News & Information

 

On November 15, 2024, Kathleen Hickey, Dance Lecturer, along with her collaborators Rory Willats, an independent director, devisor, and creative technologist, and Nicki Duval, a Visiting Assistant Professor at Colgate University in Film and Media Studies, presented a lecture/panel discussion at the 2024 a2ru conference, “Generate | Integrate” at the Rochester Institute of Technology. This three-day conference included some 20 panelists in 10 sessions focused on technology, the arts, and design. Hickey, Willats, and Duval presented reflections and lessons learned from their 2023 collaboration, The Embellished Gesture (Virtual or Not)...READ MORE

 

The Light and The Dark is a new off-Broadway play currently premiering at 59E59 Theaters in New York, NY that brings to life the story of one of the most remarkable and pioneering women in art history. Set during the Italian Renaissance, The Light and The Dark shares the narrative of Artemisia Gentileschi, a Baroque painter determined to rise above the barriers of gender and societal expectations. As she fights to be recognized in a world that insists women cannot truly be artists, Artemisia’s unyielding passion and talent push her to create masterpieces that forever alter the course of art history. Told through Artemisia's perspective, this play navigates the challenges, betrayals, and triumphs that define her journey and captures the complexity of ambition, resilience, rage, and the sheer force of her will to make her mark, both on and off the canvas. As Artemisia’s career gains momentum, a series of devastating betrayals threaten to break her spirit, but her determination never wavers. This production is an exploration of art, power, and the indomitable spirit of a woman who shaped the world with a paintbrush...READ MORE

 

During the first weekend of November, Boilers OUT Loud!, an annual performance showcasing personal stories from members of Purdue's Theatre and LGBTQ communities, celebrated its 12th year of breaking down heteronormative social norms by promoting visibility, understanding, and acceptance. This annual presentation of monologues was founded by Professor Emeritus Rusty Jones of the Department of Theatre and Dance and LGBTQ Center Director, Lowell Kane, and is now proudly directed by Anthony Sirk, the Department of Theatre Dance's Costume Shop Manager, and co-directed by Kelsey Chapman, Assistant Director of the LGBTQ Center. What was originally a small campus initiative has grown into a crucial platform for queer individuals to share their experiences openly, authentically, and without fear. The stories presented through Boilers OUT Loud! are not just about coming out or facing adversity; they encompass the rich diversity of emotions, experiences, and identities that shape the LGBTQ community all while dispelling stereotypes, creating safe environments, and encouraging discussion of challenging subjects...READ MORE

 

The Department of Theatre and Dance is proud to announce the publication of Experiential Spectatorship: Immersion, Participation and Play During Times of Deep Mediatization, a new monograph that offers insights into the ever-evolving and increasingly complex relationship between audiences and new-age contemporary media. Written by Dr. William W. Lewis, Assistant Professor of Theatre History, Literature, and Criticism, and Coordinator of Undergraduate Students here at Purdue, this new publication provides a modern post-digital framework for understanding how audiences engage with a wide range of new media experiences in today's increasingly digital world.

In a time where traditional spectatorship is being rapidly reshaped by digital technologies, Experiential Spectatorship takes a deep dive into how emerging forms of media, from participatory theatre and video games to social media platforms and interactive television, are transforming the ways we choose to engage with the performing arts. This monograph offers a digital perspective to examine audience experience across these diverse platforms, helping readers to grasp how mediatization, shaped by recent technological advancements, is redefining our decisions and capacities as spectators... Read More

Seven students walk across the dance floor and take up positions; a live drummer starts playing, setting a tempo to follow and the performers begin moving around the space, changing direction, tempo, gait, and height at the direction of a voice from offstage. For the next 60 minutes, attendees of the Dramaturgy Living in Motion workshop watched as the performers--four dance students and three graduate acting students--moved through an engrossing series of exercises, evoking nostalgia, sadness, hope, love, joy, and more. Led by Sergio Sierra, scholar and professor from Universidad de Caldas in Manizales, Colombia, the students shared the culmination of intense exploration of expression, movement, and creation with an audience of approximately 50 Purdue University faculty, staff, and students... Read More

That is how Sarah Ruhl describes the last moments of the first act of Dead Man's Cell Phone, the first show of the 2024-2025 Purdue Theatre season. The image is striking and beautiful, but figuring out just how to make it happen--over a thrust stage, with a tension-wire grid overhead, mere feet from the audience in the Carole & Gordon Mallett Theatre--vexed the design and production team... Read More

In Motion is an interactive installation utilizing machine learning and computer vision to track the physical coordinates of visitors to the Ringel Gallery and is the first interactive exhibit to be presented in Purdue Galleries. In Motion opened on August 14 as part of the BGR Entertainment Challenge, exposing incoming students to the possibilities of collaboration between the arts and sciences... Read More

Purdue Theatre announces the 2024-2025 Season

Purdue University's Department of Theatre and Dance is excited to announce the 2024-2025 Theatre mainstage season. This season brings exciting explorations of life and death, and love and loss for long-time Purdue Theatre fans and newcomers alike, with productions by award-winning contemporary playwrights, a classic from the Bard himself, and an original production created by our own faculty, staff, and students that is sure to challenge audience expectations of a "play"! Read more