Burgess Byrd (Shylock), Bella Medina (Portia) and Adam L. Sussman (Director) sit down with Texas Theatre and Dance Marketing and Events Assistant Ryan Prendergast to discuss the challenges and rewards of one of Shakespeare’s most controversial and misunderstood plays. Part scathing social satire, part romantic comedy, part revenge thriller, The Merchant of Venice defies expectations and asks us to examine what hatred we hold in our hearts.

The works of Dance Repertory Theatre’s Fall For Dance explore embodiment, community, diversity and introductions. Dorothy O’Shea Overbey’s new work, Invention in Three Parts, features the work of faculty and students from the Department of Theatre and Dance and Radio-Television-Film in a collaborative performance blending virtual reality, motion capture technology and contemporary ballet.

Associate Professor Charles O. Anderson has been awarded a 2018-2019 Research & Creative Grant from the Office of the Vice President for Research for his project (Re)current Unrest. The evening-length piece is an immersive performance installation ‘ritual’ investigating legacy, authorship and the history of black art and protest through the lens of the erasure of the Africanist presence inside of Steve Reich’s compositions.

Assistant Professor Quetta Carpenter has been announced as the director the Illinois Shakespeare Festival's 2019 production of Julius Caesar. Her adaptation will offer a media-saturated, modern take on Shakespeare’s classic tragedy, set on the battlefields of social media and the 24-hour news cycle.