Arts & Culture

WashU’s Performing Arts Department, in Arts & Sciences, will present “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” a nimble, affectionate and Tony Award-winning satire of language, ambition and the crucible of competition, in the A.E. Hotchner Studio Theatre April 17-20.

As part of his “100 Novels Project,” performance artist Tim Youd is retyping, word for word, “The Dick Gibson Show,” Stanley Elkin’s novel about a late-night disc jockey, on KWUR, WashU’s student radio station. Assuming the role as overnight DJ himself, Youd will type until 5 a.m. every morning until May 1. This will be the 84th novel Youd has typed in full.

The Washington University Dance Collective, the resident dance company of the Performing Arts Department in Arts & Sciences, will present “Transcendence,” an evening of new and original choreography, April 4 and 5 in Edison Theatre.

Composer and instrumentalist Vân-Ánh Vanessa Võ, celebrated for her “rippling blend of musical genres” (San Francisco Classical Voice), will join her ensemble, the Blood Moon Orchestra, for a recital Sunday, April 6. The performance will conclude WashU’s 2025 Great Artists Series.

The Department of Music in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis will host six performances by internationally renowned performers as part of the 2026 Great Artists Series.

“¿Te puedo contar algo?”, an evening-length concert featuring new and original works by MFA candidates Tess Angelica Losada-Tindall and Lourdes del Mar Santiago Lebrón in Arts & Sciences, will explore the nature, power and necessity of grief March 21 and 22 in WashU’s Edison Theatre.

John Powers, an assistant professor of film and media studies in Arts & Sciences, has won the 2024 Best First Book Award from the Society for Cinema and Media Studies.

Esther Viola Kurtz, in the Department of Music in Arts & Sciences, has published an article titled “Call, Response, and Compromisso: Ethical Practice in Capoeira of Backland Bahia, Brazil.”

Tenor Lawrence Brownlee, “an international star in the bel canto operatic repertory” (New York Times), will join pianist Kevin Miller for an intimate recital March 23. The program will span music of the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries.