Arts & Culture

Can you ever escape your past? Tennessee Williams spent a lifetime trying. His years in New York, New Orleans and Key West are the stuff of literary legend. But it was St. Louis where Williams lived longest, and St. Louis that shaped him as an artist and a person. So argues Henry I. Schvey in “Blue Song: St. Louis in the Life and Work of Tennessee Williams.”

In “Kent Styles,” junior Zachary Stern explores questions of family, trust and the ghosts we can’t escape. This weekend, the play will receive its world-premiere staged reading as part of WashU’s annual A.E. Hotchner New Play Festival.

The Black Rep launches its 45th season with a new production of “Sweat,” Lynn Nottage’s 2017 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama, in WashU’s Edison Theatre through Sept. 26.

Renowned composer Robert Wykes, professor emeritus of music in Arts & Sciences, died June 29, 2021, in St. Louis. He was 95.

When COVID-19 upended the season, WashU’s Performing Arts Department turned to alumni playwrights.

Bobby, Jill and Tina gather around the picnic table. Their bickering drifts across Mudd Field. But fear not, this isn’t some end-of-year meltdown — it’s a live, un-miked, guerilla-style performance of George F. Walker’s provocative tragicomedy “Tough!”.

Thom Wall started out as a busker, juggling in the street. Then he performed around the world with Cirque du Soleil. His next act is all about preserving the art form he loves.

“Homecoming Voices,” a series of four short plays by four celebrated alumni of the Performing Arts Department, will debut April 9.

“Hey God, why did you create COVID-19?” So asks Lucifer in “The Covid Mysteries,” an irreverent take on the 14th century York Mysteries cycle. The new play – the first campus performing arts event for a live audience in more than a year – will take place April 1-4 on Mudd Field.

“Pathways,” the 2021 MFA Student Dance Concert, will begin streaming March 27. The program will feature original choreography by Luewilla Smith-Barnett, Thomas Proctor and Leah Robertson.