UC Davis Theater and Dance alum Angel Rodriguez (‘12) and
faculty member and alum Michele Apriña Leavy
recently appeared in the Alameda Civic Ballet’s 20th
Anniversary production of The Nutcracker. The production
was performed Nov. 23 and 24 at the Castro Valley Center for
the Arts in Castro Valley.
Professor Jon Rossini and Continuing Lecturer and Alumna Michele
Apriña Leavy in Los Angeles this weekend for the Latinx Theater
Commons’ Encuentro 2024. Rossini serves as a scholarly advisor
while Leavy is the LTC’s Steering Committee.
Alum Slater Penny (MFA, dramatic arts, ‘19) appears at the Robert
and Margrit Mondavi Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts
in Gaetano Donizetti’s delightful comic opera Don
Pasquale on Nov. 15. Penny appears in a non-singing
role in the Manetti Shrem Opera, which was first produced by
Festival Napa Valley in summer 2023.
“Take My Hand,” a talk and performance with
Professor Margaret Laurena Kemp, theatre and dance chair,
will be given on June 13 at the North Carolina Museum of Art at
6pm. Kemp leads the audience through an embodied exploration
of her creative process. The presentation features an original
score.
The UC Davis Department of Theatre and Dance is among the
recipients of Theatre Communications Group’s program
“Plays for the People: In the Stacks.” With funding from
the Mellon Foundation, TCG has provided $25,000 total in book
credits to 50 recipient organizations in an effort to help them
expand and diversify their drama collections.
Alumna Lauren Godla (BA, exercise biology major with a minor in
theatre and dance, ’12) has been chosen by Redwood Parks
Conservancy, California State Parks and the National Park Service
as a Redwood National & State Parks Spring 2024
Artist-in-Residence.
Several UC Davis alumni and staff members are working in
various capacities on Sacramento’s Big Idea Theatre’s One-Act
Play Festival. The three-week festival begins Jan. 25.
Alumna Sonya Eddy (B.A., Afro-American studies, ’94) won
a posthumous Daytime Emmy Award, nearly one year after
her death. She was honored Dec. 15 with the Award for
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Daytime Drama Series for her
work on General Hospital.
Alumna Olivia Caserta (B.A., theatre and dance, ‘22) and
undergraduate student Megan Abbanat are co-directing the Winters
Shakespeare Workshop production of the Bard’s
romantic comedy Twelfth Night which performs
July 21 and 22 at the Winters City Park playground stage.
The production features music direction by Nicholas Carvajal,
librarian for the UC Davis Department of Music.
Professor Margaret Laurena Kemp, theatre and dance department
chair, is pleased to announce the Granada Artists-in-Residence
for 2024 which includes an internationally acclaimed
alumnus.
Alumnus Jeffrey Carlson (B.A., dramatic arts, ‘97), who
achieved acclaim for his portrayal of one of the first
transgender characters on daytime television in the
series All My Children, died on July 6. His career
spanned Broadway, regional theatre, television and
film.
Alumna Mengyuan “Mia” Qin (B.A., theatre and dance, ‘20) has
recently served as a production assistant on the new Broadway
musical Shucked. In
addition, Qin received her MFA in stage management from Columbia
University’s School of the Arts in 2023.
From a classic Shakespearean comedy to a dynamic hip-hop
workshop, the UC Davis Department of Theatre and Dance 2023-2024
season aspires to have worldwide effect.
Alumna Aliya Hunter
(B.A., gender studies, sexuality and women’s studies, ‘21) will
be doing her solo work Undefeated as part of New York’s
PrideFest
2023. The work will be performed at The Tank on June 23 at 7
p.m.
Professor Margaret Laurena Kemp, chair of theatre and dance,
will direct Remote
Theatre’s forthcoming production which is a
mixed-reality piece inspired by the late Obie-award winning
playwright Ntozake Shange’s coming of age novel,
Liliane. The production, titled Your Mind,
Girls, is set to launch in early 2024 in the San Francisco
Bay Area.
Professor Margaret Laurena Kemp, theatre and dance chair, is
pleased to announce that UC Davis alum Dahlak Brathwaite
(B.A. English and theatre and dance, ‘08), a spoken-word
poet, musician, actor, playwright and writer, returns to campus
for a Hip-Hop residency in winter quarter 2024.
Alumna Kara Branch (M.F.A., dramatic arts, ‘11) has received a
2023 Drama Desk Award nomination for her costume design for
According to the Chorus, presented off-Broadway in New
York by the New Light Theater Project.
Alumnus Hien Huynh (B.A., theatre and dance, ‘15) appears in
Lemongrass & Anise, a performance featuring two
generations of a Vietnamese American family. San Francisco’s
Asian Art Museum presents the work on May 18 at 6:30 p.m.
A stalwart of the UC Davis Department of Theatre and Dance,
Professor Emeritus John Iacovelli died April 14 at 64. An
award-winning artist, he designed numerous theatrical productions
in regional theaters across the country while maintaining a
distinguished teaching career at UC Davis where he co-created the
Master of Fine Arts program in theatre design.
The Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of
California, Davis is dedicated to integrating consent-based
practices into all classroom, studio and production environments.
The 180 Series of courses provide exciting practical instruction
and participation in all aspects of theatrical and dance
production. Whether you are exploring these courses as a
Theatre & Dance Major, Minor, or are simply an interested
non-affiliated student, you will find passionate people working
to create art and tell stories on stage. We invite you to
join us at this link.
