2025-26 season
Celebrating 20 years of the Davis Performing Arts Center
History of the Building
Ryan Gymnasium
Ryan Gym opened in 1906 as a gift from Ida M. Ryan. Originally built for a student body of about 250, it served as the main gym and practice space for the basketball team, with home games played there until 1931. It included an elevated
Ryan Administration Building
The building was remodeled in the early 1950s, at a cost of $200,000, to provide space for the offices of the Treasurer, University Records, Public Relations, Placement and University Development and became known as the Ryan Administration Building.
Ryan Administration Building
Davis Performing Arts Center
After further renovations, it reopened in 2005 as the Davis Performing Arts Center, becoming a dedicated space for the arts and home to the Theater & Performance Studies Program. Named in honor of Father Royden B. Davis, former Dean of Georgetown College, the center reflects his lasting impact on the university and its commitment to the arts.
Davis Center’s Inaugural Season
A Note From The Chair
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
In 2005, the Davis Performing Arts Center opened its doors as Georgetown’s distinctive commitment to the arts, as a laboratory where scholarship and performance, students and professionals, tradition and experimentation could converge. Twenty years later, that vision has not only held—it has evolved into a creative ecosystem of remarkable academic rigor and artistic collaboration.
This year, under the title “Next: Incubating Creative Praxis,” the Department of Performing Arts marks the 20th anniversary of the Davis Center with a season shaped collectively by our faculty. This is the first time the entire department has collaborated to build a year of programming from the ground up— designing performances and residencies in conversation with our teaching, our research, and the urgent questions we bring into our classrooms and studios.
Our season features new chamber operas and musicals, immersive installations, interdisciplinary lectures, and sound art—all drawing on and extending the work of our faculty and their networks of artists and scholars. These projects reflect the core of our mission: performance as inquiry. This is a generative cycle in which both performance and scholarship are reimagined
The strength of this season is how it came to be: through the integration of research, teaching, and performance, through the convergence of faculty vision and student energy, and through renewed commitment to collaboration across Georgetown and the DC arts community.
As we reflect on two decades of performance at the Davis Center, we invite you to see this season as a celebration of the past and, importantly, as a
2025–26
SEASON
Introducing our
A one-week artist residency culminating in a concert performance of a chamber opera inspired by the French medieval myth of the three biblical Marys. Featuring professional the biblical Three Marys, the tale follows the Sarah-Marie as they are banished from their homeland and forced out to sea in an oarless
R L A N D O
November 13-22
Gonda Theatre
Nov 13 & 14-8pm
Nov 15-2pm & 8pm
Nov 20, 21 & 22-8pm
Orlando by Sarah Ruhl.
Directed by April E. Brassard.
IMMORTALITY
BECOMES
HER. Orlando is a surrealist masterpiece for the stage, a visceral exploration of existentialism, identity, transformation, and the multifaceted, lifealtering entity we call love.
After a young English nobleman becomes romantically entangled with Queen Elizabeth, he is given eternal life, a polarizing, doubleedged sword of a gift; in the midst of the five centuries we witness, Orlando awakes as a woman, remembering the privileges of life as a man, and managing the pitfalls of womanhood. Sarah Ruhl’s stage adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s novel-written as a love letter to an illicit paramour- is nuanced, animated, and engaging, a magnificent canvas for Georgetown’s incredible designers, composer, and choreographer.
January 30-7pm
Devine Theatre
Installation: January 5–February 27
Davis Center Lobby.
Gym Time
Conceived by Prof. Van Tran Nguyen and Natalie Fleming, PhD.
Gym Time is an exhibition and artist talk connecting the Davis Center, current home of Georgetown’s Department of Performing Arts, to its origins as the university’s first gymnasium one hundred years earlier. Through the juxtaposition of historical photographs and contemporary works of art, Gym Time celebrates Davis’ twentieth anniversary as a leading performing arts center in the context of its longer history as a space for viewing and presenting bodies at work.
January 26-29 & 31-12pm
Gonda Theatre
Conjuring the Caribbean
Conceived by Professor Anita Gonzalez
It’s the middle of January. Immerse yourself in a Caribbean landscape with sights and sounds, colors and conversations as we explore the multilingual and multicultural histories of the island nations. Labor, history, religion and carnival converge in the Gonda Theater in January 2026.
Conjuring the Caribbean will involve performances and immersive experiences that will take place between January 26th and January 29, 2026 in the Gonda Theater of the Davis Performing Arts Center followed by a symposium on Friday, January 30, 2026 in the Humanities Collaboratory meeting room. The symposium and immersive exhibition will be part of a month-long set of events that would include a TPST class (TPST 1050 Cross Cultural Performance), an artist-in-residence, and a TPST sponsored workshop of the musical Ybor City about an historical Afro-Cuban immigrant community of cigar rollers.
March 13-14
March 13-7pm
March 14-2pm & 7pm
Devine Theatre
Enacting the Circle
Created by Professor Jay Hammond and Quran Karriem.
An immersive audio performance that combines vibroacoustic exercises, instrument design, and improvisational music. The project explores the relationships between embodiment, improvisation, and social structures.
Conceived by Prof. Anita Gonzalez
and 31, 2026
March 20 & 21-7pm
March 22-2pm
Devine Theater
Installation: March 10–April 5
Davis Center Lobby
Listening Guide to Incarceration
Led by Professor Benjamin Harbert, Joel Castón and Michael Woody
Developed from a co-authored academic article published in an international volume, Listening Guide to Incarceration is an immersive performance-lecture and installation exploring the lived sonic experience of incarceration. Drawing from research conducted during a sound studies working group at the DC Jail (2018–2019) through Georgetown’s Prisons and Justice Initiative, the work blends testimony, critical analysis, surround sound, live music, and minimal visual cues to center the voices and creative practices of those who have endured carceral soundscapes.
The main performance component is a surround-sound illustration of how to listen while incarcerated. Featuring live ensemble music co-composed with Carlos Simon and incorporating field recordings from inside the jail, the performance investigates the auditory dimensions of surveillance, isolation, and resistance. A darkened stage, projected text and imagery, and spotlighted presenters draw attention to the sensory conditions of incarceration and the adaptive listening strategies developed within them.
April 10-7pm
Gonda Theatre
Extinctions
Led by David Schulman and Professor Frederick Binkholder
An immersive performance featuring electric violin and chamber choir, focusing on the theme of extinct bird species, combined with field recordings and potential visual projections. APRIL 10, 2026
Select Events
September 197pm
Devine Theatre
Orlando: Movie Night and Cosplay
R L A N D O
Calling all students! Come in costume and join us for a fun movie night and cosplay, featuring a screening of Orlando in the Gonda Theatre. Enjoy a oneof-a-kind evening and get to know the story before it comes to life on stage this November. Costumes encouraged, not required!
October 15-3pm Davis Center Lobby
Acting Out: Theater, Labor and Identity.
presentation of two new books Naples, Capital of Dance: The feste di ballo Tradition in the Long Eighteenth Century and The Orchestra of the Cappella Reale, Naples 1750-1800 both published by Cambridge University Press and written by prof. Anthony R. DelDonna, Thomas E. Caestecker Professor of Music. The event will feature a discussion between prof. Guido Olivieri (Professor of Musicology, University of Texas at Austin) and the author (Anthony R. DelDonna) as well as a performance of newly recovered music by the author, presented by the acclaimed early-music ensemble Modern Musick (Risa Browder, violin; John Moran, cello and viola da gamba; Dongsok Shin; fortepiano).
The event is co-sponsored by the Italian Cultural Institute (Italian Embassy) and Catholic Campus Ministry.
Join us for an exciting afternoon celebrating Dr. Gonzalez and Dr. Hughes’ newest books Shipping Out: Race, Performance, and Labor at Sea, and An Actor’s Tale: Theater, Culture, and Everyday Life in the Nineteenth-Century United States.
October 21
5-6:30pm
Dahlgren Chapel of the Sacred Heart Music and Dance from Early Modern Naples
The program Music and Dance from Early Modern Naples features the
January 12-17
Gonda Theatre
Developmental workshop of Ybor City, The Musical
Book Writer- Prof. Anita Gonzalez
Composed by Dan Furman
Director- Maija García Musical Director- Gerardo Contino
Music and dance drive this historical exploration into racial divisions within Latine and Caribbean people. Ybor City, tells the story of two immigrant communities who work side by side and yet do not see each other. Students are invited to observe the workshop throughout the week which will be between 10 and 5pm. On Friday, Jan 16, there will be a showing of scenes from the musical for an invited audience and the students. On Saturday, Jan 17, there will be a public performance by members of the band and the actors.
Music Events
Fall Music Week - Dec 1-7
GU Concert Choir, GU Chapel Choir and GU Orchestra
November 7- Holy Trinity Catholic Church (3513 N Street, NW Washington, DC 20007)
Requiem for Flannery O’Connor by Stefano Ratchev (US premiere)
Chamber Music Ensembles Fall Gala Concert
November 22-1pm, McNeir Hall
GU Orchestra
November 23-5pm, Gaston Hall
Pictures at an Exhibition by Modest Mussorgsky (Orchestration by Maurice Ravel)
GU Orchestra conducted by Angel GilOrdóñez. With the participation of students from the Chamber Music program.
GU Jazz Ensemble
December 4-7:30pm, Gonda Theatre
Jazz Combo
December 5-7pm, McNeir Hall
Guild of Bands
December 7-2pm, Gonda Theatre
World Percussion Ensemble
December 7-6pm, Gonda Theatre
Spring Music Week - Apr 21-26
Chamber Music Ensembles Fall Spring
GU Jazz Ensemble
Gala Concert
April 11-1pm, McNeir Hall
Jazz Combo
April 20-7pm, McNeir Hall
April 21-7:30pm, Gonda Theatre
Guild of Bands
April 26-2pm, Gonda Theatre
World Percussion Ensemble
April 26-6pm, Gonda Theatre
Music Sustainability Initiative
Launched this year, Georgetown’s Music Sustainability Initiative advances interdisciplinary research and public engagement at the intersection of music, policy, and justice. Building on the university’s 25-year legacy in music policy and artist advocacy, the initiative brings together scholars, students, artists, and policymakers to imagine more equitable futures for music and the ecosystems that sustain it.
This inaugural year features a residency with Dessa—genre-defying rapper, writer, and cultural critic—whose work engages pressing questions around creative labor, ethics, and identity in the music industry. Two undergraduate student fellows will work alongside Dessa and faculty leadership to support research, organize events, and help build a sustainable model for artist-university collaboration.
The Music Sustainability Initiative is a cross-campus effort, with key partnerships including Georgetown Law and a growing network of DC cultural institutions and area universities, creating opportunities for applied learning, cultural impact, and policy innovation.
The year culminates with the Music Sustainability Summit, taking place April 10–11, 2026, convening musicians, advocates, academics, and policymakers to explore the structures that shape music work today—and how they might be reimagined.
GU Jazz Ensemble
Friday Music Series 25-26 McNeir Hall New North Building *
season
The Friday Music Concert Series is back, offering free live performances for students, faculty, staff, and neighbors of the local community.
* Except Sept 12- in Gonda Theatre
Fall 2025
September 12- The U.S. Army Strings, “Pershing’s Own”
September 19- Dorothy Chan
September 26- Peter Yates
October 3- Appalachian Chamber Music Players: In Search of Cassadó’s Legacy
October 17- Jim McCormick
October 24- Donald Harrison Jr.
October 31- Dogo du Togo & the Alagaa Beat Band
November 7- Simone Baron and Arco Belo
November 14- Ben Capps and GU Chamber Music Students-Three Stages of Lif e: Beethoven.
Spring 2026
January 23- Dave Ragland
January 30- Dessa
February 6- Mak Grgić
February 20- Nicole Mitchell
March 13- Paul Bratcher
March 20- Snehesh Nag (Co-Presented by District of Raga)
March 27- PostClassical Ensemble
April 10- Gigi MacLaughlin and Vitor Gonçalves
April 17- Shahrzad Jalinous and Glória Alhinho
Performing Arts Colloquium
The Performing Arts Colloquium is a dynamic communitycentered space for students to engage with the many voices that shape the performing arts today. Each semester offers a unique theme led by rotating faculty who invite guest artists, scholars, and practitioners. Classes can include artist talks, panel discussions, workshops, performance showcases, and behind-the-scenes explorations of artistic processes.
Professor Benjamin Harbert and Professor Christine Evans will coteach this semester’s colloquium. They will bring together their expertise in music, film, writing, and theater to explore cross-disciplinary artistic collaboration. Guest artists, faculty, and scholars will present their work, engage in discussion, and offer students insight into artistic philosophies and fluid creative practices. Open to students, faculty and staff.
Dessa
Prof. Angel Gil-Ordóñez
Tania Isaac
Dance
Georgetown University Dance Company
Established in 1974 and currently directed by Faculty Artistic Director Raina Lucas, Georgetown University Dance Company (GUDC) is a pre-professional concert repertory dance company. GUDC performs diverse works in classical ballet, contemporary, modern, jazz, and hip-hop.
Fall 2025 Works in Progress Showing
December 3-7:30pm December 5-7:30pm
Georgetown University Dance Company Spring 2026 Dance Concert
February 13-7:30pm February 14-7:30pm
Black Movements Dance Theatre
Black Movements Dance Theatre is a contemporary modern dance company founded on the campus of Georgetown University by African American women, more than 35 years ago. BMDT performs a mixed repertoire of modern, jazz, ballet, African, lyrical, hip hop and spiritual works, led by Faculty Artistic Director Alfreda Davis.
Extending the Barre Series (Ballet MasterClass) October 7-7:30pm
Community Masterclass December 4-7:30pm
BMDT Fall Showcase December 6-7:30pm
Spring Concert/Black History Month Performance February 20 & 21-8pm
Photo credit: Izzy Waegner
GU Dance Co. Photo credit: Mena Brunette/xmbphotography
Co-Curricular Theater
Nomadic Theatre
Founded in 1982, nomadictheatre is one of Georgetown University’s premier co-curricular student theatre groups. Since its inception, Nomadic has committed itself to creating theatre that is both technically ambitious and socially engaged. In that spirit, Nomadic pushes its designers and actors alike to create innovative productions that take artistic risks and feature challenging themes.
Heathers the Musical (Fall 2025)
November 6-8, 13-15
Heathers the Musical, namesake of the cult-classic film, is a story centered on the pains of teenage life – the good, the bad, and the “beautiful.” As we follow 17-year-old Veronica in this black comedy, we witness the unforgiving environment of Westerberg High School and its detrimental impact on students’ mental health. Blending sensitive subjects with humor, Heathers guides the audience through the darkest moments of adolescence, fulfilling nomadictheatre’s mission of creating socially engaged art.
Miscast (Winter 2026)
January 30-31
Miscast 2026 will feature 12 to 15 numbers from all kinds of musicals surrounding the theme Movin’ Up in the World. Performers will be cast in roles they might not traditionally get to display, allowing all cast members to showcase their unique talents. As part of nomadictheatre’s mission, all proceeds from the show will be donated to organizations promoting environmental conservation.
Learn more about nomadic here: nomadic-theatre.com
A Streetcar Named Desire
March 19-21, 26-28
A nomadictheatre and Black Theatre Ensemble production.
Set in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, this production of A Streetcar Named Desire – a collaboration between nomadictheatre and the Black Theatre Ensemble – will tackle themes of mental health and economic displacement caused by one of the most devastating climate catastrophes of all time. By reimagining it in a modern context, we hope to align this play’s emotional weight with realities of race, gender, and class in our society.
Mask and Bauble
Dramatic Society
As the oldest continuouslyrunning student theater group in the United States, Mask and Bauble has been producing high-quality theater for the Georgetown and Washington, DC communities since its founding in 1852 as The Dramatic Association of Georgetown College. As a cocurricular theater group at Georgetown, students involved in M&B enjoy the opportunity to lead and learn as actors, directors, musicians, designers, writers, administrators, and more — while also contributing to a robust performing arts scene on campus and experiencing one of the strongest communities that Georgetown has to offer.
O-Show
August 29
Location: Stage III, Poulton Hall Mask and Bauble opens every academic year with the orientation show, lovingly called “O-Show,” which welcomes and introduces new community members to theater at Georgetown. O-Show gives each theater club the opportunity to present itself and its season to anyone
who might be interested in joining or working on our shows during the upcoming year.
Night
of Musical Scenes (NOMS) October 16 (Evening) and October 18 (Matinee)
Location: Bulldog Alley When speaking isn’t enough, you sing! Night of Musical Scenes is a no-cut, lowpressure musical cabaret that is open to all students and skill levels! Opening our season during Family Weekend and focusing on community-building, this year’s NOMS will serve as a loving welcome back to the Hilltop and focus on expressing through song what is too powerful for speech alone.
The Humans
October 29–November 8
Location: Stage III, Poulton Hall
Our first mainstage show of the year, The Humans is a slice-of-life story with a touch of magical realism. It takes place over the course of one evening and follows one family grappling with the realities of growing old, growing up, and growing apart from each other. This heartwarming and challenging, mundane and extraordinary play tells the story of the quintessential family reunion: a group of people who love each other but still wrestle with basic human fears: old age, abandonment, poverty, and death.
A Christmas Carol
December 5
Location: TBD
Christmas Carol is a long-running Mask and Bauble tradition that gives underclassmen the opportunity to serve in directing, producing, and stage management roles. Our no-cut rendition of the Dickens classic routinely features over 50 performers, and the week-long production process and jolly production community is the perfect way to end off the fall semester.
40th Annual Donn B. Murphy OneActs Festival (DBMOAF)
February 12–15
Location: Stage III, Poulton Hall
Every year, M&B produces studentwritten works that have been evaluated and critiqued by a panel of judges — including M&B alumni, theater professors, and practitioners across the country. The festival and contest are named in honor of the late Professor Donn B. Murphy, whose work as leader of Mask and Bauble from 1956 to 1976 inspired an emphasis on student involvement and creativity that continues to this day. Show titles and descriptions coming soon!
Spring Awakening April 10–18
Location: Stage III, Poulton Hall
M&B will close out our season with Spring Awakening, a rock musical with a powerful story that explores adolescence, sexual awakening, and rebellion against a repressive society. Emotional and exhilarating, this social commentary will integrate aesthetics of a rustic 19th-century Germany with the youthful energy of modern rock, reminding us that spring exists so that all can begin again.
For more information about Mask and Bauble and our 174th season, please visit maskandbauble.org or contact maskandbauble@gmail.com!
Black Theatre Ensemble
Since 1979, Georgetown University’s Black Theatre
Ensemble (BTE) has been a vital force in celebrating and amplifying the voices of Black and minority communities through the performing arts. Dedicated to producing thoughtprovoking works that reflect the richness and complexity of Black American cultural heritage—and the cultural heritages of all minority communities—BTE invites audiences to engage in meaningful dialogue and cross-cultural exchange.
This season, BTE presents a dynamic lineup of events, including a mainstage co-production with nomadictheatre of A Streetcar Named Desire. Throughout the
year, BTE will also host monthly coffeehouses—intimate evenings of song, poetry, dance, and storytelling that spotlight student voices—as well as a series of workshops, staged readings, and collaborative artistic events.
These offerings continue BTE’s mission to challenge perspectives, foster creativity, and build community through the transformative power of theatre.
Faculty/Staff
Department Chair
Benjamin J. Harbert, Ph.D. Professor; Music Program Director
Theater and Performance Studies Program Faculty
Christine Evans, Ph.D. Professor; TPST Program Director (Fall 2025)
Derek Goldman, Ph.D. Professor; Co-founding Director, Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics; TPST Program Director (Spring 2026)
Dorothy Barnes-Driggers, M.F.A. Assistant Professor of the Practice; Costume Shop Manager
April Brassard, M.F.A
Maya Roth, Ph.D. Della Rosa Professor
Kimberley Schraf, B.A. Adjunct Lecturer
Sivagami “Shiva” Subbaraman, M.A. Adjunct Lecturer
Music Program Faculty
Benjamin J. Harbert, Ph.D. Professor; Chair; Music Program Director
Derek Baron, Ph.D. Assistant Teaching Professor
Frederick A. Binkholder, M.M. Professor of the Practice; Special Music Events Coordinator
Jessica Boykin-Settles, M.M.
James June Schneider, M.A., D.E.A.
Adjunct Lecturer
David Schulman, M.S.
Adjunct Lecturer
Carlos Simon, D.M.A. Associate Professor
Robynn J. Stilwell, Ph.D. Associate Professor; Dance Area Coordinator
Wan-Chi Su, D.M.A. Adjunct Lecturer
Dance Faculty
Alfreda Davis, B.F.A. Black Movements Dance Theatre Artistic Director
Raina Lucas, M.F.A. Georgetown University Dance Company
Maurice Jackson, Ph.D. Associate Professor, History
Peggy Lee, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, History
Bryan McCann, Ph.D. Associate Professor, History
Jessica Roda, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, School of Foreign Service
Guy Spielman, Ph.D. Professor, French
Russell Weismann, D.M.A. Liturgical Music Director
Department of Performing Arts and Davis Center Staff
Lex Allenbaugh, B.F.A Live Sound Technician
