Recent News

"The Fantasticks" creator Tom Jones rewrites classic musical as gay love story

June 16, 2022 | Playbill

Jones (B.F.A., Theatrical Design, 1949) and Harvey Schmidt's The Fantasticks tells an allegorical story loosely based on Edmund Rostand's 1894 play The Romancers (Les Romanesques), concerning two neighboring parents who trick their children into falling in love by pretending to feud. The LGBTQIA+ focused rewrite features two young gay men, Matt and Lewis, at the center of the story, instead of a young man and woman (the original characters were Matt and Luisa).

Alumni Guinevere "Gwenny" Govea workshops new musical at Pegasus PlayLab

June 16, 2022 | UT Theatre and Dance

Govea (B.A. in Theatre and Dance and Bachelor of Journalism, 2021) and Anna Pickett (B.S. in Youth and Community Studies, 2021) workshopped their new musical Spells of the Sea at Pegasus PlayLab at the University of Central Florida in Orlando.

'Six Feet Apart' by Isaac Gómez (B.A. 2013) premieres at Dances with Films

June 13, 2022 | Dances with Films

Alumnus J. Quinton Johnson will direct his new musical 'Alice's Wonderland' at Summer Stock Austin

June 13, 2022 | Broadway World

group photo of eight collaborators posing in front of a banner for SPELLS OF THE SEA

UT Alumni Workshop New Musical at Pegasus PlayLab

June 9, 2022

UT Austin alumni Guinevere "Gwenny" Govea (B.A. 2021) and Anna Pickett workshopped their new musical Spells of the Sea at Pegasus PlayLab at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, culminating in staged readings on June 4 and 5, 2022.

two men sit in a bathtub wearing a pink and blue shirt and holding two balloons

Alum Tom Jones Rewrites The Fantasticks as Gay Love Story

June 3, 2022 | Playbill

Alumnus Tom Jones (B.F.A. 1949, M.F.A. 1951) has conducted rewrites to recenter The Fantasticks as a love story between two young men. Jones' rewrites for the classic musical, which he originally wrote with the late Harvey Schmidt (B.F.A. in Art, 1952), were penned in collaboration with Flint Repertory Producing Artistic Director Michael Lluberes.

grey graphic for A WAR OF THE WORLDS featuring a giant building with green smoke pouring out of it

Penfold Theatre's A War of the Worlds Features UT Alumni and Students

June 2, 2022 | Penfold Theatre Company

Penfold Theatre Company's world premiere performance of Jarrett King's A War of the Worlds features Marcus McQuirter (Ph.D. 2012) as director, Ph.D. candidate Yunina Barbour-Payne and former student Marc Pouhé among the cast and staff member Desireé Humphries as costume designer.

graphic for THE AFRICAN COMPANY PRESENTS RICHARD III, which is designed to look like a king of spades playing card

Theatre and Dance Artists Collaborate on The African Company Presents Richard III

May 28, 2022 | Great River Shakespeare

Faculty member Corey Allen is directing Great River Shakespeare's summer production of The African Company Presents Richard III. Other collaborators include M.F.A. candidate Braxton Rae as assistant director, recent graduate Harri Horsley (M.F.A. 2022) as costume designer and alumna Ashley Bowen (B.A. 2021) among the cast.

Yesenia Garcia Herrington (M.F.A, Acting, 2007) is the recipient of the 2022 Kennedy Center American College and Theatre Festival’s (KCACTF) Uta Hagen Award

May 25, 2022

woman wearing blue earrings and a black mask gestures to a room of actors

KJ Sanchez on Leaning Into the Bilingual Adaptation Romeo y Juliet

May 23, 2022 | Datebook

Romeo y Juliet playwright Karen Zacarías and director and faculty member KJ Sanchez reflect on the bilingual revitalization of Shakespeare's classic and the hidden opportunities that developed out of its postponed world premiere at California Shakespeare Theater.