Theatre and Dance

A book focusing on using theatre techniques for protest by a UC Davis professor of theatre and an associate professor’s collaboration about artist-made tools that resist algorithmic racism have recently been included in the news and social media coverage during the nation’s current period of civil unrest. 

David Grenke, Department of Theatre and Dance chair, has announced that Professor Peter Lichtenfels will retire as of July 1. He joined the Theatre and Dance faculty in 2003 after previously serving several times as a Granada Artist-in-Residence beginning in 1992. He served as the chair of the Department of Theatre and Dance from 2005 to 2008 during which he created exchanges with Shakespeare’s Globe London and the Shanghai Theatre Academy. 

UC Davis Department of Theatre and Dance Costume Shop Director Roxanne Femling will retire on July 1. An alumna, Femling who received her B.A. in dramatic art (costume design and construction) in 1983, joined the department staff in Sept. 1999.

Here is a preview of “Flora The Red Menace” at UC Davis. 

Professor John Iacovelli shares his photographs of his set models for the South Coast Repertory Theatre’s production of “Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.” The production runs in Costa Mesa Jan. 19 through Feb. 16. 

John Iacovelli, professor of theatre and dance at UC Davis, and alum Kent Nicholson are collaborating on the South Coast Repertory Theatre’s upcoming production of Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s award-winning musical “Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.”  Iacovelli is scenic designer and Nicholson is the dark musical’s director. 

Regan O’Malley is currently electrics apprentice at Chicago’s award-winning Steppenwolf Theatre.  

1) Major(s)?: Theatre and Dance, graduated spring 2018

2) Did you do any research/projects in your time as a Theatre major? My senior year I did a group study with Steven Schmidt to learn AutoCAD, a drafting program. I got to use the program to make layouts based on his own drafts, and learn about different aspects of technical direction.

Department of Theatre and Dance alumna Ari Laura Kreith, MFA 1995, has been named as artistic director of New Jersey’s Luna Stage.

As a director and artistic director, Ari Laura Kreith will join Luna Stage with an extensive resume of creating new work through community engagement. Her work as Artistic Director in theaters who work with original plays will continue Luna’s tradition of developing vital new works for the stage.