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An improv class that enriches the mind and soul, even remotely
A person facing the camera shrugging with arms wide open. Another person is standing to the right, and two others are in the background.

Much like in traditional improv, participants in the Penn Memory Center’s Cognitive Comedy play off of each other, running scenes or throwing each other imaginary balls of varying sizes, for example. Though some facets changed as the sessions went virtual, the program remains well-loved and well-attended. (Pre-pandemic image: Terrance Casey)

An improv class that enriches the mind and soul, even remotely

The Penn Memory Center’s Cognitive Comedy program gives people with memory impairments and their caregivers a no-pressure space to think creatively, socialize, and be part of a community.

Michele W. Berger

Penn performers keep creating during pandemic
Mosaic of students singing together via Zoom call

Penn Dischord.

Penn performers keep creating during pandemic

During the pandemic, the student Performing Arts Council has been working with the Platt Student Performing Arts House to encourage and support the hundreds of Penn performers, finding ways to promote their work on social media.
Personal documentaries replace performing at Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Four students sitting on the floor each with a frame around their faces, one of them holding the book titled Orlando.

The Edinburg Project theatre course is offered only once every two years to about a half-dozen students who prepare a play to perform at the Festival Fringe in Scotland. The “Orlando” actors, from left, Matthias Volker, Whitney Barrett, Susset Tamayo, and Adam Ritter. (Image: Olivia Demberg, stage manager)

Personal documentaries replace performing at Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Theatre arts students created personal documentaries relating their situations during the coronavirus quarantine to the theme of transformation in crisis in the play “Orlando,” which they were supposed to perform at the now-cancelled Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland
Performing arts diversity in the (virtual) stacks
Members of a dance troupe linking arms in a line during a performance In a Rhythm by the Bebe Miller Company, performed at On the Boards. (Image: Penn Libraries)

Performing arts diversity in the (virtual) stacks

Diversity in the Stacks aims to build library collections that represent and reflect the University’s diverse population, and extends to the field of digital performing arts.

From Penn Libraries

Theater stopped misinformation during the Ebola crisis. The arts might help beat this pandemic
Jasmine Blanks Jones working with a student at B4 Theater.

Before the need to socially isolate, Jasmine Blanks Jones worked with student artists at B4 Youth Theatre. (Image: Penn GSE)

Theater stopped misinformation during the Ebola crisis. The arts might help beat this pandemic

When she started B4 Youth Theatre in 2010, Jasmine Blanks Jones wanted to create a theater camp where Liberian youth could amplify their voices as members of their community and use theater to create change. 

From Penn GSE

The Sachs Program unveils 2020 grants
Dancing in a nightclub

Ph.D. candidate Tamir Williams will curate an exhibition at Slought titled “A Space to Appear, A Space to Tarry,” which will present works from the photographic series “Black Nightclubs on Chicago’s South Side” (1975-1977) by Penn alumnus Michael Abramson.

The Sachs Program unveils 2020 grants

The Sachs Program for Arts Innovation revealed 34 new art projects from students, faculty, and staff that will receive funding.
#GLASSFEST brings Philip Glass scores to Penn
Philip Glass at piano with headphones Composer Philip Glass works on the score for “The White Lama: The Improbable Legacy of Theos Bernard.” (Image: Bob Finkelstein)

#GLASSFEST brings Philip Glass scores to Penn

#GLASSFEST, which runs for three weeks at the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, celebrates the legacy of composer Philip Glass.
Sharon Hayes on performance art
group in front of screen with light projected on it

nocred

Sharon Hayes on performance art

Having come of age in New York City during the AIDS crisis, artist Sharon Hayes has always made work connected to political movements. She blends performance with installation and video to create large-scale works that explore the relationship between “the private and the public; the personal and the political.” 

Penn Today Staff

A time traveling Harriet Tubman, brought to life on stage
Lorene Cary stands in her office with a wall of bookshelves behind her

A time traveling Harriet Tubman, brought to life on stage

English faculty Lorene Cary’s first play features a time traveling Harriet Tubman who toggles between her 19th-century life and a present-day Philadelphia prison where she recruits soldiers to fight with her in the Civil War. Playing to sold-out audiences, “My General Tubman” is on stage through mid-March at Arden Theatre Company.
Five events to watch for in January
Damien Sneed at a keyboard

Five events to watch for in January

Winter welcomes a slew of new performances, lectures, and exhibits to Penn's campus, including the opening of the Arthur Ross Gallery’s latest exhibit, a celebration of Martin Luther King Jr., and a walk for wellness.