Student creativity came to a head in UT’s Theatre and Dance department when M.F.A. students had the opportunity to put on productions that showcase their talent and passions.
UT Theatre and Dance’s “Studio Series” pushed the boundaries of art as a form of social justice this year. UTTAD celebrated the series’s return as part of its 2023-2024 season, with performances during the weekends of Feb. 16-18 and Feb. 23-25.
On Friday, Feb. 16, the series opened with “Sanctuary City,” a play by Martyna Majok, following two teenagers brought to America as children navigating a post-9/11 Newark, New Jersey. Director Rodolfo Robles Cruz, a directing M.F.A. first-year said the show depicts a different structure than people expect from a play, jumping from memory to memory to pull the audience in emotionally.
“Immigration is an ongoing thought in the greater picture of what American politics looks like,” Robles Cruz said. “It’s a story that’s worth telling right now. … Beyond the political narrative, at the core of it, it’s a story about friendship about people experiencing life with each other, … feeling loss and emptiness and hope and love.”
Robles Cruz said he chose the all-undergraduate cast for their affinity to their roles in the piece.
“I think they (desire) a deeper connection with their (cultural heritage),” Robles Cruz said. “A story like this places them in the shoes, in the context of what other people throughout their lives may have felt.”
Leo Briggs, a dance and social justice M.F.A. first-year, said they use art to explore their identity and pressing social issues. On Feb. 17-18, Briggs performed their debut production at UT, “Egg Discourse,” a solo dance piece about the trans experience. Briggs used a Rube Goldberg machine in the piece, where an egg put in the machine will eventually crack.
“We’re having this debate right now as a community, … ‘Shouldn’t we allow everyone to crack their egg as many times as they need to?’,” Briggs said. “When you’re looking at all of the cracked, disgusting, messy eggs (during the performance), you’re thinking, ‘This process is impossible to bake into this perfect little package.’”
Mikala Gibson, a directing M.F.A. first-year, said she focuses on activism through theatre. On Feb. 23, UTTAD premiered Gibson’s first production at UT, “Blood at the Root,” a play by Dominique Morisseau that tells the story of the Jena Six (2006), “six Black students who were originally charged with attempted murder for a school fight after being provoked with nooses hanging from a tree on campus,” as described by the UTTAD website.
“This is (history) a lot of people don’t know or remember,” Gibson said. “I remember it vividly. It initiates conversations about race, gender (and) class. This is the type of work I’m inspired to do.”
Gibson, Briggs and Robles Cruz all have one thing in common — through art, they hope to fight against injustice and set the stage for important conversations.
“(In graduate school), we’re encouraged to think about what our work is doing more so than its meaning or what it looks like,” Briggs said. “I’ve been challenged to think more intentionally about my own desires and about what kind of pathway I want to take through this journey of self-discovery.”
