Theater & Performance
Two Stanford seniors and a Stanford Medicine researcher win 2018 Gates Cambridge Scholarships
The three winners with Stanford affiliations are among the 35 Americans awarded scholarships to pursue graduate studies at the University of Cambridge in England.
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…
Read More Stanford undergraduates perform an adaptation of the 17th-century Spanish play Life Is a Dream with a new ending
Under the guest direction of Tony Award-winner Dominique Serrand, Stanford cast and crew explore age-old themes from a 17th-century Spanish play while incorporating modern questions of gender and ambiguity.
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…
Read More 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…
Read More 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,…
Read More 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…
Read More President Tatertot-Lasagna saves Gaieties from the evil Oski
President Marc Tessier-Lavigne made an unexpected appearance at Gaieties this year, saving the production 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,…
Read More Taylor Mac brings students behind the scenes and thrusts them into performance
Through Stanford’s Arts Intensive, seven students helped bring to life a dynamic play by acclaimed performance artist Taylor Mac.
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…
Read More Guest artist series to expose Stanford students to innovative performance art
The Department of Theater and Performance Studies is cultivating a creative community that welcomes fresh ideas and artists at every stage of their careers.
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…
Read More20.8% 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…
Read More Fall quarter guest artists
See who is on campus this fall.
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…
Read More Stanford Honors in the Arts capstone program evolves with a new Mellon grant
A new grant will support Stanford Arts Institute’s development of an interdisciplinary undergraduate program in the arts.
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…
Read More Disaster and humor are a hit at the Nitery
Stanford Rep presents "The Many Faces of Farce"
“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…
Read MoreStudent 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…
Read More2017 Student Submitted Artwork
Sign up for the ArtsUpdate Weekly Student Newsletter to submit your own artwork and receive events and opportunities in your email! Vanishing Act II; Mixed Media by Noah DeWald ’20 Untitled; photo- Harrison Truong, ’13 Untitled; Oil Paint on Canvas by Meg McNulty ’20 Two Pieces of red cloths; photo- Liang Zhang ’19 Submersion;…
Read More Gender-swapped play takes on the ‘men’s rights’ movement
Stanford graduate students in classics translate and adapt an ancient Greek play to lampoon a modern political movement.
It’s a summer day in Sonoma Valley’s Bohemian Grove, where the country’s most powerful men gather to cavort, perform mysterious rituals and cement their social and political power. This year, however, they have a different agenda: whether to bar women from comedy and from voting. This is the premise of Men’s Rites: An Alt-Comedy, which…
Read More It’s a Wild Party at Stanford’s Memorial Auditorium
This year's Ram's Head musical uses art to explore some of the darker areas of human behavior.
It’s spring, so it must be time for a full-scale Broadway musical in Memorial Auditorium. This year Ram’s Head Theatrical Society presents The Wild Party. The production brings together approximately 70 undergraduate and graduate students in its cast, production team and orchestra. Ram’s Head intends the show to be a rallying place for students from…
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