Recent News

Yunina Barbour-Payne (Ph.D. 2024) has been awarded the Michael H. Granof Outstanding Dissertation Award in Humanities and Fine Arts for her dissertation: Redbones, Blackbones and Other Bones to Pick: Formations of Affrilachian Aesthetics. 

Dr. Lisa B. Thompson was awarded the The University of Texas at Austin's prestigious 2024 Creative Endeavor Award for her work The Black Feminist Guide to the Human Body, a performance art piece which presents Thompson’s research on the health and welfare of Black women in the United States. 

An excerpt from Associate Professor of Playwriting and Directing KJ Sanchez's 2024 book The Radical Act of Listening: Making Documentary and Investigative Theatre has been published in a recent article in American Theatre. In the article, she discusses the pillars (or suggestions, as she calls them) of creating documentary theatre and her experience using them to write a play about a feud that impacted her own family.

The University of Texas at Austin Theatre and Dance department was well represented at USITT's Awards, Awards, Awards ceremony as part of their 65th Annual Conference & Stage Expo. Karen Maness, a faculty member in the UT Live Design and Production area, was honored as an incoming Fellow of the Institute and UT Live Design and Production M.F.A. candidates Daniel Ruiz Bustos, Matthew Smith and Zach Young were recognized for their excellent work in theatre design. Behind the scenes Katelyn Nguyen, an undergraduate student pursuing a B.A. in Theatre and Dance, was able to work on the conference and expo itself through USITT's Stage Management Mentorship Program.

Faculty member KJ Sanchez is directing the regional premiere of her play Walden (remix) at the Mary Moody Northern Theatre at St. Edward's University from April 3 - 13, 2025. Walden (remix) also features current B.F.A. in Acting student Chandler Collins and alum Megan Reilly (M.F.A. 2007) as prop designer.

Faculty, graduate students and alumni will play an integral role in Planet Texas 2050's annual symposium, where they will present, perform and participate in roundtable discussions with fellow scholars.