The Department of Art and Art History's Visual Arts Center will feature an exhibit by Madeline Hollander that, through a collaboration with faculty member Erica Gionfriddo, will incorporate improvisational responses by a group of dance students. The exhibit, available from January 30-March 27, 2021, utilizes a selection of retired fire hoses as reminders of the environmental catastrophes we have witnessed.

Left without a studio to rehearse in, Michael J. Love (M.F.A. 2020) took matters into his own hands, purchasing and creating his own rehearsal space. He now produces monthly performances in collaborations with various multi-disciplinary artists from The BEATBOX. 

Texas Monthly recounts the awe-inspiring levels of creativity that allowed theatres across Texas, including our friends at Rude Mechs, The Vortex and Shrewd Productions, to continue presenting performance art during the pandemic, featuring work by faculty member Kirk Lynn and several alumni. 

Alumnus Isaac Gómez's play Wally World, presented by Steppenwolf Theatre Company, landed among a list of four audio-plays from across the nation reviewed by The New York Times. The production is still available through their Steppenwolf NOW virtual programming until August 31, 2021.

KUT 90.5 recently checked in with Rudy Ramirez (M.A. 2012) and Frank Wo/Men Collective co-producers Chris Conard (current student), Kelsey Oliver (B.F.A. 2015), Roberto Di Donato (B.A. 2016) and Alexa Capareda about the creative development taking place through their residencies with Texas Performing Arts and Fusebox Festival.

Charles O. Anderson's (Re)current Unrest landed on the top of Robert Faire's list of timely and impactful work in and about the year 2020. Also on the list is Marcus; or the Secret of Sweet, directed by Anderson and department chair Robert Ramirez, which kicked off our spring 2020 semester prior to closures.

Associate professor Gesel Mason and her co-director Rebecca Salzer represented one of 213 humanities projects nationwide that recently received funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Their project, "Prototyping an Extensible Framework for Access to Dance Knowledge" will work to create an online resource that will increase accessibility to recordings of works by Black choreographers and provide connections across collections of archived dance work.

In a recent interview with National Performance Network, faculty member Gesel Mason talked about her upcoming project Yes, And, and the multiple residencies that have made her project possible as well as the community of Black women who have inspired and impacted the piece.

Alumni Isaac Gómez and Karen Rodriguez recount their long history of collaborating as theatre artists, beginning with their time as students at the Department of Theatre and Dance. Their most recent collaboration, Steppenwolf Theatre Company's audio adaptation of Gómez's Wally World, is streaming from December 16, 2020 to August 31, 2021.

Faculty member Gesel Mason spoke with Fusebox Festival about centering the voices of Black women in her project Yes, And, along with her previous projects and how they have inspired her current work. Yes, And is being developed as a part of Mason's residency with Texas Performing Arts and Fusebox Festival.

Head of the playwriting/directing area KJ Sanchez is leading a group of collaborators in creating a piece of documentary theatre that digs into the complex lives of those we call essential workers, commemorating the realities of working through a global pandemic.

Fusebox Festival interviewed Frank Wo/Men Collective founders Kelsey Oliver (B.F.A. 2015), Roberto Di Donato (B.A. 2016), Chris Conard (M.F.A. candidate) and Alexa Capareda about the creation and upcoming workshop performances of K ! :D D: Ö as part of the residency program created by Texas Performing Arts and Fusebox Festival.  

Head of the dance area Charles O. Anderson strives as a teacher and mentor to lead with compassion, creating environments that empower his students to share their stories through movement. His passion for inclusive dance education earned him a Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award and has helped him impact the lives of countless students.

To celebrate the launch of their Winter 2020 issue, The Paris Review is hosting a virtual table reading of faculty member Kirk Lynn's play The First Line of Dante’s Inferno, an excerpt of which is featured in the issue, followed by a discussion with guest theatre editor and faculty member Branden Jacobs-Jenkins.

Charles O. Anderson, faculty member and creator of (Re)current Unrest, recently spoke to Dance Magazine about the creation of a virtual piece of its magnitude, touching on the upcoming (Re)current Unrest film premiere at Dance Place on December 5, 2020.

Charles O. Anderson's (Re)current Unrest has been transformed into a fully realized film thanks to Director of Photography Maggie Bailey, utilizing footage from our recent production as well as a video component featuring D.C.-based artists. The film will premiere at Dance Place in Washington D.C. on Saturday, December 5, 2020.

The Oscar G. Brockett Book Prize for Dance Research is awarded each year to the most outstanding book in dance published within the last three years. This recognition comes with a $1000 prize awarded with funds from the Oscar G.  Brockett Center for Theatre History and Criticism. Among this year's winners is alum Clare Croft (Ph.D. 2010) for her book Queer Dance: Meanings and Makings.

Repertory Theatre St. Louis's new Love & Kindness in the Time of Quarantine series, streaming until December 31, 2020, features the work of Theatre and Dance alumni Karen Rodriguez (B.A. 2013) and Isaac Gómez (B.A. 2013). Rodriguez is performing a short piece written by Gómez entitled "They Even Closed The Walmart."

Faculty member Sven Ortel and recent graduate Jesse Easdon collaborated with ARTECHOUSE, Epson and multiple UT Theatre and Dance alumni and current students to create NHKS4220 Bar Illusion, a work of immersive digital art that is currently being showcased at ARTECHOUSE NYC.

Faculty members Annie Baker and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins are premiering their final plays under their residencies with Signature Theatre for its 2021-2022 season. Baker and Jacobs-Jenkins are both set to direct their new plays, entitled On the Uses of Pain for Life and Grass, respectively, at The Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre.