Roy C. Dicks has been writing for the daily Raleigh (NC) News & Observer (190,000 Sunday circulation) since 1997. As a contracted freelancer for the paper, he writes performance reviews, interviews and feature articles on classical music, opera, dance and theater.

Roy has been published in Opera Quarterly and also writes occasionally for the online review website, Classical Voice of North Carolina. He has also written about ballet for Pointe and Dance Magazines. Roy has on-screen credit as a consultant for the PBS/WGBH program, "Beverly Sills: Made in America," also issued as a DVD by Deutsche Grammophon. Roy previously wrote music, theater and dance reviews for the weekly Spectator in Raleigh for eight years (1979-1986). Roy has written two commissioned opera librettos for productions at Meredith College. He has directed three operas and has sung onstage in six.

Roy received non-degreed musical training at East Carolina University, from which he received BA degrees in English and Drama. He also has a masters in Library Science from UNC-Chapel Hill. He worked as a professional reference librarian for 27 yeras with the Wake Co. Public Library, headquartered in Raleigh.

Roy has a considerable background in theatre. While earning his theater degree at East Carolina University, he participated in student productions as well as the school's professional summer theater. After settling in Raleigh, Roy was seen on stage in over sixty roles in the Triangle area. He later turned to directing, staging three dozen productions for various theaters, including Raleigh Ensemble Players, a theater company he co-founded and was the artistic director for its first decade. He is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association.

Roy's literary credits include a long-term relationship with Timber Press (Portland, OR) in connection with ten reprints of English writer Beverley Nichols' novelistic garden books (including "Down the Garden Path" and "Merry Hall"), in which Roy is credited as indexer, researcher and/or writer of the introductions. His own collection of 300 excerpts from Nichols' writing, titled "Rhapsody in Green," was published by Timber Press in 2009.

Roy has been privileged to travel widely, including trips to music and theatre venues, in 39 countries on five continents.