WashU Performing Arts

Name: WashU Performing Arts
Address: St. Louis, MO, US
Telephone: +13149355858

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WashU Performing Arts

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We are a dynamic department dedicated to teaching and learning about dance and theater through various forms of inquiry.

The WashU Performing Arts Department (PAD) provides rigorous instruction in theater, dance, and performance, enriching our students creatively and intellectually. We combine faculty actors, directors, designers, dancers, playwrights, and choreographers continuously engaged in professional theater and dance productions with faculty doing internationally recognized research in the study of theater, dance, and performance. Students who become involved with the PAD find a generous, challenging, and responsive home base at Washington University.

10/20/2026

WashU Dance Theatre's 'right now.' is a little over two weeks away! Don't miss diverse and creative choreography by resident artists David Marchant, Elinor Harrison, Liz Stillerman Anderson, and Liz Lloyd, and guest artists Shura Baryshnikov and Renée Austin.

📍Edison Theatre
🗓️November 6 & 7 at 7:30 p.m.
🗓️November 8 at 2:00 p.m.
🎟️🐻WashU students get FREE tickets!
🔗Learn more & get tickets here: https://washu.vbotickets.com/event/wudt_right_now/205339

Whether choreographed or improvised, live dance is an art that isn’t easily preserved. Its material is intrinsically ephemeral, instantly evaporating. Even if we design it, craft it, rehearse and repeat, dancers have to re-make it again for it to exist. Join us for an evening of contemporary dance and experience the ineffable sensation of witnessing art that is being made 'right now'.

Artistic Direction by David Marchant.

10/01/2026

Have you gotten your tickets for "Mean Girls" yet? The show opens in exactly three weeks and you don't want to miss it! Get your tickets here: https://washu.vbotickets.com/event/mean_girls/205332

📍Edison Theatre
🗓️October 22, 23 & 24 at 7:30 p.m.
🗓️October 24 & 25 at 2:00 p.m.
🎟️🐻WashU students get FREE tickets!
🔗Learn more & get tickets at the link in our bio

Welcome to North Shore High, where popularity is a battlefield and fitting in comes at a cost. Based on Tina Fey’s hit film, 'Mean Girls' follows Cady Heron, who, after spending most of her life being homeschooled in the African savanna, is thrust into the wild world of American high school. To her surprise, Cady is quickly drawn into the orbit of the school’s most powerful and terrifying clique: The Plastics. But when a harmless plan to undermine queen bee Regina George spirals out of control, Cady finds herself becoming the very thing she set out to destroy. 'Mean Girls' is a sharp musical comedy about fitting in, standing out, and the occasional realization that the villain in your story isn’t always someone else.

Book by Tina Fey • Music by Jeff Richmond • Lyrics by Nell Benjamin • Based on the Paramount Pictures film 'Mean Girls'
Directed by Brad Frenette • Music Direction by Colin Healy • Co-choreography by Cecil Slaughter & Ashley Taylor

09/30/2026

🎙️Buckle up PAD Podcast listeners! The next two episodes of the feature the original godfather of the PAD and the man who arrived in STL in 1987 to build a department from the ground up: Henry Schvey! It seems like Henry has been at the heart of the Performing Arts Department for forever — in fact, it’s been 39 years since he began his notable career at WashU. As a teacher, director, and scholar, he has made significant contributions to the department, the university, and of course the lives of his beloved students. Many of you know Henry and have taken classes with Henry, but perhaps you don’t know the full backstory about how the Performing Arts Department was formed and how Henry came to create an amalgam of a department dedicated to both study and practice unlike any other in the country. This Part One episode is called “Early Years to Equus” where Henry talks about his upbringing in New York, his time teaching in Leiden, and his arrival at WashU. If you love Henry, you’ll not want to miss listening to this one!

Check it out now: https://pad.washu.edu/news/pad-podcast-episode-31-henry-schvey-pt-1

09/02/2026

We're taking a break from our PAD Podcast posting schedule, because our next interview deserves some extra antici...pation. A 36-year staple in the PAD, next month's guest started the Shakespeare’s Globe summer program and is an expert on all things Tennessee Williams!

Can you 'Guess Who'?!

08/18/2026

Join us for the 2026 Morrin Lecture: A Conversation with Branden Jacobs-Jenkins!

📅 Friday, September 18, 2026
🕙 3:00 p.m. (reception to follow)
📍 Emerson Auditorium & Frick Forum, Knight Hall

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins is the acclaimed playwright and theatre artist behind 'Purpose', 'Appropriate', The 'Comeuppance', 'Everybody', 'Gloria', 'An Octoroon', and more. His honors include a two Tony awards, a Pulitzer Prize, the MacArthur fellowship, the Windham-Campbell Prize for Drama, the inaugural Tennessee Williams Award, and more!

Learn more & RSVP here: https://pad.washu.edu/form/rsvp-2026-morrin-lecture

Branden’s visit is in conjunction with the Tennessee Williams Festival of St. Louis and its production of ‘Appropriate’ and is co-sponsored by the WashU Departments of African & African American Studies, American Culture Studies, Art History & Archeology, English, History, and the Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity & Equity (CRE2).

08/13/2026

WashU students - we can't wait to have you back on campus soon! Make sure to mark your calendars for auditions (starting at the end of this month) 📅

Drama:
August 27 & 28 (callbacks August 29 & 30), 7:00-10:00 p.m.
Casting for the A.E. Hotchner Playwriting Festival, 'Mean Girls', 'Top Girls', 'Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead', and 'Proof '

Dance:
Washington University Dance Theatre - August 31, 7:00-10:00 p.m.
WashU Dance Collective - September 2, 7:00-9:00 p.m.

Get more auditions details and sign up for an audition slot on the PAD auditions website (sites.wustl.edu/padauditions)! ALL WashU students are welcome to participate in our shows regardless of major or minor.

Plus - don't miss our Dance and Drama placement classes next Wednesday! Get more details on the PAD website: pad.washu.edu/events

08/11/2026

We can't wait to meet you, !

Join the PAD during the August 18th WashU Arts & Sciences Open Houses to connect with dance, drama, and design faculty, learn about academic requirements and course offerings, explore the dance and drama honor societies, hear about our upcoming events, sign up for auditions, and more!

Plus - that afternoon you don't want to miss the three PAD faculty members speaking during Session 1 of the WashU Arts & Sciences Faculty Spotlight Talks!

More details on the PAD website: https://pad.washu.edu/events

08/05/2026

🎙️Milestone Episode #30 of the features an insightful and inspiring episode with actor, writer, and facilitator Jeff Pagliano!

Believing in “imagination as a portal for change,” Jeff specializes in interactive and immersive theater applied across multiple disciplines. He has designed learning experiences on leadership development and workplace culture and delivered team building workshops for corporate clients around the world. A proud member of Actor’s Equity, Jeff has also appeared as an actor in Regional and New York theater productions. He started his career in the film industry working on the feature films “Contact” and “Deep Impact” and in the office of director Robert Zemeckis. Jeff was involved in many PAD productions when he was a student including "Romeo & Juliet" and "The Servant of Two Masters". He was also a founding member of the WashU comedy troupe Mama’s Pot Roast and directed the musical "Chess" for All Student Theater (AST). Don’t miss this interesting interview that will make you believe that storytelling can truly change people and the world!

Listen now: https://pad.washu.edu/news/pad-podcast-episode-30-jeff-pagliano

07/08/2026

🎙️Episode 29 of the is out now! This episode features Keith Sherman, founder of Keith Sherman and Associates (KSA) – a global communications firm for a diverse range of entertainment, arts, lifestyles, and international brands. KSA has represented hundreds of Broadway, Off Broadway and touring productions, films, television broadcasts, Olympic sports, music projects and major events globally. The company represented The New York Times for a decade, the Tony Awards for 18 years, the Drama Desk Awards for 12 years, and the Chita Rivera Awards for nine years. From figure skating to film and from music to musicals, Keith and his team have represented nearly 400 events over the last 36 years and counting! Rob and Keith talk about his humble beginnings at working for the Student Life newspaper and his involvement with the PAD that allowed him to blend his business and marketing background with a life in the arts. It would be bad PR to miss this episode, so give it a listen: https://pad.washu.edu/news/pad-podcast-episode-29-keith-sherman

06/03/2026

🎙️It's a new for your summer listening pleasure – inspiring AND loaded with sage advice! Episode 28 really should be assigned listening for all students, and it features television producer, screenwriter, and author Nick Santora!

Nick is an executive producer, showrunner, screenwriter, and author who has written for and/or produced 'The Sopranos', 'The Guardian', 'Law & Order' (dun-dun), 'Prison Break', 'Lie to Me', and 'Scorpion'. He has created and executive produced 'Beauty and the Geek', 'Breakout Kings', 'Reacher', and the soon-to-be-released this summer spin-off of Reacher called 'Neagley'. Rob and Nick talk about his circuitous journey studying multiple subjects at , his graduate training and professional career as a lawyer, and how he spent a week of vacation writing his first screenplay that won Best Screenplay of the Competition in the New York City Independent International Film Festival. It was at this moment that his career as a writer and creator began!

Listen now: https://pad.washu.edu/news/pad-podcast-episode-28-nick-santora

Address

St. Louis, MO

Telephone

+13149355858

Website

https://pad.wustl.edu/

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