ENCORE Fall 2013

THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN DEPARTMENT OF THEATRE AND DANCE NEWSLETTER FALL 2013

IN THIS ISSUE Professor Katie Dawson Honored by UT Board of Regents Celebrating Our 75th Anniversary From Field to Stage: Alumnus Luke Leonard and Bum Phillips All-American Opera Remembering Founding Faculty Dr. John Reese Rothgeb Alumni Accolades Coming to the Stage

utexas.edu/finearts/tad Roots and Wings, 2013

From the Winship Building at The University of Texas at Austin, the warmest greetings from beautiful Austin to you, our alumni, friends and parents! As we begin a new academic year, I’m once again energized by the amazing talents of our students and faculty, past and present who are defining the future of theatre and dance.

This year we are celebrating a milestone - the Department of Theatre and Dance’s 75th anniversary. Founded in 1938 with the formation of the College of Fine Arts, the department offered nine courses taught by a cadre of four instructors. UT’s Department of Drama, as it was then called, was the first department devoted solely to theatre in any Texas college or university. Today, our more than 50 faculty provide rigorous training to 450 of the most talented students in the country.

As we look forward to the department’s next 75 years, we also reflect on the tremendous faculty who laid the foundation for who we as a department are today. B. Iden Payne, Loren Winship, Shirlee Dodge, Oscar Brockett, Fran Hodge, Ruth Denney, Paul Reinhardt, Lucy Barton, David Nancarrow and John Rothgeb are just some of the many faculty members who touched the lives of countless students. I invite you to join us this year as we raise our glass to 75 amazing years and all that is possible in our collective future.

As always, please continue to stay in touch and send us your updates and news. We look forward to hearing from you. Hook ‘em Horns!

Brant Pope Chair, Department of Theatre and Dance

Dean, College of Fine Arts Douglas Dempster, PhD Chair, Department of Theatre and Dance Brant Pope, PhD Senior Associate Chair, Department of Theatre and Dance Susan Mickey To make a gift to the Department of Theatre and Dance Michele Baylor, Director of Development and Alumni Relations 512.475.6291 mbaylor@austin.utexas.edu To share your alumni news Cassie Gholston, Director of Marketing 512.232.5301 gholston@austin.utexas.edu The University of Texas at Austin Department of Theatre and Dance 300 E. 23rd Street D3900 Austin, Texas 78712 Phone: 512.471.5793 utexas.edu/finearts/tad The ENCORE logo is the genius of Harvey Schmidt, artist and composer, BFA 1952.

Photo: David Bjurstrom, Eduardo Camacho, Sandy Carson, Brenda O’Brien, Kaiti Patterson Photography, Lawrence Peart, Josh Rasmussen

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PROFESSOR KATIE DAWSON HONORED BY UT BOARD OF REGENTS Department of Theatre and Dance Assistant Professor Katie Dawson is among the twenty-six University of Texas at Austin faculty members honored with the 2013 Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award, the UT System Board of Regents’ highest teaching distinction.

The award includes $25,000, and is considered among the nation’s largest cash prizes for higher education faculty members who exhibit outstanding classroom performance and innovation in undergraduate instruction.

An alumna of The University of Texas at Austin, Dawson (MFA 2006) is recognized as a pioneer in the classroom and in the field of applied theatre. Her areas of research include community-engaged outreach programs, arts integration, youth theatre, museum theatre, drama-in-education, theatre-in-education, and teaching artist praxis.

She serves as the director of Drama for Schools, the department’s professional development program that trains educators and students in drama-based instruction. Partnering with schools nationally and internationally, Drama for Schools provides educators with strategies to build student engagement across the curriculum.

“The Regent’s Award is in recognition of Katie’s exciting and groundbreaking work in ‘drama-based instruction,’ which is the application of theatre techniques to create new methods of teaching and learning for education, business, and government,” said chair Brant Pope. “The excellence of her teaching and her accelerating international reputation mark her as a rising star in the field of performance and theatre education.”

Dawson also advises the Any Given Child Creative Learning Initiative – a partnership between Austin Independent School District, the City of Austin and MINDPOP that is dedicated to delivering student success through an arts-rich education. The Creative Learning Initiative works to provide Austin ISD with a well-coordinated, well-researched approach to student achievement and student success through access to and experience in the arts for every Austin child.

Established in 2008, the Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Awards program recognizes educators who demonstrate a clear commitment to teaching and sustained ability to deliver excellence to the undergraduate learning experience. A panel of students, peer faculty members and external reviewers evaluates the award nominees’ teaching performance over three years. Faculty members are considered through a rigorous process based on a range of activities and criteria that include expertise, curricula quality, innovative course development and student learning outcomes.

Past Department of Theatre and Dance recipients of the Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award include Andrea Beckham, Charlotte Canning, Franchelle Dorn and Susan Mickey.

Professor Katie Dawson ENCORE FALL 2013

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Theatre and Dance Students, Faculty and Staff Hook ’Em at the 2013 Fall Convocation 3

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SAVE THE DATE CELEBRATE OUR HISTORY

75 YEARS of producing talented artists who are changing the world in dynamic ways.

75th Anniversary Celebration April 11, 2014 – 6:00PM The Etter-Harbin Alumni Center

TOAST OUR FUTURE as we produce the next generation of artists, thinkers and leaders in theatre and performance.

Champagne toast * Student performances * In The Heights Reserve your tickets today: CelebrateOur75th.org

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FROM FIELD TO STAGE: ALUMNUS LUKE LEONARD AND BUM PHILLIPS ALL-AMERICAN OPERA One of the principles in the creation of new work is a combination of the old and the new: finding iconic stories and telling them in unique and exciting ways.

Luke Leonard, 2010 graduate of the MFA in directing program, takes this to heart with his new project, Bum Phillips All-American Opera.

“I was interested in doing a project about happiness, or capturing a moment,” says Leonard. “The name Bum Phillips came to mind and I was instantly filled with nostalgia.” Leonard took inspiration from the 2010 autobiography Bum Phillips: Coach, Cowboy, Christian to bring the ambitious project to life. “After I read it, I knew that I wanted to make a new work based on his life. It fit perfectly with the ideas that I was interested in exploring.” The opera showcases Bum Phillips’s growth from his small town childhood and experience as a soldier in World War II, to his football triumphs and return to life in rural Texas.

Leonard is no stranger to producing opera. As a student at the Department of Theatre and Dance he directed The Difficulty of Crossing a Field, an inventive blend of opera and theatre inspired by the Ambrose Bierce short story of the same name.

If the idea of a fully-staged opera inspired by the buzz-cutted, cowboy-hat-clad, tobacco-chewing 1970s coach of the Houston Oilers seems strange, Leonard has a simple explanation. “It really doesn’t seem that odd to me,” he says. “Football is epic.

Opera is epic.”

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“Epic” certainly describes Phillips’s life. The father of Houston Texans’ defensive coordinator and former Cowboys coach Wade Phillips, O.A. “Bum” Phillips is known for his colorful aphorisms and down-to-earth relationship with his players. His success as a coach resulted in a devoted fandom dubbed “Luv Ya Blue,” and his unceremonious termination left a hole in the franchise. After a trip to the 90-year-old’s ranch in Goliad, Texas, Leonard received the former coach’s blessing and got to work bringing his life to the stage.

Bum Phillips All-American Opera is slated to open March 13-30, 2014 at the Ellen Stewart Theatre in New York. For more information visit MonkParrots.org and BumPhillipsOpera.com.

Leonard elicited the help of some other Texas natives to bring the opera to fruition. After reaching initial fundraising goals, he commissioned Rude Mechs co-founder and current department head of playwriting Kirk Lynn as the opera’s librettist, as well as Austin composer and member of the Golden Hornet Project Peter Stopschinski to pen the score. The result is a contemporary approach to the medium, making opera accessible through a blend of classical, country, gospel, rock, and homecoming parade.

The opera has garnered a flurry of regional and national press, from radio and television stations across Houston, to NFL.com and the ESPN blog. After development and workshop performances, Bum Phillips All-American Opera is ready for its New York world premiere, with the La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club providing the venue and co-producing the performance. Leonard is also working hard to give the show a Texas premiere.

As this new work makes its way to the stage, Leonard reflects on his time at UT. “The MFA in directing program nurtured my growth as a producer and director by including new works at the core of the curriculum,” he says, “providing me with opportunities to take some risks and explore my interests in a public way.”

(From L to R) Debbie Phillips, Luke Leonard, and Bum Phillips

REMEMBERING FOUNDING FACULTY DR. JOHN REESE ROTHGEB Dr. John Reese Rothgeb Sr. is considered a founding faculty member of the scene design program at The University of Texas Department of Theatre and Dance. Throughout his 28 years of service to UT Austin, he designed close to 100 productions, from The Flowering Peach to Madama Butterfly, and helped lay down the building blocks of what today is a vibrant and nationally acclaimed design program.

After graduating from Knox College in 1950, Dr. Rothgeb served in the United States Army for four years, during which he enjoyed attending operas and concerts in his free time. As a result of his increasing interest in theatre, after being discharged, Dr. Rothgeb earned an M.A. in theatre design and technology at the University of Michigan, and soon moved to New York City where his experience in theatre design continued to accumulate.

Just months after Dr. Rothgeb and his wife Phyllis moved to Austin in 1958, the “Old Women’s Building,” the home of the UT Department of Drama, burned down. In the following years, Dr. Rothgeb served as a consultant to architects in the designing of the department’s current home, the F. Loren Winship Drama Building.

Dr. Rothgeb was an inaugural member of the U.S. Institute for Theatre Technology, channeling his interest in historic design to work globally on collections and exhibits, including major exhibitions of theatre works and archives in the Harry Ransom Center and Tobin Collection of Theatre Arts at the McNay Art Museum.

When Dr. Rothgeb passed away on December 3, 1986 at the age of 58, he left a legacy of continued impact on this university. Robert Schmidt, a friend and colleague of Dr. Rothgeb, remembers him fondly: “John was a ‘hands-on’ designer and an engaging teacher. You could usually find him in the scene shop, pulling students aside to show them a new scene painting technique. He was a consummate scenic artist as well as a designer.”

In honor of Dr. Rothgeb’s legacy, monetary contributions may be made to John Reese Rothgeb Scholarship in Theatre. For more information, contact Michele Baylor, Director of Development and Alumni Relations at 512-475-6291, or email mbaylor@austin.utexas.edu.

Top: Dr. John Reese Rothgeb Bottom: Scenic rendering from Giselle Act 1

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WHO SUPPORTED YOU? As a graduate of this program, you understand the importance of supporting emerging artists and performers, who will, in turn, inspire, entertain and educate future generations of arts patrons and students.

ALUMNI ACCOLADES Please share your story with us!

You can help a student by donating just $75/month!

As the department celebrates our 75th anniversary in 2013-2014, we challenge our alumni to help raise more than $60,000 in new undergraduate scholarships through our $75 for 75 campaign.

Pledge your monthly gift of $75 or more, or any amount you choose, online today at givetotheatreanddance.org. For more information, please contact Director of Development and Alumni Relations Michele Baylor at 512.475.6291.

Submit a brief summary of your life and career, related photos and information to share with your former classmates.

Submit updates online at uttadalumniupdates.org or by mail at: The University of Texas at Austin Department of Theatre and Dance ATTN: Alumni News 300 E. 23rd Street Stop D3900 Austin, Texas 78712

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STEVE ADAMS’ (BA 1981) creative nonfiction essay Touch won a Pushcart Prize and will be published in the 2014 Pushcart Prize Anthology this November.

GABRIEL JASON DEAN (MFA 2012) and Dramatic Publishing received American Alliance for Theatre and Education’s Distinguished Play Award for Dean’s work The Transition of Doodle Pequeño. His play Terminus was selected for the Center of PlayPenn’s 2013 New Play Development Conference.

PRATIMA AGRAWAL (BFA 2013) is a theatre teacher at Arts Academy Charter School in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

MICHAEL BARNES (MA 1987, PhD 1993) is a 2013 inductee into the Austin Arts Hall of Fame, a group of artists, patrons, educators and arts advocates who have supported the growth of the arts in Austin, Texas. Barnes is a theatre historian and writer, who has worked as an arts reviewer and columnist for the Austin American-Statesman since 1989.

HALEY BOX (BFA 2013) is a theatre teacher at Pleasant Grove High School in Texarkana, Texas.

VERITY BRANCO (MFA 2010), MARK SCHEIBMEIR (MFA 2010) and SMARANDA LUNA (MFA 2010) collaborated with fellow alumnus STEVE MOULDS (MFA 2011) to premiere their theatre company, Mixtape Theatre, and Mould’s Your Authentic Self at the 2013 Hollywood Fringe Festival.

MELISSA BROWN (BFA 2013) is a

Steve Adams (BA 1981)

SARAH HOWE COLEMAN (MFA 2012) received American Alliance for Theatre and Education’s Distinguished Thesis Award for Theatre and Citizenship: Playbuilding with English Language Learner Youth.

BILL CRAVER (BFA 1952, MFA 1956), a distinguished Broadway producer and company manager, was awarded the 2013 Tony Honors for Excellence in the Theatre.

JOSEPH DAILEY (BFA 2013) is a theatre teacher at Stiles Middle School in Leander, Texas.

Now Now Oh Now by the Rude Mechs won the 2013 Austin Critics’ Table Award for Best Theatrical Event. Co-producing artistic directors of the Rude Mechs include MADGE DARLINGTON (MFA 2004), THOMAS GRAVES (MFA 2008) and KIRK LYNN (MFA 2004).

ROWAN DOYLE (MFA 2012), along with fellow alumni and collaborators TREY GILMORE (BA 2012), TOM HORAN (MFA 2012), COURTNEY SALE (MFA 2012) and CHENG WEI TENG (MFA 2012) received the 2013 Ensemble Performance Award from the Austin Critics’ Table for their new work The Poison Squad. In addition, they received awards for lighting design and sound design. The group’s theatre ensemble The Duplicates was formed in 2009.

Rebekah Maddux El-Hakam (BA 1999)

REBEKAH MADDUX EL-HAKAM (BA 1999) collaborated with Nashville-based record producer Marshall Altman to release her first full-length album, Radiant You, in September 2012.

BRIAN C. FAHEY (MFA 2010) is a lecturer in the Department of Theatre at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, where he teaches acting and introductory theatre. He will direct Elephant’s Graveyard by fellow alumnus GEORGE BRANT (MFA 2008) this fall at Northeastern.

theatre teacher at Alvin Junior High School in Alvin, Texas.

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ISAAC GOMEZ (BA 2013) and BIANCA SULAICA (BA 2013), co-creators of The Women of Juárez, received the 2013 David Mark Cohen New Play Award from the Austin Critics’ Table.

GINGER GRACE (BFA 1975) works extensively in New York and regional theatres. Her production of The Belle of Amherst, in which she plays “Emily Dickinson,” has been performing throughout the country since 2002. She also toured nationally opposite Rich Little in The Presidents playing all of his First Ladies from “Jackie Kennedy” to “Hillary Clinton.” Recent work includes “Sister Aloysius” in Doubt at West Shore Community College (Michigan) and the indie film SHEER, which opened nationwide in Italy this year. Upcoming work includes “Big Mama” in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, directed by Austin Pendleton with Mississippi Mud Productions in New York City. The First Ladies Coalition, written and performed

by Grace and directed by Austin Pendleton, will be performed this fall at the Prospect Street Theatre in Little Falls, New Jersey. She is a member of the League of Professional Theatre Women and Women Stage the World.

ANDREW HINDERAKER’S (MFA 2013) play Dirty, produced by The Gift Theatre, has been nominated for a 2013 Equity Jeff Award for New Play.

CATHERINE ANN JONES (BFA 1965) is a playwright, screenwriter, and author.

Her book Heal Your Self with Writing, a step-by-step journey of discovery and re-visioning through focused journaling, was released in August. Her first book, The Way of the Story: The Craft & Soul for Writing, has received critical praise.

Jones holds a graduate degree in depth psychology and archetypal mythology from Pacifica Graduate Institute. Her play about Virginia Woolf (On the Edge) won a National Endowment for the Arts Award. Ten of her plays, including Calamity Jane (both play and musical) and The Women of Cedar Creek, have won multiple awards and are produced both in and out of New York. Her films include The Christmas Wife (Jason Robards and Julie Harris), Unlikely Angel (Dolly Parton), and the popular television series, Touched by an Angel.

A Fulbright Research Scholar to India studying shamanism, she has taught at The New School University, University of Southern California, Pacifica Graduate Institute, and the Esalen and the Omega Institutes.

Top: Bianca Sulaica (left) (BA 2013) and Karen Rodriquez (BA 2013) in The Women of Juárez, 2013. Copyright David Bjurstrom Bottom: Ginger Grace (BFA 1975) 9

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KIMBER LEE (MFA 2011) is the recipient of the 2013-2014 Playwrights of New York Fellowship awarded by the Lark Play Development Center and Playwrights of New York (PONY). One of the largest play development awards, Lee receives a year of housing in New’s York’s theatre district, a stipend, and creative support from Lark’s Playwright Workshop.

DARREN LEVIN (MFA 2009) is now the assistant professor of lighting design in the Department of Speech and Theatre at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

Darren Levin (MFA 2009)

KIRK LYNN’S (MFA 2004) Your Mother’s Copy of the Kama Sutra will receive its world premiere as part of the popular Off Broadway company Playwrights Horizons in 2014.

HANNAH MILAM (BFA 2013) is a theatre teacher at Liberty Hills Middle School in Killeen Independent School District.

LINDSEY MORGAN (BA Attended) will star on the CW’s new sci-fi drama The 100. Morgan received an Emmy Award nomination for her role as “Kristina Davis” on ABC’s General Hospital.

Other television credits include How I Met Your Mother, Happy Endings and Frankin & Bash.

ERICA NAGEL (MFA 2008) is the director of education and engagement at McCarter Theatre Center. She also serves as a lecturer at Princeton University. She has worked previously on the artistic staffs of Geva Theatre Center, Williamstown Theatre Festival, and Premiere Stages, and as a freelance developmental dramaturg at theatres including Salvage Vanguard, HotCity Theatre, New Century Theatre, and the New Harmony Project.

KIM NGO (BA 2009) recently led a workshop for 88bikes entitled “Seamless Possibilities,” teaching formerly sex trafficked women how to make a dress.

She serves as the organization’s director of Seamless Possibilities.

CHRISTINA NORTON (BFA 2013) is a theatre teacher at Dade Middle School in Dallas, Texas.

DINK O’NEAL (BFA 1984) recently starred on Days of Our Lives, NBC’s long running daytime drama.

KASSANDRA PATTERSON (BA 2010) graduated from Savannah College of Art and Design with a MFA in production design. Prior to her graduation, Kassandra worked as a scenic artist for the themed entertainment fabrication company Themeworks. While at Themeworks, she worked on projects for SeaWorld, Disney, Ripley’s, and the Navy Museum in Washington, D.C. She currently works for the design and development department of Walt Disney Imagineering.

KELLY PECHAL (BA 2009) is an assistant at IFA Talent Agency in Los Angeles, California.

RANDALL RAPSTINE (BFA 1985) is a master of fine arts candidate in Texas Tech University’s performance and pedagogy program. Prior to graduate school, Rapstine served as the Region VI representative to the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival’s Institute of Theatre Advocacy & Journalism. Most recently, he participated in Texas Tech’s Wild Wind Performance Lab, the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Critics Institute and the Kennedy Center’s Directing Intensive. His screenplay Genius is in development.

SAUDIA RASHED (BA 1999) re-launched her sketch comedy group’s Slow Children Crossing (SCC) YouTube channel. Also an actor, Rashed was recently on ABC’s drama Scandal as “Reporter Ashley.”

GABRIELLE REISMAN (MFA 2013), along with fellow Longhorns KATIE BENDER (MFA candidate), STEPHANIE BUSING (MFA candidate), and ABE KOOGLER (MFA candidate) received the 2013 Best Comedy Award from the Austin Critics’ Table for their new work Slip River. The group’s theatre Underbelly formed in 2013.

Although a designer now, Kassandra spent most of her time at UT studying dance. She credits Texas Performing Arts Teaching Artist Karen Maness for helping guide her career path.

Kassandra Patterson (BA 2010)

Samuel Gorena (BA 2013) in Slip River, 2013 ENCORE FALL 2013

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RAMÓN RIVERA-SERVERA’S (PhD 2003) book Performing Queer Latinidad: Dance, Sexuality, Politics received the Latin American Studies Association’s award for Best Book in Latino Studies and the Lambda Literary award for Best Book in LGBT Studies.

Based on his doctoral dissertation, Performing Queer Latinidad highlights the critical role that performance played in the development of Latina/o queer public culture in the United States during the 1990s and early 2000s.

Rivera-Servera is an associate professor at Northwestern University’s Department of Performance Studies.

RENE SALINAS (BFA 2006) currently works in Annual Giving for the University of Houston. He is a board member of the Texas Exes Houston Chapter as well as the events coordinator for the Texas Exes LGBT Network. The Network fosters and cultivates new and existing relationships with students, faculty, staff, donors, and friends of the university and engages Houstonians in the rich traditions and experiences of UT Austin. He’s married to native Houstonian Kevin Schmidt and has three lovely dogs, Ticky Bear, Enzo, and Ava.

ROBERT SCHENKKAN’S (BA 1975) play All The Way received the 2013 Harold and Mimi Steinberg/American Theatre Critics Association Award for Best New Play. Schenkkan was also named the 2013 Thornton Wilder Fellow at The MacDowell Colony.

All The Way, a depiction of President Lyndon Johnson’s struggle to get civil rights legislation passed while facing an election campaign, opened at American Repertory Theater this fall. The production stars three-time Emmy Award winner Bryan Cranston as “LBJ” and UT alumnus ERIC LENOX ABRAMS (MFA 2004) as “Bob Moses.”

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at Vernon Middle School in Vernon, Texas.

JUSTIN SOLOMON (BFA 2013) is a theatre teacher at Cobb Middle School in Frisco, Texas.

CHARLOTTE OERTLING TIENCKEN (MFA 1983) is the managing director of Book-It Repertory Theatre in Seattle, Washington. In addition, she is a freelance director and a faculty member at University of Washington, Seattle Pacific University and Lesley University.

Rene Salinas (BFA 2006)

KATE CULLEN ROBERTS (MFA 2007) starred this fall in Colt Coeur’s world premiere production Everything is Ours, Nikole Beckwith’s play about what happens when two people who have it all get one more thing. She is a founding member of Colt Coeuer, an artists’ ensemble, founded in 2010.

JANET SOLIS (BFA 2013) is a theatre teacher

CLIFF SIMON (MFA 2002) is a contributing writer to Inspired Teaching: Essays on Theatre Design and Technology Education. He is an associate professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He has designed at the Truck and Warehouse Theater, Playwrights Horizons, T. Schreiber Studios in New York, George Street Playhouse in New Jersey, Cleveland Play House, ZACH Theatre, Tapestry Dance Company, Rude Mechs, Zilker Summer Theatre, and the Riverside Playhouse in Vero Beach.

CATHERINE SOLHEIM (BFA 2013) is a theatre teacher at St. Michael Catholic School in Houston, Texas.

ERIK VIKER (MFA 2003) is the editor of Inspired Teaching: Essays on Theatre Design and Technology Education. A collection of insights on best teaching practice, the book includes an essay by fellow alumnus Cliff Simon (MFA 2002). Viker is an associate professor of theatre and the production manager for Susquehanna University where he teaches courses in stagecraft, production, stage management and dramatic literature.

DUSTIN WILLS (BA 2006) is a master of fine arts in directing candidate at the Yale School of Drama. He is the artistic director of the 2013 Yale Summer Cabaret where he directed Tartuffe, The Shoemaker’s Prodigious Wife, Heart’s Desire and Drunk Enough to Say I Love You. His adaptation of J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan will be presented at Yale in December.

In the Spring 2013 edition of ENCORE, Kelly Pechal’s name was misspelled. We regret the error.

COMING TO THE STAGE

All titles and dates subject to change. For more information, visit us online at jointhedrama.org

INTRODUCING THE 2013/2014 SUBSCRIPTION SERIES Dial M for Murder

By Frederick Knott October 4-13, 2013

DANCE REPERTORY THEATRE PRESENTS Kinesthetic Imperative March 6-9, 2014

Set in 1950s London, Tony Wendice concocts a plot to murder his wealthy wife Margot. When the scheme goes awry, he devises a sinister backup plan to get her out of the picture for good.

A showcase of unique and compelling dance work created by nationally renowned choreographers, including a leader of American avant-garde dance, Merce Cunningham.

Our Country’s Good

By Timberlake Wertenbaker October 18-27, 2013

In the Heights Music and Lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda Book by Quiara Alegría Hudes Conceived by Lin-Manuel Miranda April 9-19, 2014

Adapted from Thomas Keneally’s novel The Playmaker, Wertenbaker introduces the audience to an 18th century Australian penal colony. Amid the brutal conditions of the settlement, a Royal Marine lieutenant works with the convicts to present a comedic stage play.

Dead Man’s Cell Phone

By Sarah Ruhl February 14-23, 2014 When a woman answers the cell phone of a recently deceased café patron, she holds on to the device to keep the man alive in a strange yet significant way.

Winner of four 2008 Tony Awards including Best Musical, In the Heights is the captivating journey into New York’s vibrant Washington Heights community. With an invigorating score of Latin pop and hip hop, combined with dynamic dance, this joy-filled story is about finding your place in the world.

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NEW WORK TAKES STAGE

DANCE REPERTORY THEATRE PRESENTS Fall For Dance November 15-24, 2013 Dance Repertory Theatre, the award-winning student dance company, returns to the stage to present work by nationally acclaimed artists including the Mark Morris Dance Group, David Justin, and Holly Williams.

The Fault Premiere of a new play by Katie Bender December 3-7, 2013 A small ragged house stands perched on a fault, pressed between the redwoods and Pacific Ocean. The Davies family resides within, holding together and splitting apart.

UTNT (UT New Theatre) New plays by 3rd year MFA Playwriting candidates Curated by Steven Dietz February 27- March 9, 2014 UTNT presents newly developed work of emerging playwrights from the Department of Theatre and Dance and Michener Center for Writers. Now in its seventh season, many plays presented at UTNT have since been professionally produced across the country.

Ears, Eyes + Feet May 2-3, 2014 Collaborative works by student and faculty composers, choreographers and video artists from the Department of Theatre and Dance, the Department of Art and Art History, and the Sarah and Ernest Butler School of Music.

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The Department of Theatre and Dance is a world-class educational environment that serves as the ultimate creative incubator for the next generation of artists, thinkers and leaders in theatre and performance.

STAY CONNECTED /uttad @uttad @uttadaustin We want to brag about you to our alumni, students and faculty!

Send us your latest news online at uttadalumniupdates.org

GET INVOLVED Your support of the Department of Theatre and Dance is appreciated!

You can make a difference by making a donation to the department’s Texas Talent campaign.

To learn more, visit utexas.edu/finearts/tad/support or call Michele Baylor, Director of Development and Alumni Relations at 512.475.6291.

The Threepenny Opera, 2011 ENCORE FALL 2013

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Non-profit org.

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PAID THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN DEPARTMENT OF THEATRE AND DANCE 300 E. 23rd Street D3900 Austin, Texas 78712 utexas.edu/finearts/tad

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