Recent News

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 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.

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 Sven Ortel and J.E. Johnson are involved in two of the multiple panels currently being voted on for the opportunity to be featured in the 2021 SXSW conference. Voting starts on November 10 and runs through November 20, 2020.

Facutly member Sven Ortel will serve as the projection designer for the Broadway premiere of Keenan Scott II's new play Thoughts of a Colored Man. Following the sorrows, fears and joys of seven men living in Brooklyn, this production is scheduled to open in the upcoming Broadway season.

The 2019-2020 B. Iden Payne Award winners, announced on November 9, 2020, included multiple UT Theatre and Dance alumni, students, faculty and staff.

Excerpts from faculty member KJ Sanchez's ongoing research for a documentary theatre project featuring interviews with essential workers, will be shared at The University of Texas at Austin's upcoming COVID-19 Conference. This event, taking place November 10-11, 2020, will showcase groundbreaking COVID-19 work from researchers from across campus.

Dr. Coleman A. Jennings, a lifelong theatre practitioner, scholar and former chair of the department, passed away on October 28, 2020. Dr. Jennings joined the faculty in 1963 and spent over 50 years as a beloved faculty member of the Theatre and Dance community.