During this extended intermission on our stages, we invite you backstage for a look at what goes on behind the scenes and to meet the staff and students who bring you the performances you love. So, until we can be together in the theater again, put on your backstage pass and enjoy this behind-the-scenes journey. For information about suspended events, visit our event information page.
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Backstage Pass
In The News
TPA Executive Director Bob Bursey appeared on FOX 7’s Good Day Austin this week to discuss Christopher Jackson’s upcoming concert and when Broadway will be back.
Words from a Graduate
TPA student employee Kennedy Thompson extends a heartwarming thank you to the TPA scenic studio staff and explains why there’s no place she’d rather be than backstage at TPA.
Congratulations, Class of 2020!
We offer a round of applause for our graduating TPA student employees. Hook ‘em!
TPA Among the Best of ATX
With the first college-campus taping of The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon last November and saving 45 historic Hollywood Backdrops, TPA makes the recent “Best of ATX: Arts & Culture 2020” list in Austin Monthly—twice.
Texas Performing Arts Puts the Spotlight on Teamwork
UT faculty and staff magazine Texas Connect shines a spotlight on the people who keep some of Austin’s busiest theaters running.
From Student Employee to Full-Time Staff Member: Meet Will Shirey
TPA talent buyer and UT alumnus (2015) Will Shirey shares how his experience as a student employee launched a career in concert programming and brought him back to campus.
Songs That Inspire Us – the TPA Quarantine Playlist
Listen to a TPA staff-curated playlist of songs that give us light while our stages are dark.
At Home with TPA Executive Director Bob Bursey
KMFA-FM’s Austin Classical host Dianne Donovan sits down with TPA Executive Director Bob Bursey to talk about his celebrated career, forthcoming plans for Texas Performing Arts, and how he is staying centered and inspired through quarantine.
Paying it Forward
Campus & Community Engagement Director Judith Rhedin talks about making memories through TPA’s educational programs and free community events.
Inspiration Through Live Performance
Last year, TPA hosted more than 1,800 Austin-area grade school students for a free Youth Performance with Zimbawean a capella quintet Nobuntu. Your students at home can try singing “Izitho Zami” with this lyric and translation sheet.
Off-Stage and in the Classroom
While performing at TPA in 2019, gospel artist Trey McLaughlin and members of his ensemble, The Sounds of Zamar, stopped by Huston-Tillotson University for a masterclass with Dr. Gloria Quinlan’s choir students.
Thank You, H-E-B!
TPA salutes our long-time presenting sponsor, and champion of Central Texas community, H-E-B.
It's Alive
This fall, more than 50,000 visitors participated in the 6th Annual Waterloo Greenway Creek Show. A highlight was the imagined habitat for the elusive creek monster, built by UT students in the TPA design studios and made possible in part by a UT Sustainability Green Fund Grant.
We’ve Created a Monster (Habitat)
UT students reflect on the interdisciplinary collaboration needed to create the Creek Monster Habitat.
From Bare to Beautiful
TPA Scenic Arts studio students transform a bare wall into a skyscape for the McCombs School of Business.
A Promising Landscape
TPA students began work on a soundscape in celebration of this year’s 50th anniversary of Earth Day. Listen to a preview of the soundscape and make your own promise to improve our environment.
Learning by Doing (And How To Be A Leader)
Students take a moment to reflect on their creative learning through collaboration in the TPA design studios and shops.
Student Music for a Massive Scale
Butler School of Music student Nicholas Perry Clark and an unusual ensemble (including a dancer) perform his meditative composition “Tejas Means Friend” as part of TPA’s 2019 Sound and Sculpture at the monumental UT Landmarks-commissioned Amistad América by José Parlá.
Teaching by Doing
Congratulations to School of Theatre and Dance playwrighting faculty member Branden Jacobs-Jenkins and Butler School of Music composition faculty member Yevgeniy Sharlat for being named 2020 Guggenheim Fellowship winners in recognition of their outstanding artistic work.
Painting Big
Go inside the studio to watch a TPA student and staff crew create a new scenic backdrop in this time lapse video.
From Backstage at Bass to Off-Broadway
Meet Reed Neal, whose work as a student in the TPA scene shop prepared him to work on one of off-Broadway’s hottest shows.
Painting with a Pro
TPA Scenic Arts Supervisor Karen Maness gives a perspective painting tutorial for creating scenic artwork.
Two Weeks of Work in Two Minutes
In this new time lapse video, see TPA production crew and student employees go from bare stage to opening night for the Butler Opera Center’s 2019 production of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin.
So, What Does a Stage Manager Do, Anyway?
Meet UT Theatre and Dance graduate (2011) and former TPA student employee Jen Ash, now a Broadway stage manager. We caught up with her when she was back at Bass Concert Hall for our recent presentation of COME FROM AWAY.
In Case You Missed It
On Oscar Sunday, CBS Sunday Morning featured TPA Scenic Art Supervisor Karen Maness with a look at how she teaches the lost art of the Hollywood backdrop in TPA’s scenic studio.