Santino Fontana (BFA Acting '04) receives the 2019 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for his role in Tootsie on Broadway. This is his second nomination in the category, and first win. Other credits include Frozen, Cinderella, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, and more!
“I was starting to think more about the role of theater. What are we even doing here? Why are we regurgitating these old stories? I took a class in Performance and Social Change. It totally changed my life."
PhD candidate David Melendez discusses his thoughts on marginalized theatrical communities and representation in the Twin Cities. Through his research, he’s looked at popular shows such as West Side Story and works to spread awareness about work that forces minority cultures into the past by refusing to recognize their existence at present.
Jacob Becker elaborates on his experiences in the BFA Dance program as a scholarship recipient and comments on the value of dancing in a Liberal Arts versus conservatory-style setting.
You are invited to cultivate community through rigorous and physical repertoire, spontaneous dance-making in relationship to sound, and to appreciate elements of production.
"This room of people is so incredible. It feels so much like home really, there’s so much creativity and problem-solving going on here and it’s so incredible what everyone is putting together… we’re all in the same boat and we’re all on the same team and it’s just been an awesome, awesome process."
Talvin Wilks, associate professor in the department of theatre and dance, talks about Prenumbra Theater's most recent production. "Benevolence" examines what happened after Emmett Till's murder, tracking the lives that went on after Till was gone.
UMN Professor Michal Kobialka will curate and chair a public panel discussion in Kraków on "the workshops and the performative action, with reflections on the function of the object, its objectness, and the staging of difficult pasts across theatrical and museal frames".
TAD senior Claudia Errickson, who specializes in lighting design and technology, has sought out countless volunteer and freelance opportunities in and around the Twin Cities, gaining valuable hands-on experience in the process.
The Department of Theatre Arts & Dance and the College of Liberal Arts is proud to announce new Department Chair, Mathew J. LeFebvre. LeFebvre has been a faculty member within the theatre program for over 20 years and brings professional and institutional experience.
Talvin Wilks, assistant professor in the Department of Theatre Arts & Dance, talks about his theatrical career as a director, dramaturge, playwright, professor, historian, archivist, and innovator.
Professor Lisa Channer and BA alum playwright Savannah Reich’s collaborative performance, DENIM, investigates American identity through the history of denim jeans in the West.
“We feel bigger and more human. It’s something that gives me back my life.” Professor Sonja Kuftinec discusses “A Contested Home,” a collaborative project with Adjunct Professor Avigail Manneberg, which aims to engage with Palestinian displacement and diaspora through Theatre of the Oppressed and other art techniques.
