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Theatre Arts

Penn Live Arts 2023-24 season highlights Ukrainian artists, ‘tolls the bell’ for gun violence
Three artists hunched over signs that read "Let me out."

Balaklava Blues, which fuses Ukrainian polyphony and other folk traditions with EDM, will perform as part of the 2023-24 Penn Live Arts season.

(Image: Courtesy of Balaklava Blues)

Penn Live Arts 2023-24 season highlights Ukrainian artists, ‘tolls the bell’ for gun violence

Executive and artistic director Chris Gruits previews what’s to come with Penn Live Arts’ upcoming season.
‘Mecca is Burning’ play mixes drama, poetry at the Annenberg Center
Composite photo of “Mecca is Burning" cast members

The cast of “Mecca is Burning.” Top row, left to right: Steven Peacock Jacoby, Kenya Wilson, Imana Breaux, Benjamin Rowe; bottom row, left to right: Ashlee Danielle, Alyssa Carter, Alton Ray, and Yohanna Florentino.

(Image: Courtesy of Penn Live Arts)

‘Mecca is Burning’ play mixes drama, poetry at the Annenberg Center

“Mecca is Burning,” a commissioned piece that will world premiere at the Annenberg Center this weekend, is a two-act play that takes an artful—but candid—look at race in the U.S.
The Sachs Program celebrates fifth year of supporting arts innovation at Penn
Various designs

A mosaic by Laia Mogas-Soldevila, an assistant professor of architecture in the Stuart Weitzman School of Design and a recipient of an Independent Creative Production Grant from The Sachs Program. She will develop a collection of everyday objects made from biomaterials. (Image: The Sachs Program)

The Sachs Program celebrates fifth year of supporting arts innovation at Penn

The Sachs Program for Arts Innovation announced its 2022 cycle of grantees, with new funding for alumni and community partnership projects.
Oscars 2022, predicted
Red carpet with people mingling in front of a gold statue

The 94th Academy Awards will be held inside the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on Sunday, March 27. (Image: Lionel Hahn/Abaca/Sipa via AP Images)

Oscars 2022, predicted

Penn Cinema and Media Studies and Theatre Arts faculty make their predictions about this year’s Oscar winners—organized by category.
The joy and power of improvisation
unscripted group in front of college hall

The joy and power of improvisation

With The Unscripted Project, President’s Engagement Prize winners Philip Chen and Meera Menon create an improv curriculum and bring teaching artists to Philadelphia public school students.
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
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.
Improv with an impact
Two students

Seniors Philip Chen, left, and Meera Menon won the President’s Engagement Prize for The Unscripted Project, a nonprofit to bring improv classes to Philadelphia public schools in partnership with the Philly Improv Theater. 

Improv with an impact

With their President’s Engagement Prize, Wharton School seniors Philip Chen and Meera Menon plan to create The Unscripted Project, a nonprofit that will run 10-week improv courses in Philadelphia public schools, partnering with the Philly Improv Theater.