. In Eugene, she performed in local productions, practiced Tai Chi, and was part of the Adjashanti community. A lifelong writer, she reveled in the vibrant writing communities in Oregon, participating in writing seminars across the state and publishing her poems in Oregon writers' collections.

FINAL ACT: In 2006 Nancy retired to Bend, OR 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.  Here she started a small knitting business she called "Cuddle Knits." In 2016, she suffered a traumatic brain injury, which changed the trajectory of her life. While independent and intent on exploring innovative solutions to managing her TBI, she moved back to Eugene, OR to be close to family in 2021. She continued her Tai Chi practice, and influencing everyone she met with her joy of life, her curiosity, and her youthful mindset that engaged challenges from the perspective of her engineering father - work the problem.

Nancy’s spirit was always on the move, from the dance of Pauline Koner to the poetry of Hafiz, she loved to stretch herself. 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 preceded in death by her parents Carl and Trudy Sanford, and brother Don Sanford. She is survived by her brother, Pete Sanford; three children, Bryan, Lori, and Scott; and three grandchildren, Charis, Austin, and Alex. The family is planning a memorial service to take place Spring 2024 in Atlanta. May you dance to the stars, dear mom.