Thursday, Sep 18, 2025 • Cristal Gonzalez : Contact

The Department of Theatre Arts and Dance at The University of Texas at Arlington is preparing a full slate of plays and musicals the 2025-26 academic year.

The season opens with “Seize the King” and “Passage,” presented in repertory with each running for four performances in the Studio Theatre. “Seize the King” premieres Sept. 19 and runs through Sept. 28, followed by “Passage” Sept. 20–27.

“Seize the King” is a contemporary adaptation of Shakespeare's “Richard III” seen through an Afrofuturist lens. “Passage” is an adaptation of E.M. Forester’s 1924 novel “A Passage to India” that retains the critique of colonialism; “TimeOut New York” said the play “raises questions that make the audience profoundly uncomfortable, but simultaneously creates a welcoming space to which everyone is invited.”

The fall schedule also includes the rollicking Broadway musical “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder” (Oct. 15-19), which was nominated for 10 Tony Awards in 2014 and won four, including Best Musical.

In the spring, the department will present “The Beaux Stratagem” (Feb. 20–Mar. 1), “Ivories” (Feb. 21-28) and “Hair” (Apr. 2-12).

Tickets for all performances are now on sale and can be purchased here.

Jeanmarie Higgins, chair of the Theatre Arts and Dance Department, says staging an entire season of performances is a massive collaborative effort.

As faculty and students tirelessly rehearse and prepare for their respective opening nights, Dr. Higgins shared details about what goes on behind-the-scenes and what it takes to ensure the curtains go up without a hitch for each performance.

What are you most excited about this season? What can audiences expect from the students on stage?

Higgins: We’re very excited about all the student design roles in these shows. Just as an example, for the first two plays, “Seize the King” and “Passage,” we have students filling roles as scenic designer, lighting designer and technical director—so we have students taking on lead production and design roles all across the board this whole season. The second thing is the new way we’ve decided to work this year. The first two shows will be done in repertory, meaning there will be one stage that has to work for both shows—it’ll be a challenge for our design and technology students, but it’s something those students wanted to learn to have the experience. This season is very student-centered and learning-focused. All of our students are being mentored by faculty.

For the student actors, we decided to do more shows with smaller casts so they would have a more focused experience with the directors. We’ve chosen plays that are very actor-focused, so they’re being asked to take on more significant acting work this year.

In our dance performances, we’re featuring the work of several student choreographers. It’s something we always do, but it’s exciting to see their work on stage. It’s rare in a dance minor for students to get the opportunity to choreograph and then be seen on the main stage.

Related: First UTA students stage plays at Kennedy Center

Can you explain how the department selects what to perform?

Higgins: There was a season selection committee, with faculty and student representation from each of our degree paths. They met for about 10 weeks, reading through and discussing each of the titles the members of the committee recommended. The committee was very dedicated to putting together a season that worked for everyone. When they presented it to me, I had to ensure we could make it work within our timeframes and our budget. It took a lot of work from everyone involved, but we made it happen.

You noted this season includes more shows than usual. How are students and faculty preparing to bring all of them to life on stage?

Higgins: We begin rehearsals five or six weeks before opening night and we rehearse for 20 hours each week—this is done on top of all the other things students and faculty are doing during regular school hours. For our faculty directors and designers, they actually begin working on the show a semester before to get everything in order. All the shows that we do are an extension of our classrooms—our rehearsal spaces are our laboratories and it’s where a lot of teaching and learning happens. Of course, we have courses that we teach, because these are BFA and BA programs, but a lot more happens in rehearsals.

We also have our shops—the costume shop and scenic shop—that were really busy over the summer. They were working on building the set and making all the costumes for the first two shows this season.

Each production has many moving parts. How much student support is needed for each show?

Higgins: A lot. Obviously, we have the cast with all the actors. Then there’s usually stage managers, all sorts of operators—sound operator, lighting operator—scenic designers, lighting designers, costume designers, technical directors, just so many positions that students are either leading or being mentored by faculty.

I would say that every year, more and more of our productions are student-run. This year, especially in our first two shows, we do have more students that are taking the lead as stage managers, sound operators, lighting operators, and the number of student leads will only increase. However, in areas that are led by faculty—like directing, choreography, design—most of the time that faculty member will have an associate or assistant who is a student.

What do you hope students take away from their time in the Department of Theatre Arts and Dance, and what your intention in building the program this way?

Higgins: Our goal is to train our students to be professional artists and thrive in this business. This sometimes looks like helping them understand what kind of day job they need to support their art or guide them into pursuing their master’s in fine arts.

We’re cross-training our theater artists so they can thrive in the theater business or in whatever else they choose to do. A lot of our students become theater teachers or work in nonprofit management, but increasingly a whole lot of them are doing exactly what they’ve been trained for.

In the three years I’ve been at UTA, we’ve seen a higher number of graduates go out to auditions. Many of our design and technology students and musical theater students work on cruise lines as performers and technicians—so straight after graduation they stay in the field. There’s an overwhelming majority of them staying in the field.

Is there anything else you’d like to share about the theater and dance program that we haven’t covered?

Higgins: Theater is a very collaborative art form, and everyone has to work together—it’s all about working as a team for a common goal. Theater teaches you that better than other fields because there is a set opening night, and the show has to open. How are you going to do it? As an example, we have technicians who are solving problems that are related to the play and asking why a certain piece of technology needs to work in this particular way. A theater student is always asking why they are doing what they are doing, and that is the question I think new graduates need to be asking because it can answer a lot of big questions right now. The stakes are really high. You want more thoughtful people going into the real world who care about their collaborators, who care about the people around them and who’ve learned to see and understand different worlds. That’s what we’re doing in the theatre department; we’re creating folks who understand how to build a world and then how to answer questions that are difficult within it.

About The University of Texas at Arlington (UTA)

Celebrating its 130th anniversary in 2025, The University of Texas at Arlington is a growing public research university in the heart of the thriving Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. With a student body of over 42,700, UTA is the second-largest institution in the University of Texas System, offering more than 180 undergraduate and graduate degree programs. Recognized as a Carnegie R-1 university, UTA stands among the nation’s top 5% of institutions for research activity. UTA and its 280,000 alumni generate an annual economic impact of $28.8 billion for the state. The University has received the Innovation and Economic Prosperity designation from the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities and has earned recognition for its focus on student access and success, considered key drivers to economic growth and social progress for North Texas and beyond.