UST alums Aaron Stryk, Joseph Milillo and Chris Tennison have combined their business skills and passion for the performing arts to found Town Center Theater, a professional nonprofit performing arts organization in the Woodlands.

Stryk, who serves as the theater’s managing director, majored in business administration and communication and later went on to receive an MBA from the University of Houston. Although he remains busy as the manager of global marketing for CB&I, he still finds time to perform at several Houston area theaters.

Milillo and Tennison, who both majored in drama at UST, serve as Town Center Theater’s artistic directors.

Stryk feels that the education he and his business partners received at UST has served them well in this undertaking.

“At UST, not only do students receive a well-rounded academic education, but they also acquire a deeper knowledge and understanding about who they are, what they believe, where their true strengths lie and how they can make effective and ethical decisions,” Stryk says. “Chris, Joey and I all feel that UST has helped us to develop these key values, and it is with these values that we have embarked upon starting a professional theater company.”

UST drama professor Sam Havens, who has taught all three alums, feels confident in his former students’ ability to make Town Center Theater a success.

“Aaron, Joey, and Chris are very passionate theater artists,” Havens says. “They have the talent, zeal and knowledge to make this venture work.”

The theater’s first production, Quilters, about a pioneer woman and her six daughters, premiers July 6 at College Park High School in the Woodlands. Performances continue until July 22. For more information about Town Center Theater, visit the website at www.towncentertheatre.net.