Recent News

The experience of watching a play serves helps us to experience the world around us in a multitude of ways. We walk away from a theatrical experience with a different perspective than what we had before. By experiencing Luna on tour, elementary and middle school-aged students across Austin are being treated to an experience unlike anything many of them have had before.

Every two years, The Cohen New Works Festival presents over 30 new works of theatre, dance, art and performance to over 7,000 attendees in five days. This festival, named after former playwriting faculty member David Mark Cohen, who our community lost too soon, is a celebration of creative disciplines spanning across the university to showcase the new work of students.. The 2017 Festival runs April 10 through 14.

Faculty member Dr. Paul Bonin-Rodriguez examines the value of a Bachelor of Arts degree as a response to Secretary Betsey DeVos's commentary on higher education and the "noble pursuit" of vocational schools and/or community colleges for bachelor programs. 

Dr. Charlotte Canning and Dr. Paul Bonin-Rodriguez explore the damage cutting funding to the National Endowment for the Arts would do, asking the question "what would life be like without the NEA?" 

Faculty member KJ Sanchez is staging the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park's mainstage production, Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre which uses music, movement and choreography to creatively tell the Victorian story of love on the moors of Northern England. 

For one week, every other year, the Department of Theatre and Dance pauses, as the Cohen New Works Festival transforms nearly every imaginable space in the Winship Drama Building to host exhibitions of art. Enjoy a sneak peek of a sampling of projects to debut at the Festival, April 10 through 14.

We sat down with Megan Tabaque (playwright, Galactic Orphans), Graham Schmidt (director, Galactic Orphans), Elizabeth Doss (playwright, Slumber Party), Lirit Pendell (costume designer), Tucker Martin (“Simon Levinson,” The Bigot), Jade Jackson (“Amber,” Gondal) and Adam Sussman (director, Gondal) to learn more about the challenges and thrills of cultivating new works of theatre as they move from ideas to the stage.

Psychological trauma is the subject of most plays about service members. Does this represent most veterans' reality, or does it further complicate their reentry? Ph.D. candidate and military veteran Bart Pitchford explores the relationship between America's theatre and its veterans.

Meet six students who are leading the way on campus, including B.F.A. in Dance candidate Sofia Aranha. Recipient of the 2017 Texas Exes President’s Leadership Award, Aranha hopes to combine her passion for dance with her desire to serve her community after graduation.

The Cohen New Works Festival, a biennial festival presented by the Department of Theatre and Dance at The University of Texas at Austin with sponsorship by Broadway Bank, is returning this year to premiere 38 new student-made projects April 10-14, 2017 on the university campus.

Images Available: http://tinyurl.com/gpftwv3
Password: media