News

A family with multigenerational ties to the university is giving $9 million to its School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies (TDPS) to boldly reimagine the future of education in the performing arts.

They marched DeNeen Brown down a street in Tulsa, Oklahoma, hands above her head, in the footsteps of Black people soon to be killed. But those victims had preceded her by nearly 100 years. At her back that day in the summer of 2018 was not an enraged white mob, but a pair of activists—a Black history-focused local tour guide and a city politician—both determined not to allow the orgy of killing and burning that started here in May 1921 to be forgotten.

Even as many stages remain dark, adventurous new forms of theater are emerging from the pandemic—and Jared Mezzocchi is at the center of it. The associate professor of multimedia design for dance and theater has helmed 20 virtual productions since COVID-19 struck, including the School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies’ groundbreaking online version of Qui Nguyen’s fantasy “She Kills Monsters” and Diversionary Theatre’s take on the musical “Cancelled,” about a high school’s online scandal.