Theater & Performance
Stanford Library Blog: Opern-Typen: opera meets the comics
Opern-Tÿpen consists of six volumes of chromolithographic plates depicting scenes from 54 operas popular in 19th century Germany. Each opera plot has been distilled into a mere six frames, with liberally adapted accompanying text. The visual charms of Opern-Typen are evident. The plates reveal a sophisticated understanding of the effective use of line, gesture, and composition…
Read MoreHappy 2016!
The arts had an amazing year at Stanford in 2015.
With the opening of the McMurtry Building, the new home for the Department of Art & Art History, we reached a milestone in the university’s ongoing commitment to building programs, curricula, and resources in the arts. The new building provides an architecturally exciting and inspiring home for the department, allowing it to expand its programmatic…
Read More
Artistic works influence our minds and nervous systems, Stanford scholar reveals
Stanford theater historian Matthew Wilson Smith's new research shows how 19th century brain science has nerved its way into the drama of our lives, both onstage and off.
No two disciplines could seem further apart than theater and science, but, as it turns out, they’re intimate bedfellows. As Stanford professor Matthew W. Smith has discovered, modern theater – and, by extension, film and television – basically owe their life to the scientific study of the nervous system. An associate professor of German studies…
Read More Anna Deavere Smith talks about the healing power of stories
Smith is best known for her one-woman, multi-character performances, which depict people reflecting on moments of intense catastrophe.
On Oct. 28, hundreds gathered at Memorial Auditorium for a night of storytelling and conversation with former Stanford faculty member Anna Deavere Smith, an award-winning pioneer in the field of documentary theater. Smith is best known for her one-woman, multi-character performances, which depict people reflecting on moments of intense catastrophe. Her plays range in dramatic…
Read More Dry-5: Stories from the California Drought
Stanford alums create a performance piece on the California drought.Two Stanford alums and an undergraduate walk into a bar… Actually, they aren’t in a bar; they are on stage putting on a show about the California drought. So no drinks, but there is plenty of talk of being parched. The alumnae are MARI AMEND and DORIA CHARLSON, both of the Class of ’13, who…
Read More From Stanford’s Braun Music Hall to the Big Apple
“Surreal and wonderful”
“Surreal and wonderful” is how Stanford alumnus LOUIS LAGALANTE described presenting the opening number from his original musical Mirror Image at the New York Musical Theater Festival this summer. Mirror Image, with music and lyrics by Lagalante, premiered at Stanford in March 2015 as Lagalante’s senior capstone project in music composition. The story follows three…
Read More Stanford Repertory Theater presents the wide range of Noël Coward
Rush Rehm, theater professor and artistic director of Stanford Repertory Theater, admits to being something of a Noël Coward neophyte before organizing this summer’s SRT festival, Noël Coward: Art, Style, and Decadence. In Rehm’s thorough reading, listening and seeing all things Coward to prepare for the festival, he discovered to his great delight and amazement…
Read MoreSpark! Grants: A Year in Photos 2014-15
From a rock band record release to Steve Reich, from Much Ado About Nothing to original, student-written musical theater, this year’s Spark! grant supported creative diversity across Stanford campus. These student groups, individuals, undergraduates, and graduates enliven the campus with their artistic endeavors. 2014-2015 Projects: SImps Workshops The Long Way Around The Benevolent Institution Proof…
Read MoreCongratulations 2014-15 graduates!
Go forward and remember the words of your Baccalaureate speaker and civil rights leader Vernon E. Jordan, Jr. who said that the world was calling out for you to realize your talents – not just for your own gain – but also to lift up those in whose shoes, but for the grace of God,…
Read More Eva Perón, icon and spirit, is reimagined on the Stanford stage
Students perform the musical Evita while artifacts from Hoover's Juan Domingo Perón papers, Eva memorabilia and contemporary video interviews of Porteños are featured in a companion exhibition.
Stanford junior Sammi Cannold is a great admirer of fem-icon Eva Perón, Argentina’s first lady from 1946 until her death in 1952. It all started with Evita. After seeing the 2012 Broadway revival in New York several times during her senior year of high school (it was at the top of her gift wish list…
Read More Stanford Repertory Theater explores the ethics of science with Brecht’s Life of Galileo
Do scientists have an ethical responsibility to serve the greater good? Stanford students, professors and professional actors present Bertolt Brecht's masterful exploration of the roles of commerce, politics and religion in shaping the future of scientific research.German playwright Bertolt Brecht is considered to be one of the most influential figures in 20th-century theatre. Like so many of Brecht’s plays, the themes in Life of Galileo resonate decades after it was written. The story centers on the great Italian scientist and natural philosopher Galileo Galilei, during the period when the Roman Catholic…
Read More Unexpected intersections
These collaborations blur traditional boundaries and open new avenues for discovery and expression.Far-flung collaborations flourish at Stanford: Physicists create dance performances, biologists and musicians expand our understanding of epilepsy, and engineers speed environmental research. This interdisciplinary environment springs from having strong science and humanities departments adjacent to a thriving arts district and is aided by research institutes that cross school and department lines. These collaborations blur traditional…
Read More Stanford Live expands its mission with 2015-16 season
Next season will feature three events with Anna Deavere Smith and a new work by Stanford composer Jonathan Berger for the Kronos Quartet.“The Arts and Social Change” and “War: Return and Recovery” are the two key themes at the core of Stanford Live’s 2015-16 season. The program will offer a full spectrum of classical, contemporary and multimedia performances, as well as talks, panels and seminars that build on the intellectual depth and breadth of this past season’s…
Read MoreChoices!
It’s May at Stanford and that of course means – an exciting smorgasbord of arts activities. Every weekend is packed with an abundance of arts options. Make some difficult choices – or attend them all! Here is just a sampling of what each weekend brings: May 1-3: Musical Happy Hour with Fleet Street and Chanticleer…
Read More Students draw parallels between civil rights movement in the 1960s and today in “Hairspray”
Ram's Head Theatrical Society explores racial integration against the backdrop of an inventive LED set.Stanford’s oldest and largest theatrical organization, the Ram’s Head Theatrical Society, explores civil rights and today’s world in its upcoming Hairspray production. Hairspray will take the spotlight in Memorial Auditorium for five performances: April 10–11 and 16–18. The theatrical society sets the scene for the production: Tracy Turnblad is a high school student in 1962…
Read MoreGroundbreaking theater technology in the making
When Stanford’s Ram’s Head Theatrical Society presented Les Misérables last year, it wasn’t just the telling of a tale of love and the power of the human spirit. It was a demonstration of ingenuity. Lighting designer MATT LATHROP ’16, developed a digitally operated remote control follow spot for the production. “Rather than using a typical…
Read More