Loyola University Chicago
Department of Fine and Performing Arts
News
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Mainstage
Student Play Fest
Directed by Emily Ritger
September 28 - October 8
Newhart Family Theatre
Much To Do About Valentine, The Familiar Perils of a Vacation Bible School Education, and Untitled Dream Girl are new one-act plays exploring what it is to be in relation with others and with oneself. Developed during the Spring 2023 Playwriting course, student playwrights Aimee Jaske, Annika Halonen, and Emm Socey are now seeing their scripts come to life through the professional direction of Emily Ritger and a team of student actors and designers. Presented as an evening of one-acts, the works in Student Play Fest tread the comedic riskiness of family history, revisit the centuries-old journey of unrequited love, and wonder about the fluidity of gender.
The Student Play Fest is an extension of the Theatre Program’s commitment to developing students’ creative voices. You can play a vital role in supporting this growth by attending a performance.
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faculty research
Theatre Faculty Publishes Anthology on Black Theatre and Performance
Assistant Professor of Theatre Dr. DeRon S. Williams recently co-edited Contemporary Black Theatre and Performance Acts of Rebellion, Activism, and Solidarity as part of the Methuen Drama Agitations: Text, Politics, and Performance series published by Bloomsbury Press.
Contemporary Black Theatre and Performance investigates these questions to illuminate the relationship between performance, identity, intersectionality, and activism in North America and beyond. It features contributions from scholars, artists, and activists from across disciplines who explore the nuances and varied forms of Black performance in the 21st century while incorporating performance-based methodologies and queer and black feminist theories.
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Careers
Different Journeys Through The Performing Arts Landscape
The League of Chicago Theatres, in collaboration with Loyola Career Services and the Loyola Theatre Program, recently hosted a Theatre Industry Career Fair on the Lake Shore campus with over 400 attendees and 37 participating organizations. The day began with a robust panel discussion on the varied career paths possible in today's theatre industry. Click to watch a recording of this insightful conversation.WATCH VIDEO -
Faculty Research
Faculty photographs acquired by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
SFMOMA has recently acquired a series of photographs by Associate Professor and Director of Fine Arts, Noritaka Minami. The acquired photos are from Minami's '1972/Accumulations' series, which documents Tokyo's Nakagin Capsule Tower. The building proposed a radical prototype for a new mode of living and Minami's work captures how this vision of the future appears in retrospect.READ MORE -
Faculty Spotlight
Amy Wilkinson, Senior Lecturer of Dance, reflects on the success and expansion of the MEd + Dance Residency program
“The program embraces arts education as a fundamental aspect of Cura Personalis,” Wilkinson said, referring to Loyola’s value of caring for the whole person.
Wilkinson and Loyola launched the first cohort in 2021. Students in the program experience the following benefits as they work towards their Master’s degree:
• A paid year of on-site team training, plus full benefits
• Opportunity to collaborate and learn alongside endorsed and experienced mentor teachers
• Discounted University tuition, financial aid and federal loan forgiveness
• A guaranteed full-time role in CPS after successfully completing the program
“We are set to graduate our second cohort soon and are currently in the process of recruiting for our third cohort,” said Wilkinson. “We are also expanding the program to include theater education and we’re on track to have our largest cohort to-date.”
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Staff Spotlight
Staff Spotlight: April Browning
While Browning does not usually grace the stage herself, her behind-the-scenes work as the Managing Director and Producer of Public Programming has made her an essential pillar of the DFPA’s academic and production excellence. Browning touches nearly every off-stage aspect of the DFPA’s operations and its 80+ productions each year. But her presence is even more visible in the Theatre program, where she oversees the organization of the production program, supervises Theatre practicum, mentors stage and theatre management students, and teaches Theatre Operations.READ MORE -
Faculty Research
Recent Art History Publications by Dr. Olivia Wolf
Dr. Olivia Wolf, Assistant Professor in Art History, has published several new peer-reviewed texts over the 2022-23 academic year, engaging with both her primary and secondary areas of research in Latin American and Middle Eastern art, respectively.
Most recently, her article, "Transnational traces in the Espigas repository: Bibí Zogbé's artistic production and early critical reception at the Galerías Witcomb (1934-1937)" was published as part of the bilingual Spanish-English Cuadernos series by the Centro de Estudios Espigas / Centro de Investigaciones en Arte y Patrimonio (CONICET-UNSAM). In this article, Wolf examines the creative production and critical framing of Arab-Argentine artist Bibí Zogbé via a series of exhibition catalogs published by the Buenos Aires-based Witcomb Gallery in the 1930s and 40s.
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Engaged Learning
Loyola Day Brings Art History Student Presentations to the Art Institute of Chicago
The Loyola Phoenix covered the most recent iteration of Loyola Day at the Art Institute of Chicago, where Art History majors get the opportunity to give presentations on works in the collection to the museum-going public. This experience teaches them that the art historical knowledge they have to share is important.
“To me, it is literally the best kind of engaged learning." - Paula Wisotzki, Ph.D, Professor of Art History
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student research
Questioning the Canon: Creating Diversity in Graphic Design History Zine Exhibition
December 1, 2022 - February 15, 2023
Cudahy Library, First Floor | Lake Shore Campus
Students conducted original research into an under-served or under-considered graphic designer, design group, movement, or region. They then used this research to create an Instagram post, a TikTok video, an exhibition poster, and the zines featured in the Cudahy Library.
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Alumni
Leading with Music
Loyola alumna Ayanna Williams is on a mission to make high-quality performing arts education accessible to all children.READ -
Alumni
Art with Impact: Empathy on Stage
"The point of learning how to make theatre is to do it, and to do it in community, and to do it in service to the world"READ -
In the Media
Music alum Kabir Dalawari featured in the Chicago Tribune
Jazz Studies grad Kabir Dalawari's debut album Awareness is featured in an article that discusses his academic trajectory at Loyola and the important role that Professor Mat Ulery's mentorship played in Kabir's musical growth. Awareness features Kabir on drums, Ulery on Bass, and recent Loyola graduate Eric Arroyo on piano. READ -
In the Media
How College Dancers Can Marry Their Passion to Activism
The Loyola Dance Program and it's student-led Dance Honor Society are featured in a Dance Magazine article that surveys undergraduate programs that merge the arts and social justice.
“Why should I be dancing now? Shouldn’t I be doing something more ‘serious?’ ”
In the midst of a turbulent political climate, racial injustices and a global pandemic, a lot of dancers might find themselves asking the same questions. But rather than abandoning the arts, college dancers are discovering ways to marry their schoolwork with activism, using movement to respond to the world around them.
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Alumni
An Unexpected Calling
Bob Newhart's improbable journey from Loyola business student to American comedy iconREAD