Melanie Frasca, a graduate student in the Performance & Pedagogy program, has spent the last three years working with The BurkTech Players, a collaboration of students from the School of Theatre & Dance and the Burkhart Center for Autism Education & Research. Providing performance opportunities for people on the autism spectrum is one emphasis of many for the group.
Theatregoers are familiar with traditional plays and musicals; most audiences find the stories told through these mediums engaging, entertaining, and inspiring. Justin M. Krall, a third-year MFA student studying performance and pedagogy, will introduce audiences to another form of theatre—devised action theatre—with his thesis-show "Cycle(s)."
Having recently served for six years on the Board of NAST and elected this year to a three-year term as the Chair of the Committee on Ethics, I am justifiably proud that Texas Tech is one of the few state universities in Texas to have all arts program accredited: dance, art, theatre, and music. But since many of you may not know what this distinction means, I thought I’d share with you why we at Tech believe this is important.
On Wednesday, March 1, the School of Theatre and Dance, in partnership with the Presidential Lecture and Performance Series (PLPS), hosted a masterclass from Emmy-winning dance company, Pilobolus. Celebrating their 50th Anniversary, this masterclass was offered as a part of Pilobolus’s Big Five-OH! tour, marking their first return to Texas Tech since 2010.