Campus Stories - Theater & Performance
Students draw parallels between civil rights movement in the 1960s and today in “Hairspray”
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…
Groundbreaking 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…
Stanford performance reimagines Doug Engelbart’s historic computer demonstration in a new multimedia work
Stanford Live’s world premiere of The Demo on April 1 and 2 at Bing Concert Hall reflects on a pivotal moment in Silicon Valley’s history with one of its most influential figures. Douglas Engelbart’s egalitarian vision for how technology could expand human intelligence set the world on its head and, ultimately, led to many of…
What would you ask Tony Award-winning choreographer Bill T. Jones? Stanford students get their chance, twice
In a rare performance appearance, choreographer, dancer, director and writer Bill T. Jones will narrate 70 one-minute vignettes performed by his company dancers on Friday, Jan. 30, in Memorial Auditorium. Story/Time is a multidisciplinary work about family, lovers and others drawn from his life. “Bill T. Jones and his great company of dancers are one…
A Scene, A Song, A Number – Game On!
In this whirlwind of a weekend, small teams were given the challenge of creating a musical theater piece (one song, one scene, and one dance) – all over the course of only 72 hours! Three days of intense creative endeavor culminated in a live cabaret- style performance where teams presented the results of their hard…
Matthew Billman, “Bring Him Home”
Stanford+Connects is a 16-city world tour that brings the best of Stanford University to alumni around the world. Designed as a full afternoon of learning and connecting, attendees meet up with new “classmates” then head to the classroom for micro lectures and seminars taught by top Stanford faculty. Each event offers a broad program with…
Weston Gaylord, “Paper Chains: Cultivating Creativity”
Stanford+Connects is a 16-city world tour that brings the best of Stanford University to alumni around the world. Designed as a full afternoon of learning and connecting, attendees meet up with new “classmates” then head to the classroom for micro lectures and seminars taught by top Stanford faculty. Each event offers a broad program with…
British puppetry theater group Blind Summit teaches master class at Stanford
Speaking to members of the Stanford community at the Bing Concert Hall Studio, the celebrated Blind Summit Theatre group demonstrated its unique take on ancient Japanese Bunraku puppetry. At one point, three audience members tried their hand at puppeteering – each controlling a separate part of a single puppet’s body. This weekend, Blind Summit will…
Stanford Repertory Theater in the throes of a whale hunt and preparing for an alien invasion
Perhaps it was Orson Welles’ fascination with magic as a youth that inspired him to turn a 200,000-word novel into a 90-minute play. The trick worked. His Moby Dick – Rehearsed invokes the sea, the great white whale and the infectious mania of Captain Ahab with just a few props, some scaffolding and a remarkable…
Inspiring Stanford humanities majors to consider business careers
On a recent summer morning, a lecture hall at Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) was filled with students from around the world who were ready to analyze the fall – and subsequent resurrection – of an American kidney dialysis company. To prepare for the lecture, titled “A Deep Dive into Company Culture,” the students…
Stanford Dance Division breaks new ground with ‘Construction Site’
Wear sturdy shoes, bring a flashlight, prepare to step lively, bikes and skateboards optional. Not the usual set of instructions for attending a dance production, but the arts at Stanford aren’t always predictable. In a year that saw choreographer Jérôme Bel enlist untrained members of the Stanford community to perform in The Show Must Go…
Stanford Live and Stanford Repertory Theater ramp up for summer
This spring, Stanford Repertory Theater collaborated with Stanford Theater and Performance Studies and the McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society to produce J.B. Priestley’s classic British thriller, An Inspector Calls. The play serves as both the closing production to the TAPS 2014 season and the capstone event for the Ethics in Society Ethics Of…
Immersion
Eighteen lucky students went to museums, galleries and performances. They danced with members of the Mark Morris Dance Group, met with art experts at Christie’s, attended a rehearsal of the New York Philharmonic—and much, much more. Throughout the week, students gathered their thoughts and impressions about the trip on tumblr. The students were participating in…
Tig Notaro: Using comedy to deal with cancer was a ‘Godsend’
Stand-up comic TIG NOTARO brought her unique brand of comedy to Stanford earlier this week, and she didn’t disappoint the standing-room-only audience of students, faculty, staff and community members gathered on campus. Notaro, a fairly successful stand-up comic before 2012, exploded on the national scene when she greeted an audience at the Largo in Los…
Stanford student’s research contributes to the history of black sacred music
Jessica Anderson spent three months during her junior year immersed in the culture, sights and sounds of Cape Town, South Africa. Mostly the sounds. What she found in the music she heard around town was the influence of American swing, jazz and bebop, but also the African American gospel music of her childhood. She discovered…
