Two M.F.A. in Dance Thesis Performances 

Choreographed by Iyalochá Nadia Milad Issa and Annie-Laura Irizarry Peréz

“Trazando Taíno,” choreographed by Annie-Laura Irizarry Peréz, is a choreographic exploration rooted in the ancestral practices of the Indigenous Taíno peoples of the Caribbean. The piece is divided into four phases of the areíto ritual, treating the body as a living archive—an embodied practice through which memory and collective presence are activated. Trazando Taíno recollects and demystifies fragments of Indigenous culture disrupted by colonial erasure.

“Weight of Faith,” choreographed by Iyalochá Nadia Milad Issa, is a series of dance eulogies that reify and rehumanize all lives lost due to the threat of religious intolerance, the threat of disembodied mourning, collective protest, and healing. Paying special homage to Billie Holiday, those suffering the loss of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church and other church arson catastrophes, and our personal loved ones who have now transitioned into the ancestral realm.

Producing Artistic Director, Alexandra Bassiakou Shaw
​FEBRUARY 26 – MARCH 8, 2026
​Oscar G. Brockett Theatre and Laboratory Theatre

UTNT (UT New Theatre) presents newly developed works from playwrights of Texas Theatre and Dance and Michener Center for Writers. Now celebrating its 19th season, this festival exists as an incubator for new work, with many plays continuing on to be professionally produced across the country. UTNT (UT New Theatre) 2026 will feature four new plays by graduate playwrights.

Ordinary Time
​When a member of their community disappears, an order of Benedictine monks is forced to reckon with their conceptions of loyalty, identity, justice and Godliness. Ordinary Time is a durational, experiential performance that asks us to weigh the costs and benefits of silence.
​Oscar G. Brockett Theatre

Diet of Worms
​Gentlemen. This Emergency Session of The United States Congress has begun. FIRST ORDER OF BUSINESS: WE HAVE TO pass a budget for the next fiscal year by midnight tonight. We currently have a 487 quadrillion dollar deficit. Everyone in this room tonight needs to look inside their hearts and collectively find or raise 487 quadrillion dollars by midnight, which AGAIN is within the next… 82 minutes or we’ll all be executed gangland style in the back alley. Ok? (A play about why we’re the greatest country in the world.)
​Oscar G. Brockett Theatre

Vulturine
​When a prickly Old man demands a sky burial – an ancient ritual in which vultures consume the dead – his estranged son Small Fry accompanies him to a faraway land to see it through. But when they discover that only two vultures remain on Earth, the funeral arrangements spiral into a visceral, personal, diabolical reckoning with extinction. Vulturine is a father-son Home Depot trip from hell, dripping with entrails, climate guilt and dark comedy.
​Laboratory Theatre

A Tale for Home
​We’re on an island far from America, where complicated realities take root and uproot one another: An immortal rabbit speaks from the past. A girl digs beneath a mulberry tree. A returning American brings a gift that unsettles the ground. Through myth, memory and migration, the island remembers—and refuses to forget. 
​We ask: What does it mean to call a place “home”? And when those who once lived here remember it differently—whose version becomes the story we carry forward?
​Laboratory Theatre

The Jans (Play Reading)
​Do you, or have you ever: Carried a carabiner? Worn flannel? Gifted or been given a bouquet of violets? Had an undercut? Driven a U-haul?
​If you said yes to any of the above, meet us at 11:00 a.m. on March 8, 2026. Bring a “friend.” Combat boots optional.
​Laboratory Theatre

Co-Artistic Directors, Gesel Mason and Joel Valentín-Martínez

April 1-4, 2026

B. IDEN PAYNE THEATRE

EQUINOX presents compelling new choreography that showcases the virtuosity of student dance company Dance Repertory Theatre. Through a blend of movement and emerging technologies, EQUINOX explores the power of dance as a means of expression, storytelling and social commentary. Witness original works by faculty members Gesel Mason and Joel Valentín-Martínez, along with student and guest choreographers, which invite audiences to reflect on what it means to be alive in the world today

By Jordan E. Cooper

Directed by Mikala Gibson

APRIL 9-19, 2026

Oscar G. Brockett Theatre

Through a blend of sketch, satire and avant-garde theatre, Ain’t No Mo’ answers the incendiary question: What if the United States government offered Black Americans one-way plane tickets to Africa?

This unpredictable comedy speeds through the turbulent skies of being Black in today’s America. A kaleidoscope of moments surrounding this great exodus are told by an ensemble cast featuring Peaches, a larger-than-life flight agent boarding the final plane leaving the United States.

Ain’t No Mo’ leaves audiences crying with laughter – and thinking through the tears.

“Ain’t No Mo’” is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French, Inc. www.concordtheatricals.com