Acting the Part
Audience Participation in Performance
A framework for understanding audience participation in twenty-first century immersive theater Acting the Part offers a paradigm for understanding how audiences participate in immersive theater, from physical spaces like the Globe in London to digital spaces like social virtual reality. Reading across twenty-first century productions of ancient Greek tragedies and William Shakespeare’s plays, Elizabeth Hunter […]
Enveloping Worlds
Toward a Discourse of Immersive Performance
A collection analyzing immersive, participatory performances as it has developed in the U.S. Enveloping Worlds is a collection of essays that analyzes the phenomenon of immersive, participatory performance as it has developed in the U.S. As this collection demonstrates, immersive performance offers three-dimensional multisensory experiences, inviting audience members to be participants in the unfolding of […]
How to build a creative career
WashU alumni with booming performing arts careers, from Broadway to TV, share their stories on a WashU-centered podcast.
Measuring the stars
WashU’s Performing Arts Department in Arts & Sciences will present “Silent Sky,” which explores the life and work of celebrated astronomer Henrietta Leavitt, in the A.E. Hotchner Studio Theatre Nov. 20-23.
The Poetry of Bob Dylan
Thirty Essays on Thirty Songs
Through short essays, leading poetry critics and Bob Dylan experts analyze songs from a range of perspectives to illuminate the songs’ poetic and literary character. An innovative resource for Bob Dylan fans and scholars alike, these thirty essays by leading scholars of poetry, music, and literature illustrate how and why the work of the 2016 […]
‘Something is Happening’ Nov. 14-16
“Something is Happening,” the 2025 WashU Dance Theatre performance, will take place Nov. 14-16 in Edison Theatre. The evening-length concert will feature original works by visiting choreographers Ron K. Brown and Xi Zhao, by faculty choreographers Elinor Harrison and David Marchant, and by graduate student Liz Lloyd.
‘Really, really wrong’
A mysterious plant revives a Skid Row flower shop. But with success come gruesome appetites. Welcome to “Little Shop of Horrors.” WashU’s Performing Arts Department will present the celebrated musical in Edison Theatre Oct. 24 to Nov. 2.
Hotchner Festival highlights WashU playwrights
The Performing Arts Department in Arts & Sciences will present staged readings of four new student plays as part of the 2025 A.E. Hotchner Playwriting Festival.
Kasimu Taylor Quartet to launch WashU Jazz Series Sept. 8
Veteran St. Louis trumpeter Kasimu Taylor will launch the fall WashU Jazz Series with a performance Sept. 8 at the 560 Music Center’s Pillsbury Theatre.
Faith, Family and Flag
Branson Entertainment and the Idea of America
Branson, Missouri, the Ozark Mountain mecca of wholesome entertainment, has been home to countless stage shows espousing patriotism and Christianity, welcoming over ten million visitors a year. Some consider it “God’s Country” and others “as close to Hell as anything on Earth.” For Joanna Dee Das, Branson is a political, religious, and cultural harbinger of a certain enduring dream of what America is.
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