WINSTON-SALEM – Edwin Martinat always gets the great holiday gigs.

Last year, Martinat, of Winston-Salem and Hickory, was Mother Ginger – a role that is traditionally played by males – in the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA) production of The Nutcracker.

This year, Martinat is making sure the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade goes off without a hitch.

Martinat, who graduated from UNCSA with a Bachelor of Fine Arts on May 31, 2008, is officially working “Eighth Avenue Parade Operations” at the parade. “My job entails getting performers in costume, leading all the performers in the right direction to the start of the parade, and crowd control,” Martinat explained.

The job is right up his alley. Martinat studied stage management in the School of Design and Production at UNCSA. His “day job” is as the stage management resident at Playwrights Horizons, a renowned off-Broadway theatre.

Originally from Hickory, Martinat is the son of Sarah Pressly and Henry Martinat. And he is the grandson of Martha Martinat, a former member of the N.C. General Assembly, from Winston-Salem.

This is not the first time a UNCSA alumnus has been involved with the parade. UNCSA Drama alumnus Dikki Ellis was clown consultant to the parade for more than a decade.

The 82^nd Annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade will air from 9 a.m. to noon on NBC.

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