Recent News

Former student Keith Machekanyanga is set to play "Little Mo," a recurring character in Showtime's limited series Your Honor. This legal thriller is based on an Israeli drama and also features Bryan Cranston, Tony Curran and Lamar Johnson. 

Though it premiered over a decade ago, [12 Ophelias (a play with broken songs)] has new resonance in a year when women worldwide are seeking a reckoning of their power via #MeToo and other movements. Under Jess Shoemaker's direction, the show is a moving, mysterious production that frees Ophelia at last from Hamlet's shadow.

Radio-Television-Film faculty Ben Bays and Deepak Chetty worked with Department of Theatre and Dance lecturers J.E. Johnson and Karen Maness to interconnect three courses. Bays taught advanced visual effects, while Chetty led a course on three-dimensional animation, both of which are seen as special effects in the subgenre of visual effects.

The Method Gun, created by Rude Mechs, returns to the Texas Theatre and Dance stage October 4-5, 2019 at the B. Iden Payne Theatre. The piece explores the life and techniques of Stella Burden, actor-training guru of the 1960s and 70s, whose sudden emigration to South America still haunts her most fervent followers. Burden's training technique, The Approach (often referred to as "the most dangerous acting technique in the world"), fused Western acting methods with risk-based rituals in order to infuse even the smallest role with sex, death and violence.

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Shakespeare's Ophelia rises up out of the water, dreaming of Pop-Tarts and other sweet things. She finds herself in a neo-Elizabethan Appalachian setting where Gertrude runs a brothel, Hamlet is called a Rude Boy and nothing is what it seems. In this mirrored world of word-scraps and cold sex, Ophelia cuts a new path for herself. The University of Texas at Austin Department of Theatre and Dance presents 12 Ophelias (a play with broken songs) by Caridad Svich, directed by Jess Shoemaker October 2-13, 2019 at the Oscar G. Brockett Theatre.

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Will Brittain (attended) plays "Trey" in Josh Harmon's SKINTIGHT, which receives its West Coast premiere at The Geffen Playhouse later this month. Brittain recently sat down with Broadway World to discuss his work on SKINTIGHT alongside original stars of the Broadway production Idina Menzel and Eli Gelb. 

Playwriting and Directing faculty member KJ Sanchez was recently named a recipient of the University Co-op Hamilton Book Author Awards for her record of creative research, including three world premieres at three different renown venues: (dis)placed (Guthrie Theatre), Grandma’s Empanadas (Milwaukee Repertory Theatre), Cincinnati King (Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park), as well as her directorial role in Quixote Nuevo (Alley Theatre) and the world premiere of Knyum (Merrimack Repertory Theatre). 

Headed to the New Orleans Film Festival (Narrative Short) and NewFest (Bless Your Queer Heart Shorts Program) this October, Other Black Boys, written and directed by alumnus Nyles Washington (attended) along with writer/producer Rama Tchuente (B.F.A. 2018) and Eli Weinberg (B.F.A. 2018) stars Will Kachi (current student), Brandon Pegram (current student), Eli Weinberg and Nyles Washington.

Faculty member Kirk Lynn's The Cold Record tells the story of a 12 year old boy trying to set the record for the most days leaving school sick and in the process falls in love with the school nurse. Directed by faculty member Alexadra Bassiakou Shaw, The Cold Record was on stage at Harbourfront Centre in Toronto, Canada as part of Brave Festival 2019.  

Alumnus and Emmy Award-winning actor Rip Torn (B.S. 1953) passed away this week at age 88. Torn made his reputation as a gifted actor on film and both on and off Broadway. Most notably, portraying the role of "Artie" on the comedy series The Larry Sanders Show for which he received six consecutive Emmy nominations, winning the Emmy for Best Supporting Actor in a comedy series in 1996.