Campus Stories - Theater & Performance
Sterling K. Brown, award-winning actor, tells Stanford graduates not to be afraid to let their lights shine
At Stanford’s 127th Commencement, Stanford alum and multi-award-winning actor Sterling K. Brown told graduating students of the Class of 2018 that if they find that purpose in life that gives them access to maximum enthusiasm, trust it. Video by Kurt Hickman Before launching into his Commencement address, Brown confessed to the graduates that he must…
Ram’s Head presents ‘Chicago’
Set in the mid-1920s, Broadway favorite Chicago follows the story of budding star Roxie Hart and veteran performer Velma Kelly as they vie for the spotlight in search of the American Dream: fame, fortune and acquittal from their death row convictions. According to Gabe Wieder, director and co-choreographer of the Ram’s Head production of the musical, “Chicago’s…
Stanford’s spring quarter guest artists
Guest artists are all over campus this spring. Indie rock band Glass Animals play Stanford Stadium; the open-air literary celebration Stories of Exile, Reckoning and Hope takes place on the main stage in White Plaza; Mina Morita directs Bertolt Brecht’s The Good Person of Szechwan in Roble Studio Theater; and Stanford Live’s popular Cabaret series continues in Bing’s cozy…
Two Stanford seniors and a Stanford Medicine researcher win 2018 Gates Cambridge Scholarships
Stanford seniors Lauren Killingsworth and Steve Rathje have won 2018 Gates Cambridge Scholarships to pursue graduate studies at the University of Cambridge in England. In addition, Monica Kullar, a clinical neuroscience research coordinator in a Stanford Medicine laboratory focused on precision mental health and translational neuroscience, has been awarded a 2018 Gates Cambridge Scholarship. They…
Stanford undergraduates perform an adaptation of the 17th-century Spanish play Life Is a Dream with a new ending
When adapting a play about destiny, changing the ending might seem like tempting fate, especially when that play is considered one of the greatest of the Spanish Golden Age. But for guest director Dominique Serrand, reimagining the classic tale Life Is a Dream for an audience of today means not only exploring timeless themes, but also transforming…
Theater heroes return to campus
Before actor/alums RYAN MICHELLE BATHE and STERLING K. BROWN, both Class of ’98, took to the CEMEX Auditorium stage on Friday to perform scenes from August Wilson’s plays and converse with their former professor, HARRY J. ELAM JR., in front of a sold-out audience, the duo took to the more intimate Pigott stage to meet the Stanford BLACKstage cast…
Resisting tyranny with humor: Timely lessons from the 1500s
GREG WALKER is the Bliss Carnochan International Visitor and a professor of English literature at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. He studies late medieval and early Tudor literature and drama. His numerous books include, most recently, Imagining Spectatorship: From the Mysteries to the Shakespearian Stage (Oxford, 2016), co-authored with John J. McGavin, and Textual Distortion: Essays and Studies (Brewer,…
Three wise women meet the baby King in Stanford production
What if when the Magi went off to Bethlehem to meet the prophesied King, three wise women stayed behind and ended up meeting the baby King in a shared dream vision? This is the premise of Conrad Susa’s one-act opera The Wise Women: A Christmas Mystery Fable, presented by the Department of Music and the Office…
President Tatertot-Lasagna saves Gaieties from the evil Oski
Surprise cameo appearances by university administrators have come to be a tradition for Gaieties, the annual student-written, musical extravaganza that makes fun of all things Cal. The Gaieties performance, produced by Ram’s Head, takes place in the week leading up to Big Game and is one of many events meant to rouse school spirit. Last week,…
Taylor Mac brings students behind the scenes and thrusts them into performance
Research the cultural history of the United States. Select costume materials at a fabric shop in San Francisco. Inflate 2,000 pink balloons. So went a typical day in the life of an Arts Intensive student involved in Taylor Mac’s A 24-Decade History of Popular Music, an elaborate work of performance art that was a finalist for…
Guest artist series to expose Stanford students to innovative performance art
Branislav Jakovljevic, associate professor and chair of the Department of Theater and Performance Studies (TAPS), believes that artists of all levels – up-and-comers, mid-career and masters – all have something to teach Stanford students. Branislav Jakovljevic is chair of the Department of Theater and Performance Studies.(Image credit: L.A. Cicero) Enter Vital Signs, a guest performance artist series, curated by acclaimed…
20.8% of the 2017 MacArthur Fellows were Stanford guest artists within the last year
Stanford congratulates the MacArthur Foundation “genius grant” winners who recently spent time on campus engaging with students, faculty and the public. Nigerian-born, Los Angeles-based artist NJIDEKA AKUNYILI CROSBY, whose work tells elaborate and delicate stories of her life, was in conversation with Jodi Roberts, the Robert M. and Ruth L. Halperin Curator for Modern and…
Fall quarter guest artists
One of the ways that Stanford is creating opportunities for meaningful engagement with the arts for students and the university community is by inviting over 100 artists each year to campus to create, perform and discuss their work. This fall quarter the roster of guest artists includes comedian and political commentator Samantha Bee in conversation…
Stanford Honors in the Arts capstone program evolves with a new Mellon grant
Stanford University has been awarded an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant to support the development of a new undergraduate, interdisciplinary program in the arts to be administered by Stanford Arts Institute. Honors in the Arts students present Bacchae, an immersive theatrical experience utilizing locations across the Stanford campus. (Image credit: Kristen Stipanov) The $400,000 grant provides support for…
Disaster and humor are a hit at the Nitery
“History repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce.” The famous observation by Karl Marx provided the inspiration for Stanford Repertory Theater’s 2017 summer festival, “The Many Faces of Farce,” directed by ALEX JOHNSON, SRT associate artistic director. Audiences are responding positively to the festival. Tickets for opening weekend sold out quickly, and this weekend’s performances are nearing…
Student Arts Grants: A Year in Photos 2016-17
This year’s Student Arts Grants supported a wide range of projects across the Stanford campus. The projects covered many genres including devised performance, contemporary dance, printmaking, classical and contemporary plays, documentary and fiction film shorts, musical theater, painting, photography, and more. Many of this year’s grantees utilized the new Roble Arts Gym as a rehearsal/work space as…
