Recent News

In December, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) awarded just under $100,000 for a project spearheaded by University of Texas at Austin Associate Professor of Dance Gesel Mason to support her ongoing project to archive the work of Black choreographers. 

Faculty member Sven Ortel recently spoke with Stage Directions about developing the integrated media for live performance area as part of UT Live Design, his teaching methods and what inspires him as an artist and educator. Alumni Kate Ducey (M.F.A. 2017) and Jesse Easdon (M.F.A. 2020) also feature in the February 2021 issue.

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.